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Small Business Bestie
Entrepreneurship is hard, and sometimes we could use a friend to walk a mile in our shoes. Small Business Bestie is here to provide that friendship, support, and inspiration that small business owners need from time to time.
Small Business Bestie
40: Igniting a Passion for Local Gems: Erin Goins Journey with Bites of the Bluegrass
How did a food tour in Montreal spark a thriving business in Lexington, Kentucky? Hear from Erin Goins, the founder of Bites of the Bluegrass, as she shares her journey from a hopeful teacher to the creator of Lexington’s most engaging food and history tours. Erin’s story is one of passion, discovery, and the drive to showcase her city’s hidden treasures. This episode of the Small Business Bestie podcast takes you through her transition, the creative spark ignited by travel, and her mission to support local restaurants while unraveling the rich tapestry of Lexington's heritage.🐎❤️🔥🔍
Erin invites us on a tour through Lexington's past and present, featuring everything from the Downtown Walking Food and History Tour to the bourbon-focused distillery district trek.🥃 Each tour offers a unique perspective, whether it’s the entrepreneurial spirit celebrated in the Cocktails and Bites tour in the East End or the tingling tales of the Haunted Tour. Erin’s ventures are more than just tours; they’re stories waiting to be discovered, embodying the soul of Lexington.🌅 She also gives us a sneak peek into future events and collaborations, including plans for festive pop-ups and mixology classes that promise to enchant locals and visitors alike.
Throughout our conversation, the theme of community pride and inclusion echoes strongly, highlighting Lexington as a melting pot of stories and cultures. We celebrate the remarkable women who have played pivotal roles in the city’s development and Erin’s vision of organizing tours that champion women-owned businesses. Michelle Smock of Cultivate Accounting reinforces the importance of supporting small businesses like Erin’s, encouraging listeners to join the tours and engage with the vibrant Lexington community. Whether you're a local or planning a visit, this episode promises to enrich your understanding and appreciation of what makes Lexington truly special.💙
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Small Business Bestie is edited by Bourbon Barrel Podcasting
Welcome to the Small Business Bestie podcast. I'm your host, michelle. We are creating community and coaching women entrepreneurs and we are so glad that you're here. Let's meet this week's Small Business Bestie. Let's meet this week's small business bestie. Erin Dolenz from Bites of the Bluegrass is here with me today. I could not be more excited. I have been fangirling Erin for a long time, so it was a beautiful meeting. I was with my friend, raina, and I saw you from across Keeneland and I was like that's Erin, I have to know her. And she was like oh, girl, I know her, let me introduce you. So I'm so glad that Raina was able to make that connection. Thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me, Michelle. Yes, we were at Keeneland. What a beautiful day it was. I was there with a whole pack of fun people. It's a great social thing to do in Lexington, that's for sure A must.
Speaker 1:A must, and I knew instantly that you and I could be friends because when you turned around, you had on sunglasses that are identical to my 15-year-old son Wears the same heart-shaped sunglasses. He's got great taste in my opinion.
Speaker 2:I love those. I feel like it expresses how I feel on the inside. I'm genuinely a happy person and, yeah, what's wrong with showing that right up front?
Speaker 1:And it's warm and welcoming. No, I loved it so much. Yeah, absolutely. It conveyed that like warm, welcoming, like I felt like I didn't need to even shake your hand. I could have just hugged you and you would have been right, rolling right with it. That's exactly how I feel. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:So, Erin take just a minute and tell everybody about Bites of the Bluegrass. Sure, bites of the Bluegrass are walking, food and history tours, and I've got lots of different ones now. They're meant for visitors, of course, as a great way to connect to our city and create a fond memory, but they're also great for locals. It's a real pride of place experience. Even the biggest history buff. You're going to find out things that you absolutely did not know. I have spent lots of time doing some digging in a way down a rabbit hole I'm never going to get out of at this point. So it's just, it's kind of a magical thing to walk around downtown Lexington and hear the stories that are pouring out of those buildings and listening to footsteps of incredible people and events that have occurred downtown, and allows you to get a whole new lens on the city.
Speaker 1:Well, I can attest to that. I have been a Lexingtonian now for just over three years and I did one of your tours last fall and was like there is so much I need to learn. I was so excited and pumped up when I left that tour. Just, you know the little nibble of information that I got.
Speaker 2:Good, that is the whole idea. And then, of course, along the way, we have all these great restaurants in downtown Lexington, which is super walkable and you know, all these folks somehow managed to make it out of COVID, and hospitality is just so incredibly important. Answers the big question of, like, what are we having for dinner tonight? Right, I want to be able to support all the hardworking people in hospitality, particularly in the downtown space, and be a nice connector for all the folks staying in those hotels so they know what to do during the rest of their trip and, again, just walk away having a true understanding of what our city is all about, because, like many places, we get stuck with some unfortunate stereotypes and I want people to know that we do wear shoes here and we have Dennis and we're actually a really inclusive, special city, and that's the goal.
