Down One Bourbon Bar — Restaurant in Louisville

With the expansion of Louisville's downtown, there are a number of excellent restaurants filling up the area. Unfortunately, Down One is not one of them. It's an ok place to dine. We were part of a decent sized group that had dinner there, allowing for a sampling of the menu. The appetizers (we had a few) set the trend. They were more of a taste than an appetizer. One of the items, labeled "experimental meat", was the most talked about, but not necessarily the best tasting item. The cheeses were by far the best item on their sampler. Not a good sign for a restaurant that seems to pride itself on its meats. By price and by self-designation as a higher quality restaurant, they relieved themselves of the obligation of providing bread to the table. The food did not live up to this higher standard. The menu seemed to be focused on pork belly. Don't have a personal taste for it? With their fairly narrow menu, you'll be relegated to what read as a unappetizing burger. My meal, the Three Little Pigs (a pork sandwich topped with pork belly and bacon) was undersized, on a plain bun, with no side (although, I opted out of the slaw that was intended to be placed atop the sandwich). The sandwich itself was ok. Nothing to rave about, but better than a fast food burger. It was lunch sized portion at a dinner sized price. This seemed to be the general consensus around the table. The food was ok, but nothing worth coming back for. One of the unique aspects of the place seemed to be pickling items you would not normally expect to be pickled. If you are a fan of pickling, you might enjoy this. I did not. They do have a large selection of bourbons, but nothing that stands out above most other places in Louisville. Their bourbon flight pairings (1 oz pours of three different bourbons) were unimaginative and typically included one bourbon you would want to drink along with two others you really didn't care about. The draft beer selection was short, but had quite a few specialty beers. The physical layout of the restaurant was attractive. We dined in a private room which you entered through a phone booth. This allowed for easy conversation. Most of the remainder of the dining area was adjacent to large overhead doors that could be opened up during the warmer months. Our waitress was polite and prompt, but not well educated in the different offerings on the menu. The chef was very personable and excited to explain some of the different pickled items on our appetizer. Overall, it was an ok experience, but I would not go back for dinner. If I were to find myself downtown for a business lunch (and the vendor wanted to pick up the tab), I might consider...

Called Down One to place a to go order for lunch; I hadn't yet tried it but had been wanting to. First call went to voice mail, second call was answered and I was allowed to place my order. After placing my order I was told they would take it over to the 321 deli next door and that I could pick it up there. Apparently 321 is who cooks all the food. Sort of clunky but not a big deal, just didn't know the process. I ordered a burger and according to the website, every sandwich comes with a side of "house fried chips". Seems simple. I waited a few minutes and went down to pick up my food, paid and was handed a bag with my food in it. I asked if the chips were also in the bag and was told "no", nothing more. So I questioned further and informed them that the menu said all sandwiches come with chips. Cashiers response: "Did you look online?" Me: "Yes". Cashier: "Ya, that's not true." This entire interaction was extremely poor customer service and not something you expect from a place charging $8.00+ for a hamburger (which is nothing to write home about in itself). How hard would it have been to say "sorry about our mistake, I'll get those chips for you"? Do yourself a favor, avoid paying for over priced lack luster food with poor customer service on top of it. To recap, my first and last time visiting both Down One Bourbon bar...

TL;DR Service is so terrible that it completed negates the awesome bourbon list

As soon as we arrived we witnesses someone being literally carried out drunk and lifeless. It's a bar, and these things happen, but it's relevant later on so I'm going to mention it.

We were seated and ignored for 30 minutes. When someone finally arrived, I made the mistake of asking a question about the bourbon list. The waitress said she couldn't answer the question and would be back in a minute with someone who could.

10 minutes later

A second server comes over to us and starts from the beginning. I didn't bother asking any more questions. Just ordered blindly.

Our food came out a few minutes before our appetisers. The food wasn't bad. I was about halfway finished eating when my first glass of bourbon came out. Which brings me back to the black out drunk guy being carried out. How long had he been there to be served enough drinks to get that drunk? I'm decent at math and my best guess is about 8 full days.

Also, while eating on the patio, a giant raccoon casually climbed down a tree and ran under the deck floor.

We are just passing through the city, but if by chance we ended up back in this area, we'd never consider coming back. I'd love to chalk it up to one bad night, but other reviews say...