The past week was pretty busy, because my husband and Baby K and I went to Indiana on Thursday, and then he and I were in Louisville from Friday through Monday with my sister-in-law (Baby K stayed with my in-laws).
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| Boudin balls at North of Bourbon, Louisville |
What I've been up to this week:
- Having good food. We kicked off the trip with dinner at North of Bourbon, one of my favorites—this is my third trip to Louisville (Nov. 2024 and Dec. 2025 were the others) and it's a very tasty restaurant. We always get the boudin balls (with pork, see pic above) and this time I split the chicken gumbo and a mushroom risotto-type dish with my SIL.
On Saturday, we ended up going to a food hall close to Rabbit Hole distillery (more on that below), and had some tapas-type items, like empanadas, which was good, and we also had really good charcuterie at the Garden and Gun Club, at Stitzel-Weller (see below) plus had good Italian food at Volare, which we had been to last December. On Sunday, we tried a new BBQ place for dinner, Feast BBQ, which was expensive but delicious, and on Monday, we actually had lunch at Buca di Beppo in Greenwood, IN, because I had a $50 gift card that I had won two years ago and hadn't been able to use (if you're local and you're reading this, you might know why—both the Livonia and Utica locations closed about two years ago). - Doing distillery tours. We hit up four distilleries this trip, technically five, and three of them were new to me. On Saturday morning (at like ... 9:30am, haha) we went to Rabbit Hole, downtown; I had never been but my husband had gone on his bachelor trip, in June 2024, and enjoyed it. They started us off with a welcome cocktail—you could choose an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan—and I don't usually like either, but their Old Fashioned was very good.
Saturday afternoon, we went to Stitzel-Weller, which doesn't produce much anymore but used to, and this was my favorite out of all of tours; our guide was great, and they had a really interesting history. They also have a Garden and Gun Club (restaurant), and we had some good drinks and a fabulous charcuterie board there.
On Sunday, we checked out Woodford Reserve for the first time, and they have a nice facility, and also good drinks, but I wasn't super impressed—there are two buildings, the tour started at one and then we took a small bus to some of the buildings, and ended at the other one. We had some charcuterie there too but it was basically just some stuff thrown in a box, and rather expensive. The brand itself was apparently launched in 1996 but it purchased the campus from an older brand that went out of business, so all of the buildings were from the late 1800s/early 1900s, I believe ... I would have enjoyed learning more history about them.
On a whim, after that, we stopped by Buffalo Trace, and it turns out you can access the gift shop AND do a free tasting without reservations—last time we went there, in 2024, we had a reservation for a tour and a tasting. The tasting wasn't quite as nice—you're at a stand-up bar, not in a private room—but I can't complain about free!
On Monday, we finished our vacation at Peerless—I had been each trip, in 2024 for a tasting and tour, and in 2025 for a tasting—and my husband really likes their bourbon. - Visiting with family. We arrived in Indiana on Thursday and left on Tuesday ... we stayed overnight Thursday and on Monday, and it was nice to see my in-laws (and also very nice of them that they watched Baby K while we were gone Friday through Monday). We will actually be back next week, too, because my husband is going to a bachelor party that Saturday (day activity type of thing, not a trip) and on Sunday we will celebrate birthdays, as there are a lot of April and May ones.
- Shopping and visiting favorites. We also stopped at Pretty Decent, which is a plant shop and also a mezcal bar that we have hit up on every Louisville trip—our friends have met the owner a few times, and he actually recognized us this time which was pretty nice. There was a thrift shop-type of place across the street that we went to this time, too, and we also went to Mellwood Antique Mall, where we had gone in 2024—HUGE and cool place that has anything you could want.
- Staying at an Airbnb. The past two Louisville trips, we went with friends who brought their dog, so we stayed at a house both times (also Airbnb). This time, I had reserved a condo, and it was super nice; my only complaint is that it was right on Baxter Ave., which has a ton of shops and restaurants, so Friday and Saturday nice were quite noisy. The hosts had already anticipated this, and they provided white noise machines to their guests, but I'm not a huge fan of noise machines, so we just left the bathroom fan on at night instead to help with the noise. That being said, I'd still stay at that location again, as the bedrooms were huge, and we also had a reserved parking space, which was nice (most of Louisville is street parking-only, IMO).
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| Tasting at Rabbit Hole Distillery, Louisville |