Speaker 1:Well, you're nailing it, way to go.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so before we started recording, we almost started dabbling into the how did this even become a thing for you? And I was like we got to start recording because I am so intrigued, I can't wait because what an interesting life path to take and I want to know all about it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's definitely not one that was planned by any means. My degrees are Sociology, history and a Master's in Education from UK. I thought I was going to be like Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds and change the world teaching history, and it wasn't quite that experience. So I actually did not teach. I ended up in college admissions afterward, selling around the tour, of course, and that's where I met my husband, greg.
Speaker 2:I helped him with some short-term training schools, which he still owns today, that teach dental assisting, medical assisting trades, and then stayed home for a number of years raising kids, really found a love of food tours throughout traveling. In fact, my husband and I went on a food tour in Montreal about I don't know 12 years ago and I was like what a cool way to connect to the city. I found out things I never would have known, visited restaurants I certainly wouldn't have known about. So, as we've traveled, that's become our MO. I book a food tour on the first day. Also, we can ask our tour guide what to do with the rest of our time. It's a great way to connect.
Speaker 2:So I've gone on like 50 food tours and I was sitting on one in Nashville in February two years ago and our youngest daughter I was homeschooling after COVID and she was putting her foot down about going back to school and I thought what am I going to do with all this energy? And so I looked at my husband and the food tour guide on this tour and was like I want to start a food tour in Lexington, also realizing in that moment I Googled it because I was like why have we never gone on one in our own city? I'm sure there's lots we don't know about. And it turns out there's a ton I didn't know. So I just decided I was going to do it and I started to stalk some restaurants and talk them into it, and now I've got 45 restaurant partners and we've got little tours set up all over the city.
Speaker 1:That's incredible 50 food tours in different cities first of all. Yeah, I'm like that's amazing.
Speaker 2:There are. I just did one in Chicago. I did several tours actually in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it's just such a cool way to connect and learn about a city through its food and certainly find out things that you just wouldn't know by stumbling along by yourself. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Do you have like a bucket list of cities that you like know that you want to go on food tours in these specific cities, or is it just like where the wind blows is where you're going?
Speaker 2:Where the wind blows, Because I actually there were a couple of food tour companies that I won't name that I really kind of emulated in the beginning or use them as kind of a model, and I have since traveled to those cities to specifically go on those food tours and they weren't that great. But there have been so many surprise ones that I have gone on thinking, oh I'm here, I'll just do a food tour, and they've been phenomenal. So I just, wherever I'm visiting, I'll just look for whatever tours I can hop on, and I've gone on drag bus tours. I just went on a gangster tour, Of course. Architectural boat tour I went. It wasn't a tour but it was drunk Shakespeare. In Chicago I went on a regular walking food tour. I love a tour, Michelle, I love a tour.
Speaker 1:Well, I did not know that I loved tours. I think that your tour was honestly the first one I've ever been on. That was like an organized tour of any sort and I was like where have I been my whole life?
Speaker 2:That's right, All you do is buy a ticket and show up and somebody else does all the rest. The food's magically there as you go. It's all figured out, it's effortless. And magically there as you go, it's all figured out, it's effortless. And I really wanted to create a reason for people to come downtown. I think a lot of locals get stuck in the same routine of just the same places they're going to all the time. So this takes you out of that and allows you to be a tourist in your own backyard. People sometimes think it's hard to park downtown. I tell you where to park, you just buy the ticket, you walk in and I will do the rest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's also like I had instant friends for the night.
Speaker 2:That's it. You know, with this group of people, it's in a warm and welcoming environment. One of my favorite things to say to people is I'm so glad you're here. In fact, Michelle, I'm so glad you're here today. I mean, who doesn't want to hear that? You know why. I mean, who doesn't want to hear that? You know why not just hit the pause button for a few hours and go on an afternoon dinner party with some people who are pretty cool, because they've decided to do that as well. Like you already have one thing in common, so there's obviously a lot to build on from there.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. So you mentioned that you have multiple restaurant partners. Yeah, and I know that you have other guides that work for Bites of the Bluegrass, because you were not my guide that day. Tell me about the different types of tours that you're offering. I know you have several selections, sure.
Speaker 2:So I started with the Downtown Walking Food and History Tour and that one runs Tuesday through Sunday during the warm months. For winter we go back to just Thursday to Sunday, but we are out there in 10 degrees or snow, it doesn't matter, and honestly the cold ones are some of the most fun. It feels great to be walking around downtown and seeing the ice skating going on and walking past the tree and it's still, you know, plenty busy with, like shopping and sport, sporting events, and you know it's nice and we're only outside for, you know, 10 minutes at a time at most anyway, and we keep the route a little closer to the courthouse during the winter, but each day during the warmer months it goes to different restaurants. So, like Thursdays, for instance, we take it to the West End, we go over down Second Street on Jefferson and visit those restaurant partners and talk about that history along the way, whereas Sunday we're going to like Dudley's and Cordova now and we're hitting up Gratz Park, so we're getting that history.
