BBQ and Barrels with Dave

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey folks, thanks for joining me for another episode from the EmbellishPod. If you got here by
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(00:21):
have a website, it is www.embellishpod.com. It's
a place to pick up these links, episode details, and more. This week, we're going
to be talking to Dave from Barbecue and Barrels, an event that
is hosted in Owensboro, Kentucky. The tickets are on sale right now. And
before you even get into the episode, you might want to go ahead and hop over to their website and
buy a ticket because they're pretty limited. And

(00:41):
they're already selling through and they haven't started their heavy advertising push
for it. And so you want to get in ahead of that and then come back and listen to the rest
of the conversation that Dave and I have. This morning, this afternoon, this evening, whenever
you happen to be consuming this, I've got Dave joining me from Barbecue
and Barrels in Owensboro, Kentucky, which is, you know, I'm
a little I love talking about this, but I also don't because it's

(01:02):
like one of these events that I really like going to. But I also don't want to get overwhelmed
by a whole bunch of people all at one time, right? Because it's a great event to
attend. But I want to give you a chance. Let's let's start talking
about Barbecue and Barrels for 2025. First thing,
let's do the time and the details and dates and all of that right
Yeah, so barbecue and barrels, um, you know, for years, Owensboro had

(01:24):
the barbecue festival. And what we saw is we were losing,
um, you know, some of those barbecue vendors because, you know, there's churches
and folks get older. And so we were trying to, you know, breathe new life into
this. Um, but it's always the, the second weekend in May, it's
always, uh, May 9th and May 10th. That's a Friday and Saturday.
Um, and it's really like a bunch of stuff into one, right?

(01:45):
So like there's a bourbon side of things. Um, and then
there's a barbecue side of things. And the two definitely, you know,
are intermingled. Um, on, uh, the Friday at
noon is when the, the, uh, the event officially kicks off where you can
go downtown and the smoke's rolling with the big burger, you kettles and
the big pits and they're cooking mutton chicken and Uh,

(02:06):
burgoo and, and ribs. And I mean, any barbecue thing
that your heart desires, that's going on. Uh, that Friday night
is the first official bourbon event, uh, as far as ticketed
through us. Uh, now there is a really high class dinner, I
should say at lure, uh, where they do, I think it's, um,
uh, smoke and oak is what they call it. I believe it's the VTAC lineup

(02:26):
this year with really high end food. go to that directly.
Very limited seating. They only have like 30 seats for it. That's
at Laura's Seafood and Grill. You can call the restaurant directly to book that. But we officially kick
off that Friday night at Green River Distilling Company
with a cocktail and food pairing. This
year will be done by the Miller House, which is a very famous Southern

(02:48):
dining restaurant with one of the best bourbon bars in America in
the basement. So we'll have that on Friday night. Those tickets, run
for 145 a piece. But again, that's multiple
cocktails, multiple dinner, uh, items, appetizers, main
course, dessert, all that kind of fun stuff. That's six o'clock, uh,
central time on Friday the ninth. And then we

(03:11):
kick off more barbecue the next day with the backyard cookoff.
You literally just walk up and down second street in downtown Owensboro and just
take samples from everybody. It's a big competition. You know, they're
cooking to, uh, compete and win some prize
money, but they let people that are walking through try some of their stuff, so
that's always something that I look forward to. And then the

(03:32):
main event kicks off with classes at the Convention Center from
two to three. There will be probably
three different classes, 25 bucks a piece. We
haven't released exactly who's doing those, but we're working on names like Freddie
Johnson with Buffalo Trace, of course Brent Elliott with Four
Roses, who is an Owensboro native. And

(03:53):
then at three we have the
VIP hour and that ticket runs for 120 bucks
and it's probably the best 120 bucks a bourbon enthusiast will
ever spend. It's certainly the cheapest because we'll have nearly 40 brands
bringing special stuff. Anything ranging from a single barrel. I know
last year Makers Mark wanted to show off

(04:16):
a little bit and they brought out all their cellar aged stuff. I
know Augusta, they brought out an 11 year
aged, I mean, it's some special stuff. So, and there's also food.
So we have Moonlight Barbecues, our featured barbecue restaurant this year. They'll be
selling a bourbon soft that they'll create. And
they'll of course be using some of their barbecue and some of the past appetizers that

(04:37):
we have. Heavy hors d'oeuvres, so certainly you can get full. But again,
if you don't get full, you can always step outside the convention center and there'll
be probably close to 30 different food options, food vendors selling every
barbecue under the sun. Four to six on Saturday
is the main event. And of course, VIP get into
that as well. And that ticket this year for 70 bucks,

(04:58):
you're going to get to try probably over 40 brands. And
most of those brands bring more than one thing. So lots
to do, lots to see. And as we call it, it's
really the best value in bourbon. You are somebody that wants
to try a bunch of different things for those price points. You

(05:19):
Without a doubt, right? And so I had the great opportunity
to attend last year and I do want to go backwards a little bit and we'll start
back with the spirited dinner because that's the first thing that sort of happens for
the bourbon side of this. Obviously there's more and we'll get
to talking about the music and the carnival and the crafts and all of that. There's
It's honestly like eight things at once. Like

