This Louisville Watering Hole Named One Of The Best Bars In The Country

A bourbon bar in Shelby Park was recently named one of the top 27 bars in the nation, according to Esquire magazine.

Magazine editors added places that are worth leaving your pandemic bubble for, now that COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted across the country.

Louisville's Trouble Bar was the only Kentucky location to make the list. Here's now lifestyle editor Sarah Rense described Trouble Bar:

“Whiskey got me into trouble”—that’s the promise painted on the outside of Trouble, where the bar’s stocked with bottle after bottle of Kentucky booze and all that stuffy Bourbon Trail hero worship is dropped at the door. Set aside at least twenty minutes in the airy space to pore over the literary journal of a bourbon flight menu, in which whiskey-industry friends of founders Nicole Stipp and Kaitlyn Soligan Owens have curated their own tasting journeys and written at length about the why of each selection. It’s okay to count the Thursday night special, a $25 pitcher of house old-fashioned, as an hors d’oeuvre.

Stipp and Soligan Owens have known each other for years. They previously created custom bourbon tours and classes for Matson & Gilman before creating Trouble, so they're experts on Kentucky's signature liquor.

Trouble opened in August 2019 so it wasn't up and running for very long before the pandemic disrupted business. The owners are thrilled to be nationally recognized.

"We are so honored to be a part of this incredible selection of establishments. Like so many folks and so many industries, bars have had a long, hard 18 months, and as we all start to open back up to guests and travelers, we are deeply proud of our team for creating the kind of space that rises to this moment," Stipp and Soligan Owens said in a statement.

"Getting to represent Kentucky, our city of Louisville, and the Shelby Park neighborhood we love so much in this way is incredibly special."

Read the full list here.

Photo: Getty Images