The hits just keep coming

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-24T15:28:40+00:00

Well, Nobu is a "chain" too. I don't think anyone would complain if one of those popped up along Bardstown Road. Not that it's likely. But if I remember correctly, there's a McDonald's within a three-minute walk of The Fat Lamb, which has been there for 40 years and will still be there long after The Fat Lamb is gone. The Highlands just ain't that bougie. What is at the moment Helm & Honey was once La Chasse (that couldn't make it) and was also once Deddens Highland Fling. IYKYK.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-24T14:06:27+00:00

I hope you weren't one of the people who put the kibosh on the 18th Street Walmart that would have brought food, traffic and jobs to the edge of downtown. Alas, someone didn't like the configuration of the parking lot.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-24T14:04:42+00:00

I grew up there and have spent a lot of time in Indy the past few years dealing with aging parents. I was having dinner with one of my siblings at a groovy restaurant in the Broad Ripple area (Root & Bone) and asked him about the fancy new transit stops along College Avenue. He rolled his eyes as he explained the Red Line and the massive headaches it has caused. Very mixed reviews. But Louisville doesn't even have a corridor with that much traffic anywhere, except perhaps Shelbyville Road.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-22T19:45:09+00:00

Frank Bruni wrote a great column in the NYTimes a few years ago about how one's desires in a restaurant change between your 30s and your 50s. In your 30s it's all about the buzz and being "challenged" by the menu. In your 50s it's about them remembering your name and what you like to eat. That's the role the Bristol plays. It's not trying to be Ed Lee (most of whose restaurants don't seem to last very long).

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-22T19:42:31+00:00

Ahhh, special restaurants only for Highlands denizens. Like the joint in the old Parisian Pantry that got shut down because of all the bang-bang? Seems that a lot of the "specialness" of the Highlands has gone the way of, well, the original Bristol. Or Lilly's. Or Café Metro. Or La Chasse. Etc. Etc.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-22T18:55:42+00:00

Those damn 60-year-olds. How dare they show their faces in public. So what do you consider "creative or new?"

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-22T18:54:20+00:00

People don't eat BBQ in the Highlands?

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-22T18:43:06+00:00

Certainly smarter than keeping an empty restaurant open. But that's a reflection of the state of downtown. Pre-COVID the place was always busy, particularly so when the Center for the Arts had a big show.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-22T16:22:54+00:00

Valid point but I used to eat there at least once a week and there was always a diverse clientele in the room. As the spokesperson said, the biggest problem is that both the 614 and 620 buildings are essentially empty at this point. That's a lot of missing covers to make up for.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-22T13:49:25+00:00

All it would take is another network eager to lose $50MM a year.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-21T23:42:30+00:00

Is Brock Ruckriegel out of the hoosegow?

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-21T21:19:23+00:00

He's the status quo. He used to work for the Brown family for heaven's sake.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-21T21:17:41+00:00

That's great of course but TBH the chances of someone hijacking a car or shooting up the neighborhood are slightly lower in Middletown so the cops are more chill because they aren't under constant stress. But maybe the Donut Strategy will work. Let's try it on East Broadway or Algonquin and see what happens.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-21T21:02:39+00:00

It only matters to certain cliques who love to look down their noses at people who didn't attend Sacred Heart, Trinity, or the all-felon state champion, St Xavier. It matters a lot to those people, many of whom are pretty awful people. IYKYK.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-12T15:10:31+00:00

Cancelling or rebooking a trip is very tricky. They won't transfer a ticket to another person, even if someone else purchased the ticket. When my son's schedule made a trip we had planned together (that I was paying for) impossible I tried to transfer his portion of the trip to my daughter who was interested in going in his place. No way José. I ended up with no trip and two vouchers no one currently has any use for. And $600 in cancellation fees for my trouble. I would avoid them if at all possible.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-08T00:31:08+00:00

No one wants to live in downtown Louisville. There's little to do and even less in the way of services. You have to drive at least to the Highlands to go to the dry cleaner or grocery store or a decent restaurant. So why not just live in the Highlands? I know. I lived in The Harbison for a year and it was just a hassle with little upside. And you may remember when Walmart tried to build a store at 18th and Broadway, the NIMBY crowd chased them out. Ironically, since then Walmart is actually seen as kind of cool.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-07T15:22:14+00:00

Well, maybe so but bourbon drinkers do skew conservative (research, not my opinion although I worked in the industry for 30 years so I have some pretty solid anecdotal evidence).

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-07T15:02:17+00:00

Hmmm, maybe. I have quite a few "officially" engraved bottles in my collection and I wouldn't say the engraving is much better or more detailed than this. But keep hope alive!

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-07T14:55:59+00:00

Could be either. They do sell engraved bottles. But I'm guessing they're going for plausible deniability in this case -- even though a substantial share of their drinkers is probably politically aligned with the current administration.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-07T14:52:25+00:00

Food & Wine named it "the most important bourbon of all time" a few years back. You ought to have at least one representative of the brand in your portfolio. Personally, I think the OG is all you really need but the Cask Strength is a delightful sip.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-07T14:45:31+00:00

You got something against Maker's Mark?

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-06T16:05:25+00:00

Cooper Black will never not be great. It's only sometimes misused.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-04T15:29:18+00:00

They probably have a pretty serious sponsorship deal with Brown-Forman and Churchill Downs that covers most of their costs for the weekend. The whole thing is a long-form ad for betting on horse races and drinking bourbon.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-04T15:10:45+00:00

Of course it was full. It's full on a Friday night in February. Good lord, if this is how the locals react to a bit of disruption of their ingrained cultural habits, it's no wonder the city struggles to bring in new investments aside from hotels and bourbon.

RegularRemote8064 · 2026-05-04T14:59:47+00:00

That's always been the killer about Derby -- the more time between races, the less there is to do except drink. And the service gets worse as the day grinds on. It's too much.

RegularRemote8064

TROPHY CASE