(05:43):
If you've got ADHD, it's the perfect thing for you because you can hop
from one thing to the next. Right. Like you can just you can skip your meds that weekend and
still have a great time because it worked. It
worked well for me. But the spirit of pairing, you know, and
you mentioned, you know, it does feel like one hundred forty five
dollars feels like a lot of money, especially in today's economy. But

(06:04):
to give it a little bit of context, this is not a, you
know, you go and you sit down for 45 minutes and you, you know, you have
So, yeah, it is the appetizers.
Yeah. It's, it's a two hour kind of deal. It's an event, you know, there's
a lot of music, like it's, yeah, it's not just a,
like you run through it real fast. Give you a little sample of

(06:26):
that menu. I mean, for the appetizer, heck,
some of the stuff I can't even pronounce, it sounds so wonderful. if
that's the way you pronounce it. Green Goddess, soft cheese, grilled
baguette, flatbread, cocktail pairing of a neat pour
of Green River foolproof whiskey. So again, it's
not your standard stuff. They're bringing out even more special stuff

(06:48):
for some of the cocktails and such. Kentucky Bibb lettuce, strawberries, radish,
almonds, a honey lemon vinaigrette perfectly paired with a Gold Rush,
which they'll be using their Green River weeded whiskey for
that. all handcrafted cocktails, main
course, bourbon braised beef, short ribs, seared sea bass. I
mean, you know, again, this is a high end and it's a treat.

(07:11):
I should say that this is not something you probably are going to do every, every
weekend. If you are, what are you doing for a living? Let me know.
It's a treat, you know, um, croissant bread, pudding,
salted bourbon, caramel, candied pecans with the revolver, green
river whiskey, blue coffee, liqueur and orange bitters. I'm salivating
right now. I mean, I don't know why we're doing this at lunchtime, John, but it's

(07:34):
really bad timing. Cause I haven't, and
again, we'll, we'll have music, uh, we'll green river. I should say we'll have music with that. Awesome
venue. It's their old bottling house, which is their event center. Um,
so it's, it's really hard to beat a more authentic bourbon experience than
Without a doubt. And the meal that we had last year was
absolutely phenomenal. I've had an opportunity to eat at a lot of places and try

(07:57):
a lot of different things. And it was definitely a super, honestly, I
felt underdressed for the event because, you know, the meal was way
Yeah. And they, they, uh, I think they even had the opportunity to
open up the gift shop last year. They opened it up so people could sneak in and buy something,

(08:17):
a little souvenir gift shop during that event. Um,
you know, whoever treats people very, very well and, and
their, their cocktail pairings with the, and that's, that's the wonderful part about
it. I think, right. Cause you show, you show up to these things and usually you're going
to bring a spouse with you or a friend, maybe somebody that's not into whiskey at
the same level you are. They do a really or

(08:37):
did last year and i assume next year this year be the exact same thing
the pairing of the cocktail to the meal. What's phenomenal
and then there was a cash bar over the side where you could buy other cocktails that may
not work. You know, a lot of people like an old fashioned and I
don't think last year that it was one of the pairings, but it was something you could buy from
So, but hey, you know what's better than one old fashioned to old

(08:59):
fashioned or whatever. But yeah, it's
certainly and I will tell people to for that event if
you plan on. drinking everything. These
are full force. So please, please, please have
a sober driver, have somebody to drink a little less, have a plan to get home.
We have Uber, we have Lyft. If you're staying at one of our downtown hotels, you're

(09:20):
literally only a couple minutes away from downtown. So that's just something,
you know, be responsible because it is a very fun
event. But also, you know, if
you choose to partake in everything offered, you know, have
Yeah, I had a ride last year, but 100% would have
needed an Uber or a Lyft to get back because

(09:42):
they are. And it is over a couple hours, but if you come
in early and you have a cocktail before the food service begins,
and then you have the three that are paired, you're now like four drinks
deep in two hours. And you're enjoying yourself,
right? Because there's music, there's interaction with
the other folks. You end up, it feels sort

(10:02):
of sometimes, unless you buy a whole table yourself, but it feels sort
of like a cruise where you get to meet people from different parts
It's usually like an eight seater, right? So unless you buy an entire
table, you're going to be paired with maybe somebody you don't know. It's
so fun just because you get to meet them.

(10:24):
and find out why they're there, where they're from. I mean, we had people that
dinner, um, is, uh, they were from as far away as
California. Um, so, um, you just never know who
Yeah. And the whiskey nerds, when they sit down, they start kind of feeling each other out
like, OK, what's your knowledge level? What's your knowledge level? But by
the end of the meal, it's just, you know, it's a few few friends having having

(10:45):
a wonderful, wonderful meal together. I
can't emphasize enough. I think that, you know, if somebody's
watching this and you're considering coming, if you can, if you
can swing it, do it. Right. Because this is it's a phenomenal meal with
a phenomenal experience. You're on site at one
of the best growing distilleries in the state of Kentucky
that's making some of the best whiskey that you can buy. Some of the best price points, right?

