I live on Bardstown Road. If you live in Louisville, that means something, but for everyone else, let me explain.
Bardstown Road (hereafter referred to as simply Bardstown) is amazing. I’ve only lived on Bardstown for four weeks, but I know it is wonderful, with many levels of wonderful I have yet to unwrap. It’s kind of like when you’re falling in love and you know it’s the person of your dreams, but you’re still discovering why.
One reason Bardstown is amazing is that it’s filled with fascinating things:
- I’m intrigued by the Greek restaurant which boasts a lunch buffet for $7.99 and will at some point delight my palate.
- All of the boutiques provide outfit inspiration just from their window displays, and the ones offering clothes designed by local artists make me want to get a sewing machine.
- Normally I’m able to resist the vintage jewelry shop immediately in front of my house, but when Marja puts a display out on the sidewalk, I’m forced to turn my eyes from its glories.
- One Asian restaurant advertises something in its window called “THE EGG ROLL MACHINE,” which also begs to be sampled at some point as well.
- I’m not a guitar player, but the shop across from our place impressed even me with the variety of it’s merchandise.
I could go on all day about the Hookah cafe, the frozen yogurt place (which has been sampled), the blown glass shop, the Indian market, the palm reading place with cafe tables out front (not too sure what that’s all about), the African baked goods store, a myriad of coffee shops, the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen (which has also been tried, praise the Lord!), the micro brewery where you can drink beer outside ONLY if seated at their tables, and so much more!
It’s a delight to walk my dog amongst so many interesting things. It’s a delight to drive down my street and discover a shop I missed seeing up until that point. It’s a delight that hand in hand with all those fascinating shops is an oil-change garage, a CircleK, two different vacuum cleaner stores in apparent competition, a Kroger, dentists, real-estate agents, and a quick-mart. These completely normal businesses lend such an air of credibility to the coolness of the neighborhood.
I’m sure you can imagine, with so many quirky and thrilling things to see and do on Bardstown, that all of Louisville comes to hang out there. No, I’m not exaggerating. ALL of Louisville comes to Bardstown, especially on Saturday nights. And that’s something else that makes me love my street.
On any given day, I appreciate the people I see on Bardstown. I enjoy the mix of hippies, heavily tattooed/pierced people, upper-class hipsters, toothless old guys, and pink haired girls. But that’s just the people who live in my neighborhood.
When the street gets crowded with the people who’ve put on their best to enjoy a night out on Bardstown, I love it here even more. I love the smells coming from the restaurants and how every parking spot is taken, even on the side streets. I love seeing people with that “I feel cool, just because I’m on Bardstown,” look. I love the excitement that fills the air. I love that people are excited to come and hang out for a bit in a place that I live all the time.
And it’s a good thing I love it, because I’m writing the rough draft of this blog at 1:50 AM on a Sunday morning, since the Bardstown revelers didn’t stop shouting (probably drunken) conversations in the alleys behind our house until about 10 minutes ago. Hope you enjoyed my street folks… now go home to bed.