Where Was Everybody?
Jun 4, 2018 · 3 minute readBARTENDER: Hey, I like your tattoo!
ME (confused): Tattoo?
BARTENDER: Yeah! On your arm! The Celtic knots!
ME (still confused, but at least armed with a little knowledge): Oh, that’s not a tattoo. That’s psoriasis.
silence
BARTENDER: So…er, what are you having?
The weekend saw visits to five distilleries, the same amount of bars, inordinate quantities of bourbon (I am not actually going to give a unit calculation here, but let’s just say that I’m not planning on drinking again until the end of June), odd little conversations like the one above, and a recurring question: just where was everybody in Louisville last weekend?
We went to some of the highest-rated bars in the city (Meta and Haymarket). And they were good! But…on a Saturday night, they were both almost deserted. Even the most tourist-friendly street that’s done up in best ersatz-Vegas fashion had very few people sampling the donkey sauce in Guy Fieri’s Smokehouse. It was quite odd.
Anyway, some observations, in handy list form!
- A little bit of planning goes a long way
- Angel’s Envy Rye is very nice, but you will have great difficulty tracking down a bottle
- O.K.I. is even nicer, but at this point, you’ll have to knock off a bar to get hold of even half a bottle (but New Riff will be bottling their new bourbon in the Autumn)
- Americans have a very loose definition of Britpop
- A great way of confusing somebody is to turn up to their gin tasting station one day, and then at their distillery one hundred miles away for a tour the next
- Perhaps surprisingly, the rooftop bar on top of the Hilton Garden Inn is really quite nice, with great views of Tyvek. Oh, and some historical picturesque views if you must look in the other direction
- Despite also being very very empty on a Sunday night, I can also wholeheartedly recommend Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar in Covington. Lots of flights! Lots of fancy things!
However, the most notable discovery of the weekend is probably Heaven Hill Green Label. This was introduced to us by a bartender in downtown Louisville as an alternative that we might not have come across before. It’s a great mixer and holds its own against bourbons that cost $40 or more. And you can buy it for $12.
The only slight drawback is that it tends not to escape the borders of Kentucky. Of course, that’s not much of a drawback for me anymore, as Kentucky is simply a bridge away. Expect my first liquid bourbon caramels using this to roll off the production line next weekend.