Los Aztecas in Louisville:

I threw up my hands in frustration and huffed at David. At the same time, David’s stomach let out an unhappy rumble. “This is stupid.” I said.

We were trying to enjoy the first night of our vacation to Louisville. But instead of seeing the sights and exploring the city, we were engaged in a knock-down, drag out discussion of where we should go for dinner. It was now rounding the half hour mark, and we were no closer to a decision than we were when we had sat down to weigh our options.

Someone had to take a stand. “Let’s go to Los Aztecas.” I said. Earlier in the day at Louisville Glassworks, someone had endorsed the place, and that was good enough for me, especially after our lack of consensus over the past half hour.

“Los Aztecas? Mexican? Are you sure?” David questions, bringing up the fact that we are at Taqueria Mercado downtown in Cincinnati at least one night a week.

“Yes. Los Aztecas. No more discussion! Shoes! Now!” I said, tossing David a pair of socks and grabbing my coat.

And off we went.

Los Aztecas is pretty much what we were expecting, and the staff were friendly. The restaurant was quiet, but it was a weeknight, a few days before Thanksgiving. Because we were on vacation, we decided to live it up, with margaritas, tequila shots, and the one of the biggest beers I’ve ever seen ordered at a Mexican restaurant.

We ordered the cheese dip, which had an amazing cherry tomato flavor, but a weird texture. It was almost as if the acids in the tomato had separated the cheese. Despite that, I still liked it for the flavor alone.

I chose to try a tostada, which comes default with barbacoa, and the carnitas with rice and beans. The carnitas were excellent, but the beans were a bit of a let down--they could definitely use some more fat and maybe some additional seasoning. The rice was unremarkably good or bad.

David ordered the one of their special plates, which he liked.

Overall, I'd say Los Aztecas is a pretty strong Mexican restaurant, and if David and I ever end up in an epic argument about where to eat for dinner in Louisville again, there is a good chance we'd return.

Hillbilly Tea in Louisville:

Our first stop after arriving in Louisville was the the BBC brewpub. We grabbed some dinner and a few pints before heading back to the hotel to unpack. Side note: BBC’s Dark Star Porter had David talking about it for days. We mentioned to our server that we were visiting for the week and where we were thinking about heading next.

Trying to be helpful, he steered us away from the 4th Street live district (from what we gathered, 4th street live is to Louisville as Cadillac Ranch is to Cincinnati) and recommended we visit Hillbilly Tea, among other places.

As he was working in a brewpub, he already had street cred in our book. And if there is one thing that people should do more of on vacation, it’s listen to the locals. We’ve found it’s pretty easy to tell if someone is excited about their city and sharing its best places. And if you take their advice, you might find yourself somewhere that wasn’t in any guidebook.

David and I have met a few visitors to Cincinnati, and we always try to steer them to spots we think they would enjoy. So with that in mind, we took his recommendation to visit.

And we were not disappointed. The atmosphere is a lot like Take the Cake Café, where you order at the counter, then have a seat to wait for your food. A large variety of teas are available, which are served piping hot in a mason jar with a handle.

I chose to go with the pulled pork “pie’ ($6) with a side of pit roasted sweet potatoes ($3). David got the bison liver bites ($5) and the buffalo billy burger ($6)--served on a biscuit.

The pulled pork was tender and delicious, and went surprisingly well with the bun it was served on. Rather than a traditional style bun, the barbecue was accompanied by a choux like pastry. The sweet potatoes were charred and delicious and tasted like they had been made with lots of butter.

Moar butter plz

David liked his bison liver bites, served with house made tartar sauce, though I didn’t try any. His bison burger, which was just the right size after the bison liver bites, was served with crispy sweet potato chips, which we also enjoyed.

I liked Hillbilly tea a lot. If we were locals, I think that we’d hang out there often. And we’d probably start drinking a lot more tea, though apparently Friday and Saturday nights dinner is BYOB!

Four Roses:

Kentucky is a bourbon mecca. A menagerie of distilleries and bourbon bars. A bourbon mountain, if you will. Though the options were plentiful, we decided to focus our energy on one distillery in particular--Four Roses.

I was first referred to Four Roses through Cork N Bottle's management, who have some of the finest bourbon selections in their store in the area. For a long time, Four Roses was export only, but now, we're lucky to have full access to almost all their bourbons.

Though we've used the small batch as a mixer, we are pretty partial to the single barrel. I've used it in everything from drinks, to panna cotta, to mashed sweet potatoes. The single barrel takes a unique barrel's characteristics and presents them beautifully. While Four Roses marries their small batch from a variety of single barrels to obtain the optimum balanced flavor, the individuality of the single barrel is what we love about it.

We'll be posting about some holiday bourbon cocktails next (including an anecdote about David's first and traumatic experience with store bought eggnog as a child), but here's some pictures of our jaunt through Four Roses distillery on vacation.

As Four Roses was exported for a long time, signs in multiple languages welcome foreign visitors. Our tour guide was very amused at myself and a tourist from Switzerland, with our Canon and Nikon, snapping away furiously during the distillery tour.

I felt bad for a few people from Atlanta. Even though the temperature was near freezing, the man of the group for some reason decided to wear shorts that day. It was hot and steamy in the distillery, though, which offered some reprieve for those used to warmer climates. The tourist from Switzerland, of course, was dressed appropriately for the weather.

Finished product

Wild Turkey warehouses across the street

watch your head, David

heads and tails

I wore my goofy hat all around Louisville, including our trip to the distillery