I won’t cop to false bravado, because there is no particular hill in this life that I’m willing to die atop, but I quite enjoy being a congenital impediment to unchallenged cosplay, which I define as adults pretending to be something they’re not, and choking social media with the consequences.
You may disagree, and that’s fine; it’s why we have the internet to distract ourselves from reality. As such, let’s glance at a post by Zak Owens at Louisville Business First.
Bourbon speakeasy to open beneath Hotel Distil
A new speakeasy concept is set to open beneath one of Whiskey Row’s most prominent bourbon-themed hotels.
The 1933 Society, a 60-seat, bourbon-focused speakeasy, will debut May 5 below Hotel Distil, according to a news release. The venue will feature a discreet entrance at First and Main streets and offer a mix of lounge and bar seating designed to evoke the Prohibition era.
Oddly, 1933 is the year when speakeasies became largely obsolete, although admittedly, this was long before TikTok.
But I digress, and Owens helpfully lists other recent local examples of speakeasy cosplay.
- Chicken Cock Whiskey’s rebranding of its NuLu speakeasy as The Coupe
- Louisville Slugger Field’s addition of a “speakeasy-style bourbon lounge behind home plate”
- Secret Recipe bakery, with a “hidden-door speakeasy called Sole in the basement of Derby City Lofts”
- Colt Club Lofts, “planning an additional bourbon-focused speakeasy”
As fictional detective Nero Wolfe was known to exclaim, “pfui.”
I will persist in this valuable educational function (and courageous personal crusade) of noting that we cannot truly have nice things if words have no meaning.
This article from 2025 recaps my argument. I oositively welcome rebuttals, and in fact, if you put yours into words, I’m forever happy to devote a post to it, right here in this space.
But first: Spare me the speakeasy, tearbender.
Edibles & Potables: Spare me the “speakeasy,” tearbender
Allowing for the possible exception of Mick Jagger, we’re all destined to awaken one morning and find that we’ve pole-vaulted past the invisible line in the sand that delineates prevailing fashion.
Whether or not we ever cared about “cool” in the past, from this point forward the choice is summarily withdrawn, and popular culture no longer comforts.
Rather, it jeeringly antagonizes us.
Examples that remind me of my eligibility for social security include the...Read more
