335. Eating My Way Along the Bourbon Trail with Rosa Hart

Welcome to another great episode of the Bourbon Road with your host, Jim and Brian, where they talk bourbon and of course, drink bourbon. Grab yourself a pour, kick back and enjoy another trip down the Bourbon Road.

You know friends, it's never too early to start planning your trip to the Bourbon Trail for 2023. We hope you'll join the Bourbon Road crew as we pull out all the stops this year at Bourbon on the Banks. So mark your calendars for October 6th and 7th and we'll plan on seeing you in Frankfort, Kentucky. Be sure to listen in during the halftime break for all the details on Bourbon on the Banks. Welcome back listeners to another episode of the Bourbon Road podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon in the studio with us tonight is Brian Hyatter-Coast. Brian, welcome back again for another episode. Thank you, Jim. All right. So we are actually again on the road like we do, but this time we're, uh, I mean, where, where are we Rosa?

You are in a dungeon.

We're in the dungeon.

You are in a very brightly lit dungeon.

Yeah. But where, Where in the Louisville area are we?

Well, without giving away my address.

No, we don't want to know the address.

I live in Middletown.

Okay.

So thank you for coming to my home and into my podcast recording studio.

Well, thanks for having us. It's been pretty nice. We have already had a pretty cool gin cocktail tonight. Yeah. And we're actually, I hate to admit this, but we're actually, this is our second try at recording this episode.

I'm very happy about it, honestly. You're glad to have a retake on it? I am, yeah.

Well folks, the reason we're doing this again is because Jim messed up and we had a bad track on the recording. So we spent a wonderful evening at Equus restaurant. the home of Jax and the black rabbit of Speakeasy. They treated us fantastic there. It was really great food, excellent cocktails, tremendous atmosphere.

That salmon I had was to die for.

We did a really good job of a podcast. I wish we could have put it out there because it was so much fun. We laughed and we ate and we drank and it was just a wonderful time.

But we had so much fun. I'm glad we get to do it again.

Oh, that's cool. Well, anyway, so we get a chance to retake this and, you know, that recording gets to go into the trash heap.

Plus, we had to have this gin because I had to share with you my personal collection.

Got it. Perfect. Well, we did have a gin cocktail before we started. We could talk about that a little bit. But first, our listeners are kind of wondering, who is this Lady Rosa? Right. Right. We're sitting here talking to this girl. What does she do? Who is she? I mean, you kind of do a lot of stuff, but the real theme of this show is around the work that you do as a food influencer. So you have been to like an unimaginable number of restaurants along the Bourbon Trail.

Yeah, I've been to 300 restaurants in the Louisville area in the last two and a half years. Most of them are locally owned and operated and they're something you can't find outside of our area because they're very unique. And so I will take pictures of the food and make videos of my experiences and share that on social media, and then interview the owners. And also, I've started interviewing nonprofit leaders as well, just to learn more about the people making the Louisville and Kentucky in the area great.

Yeah, that is so cool. But I'm just thinking about that number 300. Brian, have you done the math?

I've been to more since we talked earlier this week, so maybe we should start a running tally.

You're pushing, you're heading towards 400 now. Yeah.

I mean, it's a new year. Pretty soon I'll say 400 in the last three years.

Well, I mean, if it's like, 300 restaurants in two years. So there's only 365 days in a year. So if you went to a restaurant every single day in a year, you'd be at 360. You're about where you are.

So it's like every other day for two and a half years.

Every other day.

My husband was like, yeah, that sounds like the last few years.

So Brian, have you done the math? 300 restaurants in two years. I mean, how many restaurants have you been at in the last year? Not even close to that.

I would say 30.

My wife's in the room and I'm looking at her and I'm thinking we haven't been to 10.

Well, is that because you go to the same places over and over again?

We just don't eat out a lot.

Oh, okay.

We do. We go to the same restaurants, pretty regular.

I think most people who eat out go to the same places over and over again, because you have a specific dish that you like, and you know it's going to be great. If you're going to spend money on it, you know you want to like it, and people want what's comfortable, and they want something they can depend on. And going to a new place is scary for a lot of people, Um, spending money on something you might not like is scary. So I get that.

I also think convenience is, is a big part of it too. You know, when you have somewhere that's five minutes away that you can go quick, easy, you know what you're getting. That's reliable.

I felt like when we were at Equus the other night, that a lot of those people go there all the time.

Yeah and so actually I think that convenience is not so much a factor as unless we're talking about the convenience of an established neural pathway of I've been here before and I've experienced this before and because we are surrounded in Louisville by so many amazing different, you work downtown man, Like there's a plethora, the majority of the restaurants that I have been to would be convenient to you from your work. So I don't think that's holding you back. I think it's the convenience of that neural pathway.

And they go away and they pop up and they go away.

Oh my goodness. I had this list of all these places I wanted to go to and I was like, Oh, what if they closed down before I get there? And so I have to like do this mental exercise of if they do, it's okay.

So here's my neural pathway. Oh my goodness. They have shrimp and grits.

Right. I love seafood and my husband does not. So I go to those places without him a lot.

All right, well, you poured a whiskey for us tonight. You did. And why don't you tell us what we have in our glass.

So I poured you some Green River bourbon. I just took a group of about 15 women on a distillery tour of the Green River Distilling Company in Owensboro, Kentucky. It is on the bourbon trail, which is why we went. We wanted to get our field guides stamped because they have a passport for the bourbon trail. and we got our passport stamped there. And then at the end of our tour, once we got to see how it was all made, we went into the tasting room and we got to taste it neat and then add some water. And then I think they had a rye or something. There was a third option and now I'm blanking on it. But I had a really distinct experience with this because normally When I've tried bourbon, I like it on the rocks. I like to add a little bit of water to open up the flavors and stuff. But I had it neat and it was so smooth and it was so good. And then I added like a dropper of water like I normally do. And it was awful. And I was like, I never want to taste this again. And so it really stood out in my mind and I was like, I've got to take this back and share this with my, you know, all my people and be like, this is what I will be drinking meat, by the way.

Yeah. So this is the, uh, this is the standard bourbon on a Green River distillery.

Yeah. And, uh, I think it's six year.

Yeah. It should be right at about a six year bourbon now.

They have really fun bottles. They're shaped like horseshoes.

Yeah, it does. If you flip the bottle upside down, it's got like a horseshoe on it and a big GR in the middle standing for Green River. It is a 90 proof Kentucky bourbon. And, uh, there's not a lot of distilleries in Owensboro, but the two that are there are huge.

Yeah, it was massive. They have, they control the seasons inside of their warehouses and they were talking about it. And so they're like, yeah, we like that we have four seasons in Kentucky, but in our warehouses, we have six and we can schedule them. I mean, this place was huge.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. We actually got a chance to go there as well and we had a great tour and really enjoyed ourselves there. I think if you go back in our, library of podcast episodes. I think you'll find them maybe a year back or so, but we had a really good time there and it's just an amazing place with a lot of history.

