The stories of Louisville's best-remembered restaurants are chock-full of legendary locations, huge personalities and well-loved recipes. Find out how a silly joke about "Hillbilly Tea" became an international sensation. Discover the origins of Casa Grisanti and why there would be no Queenie Bee without it. Enter the "World of Swirl" surrounding the rise and fall of Lynn's Paradise Café. Enjoy menus, memories and more of favorites found across the Derby City through the decades. Author Stephen Hacker serves up this history and more, complete with photography by Dan Dry and John Nation.

Louisville was home to fine cuisine long before the famous restaurant rows on Bardstown Road, Frankfort Avenue and East Market Street. Mazzoni's served the area's first rolled oyster. At the C-54 Grill, guests dined inside a remodeled aircraft, and Kaelin's prepared its classic cheeseburger. Hasenour's sauerbraten and Hoe Kow's war sui gai are two dishes that still make local mouths water when mentioned. Authors Stephen Hacker and Michelle Turner revisit the vivid personalities, celebrated spaces and unique recipes that made Louisville's historic eateries unforgettable.

Louisville boasts many award-winning fine dining restaurants, but long before Derby City mastered upscale cuisine, it perfected the diner. Explore Louisville's tasty offerings with local food writer Ashlee Clark Thompson as she surveys the city's impressive variety of greasy spoons from the Highlands to the West End and everywhere in between. Enjoy home cooking done right at Shirley Mae's Café and Bar, breakfast at Barbara Lee's Kitchen, lunch to go at Ollie's Trolley and so much more. Packed with insightful interviews and helpful tips that only a local can provide, Louisville Diners is a delectable look into the best the city has to offer.

A complete reproduction of the Vintage Cocktail Book "The Ideal Bartender" originally published in 1917. Tom Bullock became to be a well-recognized bartender of the time at St. Louis Country Club, where he served for government officials and other elite members. G.H. Walker, grandfather of George W. Bush was one of the big fans of Bullock's cocktails and wrote the indroduction. After publishing this cocktail book, Prohibition made Bullock's profession illegal, yet bartending culture was stronger than ever, bartenders were well paid and tipped for supplying public a illegal substance of alcohol. Bullock moved frequently and changed professions during the dry period, but kept bartending at St. Louis Country Club where people could still drink. The country club did not keep the records on him working there. Feel free to take a look at our complete Reprint Catalog of Vintage Cocktail Books at www.VintageCocktailBooks.com

Have you ever walked past a building or location in your city and thought, “I wonder what that used to be?” Well, if you live in Louisville, you’re about to get some answers to that question in This Used to Be Louisville. From “the old Sears building” that continues to be used as a directional touchpoint to a downtown theater that has been frozen in time, you’ll get a tour of these places paired with stories that will inform and sometimes surprise. In the process, it may just get you wondering about the many people a hundred years ago that traversed those places in a completely different context. Local author Kevin Gibson turned his natural interest in comparing present to past into a book that looks into a wide variety of locales that contribute to the city’s legacy. And when it’s all said and done, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of Louisville’s history and culture, from major historical landmarks to neighborhood businesses to the Louisvillians who made these places important.

Chef Edward Lee's story and his food could only happen in America. Raised in Brooklyn by a family of Korean immigrants, he eventually settled down in his adopted hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where he owns the acclaimed restaurant 610 Magnolia. A multiple James Beard Award nominee for his unique patchwork cuisine, Edward creates recipes--filled with pickling, fermenting, frying, curing, and smoking--that reflect the overlapping flavors and techniques that led this Korean-American boy to feel right at home in the South. Dishes like Chicken-Fried Pork Steak with Ramen Crust and Buttermilk Pepper Gravy; Collards and Kimchi; Braised Beef Kalbi with Soft Grits and Scallions; and Miso-Smothered Chicken all share a place on his table. Born with the storytelling gene of a true Southerner, Lee fills his debut cookbook with tales of the restaurant world, New York City, Kentucky, and his time competing on Top Chef, plus more than 130 exceptional recipes for food with Korean roots and Southern soul.