Speaker 2:It's a terrible business model because I have to have a million scripts and people have to get trained in lots of different ways, but I like doing it that way because there are so many stories to share and it keeps it really interesting, for sure, and it gives people a lot of reasons to come back yeah, I was about to say I had no idea that there were different routes for that same down that tour, because I've thought about going back and I was like, well, maybe I should wait and do you know one of the other tours that you offer.
Speaker 1:but now that I know different things are different routes.
Speaker 2:Yes, the world is my oyster, that's right, and if you get me, who knows what we'll talk about, because I have all of this stuff from all the tours in my head and I mean there's a lot to talk about that's specific to Christmas even.
Speaker 1:And I have the benefit of having the memory of a goldfish. So even if you told me today like some really cool fact, I will forget it by Sunday.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm the opposite. I have the memory of an elephant, except for I can tell you all kinds of years, but I cannot tell you my kids' birthdays half the time. But I can tell you what year Lexington was founded, that's for certain. But yeah, every day is different stuff. And then there is a tour in the distillery district that happens on Fridays and Sundays and that's focused around distiller drama and there's tons of that. James E Pepper was a fascinating guy, but also Ella Pepper and you know E H Taylor, who became James E Pepper's guardian when his father died at 15. And he was a third generation distiller himself. There's history that's tied to Woodford Reserve and just the story of how Amir Pei has gotten the whole thing going again is incredible. All focused around a heavyweight fight by Jack Johnson and James Jeffries. And anyway, it's fascinating to talk about the history of bourbon and all the players involved as we bounce between restaurants over there and we go to half the businesses on Friday, the other half on Sunday, but always James B Pepper and always Crank and Boom.
Speaker 2:Then there is a tour on our east end and it is called Cocktails and Bites, echoes of the East End. This is where you know those iconic KA posts at Keeneland where we met one another. Those don't belong to Keelan. In fact they belong to a racetrack that started in 1829, the Kentucky Association track. That once stood down there on 65 acres between 5th and Race Street and it was all the black horsemen who lived around the track and black horsemen who dominated the sport until Jim Crow pushed them out by the 1900s. But the very first Derby winner was Oliver Lewis. He's buried at African Cemetery no 2. You've got Jimmy Winkfield, james Lee Perkins, isaac Murphy. These stories are incredible. It's all about resilience on the East End to me, and entrepreneurship. I don't know if you know this, but you're in a city where Jif is headquartered, michelle. If you know nothing else, this is important. 188 billion peanuts are processed here every year.
Speaker 2:And it all started as a dream of a young Lexington kid who grew up on Orr Avenue, wt Young. He left behind so much philanthropy around this city. They saved our opera house. He I built the high street YMCA. He threw down a big chunk of change to start the William T Young library that kids affectionately call Willie T's on UK's campus. He created the largest book endowment in the nation. That was recently surpassed, but it was by Harvard, so I'm okay with that. He created the scholarship fund in Transy to keep all the smart kids here, but my favorite thing he did was the quote here he was always found saying, and that was that he felt so lucky to have been born in the United States, but even luckier to have been born in Lexington, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2:Down there, as we talk about that and John G Epping, we visit Epping's, which was originally a bottling works company and turned a town where guys were trying whatever kind of concoction they could come up with and just throwing it against the wall to see what would stick, and just really talking about the original industrial purposes of many of those buildings. And just really talking about the original industrial purposes of many of those buildings. Lexington is a city that's great for reuse, and a lot of buildings started out as an entirely different thing, and that's what we talk about. On that end, what's next? Oh, I have a haunted tour that I just launched in September of this year, and boy, that is a lot of fun there's a lot of history that haunts this city Is the Haunted Tour downtown as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we start out in the old Fayette County Courthouse. That place has faced off good against evil for more than 100 years. In fact it dates back to 1898. It was built by Henry A Tandy, a man who was born in nearby Estill County and slaved, and his very existence defied the brutality of our city's past, especially when considering that Cheapside, one of the largest slave trading markets throughout the South, once stood just right outside those walls. And we certainly get into all of that history.
Speaker 2:And as we go we visit the Thirsty Fox. We have this like Kentucky smorgasbord from Chef Weta Michael, the queen of Kentucky cuisine, then there's a blood orange sangria. Then we go to Cocktail University and this is a space on the second floor of the Grove which was originally our city's very first opera house. It dates back to 1849. It opened on New Year's Day in 1850 to a concert, but it was a big day Taylor Swift era's concert kind of day, january 23rd, when PT Barnum and Tom Thumb debuted there along with Jenny Lind. The second floor was Space L300. It was the Grand Hall and it saw so many performances, including even one by John Wilkes Booth in October of 1862, during a time when he was wearing a dead lady's hair.