(11:09):
That's the other side of it is that they're not... I will stand on this mountain and
on this ground as a Kentuckian would say. What Green
River offers at the price point they're offering it at,
it's just ridiculous to say that anybody has a better price
point at that stage, at that quality. I
mean, they're foolproof. Gosh, I don't know what it is right now, maybe

(11:31):
40 bucks or something, maybe a little north of that. You're just not
and and and i will argue that you know for
a hard argument to make right it's really not a hard argument to make because they're
they're they're competing at a price point that everyone else is twenty
Yeah and the fun doesn't start there doesn't

(11:54):
stop there i should say you know after that. you kind of
mentioned it, this is a whole weekend. So, you know, you finish up around eight,
um, you get your ride back to downtown and we have an
amazing journey cover band right there in downtown, right in front of the commission
center book that night. Um, they are phenomenal. I've personally seen
them and they're very, very good. So, um, you know, maybe if

(12:14):
you're, if you're traveling from outside or if you're inside, you know, pack your lawn
chair, um, because everything's, everything's free as far as the music, um,
another added value, um, you know, to come and go and sport that
weekend. So, If at eight o'clock you're like, no, I need more, you
can go right there downtown, right in front of the convention center, pack
your chair down there and enjoy an amazing journey band for

(12:37):
Yeah, and luckily the hotel I was at was right next to the
event and so I was able to listen and then
walk back to the hotel and still hear it for a little while. I think it
Oh yeah, 100%, but it wasn't too late. It
was a friendly event, right, where, you know, after

(12:59):
you go from sitting down with some strangers, now you're sitting down with another different
batch of strangers. But it's a very backyard feel.
And I don't I don't know if that sounds bad or not, but if I think that's
with barbecue and barrels like it's very informal, right? So like
there are very classy events where like you better have on like, you know, a
suit jacket, right? Right. This is one of those things that it just it.

(13:21):
creates such intermingling between people, all walks of life, serious
whiskey folks, and people maybe have tried it for the first time. And some people that
are just down there for the barbecue and music. And I think that's what kind of,
it truly is a culinary event with
entertainment. You know what I mean? So there's a little bit of
something for everybody. That's what makes it also very family friendly. Obviously you're

(13:42):
not going to take your family if they're under 21 to the dinner or to the
We have a carnival for little kids. You know, I've got a five year old, a two
year old and a four month old. And, you
know, we have something for them as well. Now, daddy will be away for
the bourbon side of things, make your arrangements. But, you
know, that that's something that I think makes this a little unique, whereas like

(14:04):
the other different bourbon events and festivals, usually it's
Yeah, for sure. And so we've had dinner. We've come and
listened to some fantastic music. We go to bed, drink
a bunch of water, go to bed, get up in the morning. What
time do things normally kick off on Saturday morning? Because

(14:28):
So like 10 o'clock is kind of when they really start cooking and
samples start being made available. So picture you're
going down Second Street in downtown Owensboro. As you're walking
down the street, I want to paint a picture for you. So closer to our office, we're
under the Blue Bridge. Everybody knows the Blue Bridge in Owensboro, right? You
know, you have a kiddie carnival, right? These are smaller kids. It's a

(14:49):
really nice carnival too. We're not, you know, it's not one of those things that you're looking
at the rods going. about that. It's
a really nice kiddie carnival. You start walking down
and that's when the smoke fills the air and you can smell the
barbecue. Like I said, we'll probably have 30 different vendors
and we still have several of those church themes. That's some of
my favorite stuff. That's what I grew up with. I want them to

(15:12):
scoop the burgoo out of the kettle and put it in my little styrofoam
cup and eat it and it's 80 degrees outside. That's like tradition for
me. We'll have craft vendors. We'll
probably have I don't know, at least probably 20, probably
more craft vendors. So if that's your thing, there'll be
different drink vendors. Let's say bourbon's not your thing, or you

(15:33):
want a lemonade, or you want a beer, we'll have all of that. Some of the distilleries
will have their cocktail trucks out. So even if like, and I encourage everyone
to buy a ticket for our event actually at the convention center, but there's
options to do that. There's gonna be live music constantly throughout
the downtown, throughout the day. And
so you're getting to try all these different things. And then at two o'clock,

(15:54):
that's when classes start. And I mean, the classes, we've got
them priced probably low, but, but again, I like to, I
like to offer an experience that. comes very approachable
for people. So $25. Again, we'll have three different probably class options.
Those will be at the convention center from two to three. To attend a class, you do have
to purchase a VIP or general admission ticket. So you can't just go to

(16:15):
a class. You do have to do that. We'll
release, usually the beginning of April, what exactly those
are going to be. But they're typically a class with
a master distiller, a master mixologist, something
that you can't normally find. And the time that you get with these people in
a room of usually 30 to 35, you're not going

(16:35):
to get that normally. Right. So did
I did. The the one that Evan Williams micro
distillery hosted. And I'm trying to draw his name up. Jody.
Yes. Because he's going to be in Paducah tonight. He
was he ran it through. And honestly, you know, he did maybe 10 or

(16:56):
15 minutes worth of this scripted. I'm running a class thing. And he
was like, all right, now let's just talk. Right. And it became permanent.
Yeah. And it became very much that. And there was a lot of you
could tell the the variance of people that were in there from, you know,
you know, whiskey nerd to I'm brand new to
it. But there was no there was no real

(17:19):
It was just like, all right, we're all just sitting here going to going to talk about that personal
experience that you're getting with with a master distiller. I
He makes all the bourbon at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience downtown Louisville. And
you're sitting there, you know, you look at the awards that Heaven
Hill has won in the last couple years, like he made a lot of that. So

