Nine Louisville establishments make Bourbon Review's best bars list
By Sarah Shadburne – Reporter , Louisville Business First
Oct 5, 2020, 2:47pm EDT
Nine Louisville bourbon bars were recognized as some of the best in the country by The Bourbon Review.
The bourbon and American whiskey magazine has identified the year’s best bourbon bars since 2013, and it’s not the first year some of these Louisville bars have made the list.
The publication broke down the 115 bourbon bars it recognized as 2020’s best into regions, with 36 Kentucky bars representing its Bourbon Country region. The magazine also identified 13 bourbon bars in the Northeast, 22 in the Midwest, 24 in the South and 20 in the West.
Here are the Louisville spots identified as the best bourbon bars of 2020:
Bourbon’s Bistro
Doc Crows
Down One Bourbon Bar
Justins’ House of Bourbon
Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen
Proof on Main
Repeal Oak-Fired Steakhouse
The Silver Dollar
Butchertown Grocery
Bourbon’s Bistro, Doc Crows, Down One Bourbon Bar, Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen, Proof on Main, The Silver Dollar and Butchertown Grocery all previously ranked in 2019 as the country’s best.
Of the new additions to the list, Justins’ House of Bourbon at 101 W Market St., just entered the Louisville market in the last quarter of 2019, opening on Nov. 22. The Lexington-based retailer opened in 2018 and was established by bourbon collectors Justin Sloan and Justin Thompson.
Thompson, a founding member of The Bourbon Review, also ranked the Lexington location of his bourbon shop on the magazine’s 2020 list of best bourbon bars.
Another newcomer to the list this year is Repeal Oak-Fired Steakhouse at 101 W Main St. The steakhouse and its rooftop bar, Bitters End, are located in Hotel Distil on Whiskey Row and reopened to the public on July 7.
The bar reopened with a new patio along Main Street where guests can enjoy the restaurant’s full dinner menu, a fireplace and covered seating, according to previous reporting.
Similarly to Justins’, Repeal also opened in fall 2019.
Of other localities representing the commonwealth, Lexington also had nine bourbon bars rank, Covington had six (which you can view here), Bardstown had four, Paducah had two and a smattering of other cities – including Elizabethtown, Versailles, Harrodsburg, Owensboro, Danville, Burlington and Newport – all had one.