You can do just this at North Of Bourbon, a hip, family-run hangout in Germantown where creole food features heavily on the menu and the backlit bar runs the gamut of Kentucky’s finest bourbons. Pull up a pew in one of the booths, made entirely from vintage barrel staves. The tables are also created with reclaimed flooring from neighbouring distilleries.

Debuting a bar on New Year's Eve is a bold move, but that trial by fire worked out for North of Bourbon, says co-owner Daniel Holyfield. He also owns a local flooring company and mill, and used reclaimed wood from a rickhouse for the floor, tables, and bar top. The booths are ensconced in enormous bourbon barrel replicas—made from charred white oak.The bar stocks more than 300 bourbons, as well as a “dusty locker” with vintage bottles like an Old Crow 10 year old Chessmen decanter and Wild Turkey “Cheesy Gold Foil.” Cocktails include several riffs on an Old Fashioned and one made with Maker's Mark, peanut orgeat, and cola—a play on peanuts in Coke, a Southern favorite.

North of Bourbon has been serving up more than 300 bourbon selections since its opening in December 2021, but as of July 2022, guests can enjoy Sunday brunch, too!. Chef Lawrence Weeks brings his Southern flair to the special, once-a-week menu of unique brunch items. A few of the offerings include Pappaw’s Breakfast, which comes with Anson Mills cheese grits, a sunny-side-up egg, Gifford’s bacon, collard greens, and house hot sauce; Breakfast Fried Rice, made with Anson Mills Carolina gold rice, Gifford’s bacon, the Cajun trinity, local eggs, and turnip greens; and of course, beignets made with chicory coffee Anglaise.

From the team at North of Bourbon, the concept blends traditional Japanese techniques and flavors with Southern cooking influences. The menu offers dishes like Chili She-Crab Noodles, with ramen noodle, uni cream, chili crab, scallion, fried shallot, pickled apple and kewpie; Japanese Potato Salad, with egg, cucumber, carrot, Fat Baby sauce, Japanese mustard, Benton’s bacon and crispy shallot; and Agedashi Tofu, with Anson Mills grit-crushed tofu, carrotsauboshi, scallion, daikon and kombu dash, and more. The name Ensō is drawn from the Zen Circle, a common symbol in Buddhism that represents coming full circle.

A bit ashamed it took me a minute to get the clever name of this Germantown spot that is a marriage of bourbon country and creole and Cajun food from New Orleans (Bourbon Street), but the combination sings. On my brunch visit, the beignets from Chef Lawrence Weeks were a big hit, along with the buttermilk salad, and the cocktails were exceptional. The I Wish You Would used Wild Turkey in a light-yet-decadent milk punch, and the Frozen Kentucky Coffee comes with a cup you can keep in a nod to the Erin Rose in New Orleans.

WHAT: Chef Lawrence Weeks puts his unique spin on dishes from across the deep south, including plenty of seafood (and vegetarian) options. During lunch, all the salads are vegetarian including a vegan Caesar or choose from catfish nuggets, shrimp po'boys, catfish po'boys, shrimp and grits, or the bourbon grilled cheese. In the evenings, the crab fondue, mushroom meunière, seafood Clemenceau, crab rice dressing and shrimp yakamein.

Chef Lawrence Weeks brings the real Cajun flavor to the 502. I love everything on his menu at this cozy restaurant filled with spirited chatter and drunken laughter, but the boudin balls are so crispy, so unctuous and so porkalicious, the flavor sticks on my lips long after the meal is over like a porcine lip balm. I often find myself wanting to skip dessert and order another helping of these addictive boudin balls.

Bourbon Street meets Bourbon City at this recently opened neighborhood bar and restaurant. Chef Lawrence Weeks, who has Louisiana roots, riffs on Cajun and Creole classics for his lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch menus (start with a Frozen Kentucky Coffee and dig into a plate of grillades and grits). The food also pairs exceptionally well with a pour from the dozens of bourbon and ryes lining the back bar.

North of Bourbon offers more than 26 cocktail options, southern dishes and more than 300 bourbon picks, according to its website. Its bourbon menu includes brands such as Angel's Envy, Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve and Four Roses. Within its dinner menu, visitors will find options including Chicken and Sausage File Gumbo, Pot Roast and Port N Beans.

North of Bourbon – North of Bourbon not only has the most Louisville name for a restaurant even, you can actually EAT IN A GIANT BOUBON BARREL. You read that correctly. Brunch-wise, they have bloody mary oyster shooters, beignets, and buttermilk fried rabbit. Yes, you read that correctly too!

Every meal at North of Bourbon starts with a little lagniappe, a small gift from the kitchen to kick things off. It’s usually boiled peanuts, brined in salt and chiles, and it’s the first signal that hospitality is top of mind at this new restaurant in Kentucky.

North of Bourbon, meanwhile, is part bourbon bar, part restaurant, while Steak & Bourbon speaks for itself. Other bourbon-centric restaurants include Down One Bourbon Bar, Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen, Levee Bourbon Lounge, and plenty more.

The newly established North of Bourbon is a beautiful and cozy spot that combines a dynamic bourbon selection with New Orleans-inspired eats. The bourbon list easily tops 300 selections at any given time. And the food is stellar.

North of Bourbon, known for specialty bourbon cocktails, brings Bourbon Street in New Orleans to Louisville’s Bourbon City in an ‘unapologetically southern’ way which also serves as inspiration for the bar’s decor and food menu.

NOB combines the best of bourbon, Kentucky and New Orleans into a unique Southern experience. Creole food features prominently on the menu and the backlit bar offers the full range of Kentucky’s finest bourbons.

Wagner’s - You’re going to have to find this one on Google Maps. It’s an old-school classic and still a functioning pharmacy. All of the horse owners and jockeys eat breakfast here before the races.

- Rating: 4.6/5 (228 reviews)- Price level: $$- Address: 935 Goss Ave. Louisville, Kentucky - Categories: Diners, Beer, Wine & Spirits, Cocktail Bars- Read more on Yelp

|This award-winning restaurant has specials like oysters for $3 or pork boudin balls for $14, and wash it down with a draft beer that’s $2 off.