Bourbon, horses and boutique resorts: Louisville, Kentucky’s booming resort scene

As a longtime Louisvillian, I wish to suppose I do know the place to search out the very best resorts, eating places and issues to do round city. The issue I used to have when making suggestions to out-of-towners, although, was that the great meals and enjoyable have been nowhere close to the town’s resorts. Earlier than not too long ago, the resorts have been largely clustered downtown, close to the airport and within the East Finish suburbs.

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For those who needed to expertise the eclectic outlets, galleries, eateries and nightlife in Louisville’s historic Highlands neighborhood or the burgeoning arts and culinary scene within the revitalized NuLu (brief for New Louisville) neighborhood, you had to determine the best way to get there out of your resort.

Nevertheless, a handful of latest resorts at the moment are infusing these must-visit neighborhoods with a house base for guests and Louisvillians who need a fashionable resort with native aptitude.

The Myriad Resort in Highlands

A kind of new spots is the 65-room Myriad Resort, which opened in September 2023 in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood. In its former life, The Myriad Resort was the world’s largest disco ball manufacturing facility, and its foyer lounge, Switchboard, was as soon as residence to the native Southern Bell Phone Firm. Paseo, the restaurant linked to The Myriad Resort, opened shortly earlier than the remainder of the property in June 2023.

The Myriad Resort might simply lean too far into that historical past with overt references round each nook, however you will not discover a disco ball spinning above the mattress in each visitor room. A couple of well-placed disco balls within the resort’s public areas add simply the correct amount of Seventies aptitude, whereas different references to the resort’s historical past are extra refined (the obtrusive exception being the “occasion lights” button within the elevator).

“Design performed a very essential function right here in decoding a few of the historic components,” Craig Pishotti, co-founder of Widespread Bond, the resort and hospitality administration group behind The Myriad Resort, instructed TPG.

Switchboard’s ceiling lights and wall sconces resemble the wires and lights you’d see at an old-school phone firm, and paintings within the foyer performs up the resort’s ties to the groovy disco period.

However what actually amplifies The Myriad’s sense of place as a historic constructing befitting the neighborhood’s eccentric character is the meticulous preservation and restoration.

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“We love taking what’s on the market and reimagining it. As a substitute of attempting to cover the constructing’s industrial roots, we have a good time them,” Pishotti stated. “We stored the unique concrete flooring, a whole lot of the uncovered brick and home windows.”

Even the intense orange tower overlooking the pool is authentic to the constructing’s manufacturing facility days. Once I toured the house, it felt lived in and glowing with character, due to the preservation, vibrant artwork, funky furnishings and a component of enjoyable.

I’ve loved a number of scrumptious meals at Paseo. After my in a single day keep, I can attest the espresso was adequate for me to skip my common espresso store and seize an iced Americano from Switchboard.

“We have now actually good meals right here in Louisville, and it is due to the native farms,” Pishotti stated. “We’re affiliated with 25 native purveyors. We make every part at Paseo from scratch, which is painstakingly difficult, however you may style it within the dishes,” he added.

I additionally snagged a spot at The Myriad’s Swim Membership later this summer time, which was no straightforward feat. The pool stays booked and busy, seemingly due to the common DJ-led occasions and entry to a poolside bar and meals service from Paseo.

In contrast to most space swimming pools that require a membership, The Myriad Resort pool affords day passes to native visitors 21 and older Tuesday via Sunday. (Passes value $10 per individual Tuesday via Friday and $25 on Saturdays and Sundays. The pool is just open to resort visitors on Mondays.)

Pishotti would not solely need out-of-town visitors to take pleasure in The Myriad Resort’s alluring character.

“We wish folks to come back to Switchboard for espresso within the morning and cocktails at night time or have brunch at Paseo and keep to swim on the pool,” he stated. “We actually wish to embrace our Kentucky roots and create one thing that locals will love. We all know if locals like it, guests will come to like it as effectively.”

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Widespread Bond additionally operates the Bardstown Motor Lodge, a retro roadside motel in Bardstown, Kentucky, and shortly plans to open the Broadway Resort Frankfort in Kentucky’s capital throughout the coronary heart of the Bourbon Path.

Resort Genevieve in NuLu

A couple of mile down the street in NuLu, you may discover one other of Louisville’s latest boutique properties, Resort Genevieve. Resort Genevieve is operated by Austin-based Bunkhouse Lodges, a hospitality group specializing in design-driven boutique properties. The resorts use paintings, design, and meals and beverage choices to honor and have a good time the communities wherein they’re primarily based.

Resort Genevieve is not any totally different.

“Bunkhouse is a really native, communal model that can also be very design-driven,” Lisa Bonifacio, president and common counsel for Bunkhouse, instructed TPG. “When folks journey, they’re searching for an expertise, and we have at all times been an experience-based resort model.”

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Louisville is the proud residence of the authentic 21c Museum Lodges location, which opened in 2006. Since then, although, Louisville has lengthy been missed by boutique manufacturers when selecting new places.

When requested why Bunkhouse selected Louisville as an outpost, Bonifacio stated, “South Congress in Austin has modified drastically up to now 10 years, and that is sort of how we noticed NuLu by way of the attractive buildings, the native outlets and eating places and the walkability.”

By way of theming, Resort Genevieve might have gone heavy-handed, with tables created from bourbon barrels and work of horses in each room. As a substitute, it embraced Kentucky’s heritage and the neighborhood’s historical past.

A colourful mural outdoors the constructing painted by Xavier Schipani depicts the historical past of Louisville’s Haymarket — an early 1900s out of doors farmers market in what’s now often known as the NuLu neighborhood.

You will discover nods to Kentucky’s quilt making historical past on pillows within the visitor rooms, the resort’s signature gown (every Bunkhouse location has its personal gown sample) and the emblem of the resort’s Parisian-inspired restaurant, Rosettes. Even the resort’s speakeasy, Fortunate Penny, is known as for Penny Chenery, the proprietor of the 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat.

Resort Genevieve would not cease at representing genuine Kentucky traditions; it additionally helps native artisans and companies in shocking and revolutionary methods.

The sauce drizzled over Rosettes’ well-liked Roasted Banana Bread French Toast is made with bourbon from Rabbit Gap Distillery, the resort’s next-door neighbor. Moreover, works by native artists are displayed in each visitor room and all through the resort’s public areas. At Mini Marche, the resort’s small market and low store, you may discover a choice of items from native purveyors among the many accessible snacks and drinks.

Like different Bunkhouse properties, Resort Genevieve is rather more than a spot to remain. Locals and resort visitors can pop into Mini Marche for his or her morning cup of espresso (which I may attest is scrumptious) and go to the rooftop Bar Genevieve for completely happy hour and panoramic metropolis views within the night.

“In case you are working remotely, the resort has locations you wish to sit in all day as a substitute of a sterile foyer,” Bonifacio stated. “With extra folks having that flexibility, it gives a good higher alternative for resorts like Genevieve to thrive as a result of it is an atmosphere folks actually wish to be in.”

Louisville’s 21c Museum Resort, The Myriad Resort and Resort Genevieve aren’t the one way of life resorts sprinkled all through the town. There’s additionally The Bellwether within the Highlands, The Grady Resort in downtown and Tempo by Hilton Louisville Downtown NuLu in NuLu.

These properties are invigorating Louisville’s resort scene with one thing we desperately wanted: reasonably priced locations to work, keep and play that each guests and everlasting residents really wish to spend time in. Additionally they present one thing I’ve been trying to find: spots to get an important cup of espresso.

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