On the Road: Louisville

One of the perks of living in Nashville is that you are so close to so many cool places. In a short three hour drive you can get to Chattanooga, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta or Louisville. 

On Saturday, we took a rainy day trip with our friends to The Ville, a first for all of us. We were attracted to the city for its rich history in baseball and of course, the bourbon.

You can't go to the Bourbon Capital of the World without a stop along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Known as the first family of bourbon and the producer of the world's No. 1-selling bourbon, Jim Beam American Stillhouse was our chosen destination, located just 25 miles south of downtown Louisville.

Due to time constraints, we opted for the free self-guided tour (the regular tour is $10 and 90 minutes long) that ended with a tasting. We aren't the biggest bourbon fans, we much prefer an IPA or glass of riesling, but we sucked it up and drank both given samples thanks to some pep talking from the other guests. The honey was awesome!

Also cool, Mila Kunis recently joined the Jim Beam Bourbon family. You can check out her behind the scenes look at the distillery ahead.

As soon as we arrived in the city, we ate brunch at Harvest, a locally grown restaurant in the NuLu district. If you like southern comfort food with a healthy twist, you will love this place. The restaurant proudly supports the farm-to-table movement, as you can tell the moment you walk in. The walls are lined with photos of local farmers and the back wall maps out exactly where the food on your plate is sourced from in the area. You can see our friends' review of it on their Nashville Brunch Blog.

We drove off our delicious food in the Old Louisville neighborhood, the third largest historic preservation district in the United States. Some fun facts about this area: a majority of the homes are made of brick and the neighborhood contains the highest concentration of homes with stained glass windows. You have to see these beautiful Victorian-era style homes for yourself!

Perhaps one of the most exciting points of our day was discovering that Louisville was home to both a Nordstrom Rack and Trader Joe's Wine Shop. Hallelujah! I don't know where we spent more money, but we hauled home a new spring wardrobe and several wine cartons full of Two-buck Chuck. The Brentwood Nordstrom Rack is slated to open in fall 2014 and wine could be available in Nashville grocery stores in....July 2016. 

We ended the long day with America's favorite pastime. After a quick stop at the Louisville Slugger Museum, we made our way to Louisville Slugger Field for the Cincinnati Red exhibition game against the Louisville Bats. The stadium is awesome, especially for a minor league field, and offered gourmet hot dogs - yum! Plus, we got free Reds hats! 

Find our Louisville friends on Twitter: @jimbeamofficial, @Harvest502, @CincinnatiReds & @LouisvilleBats