Our next adventure in Louisville was visiting the Troll Pub Under the Bridge for dinner. We found this listed on a “Top Things to do in Louisville” article and Angel immediately became intrigued. The Troll Pub is an underground bar in a building literally under one of the many bridges that crosses from Louisville, Kentucky to Indiana.
On the way into Louisville for dinner, we stopped in New Albany, Indiana to check out a few stores we had read about online – The Odd Shop, Earth’s Art, and Raven’s Roost Boutique. Unfortunately, The Odd Shop was closed but we did enjoy shopping in Raven’s Roost and Earth’s Art (a store FULL of fossils and crystals) and although we didn’t buy anything because living in a tiny house isn’t exactly conducive to buying many things, it was definitely a struggle to not purchase EVERYTHING. The town was a little run down and quiet but still fun to walk around for a while.
The Troll Pub sits in the basement of a beautiful old building across from one of the sporting arenas. Once you see Louie the Troll on the corner of 2nd and Washington, head down the stairs to enter the pub. The building used to house the Gault Hotel from 1834 until it was destroyed by fire in 1865. At that time, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad built their headquarters on the site and occupied the building until 1907. The area then became known as Whiskey Row as several distilleries set up shop on the street. In 1937, the Ohio River overran its banks and flooded the area, ending the use of the space. In the 1970’s when the building became an artist colony, the space that is now the Troll Pub was filled with dirt and concrete. Finally, in 2010, an investor began converting the space into what it is today and the Troll Pub Under the Bridge opened in 2011.
The pub is deceptively large with many rooms – getting to the restroom was kind of like walking through an urban/industrial maze. We ordered the Fried Chicken and Waffle Sandwich and the Kentucky Hot Brown (an open faced turkey sandwich with bacon, tomato and Mornay sauce that originated in Louisville at the Brown Hotel). We also had the Troll’s Drunken Cheesecake for dessert – a slice of cheesecake with a chocolate and caramel drizzle and served with a shot of bourbon. The food was really good and our waiter was AMAZING. He was so friendly and helpful and had a ton of great information about the history of the surrounding area and nearby attractions.
On the way into Louisville for dinner, we stopped in New Albany, Indiana to check out a few stores we had read about online – The Odd Shop, Earth’s Art, and Raven’s Roost Boutique. Unfortunately, The Odd Shop was closed but we did enjoy shopping in Raven’s Roost and Earth’s Art (a store FULL of fossils and crystals) and although we didn’t buy anything because living in a tiny house isn’t exactly conducive to buying many things, it was definitely a struggle to not purchase EVERYTHING. The town was a little run down and quiet but still fun to walk around for a while.
After dinner at the Troll Pub we decided to explore downtown Louisville a bit to help digest the insane amount of food. We happened by the 21C Museum Hotel – a hotel with a museum in the lobby and a giant golden Statue of David out front in all his shiny, naked glory. It was evening time and we were surprised to find the museum still open and even more surprised to find out that it was free once we walked in. We got to see an amazing variety of art including crochet pieces, paintings, sculptures, mixed media and even a cool digital exhibit that put your image on the wall under a cascade of letters that collected on your body to spell out words and messages.
November 3rd is National Sandwich Day and we decided to celebrate by trying Which ‘Wich for the first time. A large part of traveling to new places is trying different foods that we don’t have back at home in Ohio. On this trip, we also got to try Zaxby’s and several small local restaurants and restaurant chains.
One of those new places we got to try was one of the El Nopal locations when we went to dinner with one of my best friends from high school and his son on our first Friday night in town. They had moved to the Louisville area several years ago and were a big factor in the decision to make this one of the stops on our travels. We ordered the Fajitas for two for John and I to share and THEY WERE THE BIGGEST ORDER OF FAJITAS I HAVE EVER SEEN. We both ate our fill for dinner that night and had leftovers to eat for another meal over the weekend. It was insane and very reasonably priced and we got to enjoy hanging out with our friend who we haven’t seen in a LONG time.
On Saturday, we decided to make a day of exploring Southern Indiana- specifically the small town of Corydon. Corydon, Indiana actually served as the state capitol of Indiana before it was moved to Indianapolis in 1825. We walked around the little town square on which still stands the first State Capitol Building and stopped in a few small stores, including Butt Drugs. Aside from having a really great name, Butt Drugs is a pharmacy that also has an adorable old fashioned soda fountain inside. We enjoyed a Shirley Temple (made with ice cream so it was super smooth and amazing) and a Strawberry Phosphates (strawberry fizzy drink) while shopping. We also stopped into a little jewelry store called Capitol Jewelers that I must take a moment and praise right now.
