The B-Line – the inviting, award-winning collection of craft distilleries, bars, and restaurants that offer Northern Kentucky visitors their own unique bourbon experience – is growing.
Applications to join The B-Line are being accepted through August 31, with the final decision on new members scheduled to be made by mid-September.
Launched last year, The B-Line promotes bourbon tourism through four Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour® Distilleries, five bars, and five restaurants in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties as well as Mason and Gallatin County. The B-Line complements Northern Kentucky’s recent designation as an Official Gateway to the popular and world-famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail® while providing a boost to the region’s booming tourism industry.
“The reception to The B-Line has been tremendous, not only from Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati residents, but from visitors as well, including those who take the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour® into Northern Kentucky,” said Julie Kirkpatrick of Vice President of Sales & Marketing of meetNKY |Northern Kentucky CVB. “So, the time has come to expand The B-Line.”
Bars and restaurants can apply for B-Line inclusion by filling out the application posted at here.
Criteria for The B-Line includes:
Operation: Establishment must have been opened consistently for at least one full year and be locally owned in the Cincinnati region or Commonwealth of Kentucky. The establishment must also have a local Northern Kentucky address.
Philosophy: Bourbon should be at the center of your culture. While we also love great beer, wine and other spirits, The B-Line is all about Bourbon. If you are a bar, you should be able to call yourself a true bourbon bar and if you are a restaurant, bourbon should be part of your culinary focus. And of course, without saying, if you are a distillery, you should be making America’s Native Spirit.
Restaurant Criteria: Must stock at least 50 labels of Bourbon with a preference for Kentucky Bourbon; Must stock all local varieties of The B-Line distilleries (currently New Riff, Boone County Distilling. The Old Pogue Distillery, Second Sight and The Neeley Family Distillery); Offer Bourbon Flights and specialty Bourbon cocktails; Host Bourbon related events when available; Have at least one signature Bourbon infused menu item; Complete Stave and Thief Establishment Level Certification through Moonshine University (completed before start of calendar year); be full engaged and active with Trip Advisor, Yelp and Google.
Bar Criteria: Must stock at least 100 labels of Bourbon with a preference for Kentucky Bourbon; Must stock all local varieties of The B-Line distilleries (currently New Riff, Boone County Distilling. The Old Pogue Distillery, Second Sight and The Neeley Family Distillery); Offer Bourbon Flights and specialty Bourbon cocktails; Host Bourbon related events when available; Complete Stave and Thief Establishment Level Certification through Moonshine University (completed before start of calendar year); be full engaged and active with Trip Advisor, Yelp and Google.
The B-Line most recently expanded in February with the addition of Neeley Family Distillery, located in Sparta, and Coppin’s at Hotel Covington.
And in late June, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour® – heralded as the nation’s first and only tourism attraction showcasing the flourishing artisan distilling movement – expanded and now includes five Northern Kentucky distilleries: New Riff, Newport; Second Sight, Ludlow; Old Pogue, Maysville; Boone County, Independence; and Neeley Family, Sparta.
The bourbon boom in Northern Kentucky will be celebrated Oct. 4th and 5th with the Kentucky’s Edge Festival in Covington and Newport. Billed as the “quintessential bourbon event”, The Kentucky’s Edge Festival will attract new visitors to the region to experience all the B-Line stops as well as the entire culinary and spirit scene in the region.
“October is when all of the major distilleries do big releases, so to have a bourbon event in October is really a natural time to talk about the importance of the bourbon industry in the Commonwealth, Kirkpatrick said.