And it's so beautiful. Like if you want to have a wedding there, you could do that. It's gorgeous.

Well, I'll tell you, I've always thought the Green River bourbon was pretty darn good. Um, this is a little bit further along the age than what I had the last time I was with them.

Yeah, they had just bottled this.

Yeah. And this is, this is definitely improved a little bit since even the last time. And I thought it was pretty spectacular then this is really good. Yeah. And I, I don't remember, you, you might have to help me. What's, what's this one at price wise? Do you remember?

37.99. 37.99. Mm hmm.

Great looking bottle, Kentucky distillery, Kentucky DSPKY10. So this is the 10th licensed distillery ever in the state of Kentucky that puts them way back in time. Of course, they've been shut down and resurrected and under new ownership.

Can I complain about that?

Yeah, sure.

Okay, so we're doing these distillery tours and I know they want to have their numbers to indicate the history of it. So we start the tour and this lovely man Day is telling us about the original founders of the Green River Distilling Company and how it won all these like global awards for how great their bourbon tasted and all this. And then they shut down for like 20 years with prohibition and then other periods that it was shut down. And the original recipe was made in these huge wooden vats. And during or after prohibition, those wooden vats were sold to Maker's Mark. And now they use like metal ones. Which is standard. So it's not the same. Well, not only that, but they don't even have the original recipe to work with and they just made their own recipe. So this is phenomenal. This is an excellent product, but it's not what they were winning world awards for in 1895.

And that's kind of happened over and over again with the resurrection of the old DSP numbers, you know, a lot of times.

I just feel like it's kind of a misnomer.

It is, it is. But you know, if it's a send in or a family member picks up on their family story from a hundred years ago and they say, Hey, I want to start a distillery today. And, uh, Oh, by the way, my great, great granddaddy used to own ex distillery.

And it is in the same place.

And that number is just sitting there in the record books and nobody has it. They request it and it's called a, you know, sort of a, it's a historical request. And a lot of times they'll do whatever they can to make it happen.

Yeah.

Cause it's, it's cool.

It's fine.

Yeah. But it doesn't mean that it's the same distillery.

It doesn't mean that this drink that you're drinking is the same thing that won those awards. Right. And that's kind of what I felt like was getting confused in the story.

I'm going to take a venture and say, in many cases, it's probably better today than it was back then.

It probably is. Yeah.

I would think so too, but you know, I love the stories. I love the idea of it. I can't imagine tasting something from the 1890s really. And as it was the day it was put out back then, but- When they test the proof by light and match.

Yeah.

All right. Well, let's move on a little bit. So we all know at this point that you're a food influencer, but what do you do for your day job?

I am a nurse. Yeah. Uh, right now I call patients after their discharge for the, from the hospital, but I was in the ICU for eight years. And, um, during that time I. I was with people on the worst days of their lives, even when they got better. And then on days when they didn't get better, I held their hand while they were dying or held their family members while the patient was dying. It was just a lot of shared grief and I loved my job and I loved the people and the connections and the authenticity of it because nobody's faking anything when you're going through those really hard situations. But it also was really hard on my heart and And I realized I wanted to make sure that I lived before I died and I didn't feel like I had. I've been very responsible. Like I didn't start drinking till I was over 30. So it was very, and not in an unhealthy way, but I'm just saying like I was trying to do everything to be very financially and everything responsible. So. I don't know, I started to prioritize having fun.

So it had a profound effect on your life.

It really did.

And this is the period of time through the COVID.

I was burnt out before COVID.

Yeah, so you kind of did that job before COVID. Yeah, it really did. And it just got worse during COVID.

Yeah, yeah. So on my unit, a lot of people would call on me to be with the people who were dying because I was good at it as far as supporting the patient. I was comforting to people. But I think that means that I walked through that death and dying process a lot more frequently maybe than other people did. I don't know. I can't compare myself to other people, but I definitely can say that that had a huge effect on me and I needed to brighten up my outlook.

I don't think everybody can do that job. Not anybody can do that job.

Yeah, that's true. Those people who are still doing it deserve all of our praise and support.

So you're also a bit involved in nonprofit fundraisers and things like, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah. Starting with the area in which I work, which is funded through raising money through nonprofits, we had some fundraiser events that I helped get auction items for and learned how that process worked. And it's really cool to get to partner with these restaurants and local businesses and be like, hey, let's spotlight them in these different ways and say, hey, we've got this great auction package that's a compilation of all these different local things that we can spotlight instead of Let's send them out of town to Chicago or whatever. Let's focus on what we have here locally that's a treasure. And like you said, Brian, you go to the same 30 restaurants over and over again. Like you could have a new experience without leaving town. But, you know, sometimes people need to win that at an auction to go down the street.

That's right.

So that's kind of how that got started. So I got on the planning committee for some different fundraising events and then through my Instagram I get invited to go to a lot of events to promote them as well as to take pictures and stuff while it's happening to document it for later. It's a lot of fun. I get to meet a lot of really cool people who are making a difference in the community in a lot of different ways that I didn't know existed.

That's awesome.

Yeah, very cool. So how do you see that tie in with the bourbon industry from the nonprofit fundraisers? Do you see a lot of that crossover?

Um, most of the money is raised through auctioning off bourbon at almost every event.

I think we've seen a couple, maybe a few here and there with Pappy.

Yeah. I mean, that's kind of what we do in Kentucky, right? I mean, that's, it's, it's.

Everybody gets excited about Pappy, but I'll tell you what, Michter's is generous. Can I just say like kudos to them? Like they are huge at supporting local organizations and So, if you get a chance to support Michters, they really do give back to the community and everybody gets all excited like, here's this really rare puppy, but there's probably like 50 bottles up for auction and all those different distilleries are donating them to be auctioned off.

It just so happens that those are the ones that kind of get the attention, but you're right. Absolutely. Companies like Michter's and Pierrot's and Four Roses. I mean, they're all contributing at a pretty high level to the fundraisers and those groups doing good. So what's the one you're working with specifically?

Right now I am a woman of impact nominee for the American Heart Association. So I worked as a stroke nurse in the ICU and I saw some miraculous transformations of people who were treated for stroke and their symptoms were reversed and they were able to regain the function of their body. And then I've also seen strokes go really bad and that really be the end of that person's quality of life and they're completely disabled and it's a burden to their whole family and their community and stuff like that and so I want to support the research and the community resources and education of early recognition of the signs and symptoms of stroke and to activate EMS if you see someone having a stroke and call 911 because if you do get there in time then you may be eligible to get those symptoms reversed. And a lot of people don't know that that's even possible. So I'm working with the American Heart Association as part of the Go Red for Women campaign to fundraise and raise awareness through April 6th of this year. That's awesome.

