The HerKentucky Guide to Speakeasy Louisville: Evan Williams Speakeasy Experience
Welcome to the first installment of the HerKentucky Guide to Speakeasy Louisville! On Thursdays throughout the fall, we'll travel back to the Jazz Age in the Derby City, when the nation's Prohibition laws didn't quench the collective thirst for Kentucky Bourbon. We'll channel our inner Daisy Buchanans and dance the Charleston at Louisville's finest establishments. And, of course, we'll take a sip or two of the native drink that kept the city's spirits high. Today, we'll visit the Speakeasy at Evan Williams Distillery.
The Evan Williams Experience, in the heart of Downtown Louisville's Whiskey Row, is unlike any other distillery tour you'll ever visit. Of course, you get the nuts and bolts of whiskey-making, as you do on other tours, but you also hear a lot about the label's history. That's only natural, since Evan Williams himself -- the Welsh politician, businessman, and distiller -- was Kentucky's first commercial distiller.
In keeping with the historical focus, the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience recently added a Speakeasy Experience tour, which transports visitors back to the days when the dreaded Volstead Act drove liquor sales underground.
Image courtesy Evan Williams
Bourbon Historian Rick Bell portrays a Roaring Twenties Barkeep in a charming period lecture that immerses the visitor into the days when alcohol production and consumption ceased in American. Well, officially ceased in America.
Rick Bell, image courtesy Evan Williams
The half-hour tour runs Friday-Sunday at the Evan Williams Distillery, 528 W. Main Street in Louisville. The $12 admission fee includes three shots of bourbon -- one is the ultra-premium 23 year-old, which retails for over $400 per bottle. For fans of good bourbon and the era of flappers and philosophers, it's a can't miss event!