comparison:Louisville and Austin

[N. Olikee]

Again...............this is comparing Apples to Oranges.............nothing at all in common.

[RedRabbit74]

Originally Posted by Orgetorix

Welcome to most of the United States.

I wasn't implying it was common, I was responding to the often barked about fact the Kentucky boarders multiple states. The while the locals always turn their noses up at Indiana and Ohio, often saying there is no reason to leave the city for anything either of those states offer, unless it's a Southern Indiana pumpkin in the fall.

More to the point, if this gentleman wants to enjoy the seasons, lacking a beach (and I'm definitely counting ones attached to larger lakes) and/or a nice ski slope is of some concern.

[RedRabbit74]

Originally Posted by Orgetorix

- I'm not going to argue much with you on the theater point, except to point out that The Louisville Film Society has recently started the Dreamland Film Center.

- Urban Outfitters is in plans to bring a store to Bardstown Road, but who wants it? How can you complain about a chain like BWW but ding the city for lacking big retail chains?

- If you think Ear X-tacy is the best or only good thing about Bardstown road, you haven't spent much time there.

- Pizza: Have you tried Coals? Garage Bar? Papalino's? Mozza Pi? I'd put any of them up against pizzas anywhere else in the country. That doesn't even include any of the other non-pizza restaurants who still make a darn fine pie.

- BBQ: Weaker than the pizza scene, I'll grant you, but Smoketown USA, Doc Crow's, Holy Smokes, Bootleg, and FABD all do some decent 'cue.

-Thank god for that, However, Louisville's snubbed little sister Lexington definitely still has the indie movie advantage with a similar club which uses the Universities facilities, and the lovely Kentucky Theater.

-I think you're choosing to misunderstand the nuance of my points about Urban Outfitters, et al. and Buffalo Wild Wings.
The first point was to illustrate that while people are throwing around phrases like "the Austin of the southern midwest" (which sounds like your city is playing a game of advanced Twister, "City move to Blue midwest whenever the rest of Kentucky is involved! City move to Green deep South just in time of Derby Week!") clearly the big "hip" chain stores that capitalize on trendy young adults with growing incomes are mysteriously absent from Louisville. I believe I used the word "vulture" implying that these stores will be attracted to cool cities where they can get fat on the young professionals who want to be urbanely fashionable money. I'm not saying these chains are cool, I'm saying if this city were truly the bees knees in terms of hip, these chains would be there.

Buffalo Wild Wings is less selective, it's pretty ubiquitous in most cities and towns across the nation. Yet somehow it's thriving on Louisville's most bragged about indie street...

-http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111126/NEWS01/311260052/1003/After-26-years-keeping-Louisville-weird-ear-X-tacy-s-cash-registers-open-one-final-time?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s

ECHO - Trinity High School - Candlelight vigil held as Louisville music icon ear X-tacy closes
I think these two articles neatly cover Louisville's relationship with Ear X-tacy. Oh, and isn't a Panera taking over the spot?

-I'm pretty sure I can't really talk about Louisville's dining scene at length before I take a dig at the over inflated ego locals have about their restaurants, so I'll just say this: Louisville has many very delightful breakfast places, but in general I've been disappointed by the meals I've had there. To put it bluntly as a Texan now living in an place rich with Italian-American residents, the pizza and BBQ served to me in Louisville is at best serviceable and at worst unrecognizable. It makes me want to weep.

[N. Olikee]

Alrighty.................can't believe I'm doing this!, but I'm going to stick up for LKY regarding the restaurants comments.

When I moved there ages ago from CA.............there was really no place to eat a decent meal. Over the course of a couple of decades, it got better............but, still unremarkable.

It is most certainly (to this day) not a "foodie" town by any stretch of the imagination no matter who is trying to spin that. BUT, it is better than it was.

