NuLu Bourbon Food Tour

Beyond the Barrel: Walking Bourbon Tour with Food Pairings

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Uncover the secrets of Kentucky bourbon on the world’s only walking bourbon food tour.

QUICK DETAILS

  • Distance: 1 mile
  • Duration: 3 hours
  • Food: 4 stops, 6 tastings
  • Drinks: 2 bourbon pours, 3 cocktails
  • Capacity: 12
  • Time: 5 & 5:30 PM, Wed-Fri
  • Accessibility: 21+, wheelchair friendly

Go beyond the barrel to dive into bourbon’s storied history and learn all the stories they won’t tell you on a Kentucky Bourbon Trail distillery tour! As the sun sets over the vibrant NuLu neighborhood, you’ll visit Louisville’s most celebrated restaurants for thoughtfully crafted dishes paired with exceptional bourbon pours and cocktails.

  • Trace the origins of bourbon whiskey from its roots in the Appalachian foothills to today’s thriving bourbon scene
  • Unlock bourbon’s versatility and depth through paired bites, pours, and cocktails
  • Sample bourbon’s full range of versatility, including clarified, fat-washed, river-aged, wheated, infused, and finished bourbons
  • Land coveted tables at some of the most celebrated eateries in town

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Find out why we’ve earned over thousands of 5-star reviews and the coveted TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice Award.

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Explore NuLu at Night

As the sun sets over the vibrant NuLu neighborhood – lauded as one of “The Best Food Neighborhoods in the USA” – you’ll visit award-winning restaurants, hidden speakeasies, rooftop terraces, and cozy tasting rooms.

Where

Meet at the Last Refuge in NuLu

When​

Wednesdays – Fridays, 5 & 5:30 PM

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The World’s Only Walking Bourbon & Food Tour

Perfect for both bourbon newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts, this guided walking tour of NuLu’s best restaurants and tasting rooms offers an experience that you won’t find at any bourbon distillery.

Over the 3 hours you’ll spend with us, you’ll enjoy …

  • Bourbon tastings & cocktails
  • Delicious paired bites, comprising a full dinner
  • The unfiltered history of bourbon in Kentucky
  • Fun & knowledgeable guides
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What to Expect

This tour includes multiple stops for bourbon cocktails and tastings, as well as an assortment of small bites. Here’s what else to expect:

5-Star Experience

An expert guide & reserve tables at the best restaurants in town.

Bourbon

Explore bourbon’s versatility with cocktails and tastings.

Small Group

Capped at 12 people for a more personalized experience.

Audio Headset​

To help hear your expert guide, even from a distance or in a noisy bar.

Walking

1 Mile. Wear comfy shoes!

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FAQ’s About This Tour

Take a look at the Frequently Asked Questions about the Beyond the Barrel Bourbon Food Tour:

You’ll enjoy 4-6 paired dishes, comprising a full dinner. The tour is designed to leave you feeling satisfied, but not stuffed!

We’ve designed the portions and food pairings to give you a nice warm “Kentucky Hug” without leaving you feeling overly intoxicated. In total, you will be drinking about 3 delicious half-sized cocktails and 2 half-pours of bourbon.

We will visit a bottle shop and tasting room, but we will not be visiting bourbon distilleries on this tour! Most distilleries close early, and we’ll be venturing out around dinnertime. Plus, we’re going beyond the barrel to explore bourbon outside of the distillery – and diving into the stories they don’t tell you on distillery tours. Our guided bourbon food tour is a perfect complement to a Kentucky bourbon trail distillery visit!

If you’d like to plan a distillery visit before your tour, both Rabbit Hole and Angel’s Envy distilleries are within walking distance of the tour’s starting point.

We’re all bourbon nerds here at Louisville Food Tours, and we LOVE bourbon experts – and beginners, too! Our tour is the perfect accompaniment to visiting distilleries along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

Unlike bourbon distilleries, which focus on the specific brands they craft and the process of making bourbon, along with the occasional morsel of history (usually about Prohibition, which is represented the exact same way on every distillery tour we’ve taken – and we’ve taken most of them), our tour is a more well-rounded approach to bourbon’s history and cultural impact.

We uncover the history of bourbon starting with its humble origins in the Appalachian foothills, trace its growth and impact on Kentucky and Louisville, and dive into the stories the distilleries won’t tell you about Prohibition – like why it was such a popular policy to begin with (and the answers may surprise you).

Along the way, you’ll taste a wide variety of bourbons, bourbon cocktails, and paired bites that we’ve hand-picked for their ability to pair with bourbon in surprising and delicious ways. Not to mention, you’ll land a few coveted tables at some of the most hard-to-book restaurants in town, including award-winning Nami (and you just might meet our local celebrity Chef Ed Lee, as well.)

It’s truly an experience that goes beyond the barrel to truly expand on what you might have already learned on bourbon distillery tours!

Yes! You will enjoy refreshing non-alcoholic mocktails paired with delicious food and learn the fascinating history of bourbon. Please note that all participants on this tour must be 21+, even if you won’t be partaking.

You’ll end your tour about a block from where you began. Since you will be drinking, we encourage you to take an Uber or Lyft to and from this tour!

Because we’ll be visiting some of Louisville’s most popular bars and award-winning restaurants, our tour starts early to ensure there’s plenty of room for us at each stop. During the colder months, this means you’ll enjoy twilight and twinkling city lights after dark.

But for some of the year, your tour might begin while it’s still bright out. In the middle of summer, it may even end before the sun begins to set. Oh, and we’ll be leaving you at an absolutely stunning place to catch the sunset.

Your ticket includes a full dinner and drinks at some of the best bars and restaurants in Louisville, along with 3 hours of fun and information. Think of it like dinner, drinks, a bourbon tour, and a show – all in one ticket!

Additionally, tour visits some of the best restaurants and tasting rooms in Louisville. In addition, the bourbon pours and cocktails you’ll be tasting are higher shelf selections. As such, the price of the tour is higher than our other, more casual tours.

When it comes to what we charge, our tour pricing for all tours is based on an operating margin that fairly compensates our hard working tour guides, pays full menu price for our local restaurant partners, and includes a 20% gratuity for the staff at each of the bars and restaurants we visit.

Have more questions about what to expect on our food tours? Browse the FAQ’s about all of our tours:

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Premium Bourbon Upgrade

Elevate your experience with 4 hard-to-find, top-shelf bourbon pours!

It’s the perfect tour enhancement for bourbon enthusiasts and a memorable gift for birthdays, anniversaries, and special occasions.

Learn more about how you can elevate your tour.

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Smoked bourbon cocktail at a speakeasy in Louisville, Kentucky

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