Yeah, I've always heard that. And any of us could be faced with a stroke victim at any point in time. And if you could recognize those symptoms and make the call and get them help quickly.

Don't ask them if they want you to make the call. If they're having an injury to their brain, they don't need to make that decision. Just call 911 and EMS is equipped to make that decision if the person is appropriate to go to the hospital.

But seconds, minutes and seconds count.

They do. Yeah, every minute brain cells die. So if you can get there within less than four hours, then you may be able to get alteplase, the clot busting medication that can open up the circulation to your brain again. And then there's also a neurosurgical procedure where they can go in and pull the clot out of your brain.

Pretty cool. Yeah, I would say that probably most stroke victims who aren't alone, those who are alone, that's a different story. But if you're not alone, it's very important that those around you can recognize the symptoms and make that call because so many people could be saved.

You want me to talk about what to look for?

Yeah, absolutely. That would be great.

I mean, so we use an acronym called BFAST where B is for balance. So if you experience a sudden change in balance, E is for eyes. a sudden change in vision. F is for face. You may have seen some people have a facial droop on one side or they lose all the sensation or they go numb on one side of their face. A is for arms, where your arms and legs are on one side. You lose strength on one side or sensation. And then S is for speech. It could be slurred speech. A lot of people don't get called 911 for them because people assume they're drunk. And so it might sound like somebody is drunk. And then it could also be not understanding what's being said to you or saying all the wrong words. Like you say a jumbled mess of words that don't go together. And then T is for time, where time saved is brain saved. And so that's when you call 911. Yeah.

So if they appear to be not even on both sides, that's a big thing, right? If you're looking at them in one side, it doesn't seem to be like the other side.

Some people are like that at baseline, but if you're looking at somebody and that changes, yes.

Slurred speech, vision, stuff like that. That's great to know. I mean, I think we've probably, a few people have heard that right now and it may make a difference in somebody's life.

I hope so.

Thanks for sharing that.

Hey, if it helps one person, it's worth it.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Brian, what do you think about this bourbon?

I think it's good.

Yeah. I like it. Green river. You know, not a lot of people get to Owensboro when they're on the Bourbon trail. It's kind of out there.

It's two hours away from Louisville. We carpooled. I drove like four other women up there and we, um, We went out to eat at Sassafras afterwards, which is a locally owned restaurant in a historic building in Owensboro. Their house bourbon is Green River. The manager took us upstairs and told us ghost stories and told us about the Underground Railroad going through the tunnels from that building. We were in into the courthouse and then there was a tunnel where they would take people out back. So the lynch mob didn't get them. And I mean, it was really fun. So when you're on these distillery tours, um, there's more to it. Like if you explore the surrounding area and get more of the story.

That's a pretty cool place. I don't remember where we ate or if we ate in, we had some old house.

Was it barbecue?

You know, we've been to some barbecue places for sure there.

I don't moonlight barbecue.

Was it moonlight or not?

It's good.

The mutton wrong there. Brian's got the story.

Bring me some of that. I don't want to drive all the way out there, but somebody bring me that. That sounds good.

All right. Well, I definitely want to talk about. I mean, you kind of got this thing going on where you're sort of mapping out the restaurants along the Bourbon Trail and you got a plan for that, right? You're trying to, you're checking off the, you're checking off everything on. So let's first talk about that little checklist you got for keeping track of your progress on the Bourbon Trail. Where do you get one of those at?

The field guide is available at each distillery that is on the Bourbon Trail. And then you can also get it at the Fraser History Museum, which says it's the first place, but doesn't stamp your field guide.

They want to be the starting point. They want to be that place where it says, start. Start here.

I know, but they don't stamp a start on there. I was like, can you write something in there or something? And the guy was like, no, we don't do that. And I'm like, then why do I start here? I already had my field guide. I got an engine beam. I don't understand why I'm here.

I get that.

I took my daughter to the Fraser History Museum because it was great. And we watched this great video about Kentucky and the history of Kentucky. And they've got a great room full of bottles of bourbon upstairs. And I know they have events up there, but yeah.

Okay, so you've got this this thing and it's got all the distilleries on it's kind of a little pamphlet and you go around and you get it stamped or not in the case of that Frasier history museum.

You better get it stamped because if you get them all stamped they're supposed to be a prize.

Yeah, like a t-shirt.

Do you know what it is?

Oh wow.

No, do you know what it is?

I don't know what the prize is.

I don't either because it doesn't say what it is so I'm gonna find out.

Okay.

I don't know anybody who has done it.

I think we've been to them all, but we don't carry the field guide with us.

Well, if you don't get the stamps, you don't get the prize, Jim.

That's exactly true.

So how many are on the list?

Oh gosh. Well, cause there's the bourbon trail list and then there's the craft bourbon trail as well. So it's like a hundred different places, something like that. I didn't count them. I'm sorry.

Should probably be a pretty good prize, right?

I would hope so.

More than just like a t-shirt.

I would hope so. What do you think, Jim?

I think it's probably a t-shirt, but I don't know.

Or it might change, you know, like if they have a sponsor each month.

Yeah.

that like, I don't know, I think it should be some kind of compilation gift from all the distilleries.

Do you know anybody at the KDA?

No.

You don't know anybody at the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the main offices there in Freyford?

Maybe I do and I don't know that's where they are.

I'll be honest.

At this point.

Well, I think you could probably reach out to Heather or somebody and find out, right? Sure. Yeah.

Well, I think it- I'm obviously in it for the experience. I didn't prioritize it enough to find out what it is.

I didn't get that. What I got by listening to you was you were darn upset you didn't get a stamp. So you're in it for the stamp.

No, I went and they said I was supposed to start there. And I'm like, but now I have no proof that I started here. Do I need proof or do I not?

I'm sure there's going to be several people Googling when they listen to this. What do we get when we finish this?

Exactly. And I don't think there's an answer on the website. So somebody's going to have their phone ringing.

All right. So you're welcome. So anyway, so you're, you're going to, you're going to go and get all these distilleries on one and then eventually probably go to the craft and get, do those two, right? You're going to get them all checked off. But while you're doing that, you have to eat.

Yes, you got to soak up that alcohol.

So you're going to try and find an experience and document restaurants, places to eat that are near these distilleries. Tell us about that.

Okay.

Well, um, so far I've been to Peerless and Peerless did not have a restaurant nearby. Uh, so I ended up going to Wendy's. I did not document that, but, um, let's see, where else did we go? I went to Evan Williams and after Evan Williams, I went out to eat at Mussel and Burger Bar.

Very good.

Yes, that place is amazing. They obviously have great burgers, but they also have a lot of good seafood options. So we went to Castle & Key, which is near Frankfort, Kentucky. And we ate at Bourbon on Main, which is an amazing restaurant. Everything we had was so delicious. We'll see. We had some bacon covered deviled eggs.

