Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/453014
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.15 61 C Highlands Wine Country By Elizabeth Myers Photos by Chris Witzke THE SPREAD had Coulter was always a beer guy. Before he and his wife Lauren opened Uptown Art studios (where you can paint and drink wine) in Louisville and New Albany, he couldn't tell you the diference between a white and a red. But he noticed wine's popularity at Uptown Art. Everybody was downing it. Which made him notice the lack of wine-centric restaurants in Louisville. Which sent the Coulters, who met at pharmacy school in Georgia, on a vino venture, opening LouVino on Bardstown Road last summer. Coulter's mom bought him a Scratch 'N Snif wine book for good luck. Te 29-year-old brought in Danielle Greeson-Bramblett as assistant GM and wine coordinator. Greeson-Bramblett moved impromptu from California to Louisville several years ago. "I fnished my master's degree and needed a drink. I loved bourbon, so I came to Louisville," she says. "Within a month (after my visit), I sold everything I owned in Cali. I quit my job, got rid of my car, and moved out here with two suitcases and $400." She slept in the airport her frst night here. Te next day, while walking down Cherokee Road with her suitcases, she saw a dog wearing a sweater, something she'd never seen in California. She chatted with the dog's owner. Tree days later, she was crashing on her new friend's couch. Greeson-Bramblett started working in restaurants at 15. Te 30-year-old is now studying for level two (of four) on the Certifed Sommelier Exam. "When we frst made the wine list, we were walking blind," Greeson-Bramblett says. She estimates she tried more than 700 wines while determining what to serve at LouVino, which ofers 58 wines by the glass, 80 by the bottle. Te list has fun with adjectives — "frisky," "broad shouldered," "potentially funky." "I come from a big family, and there was always wine at a family gathering," Greeson-Bramblett says. "It just helps bring people together." Tavis Rockwell, LouVino's executive chef, divided the menu into fve categories: snacks (loaded baked potato tots, for instance), land (braised short rib Gruyère mac and cheese), aquatic (grilled oysters), veggies (wild mushroom trufe risotto) and sweets (popcorn with caramel, apple crisp and sea salt). "I wanted to make everything approachable. Wine's intimidating enough; we couldn't have two intimidating menus," Rockwell says. "I could make everything on the menu seem all hoity-toity — oooooh, it's crispy flet of chicken with pepper chicken supreme sauce. No! It's chicken tacos with pepper gravy." Executive chef Tavis Rockwell says 85 percent of LouVino's patrons are women. Wait times have been as long as two hours. "When you open, Louisville gifts you with like four to six months of just insanity," he says. You can usually fnd Rockwell in the sweltering 13-by-20 kitchen. The 28-year-old says he knew he wanted to be a chef when he was 6 or 7. He cooked full meals for his mom, "the casserole queen," when he was 9. He moved to Louisville from rural Indiana to go to culinary school at Sullivan University and helped open Corbett's, eventually taking over as executive chef at Equus (both owned by Dean Corbett). On his move to LouVino, Rockwell says, "I wanted to do something I could stamp my name on more." LouVino 1606 Bardstown Road 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, till midnight Friday and Saturday. Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.