(17:42):
again, it's very valuable time that you get. And then,
um, We have the VIP. VIP comes
in at $120, which is still way, way, way lower than
anybody else's VIP ticket that I'm aware of. I don't know anybody that's
even in that. Usually you're looking at $300 and above for the
same experience. And so what that looks like is

(18:04):
you get an hour access early to the actual
bourbon tasting. And we ask all the distilleries, hey, this
is the time to show off a little bit, right? These are usually pretty good bourbon enthusiasts
that want a little something different. So you're going to see barrel picks and
some pretty high value stuff, stuff with a little bit more age on it. And
in some cases, some more experimental stuff, you know, that people sometimes

(18:26):
don't even have on the shelves. And some distilleries, believe it or not,
Western Kentucky Distilling, they made their debut. That was the
first time that you publicly could try their bourbon was
at that experience. You know, we, we like to, we
like to give that experience to people. And then we're moonlight barbecue. Like I said, is
we'll, we'll have some of their barbecue with the past apps. So you're getting that

(18:46):
authentic bourbon experience, obviously, and barbecue experience
So, um, and you mentioned there, there's some, some single barrels
that are available at the event, um, whether
it be to try or, uh, to potentially purchase, I assume purchasing
is still an opportunity to allow, um, transaction right at

(19:09):
So let's say you try something, you see that bottle, Hey, guess what? That's
for sale. Um, Not all of them. I'm not saying you're going to get,
you know, some of the really high end stuff that they're showing off a little bit. Yeah.
A lot of the distilleries, um, heck, I would probably say 70%, wouldn't
you say something like that, uh, uh, or, uh, making
their bottles available for purchase too. Um, so that makes it

(19:30):
kind of unique in the fact that, uh, you know, you can try
it and if you like it, you can, and the VIP, you know, you get first
dibs at those because they don't bring enough for everybody to buy. You
wouldn't, you know, because of the weight of the things. But that ticket
gets you in there an hour early and that kind of guarantees you a
prime Selection of some pretty high and stuff

(19:53):
Well, I know this was the case last year I'm wondering so for the
VIP experience if I remember correctly the Riverview room was still
available once general admission started where you could kind of you
I'll be a thing like yeah, there's couches and stuff in there You know overlooks
the water, you know I think, and
I'm going to say this, I think we have probably the best venue

(20:17):
when it comes to weather, when it comes to view for
bourbon experience, because we're inside a convention center. But our convention center,
the backside of it, the room that this is actually in, the ballroom, I mean,
it's floor-to-ceiling windows. You're overlooking the Ohio River. The
time of the year is May, so everything is in bloom. You
have the water you're looking at. You look out and you see the rest of the festival

(20:38):
experience. You have air conditioned bathrooms. I
They get to load right in. And guess what? We're weatherproof. You
don't have to worry about rain. And so you're going to get to have, though
we were blessed with very Probably the best weather I've ever
seen last year. It was incredible. It was like 74 and sunny

(21:01):
Friday and Saturday. So knock on wood, we get that again. But
on the other side of things, you're inside. So you don't have to worry, oh,
will it be canceled? Will somebody not show up? I mean, we
Without a doubt. And so I think in if I remember looking
at the website for the VIP experience, there's not many of those left,

(21:23):
right? So when you go to the ticket purchase side and it's got the night mini left, which
is an automated thing, which means if you're interested in that now
There are essentially 230 tickets for purchase. Most
of those are gone. There still are some. So
yeah, if you want to do that, like you would even though we're still two months

(21:44):
away from this thing, you want to go ahead and get that now because those
will be gone soon. We haven't done a lot of advertising yet. And
so once that starts, those things are going to go quick. So
I would highly advise if you're on the fence, like
now would be the time to jump it and make those purchases for
Now, I have another question and you may, you may have an answer, may not have an answer.

(22:05):
So, um, you mentioned the classes that you have to have a VIP or
a general admission ticket, but the, with the purchase of a VIP or general
admission, you also could get a companion ticket, right? Can a companion attend
a class or is that still just sticking with the VIP or
the, uh, well, I'm not sure that a companion would want to, because the companions, you're

(22:25):
You don't, you know, the companion, you don't, uh, They're still a cash bar
at the division center. So let's say you're more of a wine or beer person, or maybe you're like, man,
I've had enough bourbon. We all do offer that. Or maybe you're
not a drinker and you just want to see and have that experience. I mean, so many
people go on bourbon tours at these distilleries and don't drink
at all. It's just a really neat manufacturing experience. So

(22:46):
we do offer that. Yeah. I guess
technically you could, but I'm not sure that you'd want to pay that extra
when you don't bring bourbon because they are bourbon experiences. But
yeah, the companion ticket, 20 bucks can be purchased with any general
Okay. Yeah. And cause you know, there, there, there is this, this group of
people that, you know, they might be okay with sitting in on a class. They

(23:08):
want to taste through, you know, with a distiller. And then when they go to the main event, they're like,
you know, I just want to drink a cocktail or I don't want to drink at all. That's my only drinking is going to
be the class. And I, I sort of wondered that. Um,
Well, I don't think it'll be a popular take, but
So and you said there'll be cocktails for purchase in there. And so for for