Oh my gosh. Speaking my language.

Yes. You've got to go to bourbon on Maine. Yeah.

Well, let's, let's, let's stick to Louisville a little bit. I know you've been to a number of places in Louisville. Now, first of all, we're not talking about high end fine dining.

We're not talking about restaurants that are going to cost you hundreds of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars.

I've always wondered like, what are the dollar signs?

Yes. It's a mystery, isn't it? So if you go on Yelp or something where you're looking up for restaurant reviews, if you see $1 sign, you should be able to eat a meal there for less than $10. I think most of those places don't exist now after COVID because inflation. But if you see $2 signs, it means you should be able to eat there and get a meal for less than $100. But if you see $3.

So the dollar signs represent tens places. The zeros. Correct. Like how many zeros, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

So if you see three, then you can expect for one person to spend like a hundred dollars on a meal there.

So, I mean, if I, if, if I said $5 size, you're going to have to sell your house.

I'd be like, Jim, you are paying for dinner. Cause that's on my budget. Sorry.

All right, folks. So we're going to take a short break here. And when we come back, I actually want to finish drinking this green river whiskey here. And we come back in the second half, we're probably going to have another pour, maybe a cocktail. I don't know. What do you think? What do you think?

Do you need more empress gin?

You know, Brian brought a bottle too.

Oh yeah. You brought, what'd you bring Brian?

brought a special bottle of Angel's Envy.

You did a barrel pick.

I did a barrel pick.

We might have to touch on that just a little bit in a second.

All right, folks, we're gonna take a short break. We'll be right back.

As we mentioned earlier in the show, we hope you'll join us this fall on October 6th and 7th for Bourbon on the Banks. The festival itself is from 2 to 6 p.m. on October 7th, and you can pick those tickets up at bourbononthebanks.org for $65. They also have an early access ticket for $75. It'll get you in an hour early and definitely get you access to some special pores. But if you always like that VIP access this year, they're bringing in the VIP access tickets. We'll give you access to their VIP tent and all the great things that go along with that for $175. Be sure to check out bourbononthebanks.org. They'll get all the details on this year's event.

All right. So we're back for the second half here. We started the night off with the green river. Uh, we're going to go ahead and switch directions here a little bit and go to an angels envy pick that I had the honor of being a part of with the Louisville thoroughbred society. So everybody has a little bit in their glass right now. We're going to enjoy that here and maybe move on to something a little bit later. So what's, what's the proof on this brand? So we're sitting at one 10 on this one.

Oh, okay. So this is a, uh, kind of a barrel proof kind of. Pick here. I see it's got the wings hang tag around the neck there. That's right. So how many, how many people pick this bottle?

There were four of us. Oh, just four people. That's right. Did you guys all agree on it? Tyler was the only one that was a little bit iffy on it. Yeah. But afterwards he said it was the right pick.

What went into choosing it? Like, did you go around tasting different barrels or did they have a flight for you or? We did.

So, so actually we did a little bit of a VIP tour, which was, was a lot of fun. I've been on some tours there before and, and when you're doing a pick, it's a little bit different. So you get to go through and, and see some different areas that you don't necessarily get to see when you're doing just a regular tour. Uh, we were able to taste, uh, several different, uh, several different types while we were there. But then you go into the back room, a little. They say it's secret, not really allowed to talk about a lot, say what's back there.

Did they make you sign an NDA?

I did not sign an NDA.

Then I guess they didn't mean it was very secret, did they? Angel Simp is a big place.

But I'm going to stick to my pack that I made and not share too much from it.

Did you make a gentleman's agreement and shake somebody's hand?

I did.

Oh, wow. That's got to mean something.

So I have to stand by my word there, but they brought out four different barrels and we were able to taste each one. And then obviously you go through the process and they drop a little water in it. They have their cool little techniques that they use. There's secret techniques. That's right. Secret techniques. And then you kind of talk about, you have little sheets that you make notes on and you talk about what you like, what you don't like. You have some pretzels and different things that you taste and you know, you have to cleanse the palette consistently. You got to make sure that you have, you've got a clean palette. Um, and then, you know, you kind of all talk through, what do you like? What do you think? And then you pick what you're going to go with.

So three of you were strong for this one. That's right. Tyler was kind of iffy, but he came over to the dark side. That's right.

It is dark.

It is kind of a dark. It's a very dark one. All right. So were the barrels vastly different from each other?

They really were.

Yeah.

Well, that's probably good.

I'd never done a barrel picking angels envy before. And I was always curious if their barrels are vastly different, but I guess it's a, it's a general rule in the game that they usually are. Uh, they usually have some difference to them and, and you can, you can definitely tell. So was this one an outlier or is it just a really good choice?

Um, I think with, with the three of us that agreed on it, it was just pretty clear. Um, but, but I will say through the process, you know, when you, when you taste it and then you add a little bit of water to it and it changes the, the flavor profiles there. Um, there was some variance from tasting without the water in it. And then as we put that in, everybody all agreed on the same one, initially starting out, it wasn't necessarily so much of an agreement to start, but it changed quite a bit.

All right.

Well, let's check it out guys.

Brian, you've been with this bottle for a little bit, right? I have. So let's, let's hear your notes on it.

So I have to say right now, one of my favorite things that I'm watching, if you would just look across the room, Jim and I have our wives here in the room. And one of my favorite things is to watch my wife taste, uh, taste bourbon and watch her facial expressions. And that was a great one. Um, it comes at Rosa can tell you she was watching that whole interaction.

I love it too.

Hey, Leslie, it packs a punch, huh? Yeah. I don't know if the Mike's picked that up, but she said definitely it packs a punch.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's no doubt that it's finished in, in port wine barrels as most angels envy is, is finished in, in some type of, uh, Ruby port typically, right?

It's a Ruby port. Yeah.

Yeah. So, so you're definitely going to get that, that finished flavor, uh, profile from it, but, um, this one to me, it's really sweet. A lot of caramel.

It does have an awful lot of caramel for kind of a port finish bourbon. I was surprised by the, by the nose that I got off of. Now you, you're getting a little bit of that, uh, tannic grape note to it. I don't know. It comes from the port barrel.

I'm sure, but, um, more of an oropharyngeal taste that you get in the mouth.

What is it? What's that?

that grape taste that you're talking about. I got it more in the after, like as you're swallowing it, the oropharyngeal taste.

Oh man, I don't even know what that word means.

It's like as it's in the back of your mouth, you're smelling it from the back end.

Oh, okay. Man, I got so much to learn. I really do. That is so cool. So is that something that you experience not only in tasting like wines and whiskeys and things like that, but also in food?

Tasting is not just that initial when you put it in your mouth, you know, you get different stuff out of it throughout the whole experience.

