Louisville's bar scene is a lot to keep up with but we give it our best shot on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

This week Louisville Business First Reporter Michael L. Jones is on the show the share some local bar and restaurant news. We start with a new location for High Horse Bar — which is now in Nulu after leaving space in Butchertown. We recently had Brian Goodwin, a partner in that bar, on the cover of LBF for a feature story.

Jones also has news on a couple of bar closures. Patrick's, a long-time favorite on Frankfort Avenue, has called it quits after having been in its space since the 1940s. Jones also shares the backstory on the closure of ShopBar — that closure has caused some kerfuffle online.

We also discuss a suspended liquor license for the 21st in Germantown, Dave's Hot Chicken coming to St. Matthews and Del Taco's plans for the area.

Late in the show, we shift off the restaurant topic and discuss a couple of high-profile executive exits in the nonprofit realm and the impacts of those moves. Top level leaders at The Speed Art Museum and Fund for the Arts announced plans to exit their respective organizations recently.

Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Jim Allen, vice chairman of Robert W. Baird & Co., is on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Baird is the sponsor of the podcast, but Allen was on the show with LBF Editor-in-Chief Shea Van Hoy to talk about local business as well as other topics.

At the top of the program, Allen tells us about progress since the merger between Hilliard Lyons and Baird. The merger of the two legacy financial firms (Hilliard Lyons dates back to 1854 in Louisville and Baird 1919 in Milwaukee) was announced in fall 2018 and completed in April 2019. The companies celebrated the five year anniversary of that merger last year and it's been going well since, he said.

"What has really made it go is the cultural compatibility between the organizations," Allen said.

The business has really changed over the 44 years that he's been in it, he explained. Back at the time he began, Hilliard Lyons was much more of a brokerage and transaction business. Today it's more about wealth planning, which he says is a market necessity particularly as wealth is being transferred across generations.

"Things are going really well [for the business] despite market volatility," he said.

Allen also spoke about Downtown Louisville on the show.

He's worked in Downtown Louisville throughout his career and long advocated for it, including when the company re-invested in the Louisville headquarters in the 500W Jefferson building. Baird invested more than $20 million into relocating and renovating its office spaces within the top five floors of the tower. The company began moving into the space, totaling roughly 100,000 square feet, in early summer 2021.

In spite of calls by some to move to the suburbs, he wanted the company to stay in the heart of the city.

"We need a strong urban core, a strong business center to really thrive as a city and as a region. And, of course, as we all know Louisville is a key economic driver for the commonwealth of Kentucky. Having a vibrant downtown is really, really essential."

A part of the company's commitment to downtown includes underwriting the taxable subordinate debt for the KFC Yum Center, he said.

Back before the arena opened in 2010, Hilliard Lyons financed that debt, which covered the suite level of the arena and was not eligible for tax-free financing, he noted. Goldman Sachs was the lead underwriter for the Yum Center and did not want to underwrite that portion.

"And so we did it," he said. "that's a very big source of pride for us ... as we all know the Yum Center has been transformational for Downtown Louisville." The Yum Center's 15th anniversary is on October 10, 2025.

You can hear more from Allen in the podcast, which you can listen to in the player above or on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Links to the show on both of those platforms are at the top of the story. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from LBF which covers news in Louisville and features some of the city's key business leaders.

A handful of significant commercial real estate deals top this week's Access Louisville podcast.

LBF Senior Reporter Joel Stinnett is on this week's show and tells us about the sale of the Brown-Forman Cooperage. As he reported recently. Lebanon, Missouri-based Independent Stave Co. purchased the 16-acre property at 402 MacLean Ave. from Brown-Forman for $13.66 million on May 1, according to a deed filed with the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office.

The site includes several storage warehouses, two equipment shops and the more than 4,000-square-foot production facility. The cooperage, which opened in 1945, produced about 2,000 barrels a day before closing this year as part of a 12% cut to Brown-Forman's global workforce.

Stinnett also tells us about a Louisville company, Goodson Clothing and Supply Co., moving into new office space on Nelson Miller Parkway. We also chat about a new Wawa opening along Veterans Parkway in Clarksville, Indiana. And we discuss a couple of recently revealed plans for new speculative warehouses — one in Shelby County and another at the River Ridge Commerce Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

In the last part of the show, we talk about the Academies of Louisville program, which aims to prepare students at Jefferson County Public Schools, for their careers post-high school. Eight years after it was implemented, a number of business and education officials are calling it a success — though a leadership change at the school certainly makes us wonder about its future.

Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.