Louisville Makes the List of Top Up and Coming Cities in 2019

These 8 underappreciated cities were featured in Thrillist.

According to the article these handful of American cities have been, “quietly upping their games, making 2019 the year to visit.”

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Baltimore, Maryland.
Greenville, South Carolina.
Sacramento, California.
Fort Worth, Texas.
Reno, Nevada.
Grand Rapids, Michigan

And…

Louisville, Kentucky!

The article writes:

Revitalized neighborhoods are attracting younger crowds with plenty of whiskey and artsy music fests

Would you go to Louisville to drink bourbon, eat beignets, and play bocce ball inside a Methodist church-turned-Cajun restaurant? Go ahead and nod emphatically. ChurchKey is just one of many surprises Derby City has in store this year. Credit Louisville’s rise to the ongoing revitalization of old neighborhoods that fell through the cracks of suburbanization: Butchertown and Germantown are attracting millennials like flies with craftsman shotgun homes, ample backyards, and taverns on every corner. On the east end of Market Street, “NuLu” (because every city needs a SoHo, right?) is now the hot ‘hood for its proximity to Downtown, home to a fully revamped Whiskey Row. A fire in 2015 delayed the restoration of a key stretch of Main Street, but Louisville has enough moxie and cast iron bracing to persevere. Today, you’ll find a stretch of eight distilleries on the strip that are easily crawlable — or trolly-able, should you inevitably go overboard “sampling” craft bourbon.

The latest season of Top Chef is set in Louisville and feasting on a riverboat on Lake Cumberland looks like a thin slice of heaven. The city’s restaurant diversity extends well beyond the hot brown nowadays, with new additions like gothic Italian castle Grassa Gramma and zen vegetarian-friendly outpost Naive. And speaking of Top Chef, former contestant Ed Lee’s latest concept Whiskey Dry has opened as an approachable landing spot for his signature burgers with a progressive assortment of 200+ whiskeys.

In case you’re already penciling Derby 2019 to make your vacation plans, think hard about whether you’d rather save the $1,000 hotel fares and, instead, hit Churchill Downs. September is sure to be prime visiting time with consecutive music festival weekends — Louder than Life (Metal), Hometown Rising (Country), and Bourbon & Beyond (everything else) — and it just-so happens to be National Bourbon Heritage Month. — Sean Cooley