I've always heard, and I believe it, and I understand it from all the whisky tastings I've done, but that your mouth tastes about at a 10% level to the 100% level that you're Nose does.

Um, I don't know about the percentages, but yeah. Um, Heather Wibbles had me pinch your nose and taste it. See what you get out of it and you get entirely different.

Yeah, we're all going to pinch our nose. That's me with my nose. Yeah, it's totally different.

Yeah, I mean, there's almost nothing to it. It's like it burns and then almost all of the positive experiences coming through your nose.

Yeah, yeah. But I think it's just natural as you're sipping on something that the aromas come back up through your nose. So it's a twofold thing. Yeah, we had Heather on the show before and I think she took us through that. I had forgotten, but that lady knows her whiskey, doesn't she?

Oh, she's an expert.

Yeah. So Heather is the cocktail Contessa and she recently written a book and she's also very, very involved in bourbon women.

She's their only employee, their only employee. She is bourbon women national organization.

Yep. Great lady. We had a great time with her. A lot of fun.

I just interviewed her for my podcast as well.

Yay.

Well, let's talk about podcast collide.

Let's talk about your podcast. Cause we haven't really talked about the, we've been kind of sticking with the food stuff and we're going to get back to it.

It's all connected.

Yeah. But, uh, you have a podcast and what's it called?

The Lou review.

The Lou review, L-O-U.

Yes, not to be confused with the guy named Lou who reviews movies.

This is Lou review, like Louisville review.

Right. Exactly.

Okay. And, and what does the Lou review cover?

The Lou review covers the people making Kentuckyana great. And I say Kentuckyana because I have crossed the bridge into New Albany and Jeffersonville and Vienna and started interviewing people over there as well.

They call that the sunny side, right?

Is that right? Depending on who you ask, that's which side is God's side of the river. I mean, I'm from Tennessee and I don't have a dog in that fight. I just want all of the experiences. Our economies are so linked really across the bridge. There's like this mental block people have to cross in the bridge. If they live in Indian or if they live in Kentucky, a lot of people from Kentucky will drive into Indiana, but a lot of people from Indiana don't want to drive over into Kentucky.

And I get that. I understand that.

I mean, I get avoiding the tolls.

But you like both.

Yeah.

And when it comes to discussing which is best, you're Switzerland.

I mean, it's like, I mean, it's all connected.

Well, we've got our favorite places over there. We do like the parlor. We like Pearl street tap house. We like the red Yeti.

Oh my gosh. The red Yeti.

Oh, tell us about the Red Yeti.

Well, Chef Mike Bow, who really put that restaurant on the map for his amazing culinary creations. I didn't want to go in there at first because I thought, oh, that's for, you know, men who want the Sasquatch vibe and want to have some greasy food. But then I encountered his food at the Apron Inc. Taste of Louisville. No, not Taste of Louisville. Taste of Independence. There's so many fundraisers. But he won the favorite food of the night at Taste of Independence. And there was like, Buku's a chef there. Like it was amazing. And like his mixture of flavors was so complimentary to one another. His ingredients were so high quality and he sources like almost all everything they can is sourced locally and they support local farmers and it's really high quality food. So, I mean, if you can go to the Red Yeti, that's going to be an amazing culinary experience.

Yeah, Melanie and I have been there. We actually stumbled upon a pretty good bottle there. An old Four Roses bottle was up on the shelf and nobody knew it was there and I got a pour from it. Oh, it was wonderful.

Okay.

Yeah. So we like the Red Yeti. Yeah. We like a lot of things about that area.

Have you been to Pints and Union in New Albany?

We have been to Pints and Union and we like that place too. So it's about as a British pub as you can get, right? Wow.

Yep. They got their British Indian food. Oh yeah. You got to get over there, man.

Yeah. It's pretty cool.

It's adorable. So he has Joe Phillips owns that and I interviewed him on my podcast as well. And he, has been so amazing at like revitalizing that area and just really pouring his vision into Pines and Union and creating that English pub environment where it's very familial. They have TVs playing, but it plays like old things that were on TV, like black and white stuff. No commercials. It's like prerecorded. So like you can take your kids in there and it's like a family friendly environment. And if you go upstairs, they have all these board games you can sit up there and play. Like it's adorable. You've got to go there. And they have a lot of great gin options.

It's a pretty cool place, and there's a lot of really great places across the river. So, I mean, as we're sitting here talking about food and, you know, visiting the Bourbon Trail and trying some different restaurants, don't forget that just across the river, just across the Ohio River in southern Indiana, there's some pretty fine places. And, you know, you never would guess that you might stumble upon some old dusty Four Roses bottle in a bar, but

It can happen when you know what you're looking for.

You got to know what you're looking for. And on that day, I just got lucky. So yeah, it's really good. So let's talk a little bit more about kind of the downtown Louisville scene. You know, you say a lot of the places that you have been that 300 or so spots you've been are in that corridor downtown.

Yeah. Unfortunately, like I live on the East end and we don't have a lot of nice restaurants out on the East end actually. Um, there are a lot of them are downtown. Um, you had asked me before, uh, what restaurants I would recommend if you're looking for a good like bourbon cocktail or, um, just a good selection of bourbons. Um, obviously Equus and Jack's, which is located in St. Matthew's. So it's not downtown, downtown.

And we talked about that early in the show. That's where we attempted this podcast the first time. Exactly. And Brian, what did you have there?

So we had a blackberry ghost pepper.

Was it raspberry?

I think it was blackberry. Raspberry. Raspberry. It was raspberry ghost pepper.

Old fashioned.

Knob Creek.

Knob Creek. Old fashioned. Nine year Knob Creek. So that was our drink and you and I both had the same thing. And what did you have?

I had peach and pear puree with the Knob Creek.

Okay. So we all had kind of a play on an old fashioned. And then Brian, what did you have for your meal?

So I had the Alfredo.

It was fantastic.

You guys seemed to really enjoy that red wine. It was really good.

So they comped us a bottle. That was so nice of them.

That was so nice of them. Thank you.

Thank you to the Equus restaurant there for doing that.

Jared Fox Matthews is a great guy and he couldn't be there himself, but that was his gift.

Well, we'd like to definitely give them a shout out because, unfortunately, the episode that we recorded at the restaurant didn't turn out. We had a technical issue, but we definitely want to give them a shout out and say, if you're in Louisville and you're touring the Bourbon Trail, definitely check out Equus, E-Q-U-U-S. It's also Jax. It's also the Black Rabbit.

Speakeasy.

Speakeasy. And you got to know the password.

The password is your reservation.

You got to have a reservation.

You can make a reservation on Open Table for the Speakeasy.

Yeah, and that was pretty cool. We actually went into the speakeasy and then we went deeper into the speakeasy to what's called the rabbit hole. That was so cool.