(23:29):
the companion and other events I've seen where, you
know, you can get a ticket for the companion. But what that's really about is making sure that
they have a DD. That's not necessarily the case here. The companion can still
purchase cocktails. They're just not maybe a volume of bourbon
consumer that warrants the purchase of a full ticket. They may want to buy
You'll get a separate wristband. And so you can

(23:50):
do it, and we definitely do have some sober drivers that
do that as well. That's certainly an
option too. And that's how we try to keep it at just 20 bucks, right?
Like we're not trying to, if you're not taking up the product, like
Yeah, and you mentioned food, so, and you may have already covered it
pretty well, but it was in the event itself, there'll be

(24:16):
Um, yeah. So for VIP, you know, we have really, um, nice
appetizers, heavy hors d'oeuvres. A couple of them will feature moonlight
barbecue, probably a mutton option and a pork option. Uh,
but then everything's kind of barbecue themed. Um, we also
have some vegetarian options cause we know not everybody eats meat, but like
we try to put like a barbecue play on that. Like maybe like a

(24:37):
barbecue, you know, cauliflower or something like that. Um,
you know, I'm all about the meat that weekend. I love
barbecue on it. Probably the first thing, you know, probably as
a baby, you know, at six months old, I probably was eating Chow Mutton, you
know what I mean? You confirmed that? I'm sure I could ask my, my dad, but,
uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's pretty high in stuff. Um,

(24:59):
brisket on a stick, like, you know, it has that kind of
Yeah. And the, the, the past orders last year were really, really phenomenal
during the, the VIP selection of it. And, um, so the
VIPs have an opportunity to get in early, get in, taste things, maybe buy things
that may be the thing you're after is if, you know, somebody is going to be selling a single barrel

(25:20):
pick and you want to be able to get one, the IP is going to get first pass
at that. Um, are you guys planning to do any specific
You know, I'm trying to work my way into that. I've got a couple of calls out for sure.
You know that they I know
like Green River already told me they have a barbecue and barrels pick that they they they've

(25:41):
got a honey barrel that you know, they're They're bringing their Bay game in
their hometown. My phone must've been broken when they did
that because I didn't. Or maybe it was the experts. Probably it
was Aaron and some of their, they had to sit over there that have
the little more refined taste obviously than I do. But certainly I
think you'll see some barrel picks and I'm gonna try to get on as

(26:04):
Yeah. I mean, if you're not able to make one, I'm just down the road,
let me know. I'm more than willing to- Just down there, yeah. Not too far. more
than willing to step in for you. Thanks for taking
that bullet for me, John. You know, what are
friends for, right? So we've gone
through, we've finished VIP, we've finished the

(26:25):
general admission portion of it. And I'll tell people, you know, sometimes
you get in, you say, I want to get in early, I want to try a few things, you know, make
sure I can get it before it's gone. Some of the distillers, and
distilleries, they had a few things that were just sort of
lingering around. If you were hanging around at the end of the event, there's
a few unique things that popped out, at least while I was there, and they may not have been directly bourbon.

(26:47):
I think we had a really unique gin that someone pulled out
from behind the counter. Pay attention, right? So you don't want
to necessarily load it all on the front end and make sure you kind of get around. They're
pretty good. These distillers and distilleries have been through these events before, and
so they know how to pace themselves and make sure they've got something else you need to
sort of bring out. You know, because what

(27:07):
you end up seeing is you see a whole bunch of people swarm the Mictors table
as soon as they bring out the toasted bourbon, right? Because, you know, toasted,
I can't find it anywhere else. But behind the toasted could
be a 10 year. Right. And so you've swarmed it at the toasted and now the 10 year
sneaks out. I'm not saying that's what happened or will happen, but those
Yeah, I think I think. Distilleries are smart. They

(27:30):
do a lot of these. They want to not
show all their tricks at once, you know, and keep that flow kind
of consistent throughout the entire time. And
what I always tell people too is, you know, we'll have a lot of the big dogs, right?
We'll have Maker's Mark. we'll have Wilderness Trail.
But like, don't sleep on some of the smaller brands, because

(27:53):
they're putting out some really good stuff. And a lot of those smaller brands
too are sourcing some old stuff. And so, I
would encourage you, yeah, go see your favorites, of course. But also, try
something new, because you're not gonna be able to try everything, right? In
a three hour for VIP, two hour for general admission, like, you do have
to make some selections, and you should make some selections, you

(28:13):
know, that you don't need to, In fact, don't try
And you know, our distilleries are really good about like monitoring that and
like you have little punch cards to follow so that you
know people aren't being over served and that sort of thing. And we also have pretzel and
water stations, which I think is very vital to have something on your belly. A

(28:34):
million barbecue options outside of the convention center, you
know, so load in on the front end and then go get you something after
two so. General Admission, that will
start at $4 and that runs till $6. That's
a $70 ticket. Again, General Admission, over 40 brands.
You do the math. What you're getting per price can

(28:56):
be like $2 or more. Find
Especially at the level of the pores that they're having, right? You might be able to find a bar where
you get some bottom shelf whiskey that much for that cheap, but that's
And so that's when it really gets, I mean, that it starts to pack out. Like I said, we
limit to about 250 VIP and then five, 500 journal

(29:19):
mission. And that's intentional too. Yeah, we could, we could open it up to
more people, but we really want the people there. to
have a more intimate experience than some of the larger festivals.
That's just, that's kind of what our target is, is we want to do
things the best and give you kind of as much interaction