Speaker 2:Anyway come on a tour to find out more. And we do have a mixology experience up there. A space is getting ready to open called Cocktail University, which is owned by my husband and Darius Miller. So look for lots of cool experiences coming soon because I can do whatever I want up there and Wiley just finished a couple of very cool murals in that space. It's a very speakeasy style kind of space. In fact, next year I hate that I got too busy and ran out of time for this year, but next year it's going to turn into a ridiculous Christmas pop-up. Just wait, I'm going to drench that thing in Christmas. But I'll have some experiences coming soon Enthusiast classes likely featuring Bluegrass Distillers in January and collaborate with some other distilleries around town to teach everybody how to make their favorite cocktails. We'll also get into cocktails with Queens. My friend Helena Handbasket will come teach us how to make some cocktails and just lots of cool things like blind bourbon tasting and certainly look for a lot of that through Bites of the Bluegrass.
Speaker 1:All right, it's official. I'm quitting everything I do and I'm just going to come work with you.
Speaker 2:I highly recommend it, michelle. Actually, all you do is meet great people and eat and drink. It's a pretty decent gig, sounds amazing. So, yeah, out of Lexington. And then what else do I?
Speaker 2:Oh, I've got a really special tour with chef wita michael out in woodford county called, just a few miles south. We haven't set any new dates recently, but we did them every other month throughout the last year and that is where she and I take you throughout magical woodford for a quintessential kentucky tour celebrating our rich inheritance and bourbon horses and agriculture and there's no better gal to show off those things than Chef Weta as we're sailing through some of the most beautiful drives that you can find in the United States, going past all these horse farms and talking about the stories behind them and all the history that lives in that space, from gender-bending Confederate spies stealing horses to Sir Alda James being born on the floor of one of those taverns. She's the mom of frank and jesse james, by the way. Come on tour to find a form. But there's lots to talk about, that's for certain.
Speaker 2:And we have fine dining, starters and cocktails, and it all comes to a crescendo with a sit down at holly hill inn, which is closed just for us live music and the queen cooks for this one and she does a massive kentucky spread complete with garden tour or whatever great festivity could be going on during the season. And you know we just got tv series coming out soon, which is really exciting, called you belong here, and we'll just continue to to put our region on the main stage and bring people here, and I'm excited to be collaborating with her on likely a weekly bus tour. That will happen during peak season months like March, april, may, june and then probably September, october, november, where we will keep along those themes and keep it about bourbon, horses and agriculture and yeah, yeah, that's something that I'll be hopefully starting the spring.
Speaker 1:My mind is just blown that, first of all, you can keep all of the offerings straight. Yeah, well, also that you know so much and it just kind of rolls out so eloquently and beautifully. I'm just captivated.
Speaker 2:Well, that's sweet I and it just kind of rolls out so eloquently and beautifully. I'm just captivated. Well, that's sweet. I've spent a ton of time researching it and then I write 30 page papers and then I stuff it all in my head and then I say it over and over. So it's kind of easy to let it roll out, considering how often I talk about this stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, honestly, I'm just like flabbergasted at the creativity, first of all, and the vision to bring something that doesn't seem like it should fit in a city the size of Lexington, right, Like we talk about Lexington a lot of being a small big city or a small city, right, and so you think of walking tours and you know tourism at that scale and you think, oh, maybe Lexington isn't ready, but it takes a true visionary to say, if it's not ready, I'm going to help it get ready.
Speaker 2:That's exactly kind of how I felt. Going into it I thought, ok, yeah, I don't know how many tours can this market support, I have no idea. And so the first year I just offered it a couple of days a week. And you know, going into this year, I never offered a Tuesday or Wednesday tour. I didn't know if those days were week. And you know, going into this year, I never offered a Tuesday or Wednesday tour. I didn't know if those days were viable.
Speaker 2:And it turns out they are, and so I just keep throwing it up there to see what'll work. And of course I show up to everything everywhere all the time, saying things like I'm on a VTAR and I love going on podcasts and just always promoting it, because of course it's great promotion for Bites of the Bluegrass, but it also promotes all of the parts of hospitality, which is really important, especially if we want to continue on the growth that our city slash state is seeing. I mean tourism is really important and for visitors, I mean we should be sharing this place. Where else can you go experience Four Seasons with such a beautiful backdrop, with horses and bourbon? It doesn't exist. This is it.
Speaker 1:This is it. Yeah, yeah, we came to Lexington before we moved here. We were in town for a wedding and we stayed for a week and I told my husband at the end of that visit that I wanted to move to Lexington he's originally from Danville and he said, oh, we're never moving to Kentucky, like it's out of the question, like it's not going to happen. And then a few years later, covid happened and we had an opportunity to move and we ended up landing here and I was thrilled, because of those things that you just mentioned that the weather is beautiful, the landscape is beautiful. I mean, it is the most enchanting place. The people are amazing, the culture is great.
