Monday, June 22, 2026

It’s Monday and time to recap our weekends with Sarah and Holly!

Thursday was “get ready for company” day! Blogging friends turned real life friends Jenn and Marilyn told me back in the spring that they wanted to do a road trip to see me and my city again and this was the weekend.

I stopped in at Elderberry Provisions to get pimento cheese and chocolate chip cookies as requested – lol.

They arrived almost at my bedtime Thursday evening! I rallied and met them at Kilwin’s ice cream and ordered cake batter flavor and it was mediocre at best. I think I ate 5 bites.

They had live music in the shopping center where it’s located and it was a simply gorgeous night!

I was rewarded with a beautiful sunset for being out “so late”.

Friday morning dawned and I had work to do. The ladies were coming over to tour the casa de coffee and cocktails, see Eddie Otis, and eat some brunch.

I had gift bags at their places of a few little treats, including the chocolate chip cookie and I served roasted paprika red potatoes, a green chili egg bake, a simple salad with homemade dressing, pimento cheese and crackers, and a yogurt parfait. I also made a Bundt coffee cake which we didn’t get to until the afternoon.

After brunch, we went to three little boutiques at a nearby shopping area and then I showed them some points of interest including this cool building facade. Here is some history if you are interested; many senior portraits are shot here!

I took them down to Clayton and Crume leather goods shop for two reasons. Mason, my son, works there and two, my former student started the business with his college roommate while in college. The store is gorgeous and it’s in Muhammad Ali’s former practice gym.

Mason using the leather debosser to monogram…

We took a rest around 3:00 and then met up again for a progressive dinner of sorts. I had two goals – to go to different places than where they had been before and to fulfill their Louisville requests they had shared with me.

We started at Steak and Bourbon for a cocktail and appetizer.

The restaurant was dark and cool! Even though the weather was gorgeous, none of the places had great patios so we were inside.

I had one of the best cocktails I’ve had in a long time – a blackberry smash with bourbon (when in Rome).

THE butter candle:

You get a complimentary roll per person with a candle made from butter and beef tallow in the middle that beautifully melts as it burns.

I also got steak fries for the table made with beef tallow that are out of this world. The outside is like a fried creation and the inside tastes almost like mashed potatoes or a baked potato.

Next stop was a “speakeasy”. This was the term for the prohibition era secret entrance bars. There are several in Louisville in the downtown area but there is one pretty close to my house called The Black Rabbit.

You knock above where it says “Phone down. Eyes up.”

The bartender opens the door.

It’s very dark and the seating is couches and chairs.

I had an espresso martini with a rabbit in cocoa powder.

And, for our final stop we went to an Italian restaurant called Grassa Gramma. I took these photos from the internet because my photos were too dark.

It is an incredible interior with such detail. It’s like Disney/Epcot designed it. You will never believe it’s in my Kroger shopping center!

They put us in one of these cool booths and it’s really quiet and we could hear each other!

My photo:

I had an amazing salad and ordered an amazing pizza called “the pig and fig” with an Italian bacon and fig preserves along with caramelized onion and arugula.

After dinner, we went to Kroger to shop for Kentucky made products like bourbon smoked pepper and bourbon based bbq sauces.

Saturday, we went to the river where Captain Tom (my husband) had the boat all ready to go! We saw downtown Louisville from the water and we also saw Indiana.

We stopped at Captain’s Quarters for lunch – the server comes to your boat to take your order. Tom and I split pulled pork nachos.

It was a gorgeous boat day and we came in around 3:00. We showered and took naps and then met up again at a Mexican restaurant with three floors. The third floor is adults only and that’s what we requested! My friend Heather met us there. I got a pineapple and shrimp salad.

Then, we headed to an outdoor concert in the same neighborhood as the Mexican restaurant.

It was a full day!

We said our goodbyes after a couple of hours at the concert.

Now, Hostess Amy needs a nap!

What did you do this weekend? Did you also have gorgeous June weather?

Amy