(29:40):
And I think you said 40 distilleries. And if I remember correctly,
I think last year it was maybe 30. So did you guys expand and add a few
We will. And the count's not final yet, but we will do
that. We will add more each
year and we'll know final

(30:02):
when they show up. But we're already ahead of
last year as far as confirming a bunch of different ones, confirming some
new ones. Like I said, Wilderness Trail, that's a new one. And
then we like to offer some that maybe you haven't heard of
Yeah. And so a distillery that wants

(30:23):
to be a part of this event, do you guys go out and solicit them? Do they solicit you?
It's a combination, right? So, you know, some of the bigger dogs, you've
got to keep knocking on their door. And we have Seth Thompson,
who of course is the publisher and owner of the Bourbon Review. Go
Bourbon, and then of course Bell's there in Lexington,
and also hosts the Bourbon Classic. So he is our bourbon

(30:45):
purveyor, if you will. He's got these great relationships with the
distilleries, with some of his events, and has been a wonderful partner for
us to have on. But we also have some that reach out and just say, Hey,
give me a shot. And we try to say yes. You
know, out of state brands a little different because they have
to partner for them to sell. They don't have like typically they don't

(31:05):
have the DSP license, right? They're not Kentucky. So they have to partner with
like a liquor store for licensing and all that because you know, we have
to be in compliance and that sort of thing. But
yeah, I mean, it's kind of a combination of both. And then,
you know, usually two weeks out, we're pretty locked in of who

(31:26):
Yeah. And I'll be honest, most of the long lines that
I saw were at the smaller, more craft type distilleries.
And, you know, because you do have your favorites, you got your makers, you got your mixers, you
got the big brands that are floating around in the room. But because
of the way craft Bourbon works in the way
craft whiskey works. They can experiment and do some unique things a

(31:47):
lot faster than a big distillery can. And so you
see some really interesting things floating around at
the smaller ones. I think Augusta was heavily hit and
Blue Run was heavily hit and Casey Jones was heavily like the
crowds sort of floated around. You know, the lines
were long at some of the heritage distilleries, but

(32:08):
the crowds of people surrounding a booth where they're trying to talk to
the distiller and do all these things was was pretty significant at some
of the smaller distilleries. And like I said, those are some of the best pours that are floating
around there as well. Um, so, you know, we,
we make it through the, the whiskey tasting. We're still upright. We've,
we've drank water. We laid a good base layer of bread

(32:28):
before we walked in. Right. And we step out at six o'clock. What,
Sure. So, um, music, like I said, is on the
front of the convention center. There's a stage set up, um, where
there's a big grass lawn in front of it. So people, people already be out
there and they're listening to music and they're experiencing, you know, the barbecue side
of things. And then the main events start, as

(32:51):
far as music, the main acts, I believe they start around six. And
so this year there's, I believe, I believe his name is Drew Baldridge, several
country hits. And then we're going 90s country, Clay Walker.
And remember, free. You literally walk outside and
there's, you know, a 90s country legend who's still
putting hits out. I mean, he's an incredible artist. in Clay Walker.

(33:15):
So then you come out and you're like, well, I'm still hungry or I'm still thirsty. And
then you have all that free entertainment. So I mean, again, the weekend just keeps
And it's, you know, it's, it's a marathon, but it's, you're not trying to stretch it
Right. And then again, if you do that dinner at lure on

(33:35):
Thursday as a special treat to yourself, you never,
you know, it's, it's high end, but even that, let's talk about that for a second. It's
350 bucks for a seat, but you're getting to try every,
um, And, you know, the, the Eagle rare 17, you know, B
tech lineup, you try it all. And then you're eating, you know, a
menu that, that Ben, who's the, the owner and chef there

(33:59):
is, is, you know, it's high end. I mean, you're, I
have to look at it, but we're talking like Wagyu kind of quality stuff. So
when you break down. If you get a shot of, let's
say a, so you get a shot of, of William
LaRue Weller. Okay. What's that going to cost you? Well, usually

(34:19):
From the whiskey you're drinking, you've already gotten through the three 50 before
you eat a bite of food, right? Given the whiskeys you're going to
drink will, will be paid for of what you would normally
pay in a bar. And then you're going to have a really, really, really nice meal
Yeah. And again, it's, and there's always like an education component, you know, or
spin will announce who that will be, um, soon, but, uh, and

(34:41):
there's only 30 tickets for that and they sell out every year too. So that's,
and that's a special treat. You know, I want to emphasize that, like
Right. Yeah, so you could feasibly have a
weekend where you have two really, really phenomenal eating events,
where you're eating kind of upscale dining, but

(35:03):
having this underlayer of really phenomenal, I
don't want to say normal, normal is not the right word, but really phenomenal, barbecue
event where you get to taste through effectively history
at that point. Right. Because the way barbecue was made and the
history of Owensboro, we were talking about burgoo. I had the opportunity to
be with with our with our friends from Tampa. First time I

(35:25):
ever had burgoo. Didn't know what it was. You know, he's got to do his
thing and taste through it. And it's an experience for
It is. I mean, just the barbecue alone that you get to try. And, you
know, mutton is definitely what Owensboro is known for. That's why you're
talking in burgoo. but like there's chicken, there's brisket, you
know, there's pulled pork sandwiches. So there's a little bit of familiarity to