Not associated with rabbit hole distillery, but it is a lovely area. And I think, Brian, you said you had been there when it was owned by someone else and it was a very different vibe in the same exact room.

That's right. I have a lot of very fond memories from when it used to be owned by Dean Corbett. And even back in that little room where we were at, we talked about the other night that we actually used to have our basketball meetings back in that room.

And that is not the vibe now.

Dean would walk in and he'd have his Bud Light and we'd have our meetings and he would make sure all the parents were behaving and all that good stuff. And we had birthday parties there for children and all kinds of just fantastic. So there was a lot of memories coming back while we were there.

And, you know, for us, we have a little bit of a memory there too. Now, Melody and I, when we first got together, we lived in that part of town, but we used to go over there and Jax is part of that. Jax is kind of the bar area, right? And we used to go there. We used to actually call it our bar. That's our bar. And that's where we went because we lived over by Brown Park.

So when was the last time you two had been there?

It has been probably, I'm going to say 10 years, probably 10 years. Yeah. So this was early in our relationship.

So not under the current ownership.

Not under the current relationship. So that would have been back during Dean's time there. And yeah, that was just the place that we went.

We just call it our bar.

I mean, I don't know. We didn't, we didn't call it Jack's. We just said our bar. Pretty cool.

Cause you're Jim, it's not Jax, it's Jim and Melody.

And I look for the mushroom best soup that they used to have on the menu and it wasn't there. So I'm like, oh gee darn.

So you got shrimp and grits.

Of course I always get shrimp and grits.

And I had the Verlasso salmon, which was amazing.

Yeah. Good place to go. And Rosa, I don't, I don't think we can leave out the nachos. I think you need to talk about the nachos a little bit.

So at Equus and Jack's and they have the same menu available over in the black rabbit speakeasy. So, um, we have preloaded nachos where each tortilla chip, they make their chips and they're not like those weak crumbly things. They're very sturdy, thick chips and they're preloaded. So each one is like a designed bite. that's curated for you.

Every nacho is prepared as an individual delight.

Were you individually delighted by each one, Jim? Yes, I was. Yes, you were.

That's pretty cool, because you used to get a pile of nachos with a bunch of stuff topped and dumped on them, but each nacho is individually prepared, and it's got a full bite of stuff. I thought it was great.

Yeah, it was memorable, too.

All right, well, I want to move on down that list. You've got a whole list of stuff here. I do. Okay, so you're coming to the Bourbon Road, You've already been to Jack's, Equus, the black rabbit. You've had that experience, but you're on the bourbon trail for a week. Where are we going next?

I had 10 places here. Okay.

Well, you got to eat lunch and dinner. That's fair. That's fair.

Okay. If you have a lot of bourbon, you got to have a lot of food to soak it up, right? That's right. Okay. So, Bourbon's Bistro on Frankfort Avenue. They have a great bourbon selection there. They also have amazing food. I had their burger after a tasting the other night and they have Parmesan and garlic fries. That burger was just perfection. It was medium. It was perfect. Anyway, definitely go to Bourbon's Bistro. They have a $55 steak. Like you can eat like really well there, but they also have just a really great burger if you just want to walk in casually.

And they also have the owner of Bourbon's Bistro also is a, he has his own bourbon called Buzzard Roost.

Oh yeah.

And it's fantastic. He does such a great job finishing his whiskies. The buzzard jerused whiskies are just tremendous. The toasted barrel whiskies are just top of the world.

I do love toasted bourbon.

It's really good. So you can go there and get a great meal and a bottle. And they got a bar inside.

Yes. The bar's like the first thing you see, but then there's like this, it looks like pretty fine dining.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a great place.

Yeah. Steak and Bourbon, which is off Westport Road in, I think it's Westport Place over there. And that's got, that's where I fell in love with Michter's Rye. I thought I didn't like rye. And I got, like I said, Michter's was so nice. They donated to a cause and I was like, well, I need to, you know, get a sampling of their bourbon. And so I had a flight there and I didn't expect to like the rye. And that was my favorite one. And then I went to Fort Nelson distillery downtown and bought a bottle of it.

So good stuff. Great empanadas.

That steak and bourbon?

They do.

Okay. They also have like a Roman candle on their birthday cake. So you go there for your birthday. It's like this whole spectacle. It's very fun.

All right, roadies. You're listening to this episode. I hope you got your pen and pencil out, but if you don't at the very least. Put a note in your phone to mark this episode that you're gonna come back to this if you're coming to the Bourbon Trail, because there's some great places to eat here. And honestly, there's a lot of great places to eat here, but there's some misses too, right? You gotta be careful. Not on your list, there aren't any misses, no.

No, I did not prepare a list of places not to go to.

But if you don't follow a recommended list, there's a chance you could end up at a miss.

That's true.

So definitely make sure you mark this episode as a must-listen. before you come visit because you all come in here for bourbon, but you gotta eat while you're here.

That's right. And you don't want to waste your money on subpar experiences, which brings me to north of bourbon. You need to go there, Jim and Brian. Yes, you both need to go there. You need to reserve a table for six in one of their barrel booths. So you get to eat inside of a barrel. that's big enough for six people. So it's huge. But the food is like a low country Louisiana theme, but they have an amazing selection of bourbons. So like the bourbon aficionados around town, that's where they're going to go eat. It's off like Goss Avenue, Germantown-ish. So north of bourbon, make a note.

Now, that's where we were going to want to record, but we couldn't because they were closed on Mondays. Right.

They were closed on Mondays. Make a note of that. Yes. Equus and Jax is open on Mondays. So, take a note of that. The old steel block bar downtown. That is a gorgeous place. They have amazing cocktails and they have this gorgeous staircase that makes you think of the Titanic. And then in the basement, they've got this amazing structure that makes you feel like you're in Game of Thrones, like... The Ratskiller. The Ratskiller.

Yeah.

So intense. Yeah. Pretty cool place. I love that place. Um, then repeal Oak fired steakhouse. Have you been there?

I haven't. You're naming off of a bunch of places I haven't been yet. Remember I do 10 places a year, so I need to step up our, we need to step up our game.

I guess, I guess. I mean, and then, um, yeah, definitely go to repeal. I believe they have something for everybody there. but they have really good bourbon selections. And then Watch Hill Proper is not downtown, but Watch Hill Proper is a bourbon club. You can get like an annual membership and do exclusive experiences like you described with your angel envy barrel pick or whatever. They'll have members only events and only members can make a reservation there, but you can just walk in and eat. Their chef, Michael Crouch, prepares some spectacular food. I will never forget the lobster hush puppies, but they're $7 each. So I wanted 10, but I, you know, they're $7 each. So I could just eat them forever. They're so delicious.

But so it's open to the public, but not by reservation.

Right.

Okay.

