Hey, Slugger

At one long spring weekend, Louisville’s peak tourism season is short. The Derby is a swift parade of hats, horses, and hangovers. It’s thrilling, exhausting, and utterly unsustainable. Thankfully, though, the rest of the year Louisville has a somewhat milder demeanor—a disposition more befitting of a town set on banks of the slow-bending Ohio River.

When you’re headed to Louisville, no matter who you ask, you’ll find that just about everyone will point you in the same direction: downtown, to the 21c Museum Hotel.

To think of the 21c as simply a hotel is a bit narrow. Sure, you can rent a room, but really the space was conceived as a modern cultural institution—hotel, art, food and drinks all under one roof—serving locals as much as visitors. It’s this hybrid purpose that makes staying there such a delight. Usually choosing a high-end hotel means privacy and exclusivity, but in the refreshing case of 21c, your dollars buy you connectivity. So if you’re the sort of traveler who’s after a more colorful experience, you can add me to the list of people telling you to look no further.

Certainly one of the main draws of the 21c Museum Hotel is the art. Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, its well-connected owners, have truly decked the halls—their multi-million-dollar contemporary collection dominates the building. Art is simply everywhere. In the main atrium, a giant silver whirl of a sculpture by Anne Peabody evokes the tornado that sent Dorothy searching for Oz. Riding in the elevator is particularly trippy, with Ivan Navarro’s light-box sculpture overhead. A row of lightbulbs is sandwiched between two mirrors, one of them one-way, creating the impression that this shaft of light never ends.

With installations covering nearly every wall and ceiling, the museum-hotel creates a wonderful theatricality. The best part is that as a visitor, I wasn’t asked to just observe, but also to participate. Suspend my disbelief for a couple of days? Yeah, I could do that. The hotel encourages its visitors to explore, and recommends that you pack a sense of humor. I found myself snooping around my own suite, examining mundane objects as if they were art, and vice versa: ceci n’est pas un alarm clock? I also found myself a bit chattier when I sat down later that night at their excellent in-house restaurant, Proof On Main. It turns out art is a great conversation starter—as is bourbon.

Back in 2006 when they were opening the hotel, Brown and Wilson convinced Myriad Restaurant Group—of Nobu fame—to manage their new operation. Chef Michael Paley was brought in, and has been here ever since. He has many of the qualities of today’s most beloved chefs: a reverence for local and organic meat and produce, an appreciation for simplicity, as well as a distinguishing flair for bolder flavors. Paley’s menu is as confident as the art, which of course extends to all corners of Proof.

Over a delicious plate of tuna crudo (sprinkled with currants, capers, sorrel, and crunchy bits of garlic) and my first sampling of Pappy Van Winkle, I befriended my neighbor at the bar—a youngish guy in designer jeans with a tattoo peeking out from the rolled-up sleeves of his black checked shirt. If I saw him in my own neighborhood in Brooklyn, I wouldn’t think twice. But in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly cool company. Or maybe it was just time for me to adjust my expectations. My new friend had just moved to Louisville from Chicago, and was happy to provide some recommendations in the city he’d recently fallen for. He read me right when he pointed me in the direction of Bardstown Road.

Southeast of downtown, Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue are the main arteries of Louisville’s alternative, artsy neighborhood, with a similar feel to Austin’s South Congress or Nashville’s Hillsboro Village. There are places to eat, drink, shop and get tattoos. And like any good hipster enclave, there’s the requisite coffee scene. Within a one-mile stretch of road, there are several to choose from, including Heine Brothers, Days Espresso, and Ray’s Monkey House. I started my morning with a café au lait at Quills, a particularly homey spot, and then set off for Cherokee Park—also a recommendation.

Cherokee Park is a breathtaking place. It is yet another municipal park touched by the master designer Fredrick Law Olmsted (you may have heard of Central Park, or a charming little estate known as the White House). It offers acres of forests, flowers and ponds, lots of big rocks, miles of walking and biking trails, and plenty of sloping hills to serve as the setting for my favorite weekend activity—plopping down for a few hours with a thick newspaper. As a tourist, I should probably have felt some pangs of guilt at missing out on the opportunity to visit sites like the Muhammad Ali Center or the Slugger Museum, but Louisville’s notable attractions would have to wait. I was enjoying my slow Saturday too much to be tempted otherwise.

Wandering the Highlands (the neighborhood home to Bardstown Road and Cherokee Park) was essential in getting to know the city. But I’d also heard talk of another neighborhood with its own emerging scene, a place a called—wait for it—NuLu. Yes, as in New Louisville. Aside from the uninspired choice of name for the re-brand, there is much to love about the up-and-coming district around East Market Street.

The anchor of the neighborhood, both architecturally and conceptually, is the LEED Platinum–certified Green Building. Once a dry goods store, the building has been given new life by owners Augusta and Gill Holland. Like Wilson and Brown, the Hollands have been at the forefront of Louisville’s transformation. They, too, understand how to bring people together with creative spaces. In addition to an art gallery, an event hall and a number of offices, their building hosts a locavore restaurant on the ground floor, the aptly named 732 Social. It is indeed a social place—whether you choose a seat at the bar or outside at one of the tables facing East Market Street, in traditional Louisville style, hospitality flows freely.

So that’s when it’s hard to know what’s old and what’s “nu.” This town has gotten some new paint, more art and much more inventive culinary offerings (R.I.P. Hot Brown), but its historic charm is still very palpable. If anything, it now benefits from a better display, like another object in the Wilson-Brown collection, waiting for your attention.

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