The downtown restaurant scene has come on strongly in the last decade. The redeveloped Distillery District west of downtown holds a cluster of bourbon-influenced kitchens, breweries, and pizza spots. The Jefferson Street corridor is a denser stretch of mid-range restaurants. Beyond the obligatory bourbon, look for hot brown (a 1920s open-face turkey sandwich invented in Louisville but on every menu here), beer cheese (with crackers, originated near Lexington), and the bluegrass farm-to-table cooking that defines fancier kitchens.