Louisville

[stlouie_lipp]

A buddy and I are heading there to see a Wilco show in November. Never been there. Definitely want to go to the Louisville Slugger plant but that's about the only thing on my agenda. You guys have an recommendations on things to do, place(s) to stay, restaurants/bars, etc.?

[33anda3rd]

The Slugger plant is fun.

The Muhammad Ali Museum is nearby, it's really cool. You can shawdowbox Ali. His old Rolls is in there. It's half museum about the man, half civil rights museum.

Churchill Downs especially if you can get out early and see them exercise the horses is pretty awesome.

Most of the bourbon experiences in the city are so-so, stuff like Angel's Envy and the relatively bland Evan Williams spot. Old Forester is the best of the city distillery visits, and if you can do the 35 minute each way trip to Frankfort for Buffalo Trace or to Bardstown for Willett those are the two that are worth the drive. They're opposite experiences--Buffalo Trace is enormous and full of history, Willett is tiny and family run.

The big cemetery in town where Col Sanders and Ali are buried is really beautiful if you're into walking around a graveyard.

If you have time for a full day trip Mammoth Cave.

Garage Bar on Main Street, it's an old gas station turned into a place that does pizza, whiskey, and ham.

Frankfort Ave Beer Depot if you want to sit on a porch, watch the smokers cook, and eat BBQ and drink beer.

Mike Linnings for just about every kind of fish, fried.

There's a place called Holy Grale that's in an old church. They have a ridiculously incredible beer list and the food is top-flight bar snacks. Stuff like poutine, tenderloin sandwiches, beer cheese with pretzels that's really well executed and delicious.

Anything specific you were thinking about other than the Slugger factory?

[sighyoung]

The three big restaurant rows in the city are on East Market (the NuLu neighborhood, which has been rapidly gentrifying in the last 15 years or so), along Bardstown Road, and along Frankfort Avenue. Lots of good restaurants in the city, which is becoming a good foodie place with lots of local produce and the shipping means to fly in stuff fresh from other places.

Wilco will be performing at The Palace downtown on 4th Street--its an old movie palace. 4th Street Live is the set of restaurants and entertainment venues nearby set up to serve the Convention Center and folks coming in for games and concerts at the Yum Center on Main Street. There are more and more restaurants on Main that are nice, and the 21C Hotel is a fun place to visit, with a nice (though pricey) restaurant and an art gallery in the basement. It's near the Muhammad Ali Center and the Slugger Factory (which only takes an hour to visit). Slugger Field is interesting, but you can mostly view it from the outside.

The Brown and the Seelbach are the hotels closest to The Palace--they're older hotels with lots of history (F. Scott Fitzgerald would get drunk in the bar in the basement of the Seelbach during WWI), but there are lots of hotels all around that area, and more being added by the day.

Cave Hill Cemetery is where Ali and Col. Sanders are buried--its a nice arboretum. There's Waterfront Park on the riverfront, lots of Olmsted-designed parks in the area.

The Speed Museum is a nice regional museum, over by the University of Louisville campus.

Depends on what kind of food you're looking for. Family life has cut down the number of restaurants I go to, but two favorites in NuLu are the Mayan Cafe and Harvest. My family is taking me to lunch for my birthday at Lilly's on Bardstown, which is terrific.

Germantown and Butchertown are both becoming residential/restaurant destinations. I've liked Couvillion and Eiderdown in Germantown.

The Fat Lamb and Ward 426 have gotten really good reviews, though I haven't gotten to them.

I can provide other suggestions, depending on what you want to do.

[sighyoung]

To echo 33, Mammoth Cave is a straight 2-hour shot down I-65 from Louisville, and is well worth it.

And Garage Bar is in NuLu on East Market.

[Freed Roger]

We stayed downtown Louisville (Aloft). There are plenty other hotels in that area.

Lots within range there for walking to eateries bars breakfast etc.

We were also in Louisville for a concert weekend (son volt/isbell) -Louisville was a good fit for the that weekend -plenty to see/do pretty easy to get around.

We enjoyed walking around the Old Louisville neighborhood, and Univ of Louisville campus.

I'd take a pass on Churchhill Downs

From St. Louis- I forget how close it is-easy 4 hrs.

[33anda3rd]

I'd take a pass on Churchhill Downs

I think this is an approach thing. If you do the early morning thing, the 7AM tour, and see them run the horses, give them a bath, shoe them, walk around the barn, then head over to that little famous diner where all the jockeys and bookies have been eating for like 700 years, it's a pretty wonderful experience.

[CardsofSTL]

You can also go to Flying Axes and drink alcohol and then throw axes at wood targets. I've done it. It gets harder the drunker you are for some reason.

[sighyoung]

I'd take a pass on Churchhill Downs

I think this is an approach thing. If you do the early morning thing, the 7AM tour, and see them run the horses, give them a bath, shoe them, walk around the barn, then head over to that little famous diner where all the jockeys and bookies have been eating for like 700 years, it's a pretty wonderful experience.

That's probably Wagner's Pharmacy.

[33anda3rd]

I'd take a pass on Churchhill Downs

I think this is an approach thing. If you do the early morning thing, the 7AM tour, and see them run the horses, give them a bath, shoe them, walk around the barn, then head over to that little famous diner where all the jockeys and bookies have been eating for like 700 years, it's a pretty wonderful experience.

That's probably Wagner's Pharmacy.

That's it! I love that place. You can still see the cigarette smoke in the walls and ceilings. I find it incredibly romantic.

[Freed Roger]

As an aside - the Aloft Hotels (now part of Marriott system) are kind of fun -may be a little weird for two buddies. But they have a good pool table and bar- and TV area if you want to catch football games.