When my wife moved here eight years ago I took her on a driving tour of our entire city. It took an hour and a half. What can I say? I am from Louisville. I love Louisville. When I’m not showing people how great our city is, I love telling people how great our city is.
There are incredible people in every corner of Louisville trying to make it better. We are a diverse community with great stories to tell. An underlying reason for bringing Louisville Distilled to life was, and is, a desire to share stories about those people, businesses, organizations and places that make Louisville, Louisville.
The goal was to create a weekly online magazine to promote, celebrate, and connect the diverse parts of our community in an authentic voice that captures and reflects Louisville’s unique culture. As the name suggests we want to distill the very best of Louisville for our readers each week, in unexpected ways. My mission was to focus on the good in our community, the essence of Greater Louisville. Louisville Distilled would become a resource to outsiders with little or no awareness of our fair city, but would also be relevant to locals who may not realize the variety of what our community offers. The hope is that by highlighting some of the lesser-known assets in our city we can encourage our readers to explore beyond their comfort zone.
Louisville’s story is intimately connected to the talented people that make our community unique. Louisville Distilled celebrates that talent. One story from last year that stands out was Core Design Owner Jeremy Semones reimagines space and shipping containers.
Jeremy is a former sous chef, self-taught welder and business owner who enjoys cutting up and reusing old shipping containers. He’s the kind of talented guy that exemplifies the idea that a person can take an idea, with a little hustle and a lot of hard work, and turn it into a business. His story and others that we’ve told throughout the year tell a fuller story of our community.
Our features aren’t limited to people. We highlight emerging neighborhoods and places. Maybe it’s an intersection, a park, an art installation, or a block of streets that represent the heart of a respective neighborhood. We focus on the local businesses building communities and turning neighborhoods into destinations.
Regardless of whether you are from here, came here, live here, or live elsewhere we hope that you are encouraged and inspired by the incredible people that love this city as much as we do.
A few thank yous:
Our partners have been incredibly supportive and patient. To Louisville Downtown Partnership, Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI), Brown-Forman, Louisville Water, Louisville Forward, Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Kentucky Center, Office of Globalization, University of Louisville, and Jefferson Community and Technical College, we cannot do what we do without you, thank you.
Thank you to all of our contributing writers and photographers. We work with some of the best in town, and were honored to win our first Society for Professional Journalists 2016 Metro Journalism Awards for first place in Education Reporting for Erica Rucker’s feature Samuel Plato Academy gives new life to restoration trades.
Our Managing Editor Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman is amazing. We would not be here without Melanie, and I am beyond grateful to have her working on this with me.
The last year has been an adventure, but our adventure is only beginning. I encourage you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @lvilledistilled. If you have story ideas let us know. If you want to write for us or take photographs, let us know. You can reach us at feedback@louisvilledistilled.com.
Thank you for reading and giving us the opportunity to share Louisville’s stories with you.
Most Sincerely,
Publisher