Speaker 2:Right, we have been named like one of the top nicest cities in the South and I absolutely agree. I mean, we always hit that kind of, we are always awarded in that way and I agree, everyone around here is just welcoming and you experience hospitality in a way that you don't in many other places. And I did not know that you had ties to Danville. You know I actually had a tour in Danville for a little while that I tried. A lot of small towns reached out when I first started Bites of Bluegrass two years ago and said, hey, we want a tour. And I thought, okay, will it work in a small town? And the answer is not really. There's just not enough tourism If.
Speaker 1:Danville can't do it, then I don't know who could. That's exactly what I said Danville is the cutest city.
Speaker 2:That's what I said. So when Kenel Clinton made the connection, he came on one of my earliest tours His wife, shannon, contributes to Smiley Pete and they were writing about Bites of the Bluegrass and he said what about Danville? And he said there are great new restaurants and he made it so easy. He went to the restaurants themselves and just kind of opened the door for me and I said, okay, I'll try it, because we were right. If not Danville, where? Because there's a national museum there now it's the Glass Museum. It's where Wilderness Trail is located, which is the start of the Bourbon Trail Center, college, norton Center for the Arts. All the reasons, right, I mean the American.
Speaker 1:Doll Museum, for the love of God. But let's not forget that Cultivate's own, neil Smock, is from Danville, so everybody was down there.
Speaker 2:Exactly right, and there are a lot of great eateries in that cute little small town and I really immersed myself in Danville and spent a lot of time with a lot of key players there to listen, get oral history and really create a nice script and narrative around it, and I definitely succeeded. It's a great, great tour. I just couldn't sell enough tickets for it to make sense, especially when I have a lot going on here. And for the longest time I was the only guide, which is why it's my dumb face on everything, because I was only one. And then I was lucky to land a second guide with Liz Hodge, who's a realtor in town, and she helped me out for a year and now I'm up to there are seven of us and I'll add a few more for springtime. But yeah, it just didn't make sense to keep going. But I do pull it out sometimes still if there's a private group that wants to come along, and I've got locals who have been on every single tour and they have to complete their Bites of the Bluegrass card Right, and so I will always put one together down there, and I mean Davos is where the first US serial killers were captured. Put one together down there, and I mean Danville's where the first US serial killers were captured. It's where so many fascinating early businesses like the Lone Cola Bottling Works Company, raintree County, was filmed. There you can look on your Apple phone still today and on the map it'll show Beverly Hills and Danville because that's where Elizabeth Taylor, montgomery Clift and all these folks were staying after Eben playhouse kind of drew them there and that's the place that's in the 74th season and where john travolta got to start at age 15.
Speaker 2:And the ephra mcdowell story a weird one about the father of abdominal surgery. He removed a 22 and a half pound tumor from a gal. What? Yes, everything is ephra mcdowell down there. But yeah, he's the father of gallstone removal and in fact you can go visit his apothecary. You'll find lots of interesting things in there. Hopefully not the 22-pound gall snow. You know what. Everything's shy of that, but I have seen the bed where it happened and you learn fascinating things like mattresses were luxurious. People slept on straw during that time. What year was that? I feel like it was 1809.
Speaker 2:I haven't done that tour in a while. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but done that tour in a while. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it was Jane Todd Crawford. She was in Greene County and she had this massive belly. She thought for sure she was pregnant and having twins, and she was even in labor for a long time.
Speaker 2:And then, 12th month, 13th month, people started to wonder what was going on. So they thought, if anybody will know, the answer to this is Ephraim McDowell. So they asked a good doctor to write up, which, by horse, took three days. And he delivers the terrible news to her that in fact it is a giant cyst that will surely kill her. And so she begged and pleaded for him to try the surgery. This was a time where surgery like that was considered a death sentence. Doctors were unaware of germs at this time, or in fact they wore long tail coats, those long doctor's coats that we've seen in time, you know, period piece movies. That was so they had something to want their hands on. There was no awareness of germs or anesthesia or things like that, but she begged him to remove this tumor.
Speaker 2:And here's a Christmas story.
Speaker 2:It was on Christmas Day that year that Jane Todd had ridden a horse by herself down to Danville, which she had to have been terrified.
Speaker 2:Imagine leaving your children and husband and likely never seeing them again.
Speaker 2:But she knew that was her only option and she had to take a few days of rest because she had this giant contusion in her cyst belly.
