On December 2, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced that the Bourbon and Food Work Group would be formed to make Louisville the top destination for food and dining in the world. As the press release stated: “The 36 member group—comprised of local chefs, bourbon distillers and tourism officials—has a bold mission…to develop a plan to promote Louisville as the best culinary and beverage city in the world.” (source [4])
You can see the full list of Bourbon and Food Work Group Members here [4], and you may notice something is missing. As several [5] twitter [6] users [7] pointed out to us [8], there is no representation for either local breweries or local coffee on Mayor Fischer’s tourism task force.
Certainly bourbon is a hometown favorite, but we can’t forget about the beer. Louisville has many amazing breweries, including Against the Grain [9], Apocalypse Brew Works [10], the Bluegrass Brewing Company [11], and Cumberland Brewery [12]; not to mention the bars that pride themselves on serving a large selection of fine craft beer: Nach Bar [13], Holy Grale [14], Four Pegs [15] and the Louisville Beer Store [16], to name a few.
The staggering omission of anyone involved in Louisville coffee shops also surprised us—Louisville is peppered with fantastic independent coffee places like Sunergos [17], Quills [18], Please & Thank You [19], Highland Coffee [20], Java [21], Heine Bros [22], and Argo Sons Coffee [23].
So why are there no craft brewers or coffee shop owners on the task force? Though certainly there are many well-loved and respected Louisvillians on the Mayor’s Bourbon and Food Work Group, it seems odd that local coffee and beer have no representation. Surely these tourists will need somewhere to get a cup of joe in the morning. Certainly, we can’t all drink only bourbon all the time.