Butchertown

One of Louisville’s oldest neighborhoods, Butchertown, just east of downtown, was the city’s original meatpacking district with butcher shops dominating the area in the 1800s. These days, though one large meatpacker still anchors the area, Butchertown is in the middle of a renaissance and has been spruced up with tasty restaurants, chic boutiques, the city’s first brandy distillery, a state-of-the-art soccer stadium and growing options for shopping, dining and entertainment.

EAT

Get your caffeine fix with several local options from Quill’s in a 19th-century firehouse, Pregame Coffee and Butchertown Grocery Bakery.

For a locally-sourced meal with a unique twist, including several vegan options, try Naïve. For handmade pasta, wood-fired pizza and craft cocktails, there’s Pizza Lupo. Pho Ba Luu is known for its Vietnamese specialties and Saigon street food favorites like banh mi sandwiches. Cultured, a cheese and charcuterie bar, specializes in local and unique farmstead cheeses, charcuterie and a dynamic selection of carefully-curated wines & beer. Finish the evening at High Horse Bar, where you can play bingo, enjoy a theme party or catch some live music.

TEN20 Craft Brewery is one of the newest additions to the city’s growing craft brewery scene. Housed in a historic 22,000 square-foot facility, their Butchertown location offers a beer garden and an indoor taproom with food by Happy Belly Bistro and Mozza Pi. Nearby, Apocalypse Brew Works is also creating small-batch, fresh craft beer, which you can enjoy in their beer garden. Or whet your whistle at Sergio’s World of Beers with more than 1,000 options or neighboring Gold Bar for their artfully crafted cocktails and Bourbon cookies.

DISCOVER

Butchertown is home to Bourbon City’s only brandy distillery, Copper & Kings. Take a tour and then enjoy classic cocktails at Copper & Kings Rooftop Bar & Restaurant, a rooftop bar boasting stunning views of downtown Louisville.

Catch a professional soccer game at Lynn Family Stadium, home to the city’s women’s soccer team, Racing Louisville FC, and the men’s team, Louisville City FC. The Louisville Extreme Park is the place to go for skateboarders. It features 40,000 square feet of outdoor concrete skating surface, as well as a 24-foot full pipe and a wooden vert ramp.

Connect with nature at the Waterfront Botanical Gardens. Experience the area’s rich history at the Thomas Edison House where you’ll be enlightened about the inventor’s time in Louisville. PLAY Louisville, Louisville’s largest LGBTQ bar, is the place to be for drag shows and dance parties. A walk through this historic neighborhood is an architectural delight. From the iconic steeples of St. Joseph Catholic Church (built in 1866) to the modest shot-guns mixed among more highly styled Italianates and Victorians with Eastlake details, walkers will also notice the pattern of street names invoking the early days of the Republic (Washington, Franklin, Adams, Quincy, Buchanan and Kentucky’s own Henry Clay).

SHOP

Butchertown Market is a one-stop shop for a little retail therapy. You’ll find clothing, jewelry, home décor and one-of-a-kind gifts at Work the Metal. Moss Hill makes handcrafted lotions, soaps and candles with specialty scents like Bourbon and Mint Julep. At Bourbon Barrel Foods, you can pick up Bourbon barrel smoked spices, small-batch soy sauce aged in Bourbon barrels and specialty bitters. A row of shotgun houses and boarded up buildings in the neighborhood is now home to Formé Millinery, where some of the standout hats of each Derby season are created, and the Butchertown House of Beauty and Booze, where you can get a haircut while enjoying a boozy beverage. For creatives, check out PYRO Gallery and Lettersong Calligraphy Studio and Gallery.

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