Now that I moved down south to Tennessee, I am so looking forward to the opportunity to visit more of the south! I recently visited Louisville, KY for the first time last week and man, was it a blast. It’s true Bourbon country and many of the people you will meet working downtown work for and in distilleries, or have some family ties to bourbon. Downtown Louisville is great and if you visit whiskey row you will have a lot of fun and some delicious options. They have distilleries all over so I absolutely recommend taking a Bourbon tour, however if you’re like me and you want the best of both worlds… you’ll opt to spend an evening taking a Louisville Food Tour! I decided to take the Phantoms of the Prohibition Cocktail and Food Tour by Louisville Food Tours. Every new city I visit, I like to take a food tour of some sort because when you only have a day or two to visit, it’s important to try as many of the local spots as possible.
This tour was amazing! Our tour guide Jodi was so funny and really personable and the people on our tour were also wonderful, a mix of locals and tourists like ourselves. It was a nice intimate tour (which I love) so you really got to eat enough food and listen to the ghost stories. They give you nice and clean ear pieces so you can hear the tour guides even in the crowded and loud bars, which I thought was a really nice touch!
I love ghost tours so combining a bit of that with food and booze was absolutely ideal. You will get a decent amount of alcohol on this tour, but no one is over served, however I must say I was impressed with the amount of cocktails and food portions we received! As a Somm with a high tolerance, even I felt great by the end of the tour and you really get more than your money’s worth in fun stories, amount of places visited, and tastes of bourbon, beer, and cocktails.
I loved the first stop which was a hard to get into speakeasy called Hell or High Water! We enjoyed a Calling Card No. 1 cocktail which is a fun spin on an Old Fashioned. This bar looks like a small art gallery in the front and then you’re led downstairs into a sexy lounge with prohibition vibes. After we visited a fun Irish Bar called O’Shea’s where we enjoyed some bourbon barrel aged beer, two types of bourbon, and also some amazing fried bread, fried pickles, and French fries! There was a few fun ghost stories about this bar, and the upstairs is haunted so I really loved this stop too.
Once we were full, we walked the streets and learned a bit about the ghosts you’ll find lingering around various other venues. We then headed to the Omni Hotel bar that’s decked out with bourbon barrels and a sleek southern style library with horse murals and beautiful horse pieces. This spot was a lot of fun where we enjoyed learning about “Bathtub Gin” and how it came about while sipping a delicious Lavender Gin cocktail!
Our last stop on the tour was a fun rooftop bar called 8Up Elevated Drinkery and Kitchen near Fourth Street where we enjoyed Steakhouse Pizza, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and another version of an Old Fashioned cocktail! This bar was really lively and so fun, I would absolutely go back… then again I would go back to all of these places. This tour really gave us a nice balance of history, fun, drinking, and food which is exactly what we wanted. I was so impressed with the selection of items, portions, and offerings and also Jodi’s energy which kept us all going and happy and laughing all night long.
If you’re visiting Louisville and want to take the best tour, absolutely check out the Phantoms of the Prohibition Tour. They also offer other ones, which honestly next time I am in town I absolutely want to take, so if you’re more of a Food and History buff and want to omit the ghost stories and cocktails, then their other ones are also absolutely amazing I have heard. I will absolutely be back to take more and can’t wait to try others from them!
Want to see everything we ate and drank on this delectable tour? Here’s the Instagram Reel! Be sure to like and follow both @SomminTheCity and @Louisvillefoodtours accounts.
Cheers Y’all! Always remember eat what you like and drink what you love. Please pair responsibly.
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