Louisville recommendations

[walterfredo]

These shows will be first trip to Louisville for my wife and I (technically I drove right through it once in 1998 phish summer tour!). We will be staying right downtown. I would love some local insight on restaurants, things to check out, etc. I'm a foodie geek, and I know there are some great restaurants in that area. Would love some recommendations on restaurants, coffee shops, bars, breweries, tourist shit not to miss, etc.

[rkwedge]

These shows will be first trip to Louisville for my wife and I (technically I drove right through it once in 1998 phish summer tour!). We will be staying right downtown. I would love some local insight on restaurants, things to check out, etc. I'm a foodie geek, and I know there are some great restaurants in that area. Would love some recommendations on restaurants, coffee shops, bars, breweries, tourist shit not to miss, etc.

Add me to this list. Also, any recommendations on getting from downtown to Iroquois and back.

[oistheone]

You'll smell like BBQ grease for a week but ya gotta check out Hammerheads!

[slappymoe]

lots of great food/bar options downtown, bardstown road, and the east side of town.

downtown, the bristol, doc crow's, mussel & burger bar.....good eats.  good beer and pub grub at bbc, troll pub, patrick o'shea's.  impellizzeri's is crazy good pizza.

for the iroquois show, there's a renovated building on the corner right across the street with a pizza place, a taco place, and a standard american fare restaurant.  great outdoor patio area.  really nothing else in the area, it's our go-to before amphitheater shows.

 https://colonialgardenslouky.com/

[ranyart]

Glad to see some folks are interested in exploring our backyard!  I'll focus on things to do.

If you are a baseball fan Louisville is home to the factory that makes bats for MLB, and of course they offer tours and a museum.  https://www.sluggermuseum.com/plan-your-visit/explore-louisville/museum-row-on-main has some good info about it and some of the other attractions in that part of downtown.

Kentucky is known for bourbon so if you are into that there's is all sorts of info here https://kybourbontrail.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlJK3h46K9gIV2XNvBB3F8QayEAAYAiAAEgK0p_D_BwE.  If you take a quick drive over to Frankfort KY you will see all sorts of bourbon related sites including huge storage areas.

If caves are your thing then you are in the right place.  Kentucky is home to the world's largest known cave system!  Lots of info at https://www.kentuckytourism.com/outdoors/outdoor-recreation/caving.  And of course on your way down or back to the caves you will pass the National Corvette Museum and the factory where they are built in Bowling Green which you can read about at https://www.corvettemuseum.org/.

Some more fun downtown items are the pedestrian bridge across the Ohio River and the Falls of the Ohio River.  While I'm talking about the river please keep in mind I-65 bridges have tolls downtown but there is a free bridge right next to them.  Follow the signs for US 31 to get to it.  Fun fact this is the same bridge from which Muhammed Ali tossed his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River.

Finally I can't help mentioning our beautiful town Madison IN which is a little over an hour drive from downtown Louisville.  Madison is home to the fourth largest historical district in the US and has a whole bunch of fun waterfalls scattered around the area including Clifty Falls State Park.  Info is at https://visitmadison.org/.

Enjoy your trip and look forward to seeing everyone in June!

[ranyart]

Betsy just reminded me of one thing.  Louisville is home to Zappos and has an outlet store relatively close to the airport.  It's probably 80/20 gals/guys so I've never found much there but Betsy sure has over the years.

https://g.page/the-outlet-powered-by-zappos?share

[walterfredo]

appreciate the recs! We will only be in town 3 days, and don't expect to venture far from the City proper on this trip, and will not have a car. Plan to do lots of walking!

[LBSUNFLWR]

The Ali museum and Slugger museum are both really cool for any sports fan and can easily be done in the same day. Both right downtown.

I love The Grind Burger in NuLu. Awesome burgers, lots of beer to choose from and casual/not expensive.

Garage Bar and Feast BBQ also in NuLu are both great.

NuLu is right next to downtown.

[robb]

If you are a baseball fan Louisville is home to the factory that makes bats for MLB, and of course they offer tours and a museum.  https://www.sluggermuseum.com/plan-your-visit/explore-louisville/museum-row-on-main has some good info about it and some of the other attractions in that part of downtown.

also, a minor league team playing a home game the night before iroquois. that's my tentative plan at the moment.

[Roo06]

Here are a few recs:

Breweries
-Gravely
-Milewide
-Ten20

Food
-Feast BBQ
-Garage Bar
-Wiltshire on Market (Wiltshire Pantry for Breakfast)
-Pizza Lupo
-Highland Morning (Brunch)

Bar
-Four Pegs (Good BBQ)
-8Up Rooftop
-Copper & Kings
-High Horse
-The MerryWeather

[rincon2]

I don't know how long you will be in town, but with exceptions of a few museums and restaurants, downtown is not a great place to get the feel of the city. Very few locals are gonna be there unless they are working. Louisville is really a city of neighborhoods. Old Louisville, Germantown, The Highlands, and Clifton are the heart and soul of the city in my mind. Streets to see in order of neighborhoods listed. St. James Ct., Goss Ave, Bardstown/Baxter, and Frankfort.

[Bulldog]

Hey for a first time visitor to Louisville, are we better off staying close to Waterfront or is there another area you would recommend? Mainly just be eating and checking out random stuff when not at the shows and will have a car there.

Thanks for any insight

[slappymoe]

i would have to assume something downtown would be best for visitors.   close to the waterfront show, lots of bars/restaurants, and if you have a car and want to explore a bit, you can be pretty much anywhere in town in 10-15 minutes.

[ericm]

Hey for a first time visitor to Louisville, are we better off staying close to Waterfront or is there another area you would recommend? Mainly just be eating and checking out random stuff when not at the shows and will have a car there.

Thanks for any insight

I don't really have much advice since I just visited a couple of times, and didn't have a car either time but if you stay downtown like we did you can't go wrong with a suite in the East Tower at the Galt House. Steps to the Yum Center and Waterfront Park. Close enough to walk around and see the L'Ville Slugger factory and some bars/restaurants.

If you stay there be sure to grab a slice of their Bourbon Pie.

[walterfredo]

We are staying downtown at The Grady. So excited for this run!

[LBSUNFLWR]

I feel like everyone who hasn't been to Iroquois Amphitheater before is going to love it. I did the first time I was there.

Such a small venue to see MMJ in.

Will be vastly different from the great lawn.

I wouldn't suggest staying over by Iroquois though. Aside from the venue there's not much to see or do in that part of town.

[walterfredo]

any fine dining type recs for places downtown near the waterfront?

[ranyart]

https://riverhouselouisville.com/ is the first place that comes to mind.  You will probably want to uber/lyft there and back from your hotel.  http://www.jeffruby.com/louisville/menus is right in downtown but not on the river and has an excellent reputation (Jeff is from Cincinnati and has several restaurants here - I've never been to his Louisville place but I have no doubt that it is top notch).

Of course if you've never had it a visit to White Castle can be fun. 

Sadly the restaurant that we usually go to and I was going to recommend appears to be gone.  It was a Persian restaurant (think it was called Saffron).

[walterfredo]

thanks! 610 Magnolia looks cool too, just don't know if there would be time to eat there before either sow.

[ranyart]

There's a Joe's Crab Shack right next to the great lawn that has some outdoor seats overlooking the stage which is pretty cool.