Update: Louisville, KY Food Reviews of Trip

Holy hell puffulufogous, that was awesome!

Thanks so much!

Definitely picking the rooftop Omni spot, Harvest, and the Eagle fried chick join off that list.

Really appreciate it.

To add to puff's recs (live here in Louisville), Mayan Cafe on Market (downtown) is another good one and has good, legit, Latin American food. Proof on Main is a favorite of mine as well, they rotate the menu with local, seasonal food and it's great. Also fun to venture over to the 21c hotel and museum. If you're looking a breakfast place downtown, Wild Eggs is a good one. They have a little bit of everything, as well as some lunch items.

I'd definitely stick to somewhere like the Highlands or Frankfort Ave for bars (I haven't been to the Omni, so I can't speak to it at this point) versus heading somewhere like 4th Street Live which can tend to be a tourist trap. The Red Herring has some great drinks and cocktails if you're into that. Holy Grale is another one (Highlands) that I'd recommend. It's an old, 1905, converted Unitarian Church where they kept a lot of the old wood furnishings and stained glass. No bourbon or wine, but has some really, really good beers and ciders on tap.

If you feel like venturing out of downtown to St. Matthews, Waylons Feed and Firewater has a good bourbon bar with hand picked barrels. Had a good time there the other night.

There's also a billion fricking pizza places in this city. Spinellis in the Highlands is an experience in itself at about 2 in the morning. I recommend the White Pizza.

Woodford Reserve is only an hour up I-64 and I'd recommend making the drive. Great tour and their bourbon is a favorite. Makers Mark is about an hour and a half outside of Louisville. It's not my favorite bourbon by any means but has a good tour (they also have some Chiluly glass installations on site if that's your thing). And you have the novelty of dipping your own bottle.

I think the chihuly installation may have moved. Check before you go. Still a pretty place either way

A group of us will be in Louisville the first weekend of April and staying in the Highlands area. I will be adding some of these recommendations to the list of possible meals...

Sazerac I presume

Harvest and Mayan Cafe are fantastic

Was really impressed with the selection of bars and restaurants on Market St.

Really appreciate all the recommendations! So far I've mapped out the following loose itinerary for meals:

Brunch / Breakfast:

Harvest
Wild Eggs

Lunch

The Eagle
Hammerheads
Doc Crow's

Afternoon Snacks / Happy Hour

8Up
Holy Grale

Dinner

Butchertown Grocery
Proof on Main
The Fat Lamb
Muscle & Burger Bar

I'll try to post a write-up on the spots. I'm really excited for this as we typically never plan-out our food spots in advance and always miss the gems. Think we found some awesome spots through this thread and other folks. Appreciate the help!

Alright, been a while, but I thought I'd put together a review of the places I went after everyone helped so much with the recs:

Breakfast

-Wild Eggs - 8/10 - Really solid breakfast joint. It's a bit uppity and steers into all of the stereotypical hip brunch spots, but it does it well. They also serve liquor which is a huge must for me if you're a brunch spot. I got the juevos rancheros and the gf got the breakfast burrito. Each were so much food it was borderline laughable, but each was cooked real well, couldn't complain. I think I lived in Texas too long and have had too many fantastic juevos rancheros to expect a great effort in the Midwest, but it was solid. A bit underseasoned but pretty good.

-Harvest - 12/10 - People, if you live within a hundred miles of Louisville, KY, this place is a must and worth the drive. Such a cool place, farm to table, but they also have an epic Bourbon selection. Usually the farm to table places are kinda froo-froo, but this one was so cool. Then to the food, incredible. I had this pickle-brined fried chicken thighs with charred peach hot sauce and pimento cheese grits. I'm not kidding when I say it was an all-time menu. We actually had a long day of walking to breweries and drinking with friends ahead of us, but I couldn't have cared less to the point where I ordered a second helping and basically made myself sick for half the day. At the same time as I'm having my meals I put down their fantastic take on an Irish coffee before moving onto a Bourbon flight. All in all, without a doubt, one of the best meals I've ever had.

Lunch

-Doc Crow's - 7/10 - Not too shabby. Decent atmosphere, decent food, nothing to complain about, but I wouldn't write home about it. I had the chili, cornbread, and wedge salad. She had the oysters. Again, each were fine, nothing to write home about.

-Galaxie - 8.5/10 - Damn good little hole in the wall. We found it while walking between breweries. We wanted to go Royal's Hot Chicken, but there was like an hour long wait so we walked next door to Galaxie. Great margaritas and surprisingly good tacos that they call Wakatakas. Solid hole in the wall joint that hit the spot for booze, food, and good vibe.

Dinner

-Porch - 7.5/10 - Another good spot. Pretty trendy joint with clearly a lot of money invested in its image. Had their fried chicken with this very good hot honey drizzle and a side of cornbread muffins. Each was real good and solid cocktails.

-Muscle & Burger Bar - 9/10 - Keeping up the trend, great spot. I had the Spanish Blue burger and she had the Curry Mussels. The burger was great, never had a fig marmalade with a burger, but the sweetness was perfect with the blue cheese. Her mussels, though, were incredible. I don't usually think of mussels and curry, but it was this light, spicy coconut curry that was incredible. I'm talking box up the broth and make a soup out of it if we weren't staying at a hotel. Both of us were very pleased with our orders.

-Butchertown Grocery & Lola - 9.5/10 - Last but not least, maybe the best date spot I've been to in years. Really cool concept where there's this two story house that's been turned into a great restaurant on the first floor and a cool speakeasy type cocktail spot upstairs. We arrived about twenty minutes before our reservation and they walked us upstairs to have a drink. Each of our cocktails were on-point and then they walked us downstairs for the dinner. I got the Bucatani pasta and she got the rotisserie chicken, and we got a side of the Bourbon barrel grits. Each dish was simple but very well done. Clearly great ingredients and good preparation. We then fishined and went upstairs to have a couple more cocktails. As I mentioned, as far as a date spot 15/10. If you can't seal the deal with this speakeasy/dinner combo, just give it up cause it ain't happening.

All in all, a great little city for a weekend. We did a couple Bourbon tours, went to some distilleries, checked out some of the cool local stores, and ate great food. Idk what I was expecting, but I was surprised at how much of a southern, comfort food feel it had. I guess I consider Kentucky borderline Midwest, but everything felt very southern yet it wasn't the fried slop that I think of in some Mississippi-type southern joints. You could also get grits at pretty much every meal which is all I ask for in life.

Would highly recommend for a weekend trip for folks.