First of all- thanks for watching (and reading about) SportsTown. It’s been an absolute dream to create this show with three of my longtime friends from college.

What’s the long term vision for SportsTown? Who knows. We’re just a bunch of crazy kids with a dream and the sense of humor of a 13 year-old boy, combined. But at the very least, we want to curate the perfect sports weekend for fans of the show (Townies??) so you can actually hop on a plane and hit the spots we did.

Let me first answer the most frequent question I get about the show: Why Lexington, Kentucky for your first SportsTown?

Because Kentucky Basketball credentialed us and other places did not. That’s basically it.

WELL… that…. AND because I love Kentucky. I lived there for nearly three years in my 20s and fell in love with it. Kentucky has a misplaced reputation that focuses on too many negatives. The commonwealth is beautiful. The people are lovely. The cities are unique, eclectic, and brimming with positive energy. It is at times very southern, very midwest, and very east coast all at once. If you’ve never been to Kentucky, you need to make it a point of emphasis to go touch some bluegrass.

📅 Day 1 :

A day at the races (with no actual racing)

📍 Keeneland Racetrack | 4201 Versailles Rd, Lexington, KY 40510

Here’s a peek behind the ole’ SportsTown curtain. In order to get Kentucky basketball into the show, we had to shoot a game at Rupp Arena. Which means we had to shoot a game in early March, which means there are no horse races at Keeneland in early March (womp womp).

But, we did have the opportunity to take a full tour and see the grounds, which are pristine. Seriously.

Walking into Keeneland feels like walking into the past. The architecture and care put into that place is something from a bygone era of craftsmanship. So while we didn’t get to see any actual horse races (or place any wagers on them), we did watch a ton of horses running around or ‘working’ on the track. Maybe we’ll see a few of them running for the roses on the first Saturday in May.

Side bar: It was approximately 20 degrees when we filmed all of our Keeneland footage. Meredith from Keeneland did an A+ job of pumping us with A) Information about the place and B) Hot chocolate to keep our limbs from falling off.

Side Side Bar: This is a picture of myself and Kyle, one of our photographers. I say “HORSES!” in front of this sign in the episode. Patrick (not pictured) laughed when we filmed it and said "this is so stupid, but it will never make it into the episode so who cares.”

Side Side Side Bar: It’s in the damn episode.

Oh! We had to leave this on the cutting room floor, but we also worked with Keeneland to make their featured cocktail: The Keeneland Breeze.

Recipe

1 ¼ oz bourbon (they use Makers Mark, but anything around 90 proof will be pleasant)
1 oz of triple sec
1 can of ginger ale
Simple orange wedge

And that’s it. Not super complicated, but it’ll get the job done.

📍 Coolmore - Ashford Stud | 5095 Frankfort Rd, Versailles, KY 40383

If you’re into horse history Coolmore/Ashford Stud is the place for you. Why am I using both names? Because they seem to use them interchangeably. Whatever they call themselves, they might as well just be known as ‘Champions’.

Coolmore Farm is the home to Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify and about 10+ other horses you’ve probably heard of at your yearly Derby party (wait- am I the only one who throws one of those? We catered it one year, which was stupid, but now it’s just a potluck with our neighhhhbors).

One HUGE behind the scenes moment. Did Justify confuse me with a potential female mating partner? It’s possible. We have the documentation, but SportsTown is ‘brand friendly’ so we’ll keep it in the archives (please sponsor the show). Just know I saw it and I can’t unsee it.

Quick interjection: Our Airbnb

📍 Bourbon Hous | 402 S Broadway, Lexington, KY 40508

Umm.. This place rocked. 7 beds, 7 bathrooms, full bar, Nintendo 64, a pool room and this huge bronze bulldog right across the street from Rupp Arena. A bachelor/bachelorette’s absolute dream stay.

Also, our social media ace Rudy edited some great videos of all THREE party Hous’ in Lexington. Check them out!

📅 Day 2 :

Beautiful Brown Liquor

Remember when I said we only chose Lexington because Kentucky basketball credentialed Rob, Patrick, and myself? I was joking. It’s because of the bourbon.

I love bourbon. A lot. So it made sense to start at the top.

📍 Buffalo Trace | 113 Great Buffalo Trce, Frankfort, KY 40601

The tours are fun and informational, the merchandise spans literally anything you could ever want (from barrel-sized coffee mugs to socks), and Freddie Johnson is just the absolute best. Man. I loved hanging out with Freddie. The guy knows everything there is to know about bourbon and just has a smile plastered to his face at all times.

STORY TIME: I went back to Buffalo Trace a few months after filming with my wife and saw Freddie. He didn’t remember me. Absolutely nothing. And here’s me, telling my wife “Oh, there’s my new best friend Freddie who I filmed my travel show with and we just had the best time yucking it up for hours” and he came over, shook my hand like I was just another passerby and kept it moving. Or maybe he just big-timed me. I’m fine with either. Freddie is the absolute best and he made the episode 500% better.