Before we had left Ohio (like two weeks exactly before) I snapped the chain on my necklace. This necklace is very special to me (Angel) as I inherited it from my Great Aunt Roseanne after she passed away. The necklace is a simple gold chain holding a diamond “Journey” pendant from Kay Jewelers. I took my broken necklace to the Kay location at the Polaris Mall in Columbus and, while they didn’t have a chain that I wanted in stock, they promised they would order it and rush it so I could have it before leaving town. Fast forward to two days prior to moving when I called THEM to check on my order and was informed by the first associate I spoke to that they had no record of any order for me in the system but that she would speak to the person that helped me and have them get back to me. When the second associate returned my call, she let me know that the chain I wanted was unavailable so the order was canceled. I had explained my situation and my attachment to this necklace to them and was assured they would take care of me and they never even bothered to follow up with me (I think they honestly just forgot about me). So anyway, we decided to look at the available chains at Capitol Jewelers and I told my story to the two ladies who were working that morning. We didn’t find a chain in stock at the length I wanted but they offered to order it. I told them I was only in town one more week before moving on to our next stop and they promised they would have it for me. I was very skeptical as I had heard all of this before but they actually came through! My necklace came in the following week and was actually a touch too long so they cut it down for me right there the same day and I was wearing it again that afternoon. If you happen to be in the area- give them your business!!!
Anyway, we had brunch reservations at 1816 Modern Kitchen so we walked over there after the jewelry store for brunch. This was a cute little farm-to-table spot that was highly rated online. After some confusion over the lunch menu vs the dinner menu (apparently they don’t offer their lunch menu on the weekends and instead just serve the dinner menu all day) we ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes as an appetizer and the General Tso Pork Belly and Not Ya Momma’s Meatloaf for our entrees. The tomatoes were HEAVENLY but the pork belly as a little tough and the meatloaf was dry. The rice that came with the pork belly was amazing though and I was tempted to lick the plate clean to get every last bit.
We definitely needed some exercise after lunch so we drove to the nearby Indiana Caverns. It turns out Southern Indiana is full of caverns and caves! We got on the very next tour departing and were soon being led down some very steep ramps and an insane amount of stairs into the ground. The caverns were very humid but a comfortable temperature. These caverns are relatively new, having only been opened to the pubic in 2013. This cave is largely undisturbed and you can still see remains of several animals laying exactly as they were discovered, perfectly preserved in the mud that fills the cave. Our guide pointed out amazing rock formations and remains as we walked deeper and deeper into the cave system. At times, the ceilings were so low that even Angel (5’3’’) had to duck so you can imagine John crab-walking his way through the passageways. This system also contains an underground stream which widens enough for them to run boats through a portion.
On the boat ride at the very back of the cave, the guide turns off the lights and it is absolute and total darkness. No light finds its way into the cave – which I kind of expected- but the thing that surprised us the most was the absence of sound when the guide asked everyone to be silent for a moment and then killed the boat’s motor. Because of the dampness of the walls and the stillness of the water – there is NO SOUND there at all. The silence is actually deafening. We were told that there were not even bats this deep in the cave because their echolocation does not work there. That doesn’t mean that there was no life, however. Our guide did point out the pure white, blind creatures that live in the water – salamanders, and crayfish. With this cave system, there is only one tour entrance and it is the same as the exit. This means that once we reached the deepest point of the tour, we had to turn around and walk back. Back through the narrow, low passages. Back through the super cool rock formations. And back up all of those stairs and steep inclines we had used to get down there. On top of being out of shape, the moisture of the cave also made breathing difficult and Angel ended up having to use her inhaler once we got back home. She maintains that it was totally worth it, though.
On Sunday, we woke up and decided that we hadn’t done enough walking on Saturday so we headed back to Louisville. On the way, we stopped for breakfast at Wild Eggs in New Albany. The place was PACKED. We had made a reservation and even with that we had about a half an hour wait for our table. They were incredibly short staffed and the kitchen was backed up and we think our original server quit in the middle of taking care of us (not because of us, though, we were understanding and nice) because we never saw her again and a new server introduced herself to us and took over partway through our meal. The Wild Mushroom and Garlic Scramble and the Kalamity Katie’s Border Benedict were really good – but the blueberry muffins took the cake. They were so soft and delicious and actually chockfull of real, juicy blueberries. This is a local chain so check them out if you happen across a location – hopefully your service experience will be better than ours but you won’t regret the food.
After fueling up for the day, we drove the short distance to the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. Neither of us are super into baseball but we both played baseball/softball as kids and John has a love of woodworking and we decided that Louisville Slugger was just such a famous American brand that we had to check it out. All of the Louisville Slugger bats are made there in Louisville, Kentucky – from the bats that you can purchase at your local sporting goods stores to the ones used by your favorite Major League player- using wood from Pennsylvania.
It was a very interesting experience to see how those trees are turned into those iconic bats. John enjoyed seeing the wood in its various stages and watching the giant lathes and other machines at work. We got to hold a few billets and a few specialty bats and got to take home a small souvenir bat at the end of the tour. The museum was also more interesting than I expected. They had artifacts from some of the greats including Shoeless Joe Jackson and Joltin Joe DiMaggio. They even had a few things about the All American Girls Professional Baseball League and an exhibit that showed you what it was like to face down a 90mph fastball.
These couple of days were on the exhausting side of tiring so I think that is enough for today. Next time we will show our trip to the Louisville Zoo, an abandoned island park, a high end distillery tour, and more next post. Hope to see you there.