(35:47):
their food and barbecue vendors that literally come in from all
over the U S for this thing. Um, in addition to our churches that are
there, uh, doing their thing, which again, that's, you
gotta try those. Cause that's what, that's what made it such a big deal
in the first place. Um, so there
is no, there is no short of different culinary experiences

(36:09):
Mm hmm. Now the less, less culinary conversation,
more, you know, kind of event based. If, if a person were
so motivated, there's also an event like first
Yeah. Yeah. There's the, there's the barbecue 5k. So those
of you that are runners and you're like, man, if I'm going to eat all day,

(36:30):
I've got to run this thing out first and get what was ever in my body on
Friday night out. Yeah. There was a 5k, uh, going on that
weekend as well. There's also, um, uh, I don't know the
finalized plans, but there's also a golf outing, uh, Friday morning.
That's new this year. Uh, that's going to have a bourbon and barbecue kind
of twist at the, at the, uh, country club. Uh, it's going to be a fundraiser, um,

(36:51):
uh, for a local company in town. More details to
come on that soon. But yeah, I mean the whole weekend is
just one weekend of fun. It can be family friendly, it
can be a date, it can be a present to yourself, it
can be a friend trip. I mean there's just so many different options out there
Yeah. And, you know, so now you've, you've made this event where

(37:13):
you can be both healthy. You can go play golf. You can drink whiskey. If
I remember correctly, one of the vendors was selling hand rolled cigars. And
so you're like, you're, you're taking all the boxes of the traditional, you
know, whiskey drinker, right. Between smoked meats and
cigars and golf and fine dining and, Um,
still having some, you know, just like normal down to earth

(37:34):
barbecue event. Like this is end to end a really phenomenal event
for me. And I know it almost sounds like I'm trying to market it here.
I'm just, I went to the thing and it was a hell of a time for me.
Um, and I'll have, this is my own only personal tip that
I'll add in here, uh, at the, at the spirit of dinner. Karen
from Green River, we were talking about eating dinner and

(37:56):
getting up in the morning, eating breakfast, and she was like, hey, in the morning you should go get some some
Gramps coffee and donuts, right? The donuts at Gramps. walkable
from the hotel. Perfect choice. It was
So, you know, anybody who watches, we're a foodie town,
man. I mean, it's, it, um, it really is. It's a
pretty good local restaurants. We just came off burger

(38:19):
week. So different communities do burger week, right? John,
we had 49 restaurants, pretty
much all local except two, right. That did burger week.
So, um, There was over $500,000 of
burgers sold. It was incredible. It was so much.
63,000 burgers. The population of Owensboro is 60,000, so think about

(38:42):
that for a second. But yeah, there's so
many good local spots downtown. There's different boutiques
and antique shops that you can hit up in the morning. The
coffee shops, Gramps Donuts is amazing. It's the only place
in the world that the donuts and coffee are equally as good. That's right. You
know, usually the coffee shop has terrible donuts or the donut

(39:03):
shop has terrible coffee. They have both wonderful things. Love.
I did. I was unsure. And, you know, I trust Karen because she
So she's eaten at a lot of different places. She's like, yeah, this is where you go
in the morning. I'm like, OK, I'm going to go in the morning. And I'm going to be quiet about
it because, you know, you don't want somebody to give you a recommendation. You're like, that was
Right. Yeah. A little sweet treat. What else is down there?

(39:26):
Red swings. Great. Crim's great. You
know, if you want to see the rest of town, I mean, there's all kinds of different local things
you can check out outside because really your traditional festival
is kind of a 10 to 10. Right. So before 10, you know, I'm
a morning person. I love to watch the sunrise, like There's so many things you
Right. And honestly, the other side of it is being at an event

(39:49):
from 10 to 10, unless you're even when you're working, it is exhausting.
And so you may want to plan something else up until lunchtime.
Right. And so you guys have websites that we can go to to
Barbecue and barrels dot com. You're going to see the bourbon section under their
barbecue events. It's kind of a full calendar of kind of how to
plan your day and your evening. Um, who's performing and

(40:11):
when they're performing, it's got the full schedule. Um, there's
a map on there too. So you can, it might not quite be ready yet because
again, we're only in March. Um, it feels like
this year has already flown by, but that way you've got to see like
Now, this is a question that I have just based off of maybe something recent
that I've observed. Kind of coming into Owensboro, especially

(40:35):
if you're coming in during the event, you need to plan ahead, right? Because certain
streets are going to be blocked off. And if you're trying to get to one of the hotels that's sort of behind the
event, you need to make sure how you get in and out. But as
far as parking, what is the situation in parking in Owensboro this year?
Sure. So there are parking garages available. We
have two downtown. They're both accessible. If you're coming from out

(40:55):
of town, though, like And if you haven't booked your hotel yet,
I would do that within the next day or two. We have
two downtown hotels. The third one will open in June, early
July. So it's not quite open yet. But the Hanson or the Holiday Downtown, what
I would recommend is staying at one of those because then you have your parking spot. It's all
surface parking at those hotels. Essentially then, I

(41:16):
mean, you don't have to get back in your car. Um, so if you're coming from out of town, I would
definitely recommend that there are street parking, you know, availability,
uh, limited, but, but there are some, and then again, we have got parking garages, but
the best thing you can do is book a room downtown. We have a lot of locals
that do that during this as well, because they don't deal with the hassle of getting
in and out of their car. So just booking a room. Um, and then, and

