I recently spent a couple days in Louisville for a meeting and tried to take in as much of the town as possible. While, it has it’s cute spots, really a couple days seemed plenty. Here’s what it looked like.

DRINK:  Proof at the 21C Hotel. Creative cocktails come to life with the help of burners!! behind the bar for shrub concotions. Take your libation to go for a spin around the modern art museum that resides in the hotel. Be on the look out for red penguins on the move, the hotel’s signature.

After a stroll back to the hotel, I came across this other modern art masterpiece. It looks like a peanut, but then…. does it?

After dinner with my ‘wiser’ colleagues, I decided to take in the town just a bit more, after all, it was only 8PM. I headed up to Rivue, a restaurant on the 25th floor of a hotel. It looked like something out of a 1985 Russian cheese fest. All faux crystal and smooth jazz. The view was great, though!

EAT:  Doc Crow’s. This Bourbon bar/raw bar/barbecue joint was a pick of the NYT 36 hours in Louisville. Absolutely delicious cocktails. So much, so that I had to have two. And made a friend. And insist I not eat an ice cream sundae alone. And visit a dodgy strip club…. oh business trips.

Written up by USA Today as one of the nation’s great desserts, Doc Crow’s features brown butter pecan ice cream, topped with bacon, cinnamon pork rinds, maple syrup, and a bourbon soaked cherry. This is what I will call a Canadian wedding cake. Thank goodness for new friends to share the caloric expenditure.