Louisville sits where the South meets the Ohio Valley, and its cooking reflects both. The Hot Brown — an open-faced turkey sandwich under Mornay sauce with bacon and tomato, broiled until it bubbles — was created at the Brown Hotel in the 1920s and remains the city’s signature dish.
Bourbon is the other half of the story. Most of the world’s bourbon is made within an hour or two of the city, and Louisville’s own distillery row put working distilleries back downtown. Bourbon turns up in the cooking as much as the glass.
The Highlands and NuLu are where the newer restaurants cluster. Derby season transforms the city in early May, and if you are visiting then, book everything well ahead.