For twenty years, diners in the Bluegrass have been able to satisfy their cravings for Ouita Michel's sustainable, farm-to-table cuisine at her many acclaimed restaurants. Each restaurant—from Wallace Station to Holly Hill Inn—features dishes that combine Kentucky's bounty with Michel's celebrated vision. Diners can enjoy traditional southern staples like buttermilk biscuits, country ham, and Po-Boy sandwiches, or opt for unique variations on international favorites and American classics. Now, readers around the country can experience what makes Ouita Michel a culinary and cultural treasure. Just a Few Miles South serves up the recipes that patrons of Michel's restaurants have come to know and love, including the Bluegrass Benedict breakfast sandwich, Ouita's Sardou Panini, Wallace Station's Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Soup, and Honeywood's Hoecake Burger. Some dishes offer creative twists on classics, like the Inside Out Hot Brown, the Wallace Cubano, or the Bourbon Banh Mi. Throughout, the chefs responsible for these delicious creations share the rich traditions and stories behind the recipes. When you can't get down to your favorite place, this book will help you bring home the aroma, the flavors, and the love of fresh foods made with locally sourced ingredients—and share it all with friends and family.

Sara Havens is The Bar Belle for LEO Weekly and writes about everything from the Louisville, Ky., nightlife and hangover cures to the latest in bars, cocktails and watered-down American swill. A personality-driven column that runs every other week in LEO, The Bar Belle was created in 2006, which is, ironically, the year Sara's mother stopped reading the paper. The Bar Belle was named Best Column (for a circulation under 50,000) at the 2011 AltWeekly Awards. This book features 100 of her best columns from 2006-2010.

Originally created at its namesake the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, the Hot Brown began as turkey on bread, covered with Mornay sauce and topped with tomato wedges and two slices of bacon. Today, this delicious sandwich has been developed into an entire industry of Hot Brown fries, pizza, salads, and much more. Did the Hot Brown have humble beginnings as a tasty way to use up kitchen scraps, or was it invented to ward off hangovers–scandalous since the first Hot Browns were served during the Prohibition? Chef Albert W. A. Schmid shares the legends that surround the dish and treats readers to an exceptional collection of recipes for the legendary sandwich and hotel cuisine scrumptious enough to whet any appetite, including the Cold Brown (served during the summer), Chicken Chow Mein (the Brown Hotel way), and Louisville-inspired cocktails such as Muhammad Ali Smash.

Winner, 2019 James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year in Writing Finalist, 2019 IACP Award, Literary Food Writing Named a Best Food Book of the Year by the Boston Globe, Smithsonian, BookRiot, and more Semifinalist, Goodreads Choice Awards “Thoughtful, well researched, and truly moving. Shines a light on what it means to cook and eat American food, in all its infinitely nuanced and ever-evolving glory.” —Anthony Bourdain American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and out of the push-pull come exciting new dishes and flavors. But for Edward Lee, who, like Anthony Bourdain or Gabrielle Hamilton, is as much a writer as he is a chef, that first surprising bite is just the beginning. What about the people behind the food? What about the traditions, the innovations, the memories? A natural-born storyteller, Lee decided to hit the road and spent two years uncovering fascinating narratives from every corner of the country. There’s a Cambodian couple in Lowell, Massachusetts, and their efforts to re-create the flavors of their lost country. A Uyghur café in New York’s Brighton Beach serves a noodle soup that seems so very familiar and yet so very exotic—one unexpected ingredient opens a window onto an entirely unique culture. A beignet from Café du Monde in New Orleans, as potent as Proust’s madeleine, inspires a narrative that tunnels through time, back to the first Creole cooks, then forward to a Korean rice-flour hoedduck and a beignet dusted with matcha. Sixteen adventures, sixteen vibrant new chapters in the great evolving story of American cuisine. And forty recipes, created by Lee, that bring these new dishes into our own kitchens.