You can make a reservation if you want to become an annual member. It's very fancy. There's lots of bourbon chic decor, like leather couches or green velvet couches throughout. So it's beautiful.

I just saw Leslie say fun. So maybe we're going to have an opportunity to go there soon.

Yeah, let's do it for real. And then, um, I did, I went to Swizzle. It's the rotating restaurant at the top of the Galt House. It used to have a different name. They have, um, they do smoked cocktails. Um, you'll have, um, your old fashioned come out in a big box and they open the door and the smoke pours out. And so that's a fun experience. They have, um, some high end food, but it's not like, it's not the same. Like I normally, I would really. focus on the local chefs and stuff like that. So it's not as locally oriented, but they do have a really good happy hour. So if you want something that's affordable, but a really nice experience, I would recommend their happy hour.

Now I heard that they have some like events there, like tasting events and stuff that they, from time to time, and you can pay a flat dollar amount and come in and have a tasting and a dinner and all that. Yeah, pretty cool.

Yeah, that sounds fun. I want to go.

I was very impressed. It is affordable. And when you think about downtown, rotating restaurant, all those types of things, you're going to think it's going to be a lot more expensive, but it is, it's affordable and it's a great experience.

And it might just be that now with McDonald's doubling in price, it just seems a lot more accessible. It's like, well, if I'm going to pay this much, I might as well go to a nice place and get fast food.

But all these places you're telling us about, these are all $2 signed places.

Yeah, you can make some of them $3 sign places, but that's probably more if you choose to drink.

If you order wine or talk to us.

I don't know, or your level of bourbon probably.

Yeah. Well, if you're ordering that.

Your top shelf four roses. I don't know.

Yeah. I'm kind of careful when I go out to eat. If they've got a nice extended bourbon list, I usually don't try the real expensive ones I'll have. I have something I haven't had before. If it's reasonable, if not, I'll just have a wild turkey one on one.

Yeah.

Good for me. I might even, now I might have an angel's envy. That's really good.

You saying you stay in your comfort zone.

I say, yeah, the shrimp and grits and a wild turkey one on one. That's me.

You know, you're going to have a good time.

Yeah.

I think it's always easier to try something that's a little bit more affordable on that list rather than going deep and saying, Oh, that, that looks amazing, but it's $75 a pour. Then you say, well, I've never had this and it's $8.

Well, it was really nice that the silver dollar had that thing going on recently where you could go in and have their discount pours every night. I need to go there. And we did that. We did that. And I went and I had some amazing pours for a reasonable price. And I really liked it when they have kind of a rotating kind of deal.

Exactly.

Such a great thing.

So there's some changes going on with silver dollar, correct?

Changes in ownership. And I'm not sure what the new owners are going to do, but yeah. So silver dollar is, uh, is changing hands and we'll see what it becomes in the future. I kind of like what it is now. I hate to see it change too much because it's a kind of fixture on the Louisville scene. It's been around for a long time. It's always been in the top 10 whiskey bars in the country kind of deal, but you know, the owner gets to make that choice. Let's see what happens.

What is the nearest distillery to the silver dollar?

Angel's Envy is pretty close.

Is the silver dollar downtown?

I thought it was closer like Churchill Downs. It's almost to the end. Yeah, it's down.

I was not picturing it then that location. Okay.

Down by the morning fork.

Is that what it's called now? I love morning fork.

Oh, the morning fork. Yeah, the morning fork.

Which is also fork and barrel afternoon.

Right. It's a, it's a dual purpose restaurant. It kind of switches themes, right?

Well, they were in two totally separate buildings.

Yeah.

But they were owned by a couple and the husband's is a fork and barrel and the wife says morning fork and like, she'll dress up like Disney princesses and do all these cool themed brunches. And it's so much fun.

Is that on your list?

Oh, no. That on my list of places I have been multiple times. Yes.

Oh, you're on your list. You're giving to us tonight.

No.

Okay.

I don't go there for bourbon. I go there to take my daughter to have character experiences and also really cute brunchy food. So.

Okay, so the big ones that are down on Whiskey Row, let's talk about those a little bit. And I just need your honest opinion.

Sure.

All right.

If I've been there, I'll have an opinion.

O'Shae's.

Love O'Shae's.

Merle's.

I haven't been there yet, but I hear that's the source of Joelle is Chicken and I love Joelle is Chicken.

Okay, Doc Crow's.

I've been there. They have really good smoked food. Honestly, I really enjoyed the vibe of their bourbon bar side. Even more than the food. Like I would just go for the bourbon side.

Good po' boys.

That's not what I had there, but I want that now.

So I'm going to get a more general here. I'm going to say, if you're in downtown Louisville, let's say you're staying at the Gold House and you're doing the downtown Louisville Whiskey Row bourbon scene and you're trying to hit all the downtown distilleries and you're going to go out and travel around and do others. When you're downtown, would you more suggest they stay along Main Street, or do you think New Louis is the place to go? Market Street to the kind of the east side of Louisville.

I mean, Nulu has so many great options. We talked about this before, Gertie's Whiskey Bar is in Nulu. And that's where I've had Absinthe the first time was in their Speakeasy. Oh my gosh, their Speakeasy is so awesome. It's so cozy and like go down these stairs. Lulu on market now.

Which is also in that area.

In the Old Decker, it's in Nulu. Yeah. It's a Louisiana-themed restaurant, so you go there and you feel like it's Mardi Gras all the time.

So we start talking about Nulu and you perk up. Yes.

I mean, that's like your- Party zone. I mean, the local seltzerie is down there. You can have your bourbon turned into a seltzer. And I had my urine review party at the local seltzerie, and it was really fun. It's a really light atmosphere. And let's see, the crafterie is over there in Nulu. Um, it's a, the crafty bar where you can get a cocktail and make craft. Um, so I've made, uh, some painting things. I made a flask cover there out of leather. Okay. Cool.

Cool.

Yeah. I mean, and it looks like all Yellowstone like, I don't know. It feels all rustic.

All right. So I, I, I get it. If you're, if you're staying at that, go to Nulu. So those who are listening are not from the Louisville area and don't know what the heck new Lou means. It's basically short for new Louisville. It's kind of the area Louisville that has been resurrected from the ashes, basically.

Well, and we have old Louisville where you would go to see like historic buildings and things like that.

Yeah.

So it's kind of in contrast.

So this is Market Street, east of town. So on the other side of I-65, on the east side of I-65, downtown.

It's like an extension of Whiskey Row.

Oh, there's a Cuban restaurant down there that's really pretty cool.

La Bodeguita de Mima.

Yeah.

Oh, I love that place so much. I don't go there for bourbon, but I love all their food. And they have this massive sangria and this huge like fish bowl. And it's like, got steam coming out of it. It's amazing.

And there's a little empanada place behind. Have you ever been there?

Nope.

