Louisville's Bourbon Mecca
Hello: Doc’s Bourbon Room | @docsbourbonroom |
It’s only fitting that Louisville be home of one of the world’s largest bourbon bars. Doc Crow’s has been dishing out smoked meats and fine drinks on Whiskey Row for years - now they’ve made a statement specifically in the bourbon world.
Officially opening on Wednesday (Feb 5), Doc’s Bourbon Room is about to become a bourbon destination for locals and tourists alike. Organized on the wall in library-fashion are bourbons, whiskeys, whiskies, and scotches from all around the world. You realize immediately that there’s a lot of juice here until the host hands over the menu - then it’s apparent that this place is on a different level. The 10+ page selection sprawls alphabetically through every bottle in the building. Any brand your bourbon brain can imagine is there, along with a mountain of ones you’ve never heard of. Each bourbon, whiskey, and scotch is offered in a 1 oz and 2 oz pour, fairly priced with the 1 oz being half the cost of the 2 oz allowing more sampling opportunities.
As you find your drink of choice, the staff at the Bourbon Room may have to grab a ladder to retrieve your spirit. The bottles are indeed ordered in a Dewey Decimal-esque format specially created by the assistant general manager and Whiskey Maven, Forrest Price.
While the selection of bourbon and other fine brown spirits was exactly what we expected, the food was definitely not. Our waiters, John and Ian, were very knowledgable and passionate about our drink selection, but they couldn’t hide their excitement about what we were about to eat. We planned to grab an appetizer or two to accompany our drinks, but the Bourbon Room turned into a dinner outing once we started eating.
Everything was ordered per recommendation and the staff did not let us down, even on just their second soft opening night. Doc’s Bourbon Room is intended to complement it’s parent restaurant (that sits directly next door) with small plates and desserts. It’s definitely not a stretch to say they may become competitors for your Friday night dinner reservation.
We started with the goat cheese dish. The cheese was joined by pork belly, pine nuts, and a perfect amount of pita for dipping. This would be a perfect app to pair alongside a bourbon before heading over to Doc Crow’s for a rack of ribs, but instead we kept going. Staying on the pork belly trend, we got the al pastor pork belly which was incredibly unique compared to others like the Against the Grain pork belly on a stick, which has a maple glaze and is always worth the guilt. Doc’s version was sans-glaze and felt a bit lighter. The outer layer was flash-fried and the inside was that nice juicy pork belly taste that you expect. We liked this one even more than the goat cheese. Next was quickly the new favorite (luckily we ate all the small plates in order of deliciousness), the lamb flatbread. A strong recommendation from our waiter John, who was a bourbon consultant at Churchill Downs in his most recent life, convinced us down this path. The kitchen let the lamb be the star here by not adding too much barbecue sauce and other fixins. Everything about this one was perfect - highly suggested by us (and John).
After one visit, we’re pretty certain this will become a tourist attraction and a local favorite. It fits right in with all of the great new additions to Whiskey Row and continues the passion that Louisville has for educating its visitors on what makes our region and state so unique. If you like Doc Crow’s, brown liquor, and/or good food, we suggest getting down to Whiskey Row to try this new gem.