Speaker 2:By the time she got there from the horse saddle and it was on Christmas Day, the Ephraimite doll tucked a little prayer in his pocket and he asked all the churches to pray and the surgery took around 22 minutes, or 22 minutes, 22 minutes. He cut her wide open as she gripped down on a spoon and recited the book of Psalms, and there is a table right beside this bed where he literally put this tumor with lots of pus involved. I can only imagine the scene in this room. And he sewed her back up and she was on her way and lived into her 80s. In fact she outlived the good doctor who died. Quite ironically, it was recorded as eating too many dew-covered strawberries, but it was in actuality appendicitis. It's what killed the father of abdominal surgery. But you can go to our state capitol building and see a giant bronze statue of Ephraim McDowell, complete with tumor behind him, in a basin and the rotunda of our Capitol building.
Speaker 1:I did not know I needed to go to Frankfurt until this very month.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you should definitely go to this apothecary because it's fascinating to look at all these anatomy books and there is, of course, all this lore that there was body snatching going on. His apothecary was right across the street from the prison and we have Karst geology here as a result of this massive limestone shelf that we're sitting on, which is important to bourbon and horses. Come on tour, I'll tell you all about it. But Karst geology lends to hidden streams, town Branch being a big one around here, definitely a main character in our city story. It also is characteristic to sinkholes or sunken gardens, depending on your outlook on life, and certainly to lots of porous spaces Caves you can go visit in Kentucky, but so many unofficial ones and in fact downtown Lexington has a tunnel system that lies beneath all of those buildings that have been standing since the early 1800s that were sadly used for slave trade, later prohibition. But there are tunnels everywhere in Kentucky and certainly there are plenty in Danville to talk about and it's believed that there was one that went straight from the apothecary to the prison so that after a prisoner died, their body went to good use. And certainly those guys were looking at something, because those books are very detailed and accurate. You'll also find things in there that look a little rusty, like a sounder, which gulp any men out there. This was used to go up your urethra until it made a sound letting you know that you'd hit a bladder stone.
Speaker 2:And he had some famous patients like President James K Polk. This left men unable to have children, and it was no coincidence that that president never had any children, but he saved tons of lives during this time. He was a real pioneer in medicine in a big way, and by coming on a tour you're going to find out that there are a lot of big people doing big things right here with us, and for me it's my hope and it certainly brings inspiration to me learning these stories and going well, gosh, how are they any different than me? Perhaps I can do this too. Now I'm not looking to remove any 22 and a half pound tumors. I don't know if I'm trying to be the father of abdominal surgery, but I certainly find inspiration in a whole lot of stories that are a big part of our city's history that have gone untold.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're doing amazing things to share these stories with all of us now and to inspire us all to, you know, be proud of where we're from, and to make those connections and create the community that we want to be a part of.
Speaker 2:You know that's exactly the idea and originally I did not know that it would be as important to local people and that or that they would have the curiosity the same curiosity that I do. But it's been a huge joy to find out that in fact there are a lot of people who are interested in finding out about our city's past and are really proud to live here, like I am.
Speaker 1:Aw, that's amazing. When we first started talking, before we were recording, you were telling me about a women-centric initiative or project that you're working on. Do you mind sharing a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Sure. Well, one thing I didn't mention is I do tons of private and corporate tours and I love to customize those. I totally love for people to feel seen. I mean, who doesn't want to feel seen right? And for that reason, all of the tours are intentionally inclusive and I really want to celebrate all of our history right, not just a particular segment, the population.
Speaker 2:Imagine that. Imagine that, yeah, and of course, our textbooks don't always reflect that. There are lots of different communities that make up one giant community, and certainly Lexington has so many influences. In fact, lexington's long been a place where everyone is welcome and, as a result, it's been filled with misfits and all kinds of different walks of life throughout our city's past, and all of those things have, and people have made it what it is today, and thank goodness for it. So, yes, I love to share intentionally inclusive history in particular, and I've just had a request for an all-women's history tour this Saturday as part of a birthday celebration for some women, and I said, yeah, and let's go to women-owned businesses only. And yeah, let's walk around and feel like leading ladies of Lexington is what we'll be doing if you see us down down on Saturday, and there are a tremendous amount of stories to share as soon as you step into that courthouse. In fact, I thought of two gals right off the bat One, I thought of Ella Bishop, who was just 17 years old during the Battle of Perryville in October of 1862, which was won by the Union, and General John Hunt Morgan, the Confederate general whose statue you once stood where Tandy Centennial is today, until 2017, when our city made the decision to remove it.