There are some restaurants I actually miss like Wild Eggs. I miss Seviche. I miss going to places that are kinda/ sorta good but are reasonably priced (like they know they are only kinda/sorta good.) I miss August Moon..............even when they totally screwed up my order.

On the other hand, LKY doesn't do Tex/Mex or Mex anything "right." Not going to find BBQ to die for there. Generally speaking, I find KY food lacking.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by RedRabbit74

-Thank god for that, However, Louisville's snubbed little sister Lexington definitely still has the indie movie advantage with a similar club which uses the Universities facilities, and the lovely Kentucky Theater.

-I think you're choosing to misunderstand the nuance of my points about Urban Outfitters, et al. and Buffalo Wild Wings.
The first point was to illustrate that while people are throwing around phrases like "the Austin of the southern midwest" (which sounds like your city is playing a game of advanced Twister, "City move to Blue midwest whenever the rest of Kentucky is involved! City move to Green deep South just in time of Derby Week!") clearly the big "hip" chain stores that capitalize on trendy young adults with growing incomes are mysteriously absent from Louisville. I believe I used the word "vulture" implying that these stores will be attracted to cool cities where they can get fat on the young professionals who want to be urbanely fashionable money. I'm not saying these chains are cool, I'm saying if this city were truly the bees knees in terms of hip, these chains would be there.

Buffalo Wild Wings is less selective, it's pretty ubiquitous in most cities and towns across the nation. Yet somehow it's thriving on Louisville's most bragged about indie street...

-http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111126/NEWS01/311260052/1003/After-26-years-keeping-Louisville-weird-ear-X-tacy-s-cash-registers-open-one-final-time?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s

ECHO - Trinity High School - Candlelight vigil held as Louisville music icon ear X-tacy closes
I think these two articles neatly cover Louisville's relationship with Ear X-tacy. Oh, and isn't a Panera taking over the spot?

-I'm pretty sure I can't really talk about Louisville's dining scene at length before I take a dig at the over inflated ego locals have about their restaurants, so I'll just say this: Louisville has many very delightful breakfast places, but in general I've been disappointed by the meals I've had there. To put it bluntly as a Texan now living in an place rich with Italian-American residents, the pizza and BBQ served to me in Louisville is at best serviceable and at worst unrecognizable. It makes me want to weep.

Your post is at best misinformed, and at worst, just outright wrong. I'd take the food, culture, and art scene in Louisville any day over your town of Milwaukee. And this is coming from a half Italian Chicago born. Louisville's restaurant scene REALLY is THAT good. I will admit that two of the city's weakest points on its restaurant link are probably BBQ and Pizza. However, the pizza scene has markedly improved and I would rank pizza from Spinelli's Papalino's, and especially Coal's with some of the top pizzerias I have had in any mid sized city.

Louisville does not need some red lettered chain to make it hip. In fact, not having some of these chains make it even more hip. Why? Most counterculture is antichain like this. What makes Louisville so cool is that no one knows ho cool it really is, not even most of its own residents. I think living in other mid sized towns makes you realize it more. Now it would be nice to have an urban outfitters. I mean, they even have one in South Bend, IN. Literally, with the exception of ND, that town is a hole. Would you say because it has landed Urban Outfitters, that South Bend is hip?

[Cattknap]

We moved here 3 1/2 years ago from So. California. We love it here. I do find that the summers are definitely not 3 to 4 months of horrible heat - in fact, I'm surprised at how many summer days are in the low to mid 80's and not every day is humid and certainly not as humid or relentlessly hot as Austin. The fall is the best time of year - this year's fall was long, mild and wonderful. We had mild weather until about a week ago when the rain/gloom started....just over the last few days the temps have come down and winter is almost here. The winters are quite cold and that will be a change from Austin (but we don't get much snow). We live about 25 minutes from downtown Louisville in the burbs, but we have everything here we need on a daily basis. The burbs are nice - cleaner, quieter, less crime, less traffic, bigger pieces of property - but you don't get that downtown/walking neithborhood that many like.