A Short Trip Through the Bourbon Trail - Woodford Reserve & The Stave Restaurant

Welcome to the second stop in our 'A Short Trip Through the Bourbon Trail' series. This post covers our time at Woodford Reserve & The Stave Restaurant. To view the entire series and follow along, click here.

The third second stop of the day was the Woodford Reserve Distillery. This was about a 20 minute drive from Wild Turkey.

Woodford Reserve
The Stave Restaurant
Summary

Woodford Reserve

As you pull up to the Woodford visitor center, the first thing you notice are the historical rickhouses down the hill. The last time we visited, all of them had a stone exterior. It was a bit of a surprise to see some of the buildings having been retrofitted with a brick exterior.

We didn't do the tour of Woodford on this trip, but we have done it before and it's a must do on the Bourbon Trail. This trip, we came for the gift shop. This gift shop is one of the best we've seen. Right on par with Four Roses. Here, you're able to personalize your own bottle as well as find special editions not available anywhere else. Some examples are Woodford Single Barrel, Double Double Oaked, and the rest of the normal Woodford lineup. Unfortunately, they were completely sold out of the Woodford Master's Collection.

This was busiest distillery we went to so we highly recommend making reservations ahead of time.

If you get to go, the hours are:

Tours
Mon – Sat 10AM – 3PM
Sunday 1PM – 3PM
Closed Sundays (January – February Only)

Gift Shop
Mon – Sat 9AM – 5PM
Sunday 12PM – 4:30PM
Closed Sundays (January – February Only)

The Stave Restaurant

By this part of the day, we were starting to get famished. The original thought was to eat at Woodford, but after a quick Google search, we found The Stave only 5 miles away so we decided to check it out.

When we drove up, the place barely seemed big enough to be a restaurant, but they had a surprisingly decent amount of seats. In the summer, they are able to use the porch/breezeway for additional seating, but we went in January so this wasn't open. 

The bourbon selection was off the charts and the food was amazing. I had the Pickled-brined Hot Chicken with chips (pictured below) with a burnt orange old fashioned. The Duchess had the Kentucky Hot Brown, which was very rich paired with the same Burnt Orange Old Fashioned. 

I can honestly say, no trip to the Bourbon Trail in the future will be complete without a stop at The Stave. 

Summary

Stops 3 and 4 of the day were a success. We picked up a 350ml bottle of the Woodford Reserve Double Double Oaked and we found an amazing restaurant that will be a staple on future trips. Just one more stop and then home! Be sure to check back next week for the first micro-distillery we've ever visited when we toured Boone County Distillery. 

Written by Mark Roehl