New Riff Distilling Co.
Newport
New Riff Distilling Co. sits on the banks of the Ohio River, just across the water from Cincinnati, Ohio. But the whiskey distillery is still in the state of Kentucky — Newport, to be exact — making it the northernmost stop of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour.
The Tower Room is so named for two reasons: First, it’s on the distillery’s top floor, and second, it has a view of the distillery’s tower still, “a beautiful copper-column still that’s 60 feet tall that’s enclosed in glass,” said Amy Tobin, director of New Riff’s event center.
The Tower Room can seat up to 150 guests for dinner or accommodate 225 for receptions. The room has audiovisual equipment and a full bar. Glass garage-style doors open to the connecting terrace, where guests will find a fire pit, city views and the top of the glass-encased copper tower still.
The Doubler Room is named for New Riff’s second still, where its bourbon goes through its second distillation. The room can seat up to 50 people for a meal or accommodate 100 for a cocktail party and “provides a view directly into the distillery,” Tobin said.
The room also doubles as a space for presentations and cooking demonstrations. It has digital screens for presentations and videos, as well as a demonstration kitchen with cameras so people can watch all the action on the countertop and stovetop.
In addition to arranging cooking demonstrations, groups can also tour the distillery.
Berry Hill Mansion
Frankfort
George Franklin Berry built the Berry Hill Mansion in 1900, and “I always say this house was built on bourbon money,” said Dalaina Bean, director of events for the estate.
Berry came from a prominent bourbon family, and his mansion in the Kentucky capital of Frankfort is impressive for many reasons. It was built of stone from the property and sits on a foundation that was blasted from solid stone.
The Music Room was added in 1912 and houses a full cathedral organ. The Gothic Revival-style room is one of the mansion’s most popular function spaces and can seat up to 120 people for meals, Bean said.
The Dining Room acts as a boardroom for up to 15 people. The back porch is available seasonally and seats up to 60 at tables or can be used as a breakout spot for meetings.
Groups can also put up tents on the grounds for larger events, and the facility offers tables and chairs for indoor and outdoor gatherings.
Groups can also arrange for property tours or presentations about its history. The family accountant kept all the family’s bills, voided stamps, guest books and old newspaper articles, which Bean brings out during talks and tours.
“There’s an old marketplace receipt that’s handwritten for the groceries they would pick up for the week,” she said. “There are a lot of cool interesting artifacts that we have here that we can show.”
National Corvette Museum
Bowling Green
The city of Bowling Green made national headlines in 2014 when a massive sinkhole opened beneath a showroom at the National Corvette Museum, swallowing eight valuable Corvettes.
However, the showroom was restored, some of the cars were salvaged, and the museum even opened a new sinkhole exhibit. Guests can learn about what happened and how the museum recovered and walk through a sinkhole simulator. In one of the galleries, some of the Corvettes that couldn’t be saved are on display in all their mangled glory.
The museum has several options for events. Its 8,300-square-foot conference center can seat up to 500 people for banquets and includes a prep kitchen, a stage, a bar, an outdoor covered display space and two overhead doors. The 800-square-foot Club Room can seat up to 67 for meals.
After-hours events have even more options. Adjacent to the conference center, Corvette Boulevard seats up to 200 people at rounds or can be used for receptions, registration or vendor booths. The soaring Skydome, the location of the sinkhole, can accommodate 100 for meals or 250 for receptions, and the Chevrolet Theater seats up to 165. Dinner events with up to 48 people can also use the Nostalgia Area.
The museum’s outdoor amphitheater, with a grass lawn and a covered stage, can host events for as many as 10,000 guests.
Tours of the Bowling Green Assembly Plant closed this summer but are expected to be available again beginning in January 2019.
