Loving Louisville at T4G

This week, several thousand people will converge at Louisville’s YUM Center Arena for Together for the Gospel. It’s a great opportunity to hear from men like Matt Chandler, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, and others about Gospel centrality. It’s also a great opportunity for the attendees to enjoy and impact our city.

With that in mind – let me make a few suggestions. First, some ways to enjoy our city, and second, some ways to love our city.

Enjoying Louisville

Louisville has a very good food scene, and downtown Louisville has a number of great places to hit for memorable meals.

Within walking distance from the arena, you can hit:

• Doc Crows – spectacular barbecue and very, very fresh oysters
• Impellizeris – great local pizza joint
• Bearnos by the Bridge – another great local pizza place
• Proof on Main – on the pricey side, but the best burger in town for lunch and a killer breakfast. It’s located inside the 21C Museum Hotel, which also houses a 21st Century Art Gallery that is worth exploring. Don’t miss the bathrooms. Seriously.

A longer walk or short drive away is Nulu – an emerging strip of restaurants and art galleries on East Market Street. Well worth the walk for:

• Harvest – my current favorite restaurant in the city, featuring locally-sourced food. Almost everything on the menu is from local, all-natural farms, and it’s impeccably prepared.
• Please and Thank You – Coffee Shop and Vinyl Records. For your inner hipster.
• The Mayan Café – authentic Mayan cuisine. Go for lunch and get the Huevos Montulenos. Thank me later.

For a slightly longer drive, you can head over to the Highlands or Crescent Hill. These neighborhoods are also loaded with great restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques. If you’ve got a car, it’s worth the drive for:

• Quills Coffee – For fans of Intelligentsia Coffee or Crema Coffee, high-end coffee and espresso with meticulous attention to detail.
• Hammerheads – Located in the Germantown neighborhood (close to downtown), with literally nothing else around it to interest you. This place is a foodie destination. The building is a dump. The interior looks like a dive bar, but the food will blow your mind. Lamb Ribs. Duck Fat Fries drizzled with truffle oil. Barbecued Duck Breast. Pork Belly sandwiches. Louisville’s best kept secret.
• Seviche – Expensive, but delicious South American cuisine. Chef Anthony Lamas has been nominated for multiple James Beard awards, and recently won top honors in a reality-TV program called Extreme Chef.
• Cumberland Brews – This hippie brewpub serves great pub food.
• Why Louisville – A store to pick up Louisville t-shirts and knick knacks for your family, and Lebowski Fest paraphernalia. What is Lebowski Fest? It’s an annual conference for the maniacal fans of the Coen brothers film, The Big Lebowski. Louisville loves Lebowski. Keep your eyes out for black bumper stickers with phrases in white like, “Nice Marmot”, “What Day Is It?” and “Mark it eight, dude” – you’ll see many of them, and they’re all from Lebowski Fest.

The conference schedule is ordinarily packed full, but I also don’t know anyone who sits through 12 hours of lectures and panel discussions. So when you need an escape, you should head to one of our parks. Go to Cherokee Park, designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead, who also designed Central Park in New York, and enjoy a 2.2 mile run around the scenic loop. Or take a short break from the conference with a walk down at Waterfront Park. You can’t miss it – just exit the arena and head towards the river.

Loving Louisville

While you’re here, let me encourage you to help the churches in the city by joining us in loving it well. Here’s a few ideas:

• Leave the city better than you found it. Pick up your trash. Look for opportunities to love the people you encounter.
• Be kind. There’s nothing more embarrassing than stories about pastors who are rude to servers and hospitality workers. Be kind to the folks at your hotel, at the YUM center, at crosswalks and on the highways.
• Tip well. Servers at restaurants and coffee shops survive on tips. Be generous because people notice. If you can’t afford to eat somewhere and tip the server appropriately, then you can’t afford to eat there at all.
• Don’t Support the Sex Industry in Louisville. There’s an urban legend that goes around about pastor’s conferences. Supposedly, porn purchases in hotel rooms and clientele at strip clubs and massage parlors go through the roof. Don’t be that guy. Help us in our fight against the abuse and objectification of women by staying away from these vices. If you’re tempted, stay in a group. Confess your temptation. Get some help.
• Pray for Louisville. While you’re here, pray for our city. Pray for revival here as the gospel is preached by so many great pastors and great churches.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the conference and enjoy the city!