(41:38):
what's kind of cool is, you know, we have a lot of the distilleries like
in those hotels, um, You never know
when you wake up on Saturday morning to go get breakfast if you're going to be sitting next
to Bryn Elliott or you're going to be, you know, so that's kind of a little bit of hidden
nostalgia too is, you know, we, a lot of the people that are helping

(41:58):
Yeah. And I, and the main reason I asked about parking is I was, uh, I was in
Owensboro like a month ago, uh, staying downtown. And
I think there's, there was one parking garage before the second one
Since the Adelaide Convention Center just opened. Um, and then there'll
be a parking garage on the backside of the third hotel. So we'll have three parking
garages come July, August. Uh, but,

(42:20):
uh, yeah, downtown, I mean, Owensboro growing up here, um,
the last 10 years, I mean, you see
cranes in downtown, like every day. And like, that's
just for a city, our size, because they're just constantly building stuff, which
is awesome. does create a little bit of, of, um,
you know, parking situations and that sort of thing. But man, that's what you want. You

(42:41):
want your city to be moving. You want things to be, you
So for sure, for sure. Um, I,
uh, I'm trying to think another question in my head and I
lost it. I completely lost it. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we
No, I mean, it's just going to be a fantastic weekend, um, of, barbecue

(43:05):
and barrels of trying fun, unique offerings of
bourbon and cocktails and food. And, you know, if you're
not into the bourbon side of things, I mean, gosh, bring your kids do the barbecue and
the free music and the fair side of things. There's just so many different options
Yeah. And I think that I jogged my brain a little bit. A
couple of things that I know is from last year. If you have distilleries

(43:28):
that you're into, you pay attention to them because sometimes they might have
an off-site event on Friday or hanging out
or whatever. But you mentioned they're staying here. All
of these distilleries that are coming in for the most part are staying in the
hotels, in and around Owensboro. There's
a chance that somebody may end up sitting at a table outside

(43:49):
of a hotel, sharing bottles, having an opportunity
to extend some of the fun that you might have, not
necessarily advocating for, you know, just drinking openly in the streets. But
I did see several people. They're like, hey, let's hang out after the event is over.
Yeah. Somebody brings something, you know, sure is definitely pop up, you
know, from different folks that are in town. Different

(44:10):
distilleries will have pop up events. I
don't know officially yet which ones those will be. I have been reached out
to by a couple of our local bars and stuff saying, hey, we've got, you
know, Makers Mark that wants, you know, and so, yeah, there is
no shortage of different unique opportunities to

(44:33):
Yeah. And one, I guess one last thing before we, you know, I'll stop
bothering you. Make sure you go sign up for any email newsletters that
are available because that's likely where this information comes in through. You know,
I am aware of a lot of the stuff because I signed up last year and
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so our newsletter, visit Owensboro, we'll start
to push things out, you know, in, in, in March for

(44:57):
a specific event to remind you to get your tickets. Obviously,
if you purchased tickets last year, you know, you're going to get OwensboroTickets.com, which
is run through our convention center is going to start sending you reminders. All
of our advertising will hit Bourbon Review this week. And
then we'll start pushing out all kinds of digital ads and
Facebook ads. So the biggest thing is barbecueandbarrels.com. You

(45:17):
can get everything that you need to know as far as information and purchase your tickets
All right, Dave, thank you so much for your time. I think we've covered
everything that we need to cover. If anything comes up between now and then, you're more
than welcome to come back on and we'll talk about whatever, whatever else needs
to be added to the list. Congratulations on 24's
phenomenal event and you're setting some high expectations for

(45:41):
So you got to make or break here, right?
So that's when you know you've got something successful is if you continue growth in that
third year or so. We're hoping that will be the case. We're doing everything we can.
Like I said, we just wrapped up our burger week. So now for the next two months, I'm
thinking about barbecue and barrels, which is two fun things to think about.
What a terrible job to have to think about burgers,

(46:07):
I made a very good career choice. Working
in hospitality, one of the most rewarding things that
you can do because you're creating experiences for people. Right. You
know, I love hearing the feedback, you know, just like you shared, like,
what a great weekend. I wouldn't miss it. You know, and that's that's what it's
all about, is life is meant to be experienced. And we certainly

(46:33):
Thanks for tuning in to this episode from the Embellish Pod. If you enjoyed this, please
leave me a review on whatever platform that you're consuming this on and leave a comment if
possible. Hit me up on social media on TikTok or Instagram using
Embellish Pod and give me a follow so you can keep up with what's going on here.
I can be found at www.embellishpod.com with all of my links,

(47:09):
And it may, it may be with a little bit of luck. We can hit the exact same
weekend when the Aurora Borealis is popping up again over the river. Right.
That happened last year. If you used your phone. Yeah, I forgot about that,
but you know, it's better to be lucky than good. Right. Right. We'll
take it all day long. I know because my wife wasn't able to make it
because our school year got delayed because of a bunch of snow last year. And

(47:30):
so she wasn't able to make the trip up with me. And she was like, Hey, go outside. And I
And I'm like, I can't see it. Yeah, we had perfect weather and the Northern lights,

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