Speaker 2:He, in one last ditch crybaby move, decided to come up to Lexington and grab up anything you could to disrupt the supply chain. So he captured several hundred soldiers who are who had occupied the Henry Clay estate, and then they came downtown to tear down Union flags and set them on fire on our old Fayette County courthouse lawn. That courthouse is seeing a lot of stuff go down and, as you know probably, kentucky was a very split state and that was the case even within households. In fact, mary Todd Lincoln's house is a perfect example. She was one of 15 kids and you know her father was elected by the emancipationist wing of his party and he had a slave for every person in that house. She had four brothers who fought for the Confederacy and then she married the guy who penned the Emancipation Proclamation. So it's much like a lot of households today, very split by politics. But Ella Bishop was there on that courthouse lawn that day when she sees these raucous soldiers getting ready to set one ablaze. And it happened to be her neighbors, miss Frank Fitch, who she loved very much and she knew she worked really hard on that flag made of the finest wool, and it was one of the first to catch wind as the occupation ended. So she demanded that those soldiers hand it over. They were so surprised that a young girl like Ella would take a big stand like that that they were caught off guard and she was able to snatch it away, wrap it around herself and yell hurrah for Abe Lincoln. Now afterward there was all this local lore that she in fact married this soldier, that he came back and courted her after the war and that they lived happily ever after. And that did not happen. She in fact married a Union general named Edward P Ransom. But what did happen is that the Union named an encampment in Ella's honor shortly after this, during a time when nothing was being named for women. So go Ella.
Speaker 2:And then I think about another Ella, ella Pepper. She was always bailing James out as he was losing the distillery or the horse farm, and it was a day that she showed up at the courthouse as their horses were to be auctioned off after, yeah, facing losing the distillery again. And as she moved into that auction space, no one dared bid against her and the queen of the turf was able to buy them all back at the lowest sum. Yeah, and she was always saving the day in that way, but that's a whole other tangent. But there are lots of stories to talk about Carrie Nation, right in that space, who went around the nation wielding a hatchet in terrifying saloons, destroying all the liquor and the barware. Of course, bell breezing we will talk about and much, much more.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I was just telling you why am I not doing that tour more often? I think I will for March In fact, stay tuned, you can win one of these tours if you do what Michelle tells you to then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'll probably even try to go a step further and see if we can't organize a small business bestie tour. That's just our besties going. That sounds great. I really want to try to continue to facilitate community amongst the audience of the small business besties and to continue to support other small business besties. Well, that's great.
Speaker 2:In downtown Lexington in particular, the restaurant scene is owned by tons of women. They make it really easy. You got Tamika Ito at School Sushi, of course, chef Weta Michael at Zin's, debbie Long at Dudley's, yvonne Sarber Agave and Rye Kimberly Shingledecker at Pies and Pints Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa Agave and Raya's owned by a woman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Yvonne Sarber, I did not know that she does not. And it started all in Kentucky, Cummington, and the second location was right here in Lexington and she's a huge lover of Lexington culture and so when that downtown space in the historic square opened up, they snatched it up right away. But she lives in Cincinnati today. But yeah, it's woman-owned and she's really grown that thing, that's for sure. That's amazing. And then the Grove is woman-owned and it features a lot of women-owned businesses all within that space. I'm with my friend Avina Kiley. You got Lisa Betts who owns Falchow Irish Imports right around the corner. Laura Lee Brown is another of 21C and Lockbox, and there's all kinds of folks to talk about.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is amazing. Okay, like my head is spinning right now.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that 21C was woven on, yeah Well you know, I think it might have gone public now technically, but it was started by Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown, who live just outside of Louisville today and they have a massive art collection and they've created these multi-venue museums. I think they're up to 14 and counting 21 C's now and they choose this historic old spaces and they have that art traveling throughout those locations and in fact, they just changed exhibits a couple weeks ago and the new one is really exciting. As soon as you walk in, right by the check-in desk, there is the perfect example of maximalism, and I'm a maximalist kind of girl. It was fantastic.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna have to have you take me on a tour of 21c.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all the art and the building itself has got a crazy amount of history. It was the tallest building in Allegheny when it was built in 1914. It was built by the same architectural firm out of New York, mckinney to White, who built Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, and Stanford White was killed in a very salacious way by Harry Kendall Thaw, a nationally known millionaire. There's lots to talk about, oh my gosh. But yeah, I love creating custom tours for private and corporate groups. If I have a group of bankers, we're going to definitely eat in every vault. I will mix in lots of banking history because the one thing that I have absolutely found out is Kentucky, and likely Lexington, is connected to everything I just found out yesterday.
Speaker 2:I did not know this. I saw this post from Distilled in Kentucky, a series that's coming out soon hosted by Silas House, and thank you for this. This was fantastic. The guy who co-wrote Santa Claus is Coming to Town was born in Covington, kentucky, and lived in Kentucky his whole life. I mean, I don't know about you, but I find that mind-blowing. That made my day to find that out. The teddy bear started has ties to Woodford County as to where it all started. There's just, it's mind-boggling. My mind is boggled.
Speaker 1:Yeah For sure. Yes, wow. Well, erin, you have given us a lot of information. I'm very excited about all of it. Is there anything that you would want to leave everybody with, whether it's a word of wisdom, another tidbit about Lexington, or maybe a funny anecdote, anything like that?
