Bar Culture in Louisville, an oral history project

In January Amy Evans of the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) spent some time enjoying bars and conversation in our fair city as part of an oral history project on bar culture in Louisville. The project she's working on is for the SFA's upcoming Blue Grass and Brown Whiskey Field Trip to Louisville, July 11 to 13.

A snapshot of her Louisville bar exploits was posted today to Serious Eats in a write up by fellow SFA-er Melissa Hall.

Louisville is awash in bourbon. And beer. It's a drinking person's town, due in no small part to the state's bourbon heritage and the city's nickname-namesake brewery, Falls City. This is where the Old Fashioned was invented. It's where Al Capone dodged the law during prohibition, ducking out of the Seelbach Hotel through secret passageways. And it's where barkeeps plied their customers with rolled oysters and bean soup to keep them coming back. Louisville's private clubs, hotel bars, and neighborhood taverns are rich with drinking history and lore, and there's always time for another round.

In January Southern Foodways Alliance oral historian Amy Evans bellied up to many a bar in Falls City, chatting up bartenders, bar owners, and bar patrons, gathering their stories one drink at a time.

Interviews conducted by Evans will appear on the web later this Spring.