Watch Hill Proper

There is a particular kind of difficulty for a non-drinker in Kentucky, and Watch Hill Proper is the sharpest version of it. The restaurant sits in Norton Commons, the new-urbanist town centre in Prospect, and its entire proposition is American whiskey: it advertises the most extensive American whiskey menu and the largest bourbon collection in the country, alongside a curated wine list and an elevated dining room. If you are not drinking, this is the room your friends will choose and you will dread.

What makes it workable is that the bar carries Spiritless Kentucky 74 — the non-alcoholic bourbon distilled in Louisville by a company founded by three mothers who wanted their evenings without losing their mornings. Kentucky 74 is made by reverse distillation, taking the alcohol out of a finished distillate while keeping the caramel, vanilla and oak, and it is the single most useful bottle a Kentucky bar can stock for a non-drinking guest. Ordering from it in a room built around the largest bourbon collection in America is a different experience from ordering a soda, and the staff here are used to the request rather than surprised by it.

Two practical notes. First, the bar and the kitchen keep different hours — the bar runs an hour past the kitchen, to 11pm Tuesday through Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday, with last kitchen seatings at 9:30pm and 10:30pm respectively — so a late arrival can still sit at the bar. Second, the Tuesday Night Music Series is the best entry point if you want the room without the tasting-flight atmosphere: live sets give the evening a shape that is not the whiskey list. Norton Commons is about twenty-five minutes from downtown, and Fleur de Tea, the alcohol-free tea house, is a few streets away in the same development.