Speaker 2:Something we were talking about before this started too. Like you know, it's easy to fall into like imposter syndrome or to think can I really do this or why would I do that? Who would buy a ticket to this? It's so easy to fall in that trap, but it's also easy to remember why not you.
Speaker 2:Why couldn't you? And let's see if they do, and just be willing to take a risk and fall on your face if it doesn't work out. It's been really rewarding for me, certainly, going through this experience, and I still have days where I'm like, ah, nobody's going to want to do that, but I just decide to throw it to the wind and not listen to that voice, and I think that's really important in order to truly find happiness and things you're passionate about and live the life you want and attract and meet the people that you want to surround yourself with. That's certainly been the case for me, and I did not know that I needed a walk-in food tour to help me find it, but that's been the conduit and it's all worked out great and just yeah, helped me really find what I'm passionate about and be part of a big community of like-minded people that I really wanted to find.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. Yeah, I think it's interesting, like when you really find the thing that brings you joy, it's like it just keeps compounding on itself, right that?
Speaker 2:is so true and I think it would be really hard to find without, without being vulnerable, without just deciding that you're you're okay with making a fool out of yourself or not succeeding. I think that that's the only pathway to find it, and I still have to remind myself that all the time. I think we all do. But just just try the thing, Just do it.
Speaker 1:Just do it, even when you're scared, even when you're scared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everybody is just doing their best, and I don't think that there's no one on earth who doesn't have imposter syndrome at some time or another, something that everybody deals with. Yeah, why not you? All these great people I talk about all the time did it? Why not you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they had no idea when it was happening what an impact and a legacy they were going to leave, absolutely not they didn't know that we would be sitting here today talking about them.
Speaker 2:No, and I'm so glad we are. That's another thing I think about all the time. You know who said it. I think Banksy or somebody said that we have two deaths in our life our actual death and then the last time somebody says your name. And I think it's important to keep saying all these names and, yeah, keeping them alive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Thank you for doing what you do. Oh well, thank you for doing what you do.
Speaker 2:You create a space where your small business bestie can come on and promote what they do. And yeah, this is a great time to say go to Bites of Bluegrasscom. This is where you're going to see the tour calendar. You'll also see lots of cool experiences coming to life for Cocktail University. It will ultimately be a bartending school.
Speaker 2:There'll be a podcast, likely starting there with Darius Miller, who will be featuring lots of different athletes, and then I'm going to create all kinds of things on the experience side. So look for lots of events. Of course, bites of Bluegrass will take you to lots of those on tours, but there'll be also just set dates and experiences within that space, lots of storytelling going on. Then I'm likely I'm talking to some restaurants about creating a dinner series, a dinner party series throughout the colder months. So exciting stuff to come there. So visit the website for that. Also, in the coming year I will be taking on more hire by the day stuff. So I'm launching a concierge service called Charm of the Bluegrass and you can hire me to create your whole experience, from check-in to the last day to really max out your time while you're here, and you will have an expert guide along the way, that's for certain by bus walking, and we'll just create whatever you have in mind and we'll make it come to life.
Speaker 1:That is incredible. What beautiful like insight that you have into the community to be able to like take it to the next level for that like boutique concierge level.
Speaker 2:That's right. Right, I figured, why not? I do it all the time anyway, for for travelers, as they're coming in, and I've created all these relationships now through this future. It only makes sense to connect all the dots and everybody wins when you're doing that. The visitor, whoever, whoever you're creating this for, is going to have the best time, and then, of course, all these businesses the lodging and the food and the activities.
Speaker 2:everybody and I know exactly what I would do with my time while I'm here, and so why not just replicate that for other people?
Speaker 1:I need you to to plan a weekend for me like a staycation. Oh easy yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you tell me what you want to do and I can absolutely create something. And there gosh. There's a lot to share in this city, A whole lot and create multiple.
Speaker 1:For like two weeks. Yeah, now I live here, oh.
Speaker 2:I could easily come up with lots for you to do within that two weeks, no matter the season. So give me a shout if you have people coming to town. Or yeah, and so give me a shout if you have people coming to town or just looking for a staycation. I can help you with that and hire me for a bus or whatever. I'll tell you about all those farms as we go and all the history that lies within.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Well, we'll be sure to link to your socials and have your website in the show notes, but you guys please follow along and if you haven't been on one of the tours, I highly recommend you go. And if you're going to go, tag me, message me, let me know I'll go with you because I want to go to all of them. Come on, let's all have a great time and support Erin and her amazing business.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me, Michelle.
Speaker 1:It's been so much fun and we will talk to all of you guys later. Bye, thanks for listening, friends. My name is Michelle Smock and I own Cultivate Accounting, a boutique accounting firm specializing in small business, and I own Small Business Bestie, where I help women entrepreneurs go from idea to launch and beyond. Check the show notes for links to my website and socials, and also please take a moment to subscribe and review. It really would mean the world to me.