Oh, it's pretty good. We like that too. La bogadita de mama or whatever you say it's called. La bogadita de mama. Signora rapist. Signora rapist. That's right. Brian got it.

Leslie had it.

Yeah, it's pretty good. We like that too. I think the, the Cuban restaurant out front is, is, it's our jam. We love the atmosphere.

It's the big yellow building in case you drive by, you can't miss it. And it's Cluster Appeal and Barvetti is down there. Barvetti is Italian.

Yeah.

And they're really good.

And they've got a lot of vegan options there at Barvetti. So if you're vegan, that's a good choice.

True.

All right. Well, I think we've covered a lot of ground here. Well, let's take a minute and talk about kind of what you have going on. So you just recently announced that you're going to take this effort you've had to compile this list of distilleries and restaurants and sort of put them together on the map. You're going to make, you're going to write a book.

Let's do it. You're going to do it. Yeah. Cause I'm already going to take pictures of the food and write about my experience at each place. And I usually share that on Instagram and Facebook. So if you want to follow that in real time, follow me at Lou food reviews or at the Lou review podcast on Facebook. But yeah, I want to compile a book because, especially on Instagram, that stuff, the shelf life on an Instagram post is like a few days and then nobody sees it again. So if you want a resource for, I'm going to try to plan my trip, which people make pilgrimages to Louisville and to the Bourbon Trail to experience all this that we've been talking about. I'd love to be a part of helping them have a resource to plan their trip because I have the field guide. It does not recommend restaurants, so I'm having to do all this footwork to find out, okay, well, where do I need to go? What's the actual physical closest place? Also, where's the closest place I actually want to eat at?

I think that's a great idea. And so, so people can find out about your book project on Kickstarter.

Yeah.

And what's the title of your book?

Well, since you mention it, eating my way along the Bourbon Trail.

Eating my way along the Bourbon Trail. And so this is a Bourbon Trail visitor's guide to where to eat, more or less. And no matter what distillery you go to, whether it be a Kraft Bourbon Trail distillery or a Maine Bourbon Trail distillery, you'll have recommendations nearby each one.

Right.

Well, within a reasonable distance.

Yeah, I'll be able to say, I ate at this place nearby and this was my experience.

That's awesome. That's so great. I think people should make a note of that. They should definitely follow you on Instagram, Lou Food Reviews, and sort of follow your travels around and as you build this list and write this book.

And I'm open to suggestions. So if you've been listening to this and you're like, oh, this girl doesn't even know what she's missing. Message me and tell me so I can go there.

Yeah. Well, Rosa, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show.

Thank you.

For the second time.

You know, I'm so glad it happened this way so I can meet your lovely wives this time and have you over to my house, into my illuminated dungeon.

Well, thank you for the hospitality. I think we've had a really good time this morning. We got to have that amazing gin drink before we started. And I have to say, I've never seen somebody make a cocktail before that changes colors while it's being made. And then put sparkles in it.

You mean glitter doesn't come with all of your Bourbon Road cocktails?

I normally don't have glitter cocktails.

Because I feel like Leslie might need that to start being a thing. She's holding up her drink in agreement.

All right. Well, thanks again for being on the show. I think you already mentioned where everybody can find you on social media.

Yeah, but if you are interested in sponsoring that Kickstarter and getting a copy of the book when it comes out, look it up there, eating my way along the Bourbon Trail.

That's perfect. And we'll make sure that when things get going on that we'll put it back out to our listeners so they can follow it. Well, Brian, where can people find us on the Bourbon Road?

Well, as always, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even TikTok.

Even TikTok. Even TikTok. You can also find us on YouTube. We don't actually put out many videos there. We've got a few shorts, but we don't do video podcasts.

Do you dance on TikTok? I would watch that.

No, we don't.

Jim choked for a second there. No, we don't. He said dance. No, we don't dance. Not unless you like the two-step or anything like that, but there's definitely no dancing.

But we also have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. We've got 3,200 members on there and we're kind of particular about who we let in. You got to answer a few questions.

I don't know, you let me in.

We did let you in. We did let you in. You have to answer a few questions to become part of the group. Look, just go onto Facebook, search the Bourbon Roadies. It'll come up. It's a group to join. Click the join button. Three questions. Are you 21? Got to be 21 to be in our Bourbon group. Do you like bourbon? Because we want to make sure you know you're getting yourself into a bourbon group. And the third thing is we ask you to be nice when you're in there because we don't want anybody picking on anybody else for what they're drinking. Everybody gets to drink the whiskey they want to drink. And it doesn't matter whether it's from the bottom shelf or the top shelf.

Right.

You drink what you can afford and you drink what you like. It's your whiskey, drink it your way. That's all there is to it. Just open the damn bottle. Right, Brian?

That's right. That's right.

Don't stick them on the shelf to gather dust.

That's right. And the other thing that we do not tolerate, this is not a secondary marketplace. So don't come on and try to sell bottles. Uh, we just, we don't like that.

It's funny because if we didn't enforce that rule, we'd probably have 30,000 users instead of 3,000, right? That's right. But we're very strict about it and our moderators will kick you off in a moment's notice. So just be careful. Come on, if you're wanting to have a good time, share your pictures, share your stories, share your bottles. Have a great time, but don't sell your whiskey. All right. We do a show every single week, every Wednesday, we come out with a new episode. So be on the lookout for Brian. What do they have to do to make sure they don't miss one?

Well, you can find us on YouTube. You can find us on Spotify on Apple podcast and any other place that you may, uh, you may like to listen to podcast on. You're just looking for that subscribe button. You want to click the subscribe button. And when you do that, you'll be notified each time we release a new podcast.

All right. So you'll get that notification. You can know that Brian and I have kicked out another episode, something to listen to something to take another hour of your time, but, uh, yeah, keep an eye out for it. We definitely want to hear from our listeners. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got a distiller in your hometown that's doing great things, you want to make a recommendation to us to bring somebody on the show, have a bottle, have a guest, whatever it is, a topic, we'd love to hear it. You can reach out to us always on email at team at the bourbon road.com. You can also go to our website, the bourbon road.com and send us a message on our contact us page. We'll make sure to get right back to you while you're on the bourbon road.com. We got all our swag. There are t-shirts, glasses, hats, all the good stuff.

Do you have any t-shirts for women, Jim?

They're coming. They're coming. We're going to have women's t-shirts here in the next, probably the next 30 days. So keep your eyes out. We've got a great new design that's coming out. So yeah, thanks for asking, by the way.

I want one of those.

Yeah, you're going to get one. Don't worry. All right, folks, we appreciate it. We love you listening to our show. Make sure you check out everyone and we got 335 or so episodes now. So, you know, once you listen to this one, almost as many restaurants as I have to make sure you go back and listen to the old ones. They're old, but they're good. It's a lot of fun until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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