📍 Castle and Key | 4445 McCracken Pike, Frankfort, KY 40601

Castle and Key was settled right alongside a river and had some serious views. Its rickhouse is one of the longest in the world and holds over 30,000 barrels of liquor. That’s a lot for a 3-day trip. But we did our damndest. Thieving out of a barrel turned out to be very difficult and Rob grilling me over it on camera was definitely one of the highlights of the shoot for me.

📍 James E Pepper | 1228 Manchester St UNIT 100, Lexington, KY 40504

James E Pepper allotted us the chance to see every single aspect of how bourbon is made, right down to their bottling line. Then afterwards, we hung out with the staff at the lobby bar and they made us some smooth old fashions from their Pepper Decanter line. Good times were had, but not TOO good of a time. That’s because I had to do an interview right afterwards.

📍 RD1 Distillery | 1170 Manchester Street Suite 190 Lexington, KY 40508 (moving locations soon)

When I lived in Kentucky, I was a sports reporter covering the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky. UK basketball is king at that school, but the football program has made strides under head coach Mark Stoops. When I was there, Stoops’ program routinely played in mid-tier bowls and won 9ish games a year. A major victory for Kentucky football, if I’m being honest. But in all of the press conferences I was in, I never really got the chance to chat with Stoops on a personal level so I enjoyed this. My favorite line from this segment was when I asked Coach what makes a good bourbon and he said ‘I don’t know. I’m just a football coach,” which is probably the most on-brand statement from a football coach ever. I’m honestly surprised he even did the interview.

📅 Day 2, continued :

Salt and Vinegar

Inside 📍 Ethereal Brewing Public House | 102 W Vine St, Lexington, KY 40507

To say Chef Spaulding was nervous was a bit of an understatement, but by the end of our shoot I thought he rounded into form and could probably host his own cooking show. Just not on this show. I am the host of this show. GET YOUR OWN SHOW GREG.

More behind the scenes: A lot of these kitchens are tiny. We had to squeeze Chef, myself, Patrick, and the aforementioned Kyle into this small kitchen and figure out a way to move around to make it seem natural. Did we accomplish that? Idk. Looking at my posture in this photo, maybe the answer is no. Maybe I’m just sitting weird. In any event, I got to say ‘You have great meat, man’ on camera. Chalk it up as a WIN for this guy.

Also, the meal was fantastic and absolutely demolished by the crew (of 3) within mere seconds. It was like Lord of the Flies and that sausage was Piggy.

📍 Zim’s Cafe | 215 W Main St UNIT 25, Lexington, KY 40507

Time to give out our one and only award on the travel log. The Loveliest Person Alive Award goes to…. (drumroll)... Chef Ouita Michel.

There is not a sweeter person alive, of this I am convinced. We had a lovely chat about how I was going to absolutely demolish her peanut butter pie (because of an allergy in my house at the time, we didn’t keep peanut products in the home) and I did. I put that pie away in a manner that would have made Joey Chestnut look away squeamishly.

Also, it’s not every day you get to spend time with a National Champion. Chef won a natty on the Kentucky Wildcats debate team and is a diehard Cats fan. She’s also the owner of 56 other restaurants in the Lexington area (numbers approximate) and has produced her own show that will be released sometime soon. But make sure you watch SportsTown first because again, sponsors.

Side bar: I did try to feed Kyle. That wasn’t a TV thing we tried a few takes of. I didn’t tell him I was going to do it on camera and I just did it anyway. His look of sheer bewilderment in the moment is something I’ll cherish forever.

📅 Day 3 :

Kentucky vs Arkansas

📍 Rupp Arena | 430 W Vine St, Lexington, KY 40507

I was excited to watch a Kentucky basketball game as a fan. UK hoops has all of the history. They have the 2nd most National Championships, the most wins all-time and the most blue checkered overalls in the stands of any program (I said DO NOT judge Kentucky by its cover!). Here’s the truth. Rupp Arena is legit.

It is loud, the fans are educated and engaged and the in-game entertainment keeps the energy where it needs to be. Kentucky is never truly out of a game because of its fanbase. And yes, we shot this episode in John Calipari’s final home game at Kentucky as head coach before he left for Arkansas (and we had to cut him out of the show because of it).

The best part about this experience was going into the student section. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the student section. Full disclosure: I am an old person (in the eyes of a 19-year old student). I have a wife. I have a mortgage. I have grey hair in my beard for God’s sake. I had to explain what a ‘heat pad’ was 4 times during the game when describing what standing for a 40 minute basketball game was going to do to my back. But ya know what? We had a hell of a time.

Major shoutout to the guys and girls who hosted me in the stands, filled me in on all of the traditions, and most importantly promised to share the show on TikTok. Also, to the young coed who was complaining to me about having to learn yet another drink to make at her shift at Starbucks later that afternoon… you got this girl.

Kentucky won. Always a big, big, plus.

I’ll leave you with my favorite image from this trip. Our 4-person crew scrambling to get everything packed one hour before our flight back to Philadelphia. And instead of helping them feverishly throw things into bags, I’m doing what any good host would do.

Taking a picture of them all for later usage. A true travel host.