Louisville Old and New: Either Way, It's a Knockout

Steve Wilson, who owns 21c with his wife, Laura Lee Brown, was the second. The couple have been key players in the revival of downtown. "Louisville has a tradition of upholding tradition," he said. "Now we're trying to bring another dimension to all that."

Talk of changing the culture was my cue to head down West Main and around the corner to the Ali Center. Open since last November, it makes great use of high-tech video presentations and interactive displays about the boxer's life, passions and principles.

A powerful introductory film tells how Cassius Clay, during his childhood and adolescence in this city's predominantly black West End, took up boxing and began reciting wisecracking poems, twin passions that would follow him through life. Using a replica of his rustic training camp in Deer Lake, Pa., as a backdrop, the film explains how the driven young athlete combined thought and brawn to develop his unique approach. Afterward, visitors can get a mini-lesson on how to tangle with a punching bag.

Many of the biographical details will be familiar to Ali fans: his conversion to Islam, his outspoken civil rights advocacy, his refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam War. One display details the six principles of Ali's life: respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, spirituality and giving. Other exhibits detail his humanitarian missions and his public battle with Parkinson's disease.

For this visitor, the video replays of Ali's greatest fights, complete with witty commentary, were addictive. The most memorable was "The Greatest," a dramatic 13-minute multimedia production covering the peaks and valleys of his boxing career that's broadcast on the floor of a 20-foot ring. One highlight is a flashback to the Rumble in the Jungle, the 1974 bout between George Foreman and Ali for the world heavyweight title. After several rounds of punishing Ali, the heavily favored Foreman began to fade.

And then, Foreman recalls in an on-screen interview, Ali "leaned forward and uttered the most frightening words I ever heard: 'Is that all you got, George?' "

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Was a stay in Louisville possible without a trip to Churchill Downs? Apparently Louisvillians don't think so. The 131-year-old track may be best known as the site of May's vaunted Kentucky Derby, but it hosts regular horse racing in season (late April to July 4 and during November). When I arrived on a slow Saturday, a crowd was already cheering on a field of horses.

A novice to this sport, I headed first for a "backside tour," offered by the neighboring Derby Museum. The hour-long guided van excursion went to the stalls where the horses live and where hundreds of trainers, owners and jockeys are at work trying to groom a new Secretariat, the beloved Kentucky Derby champion. A guide offered tidbits on the value of dozens of horses (ranging from $30,000 to $500,000), on how the horses are fed and cared for, and how, upon death, the bodies usually are cremated -- but the head, heart and hooves are buried.

Even in midsummer, the Churchill Downs complex, expanded last year to include a total of 1.4 million square feet, had an air of festivity and ritual. The stadium, which can hold just under 52,000 spectators, was a third full. Yet everyone -- bettors next to onlookers, young couples in jeans aside old codgers in fishing hats and dark glasses -- was up on their feet, letting go a roar as the horses thundered past.

Besides fine horses, this region also produces the lion's share of the world's bourbon. A string of major distilleries (led by Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, Four Roses and Heaven Hill) are within a 90-minute drive of downtown, an easy excursion. I chose Maker's Mark, set on 630 bucolic acres in the village of Loretto, about 58 miles south of downtown. It's one of the smallest and most intimate and exclusive of the distilleries.

Distiller Denny Potter guided me across the Maker's "campus," a lovely expanse of rolling green hills dotted with quaint, wooden 18th-century buildings with fire-engine red shutters. Complimentary tours are given three times on most days. As we walked, Potter explained the principles that set bourbon apart from other liquors. Most important, it must be made in the United States and must be matured in oak barrels that have been charred inside.

While dipping my hand in a wooden bucket to take a taste, I encountered Bill Samuels Jr., the wily, gray-haired son of Maker's founder Bill Samuels. He offered tales of how his father first tinkered with ingredients to come up with the recipe, how his mother dreamed up the unique red wax seal on the bottles, and how he spent much of his youth as an apprentice to Jim Beam and other iconic figures in the world of bourbon.

What really makes Maker's different is its highbrow image, Samuels acknowledged. "We somehow got rid of the image of bourbon as Kentucky moonshine," he said, "and turned it into a drink the folks order, straight up, on the rocks or in any which way in fancy bars and restaurants."

Back in Louisville for dinner that night, I settled into the tony Proof on Main. An impromptu conversation with fellow diners Janet Witzleben and Wayne Villanueva, baby boomers who moved here 11 years ago, centered on how Louisville rates on the hipness scale. Witzleben, a New York native, gave the city's restaurants many stars and wrote down a list of her favorites. The arts scene, especially theater, is impressive, too, she said.

But I still had a choice to make.

Eventually, I decided to straddle the city's two cultures with a side order of grits and a main course of striped bass with stewed artichokes and marinated tomatoes. And my bourbon? With a twist of lemon peel, of course. I was beginning to get the hang of Louisville.

Gary Lee will be online to discuss this story Monday at 2 p.m. during the Travel section's weekly chat.