Jake Lewellen: sit back and buckle into the latest episode of the Bourbon Lens. ⁓ We are joined by Tony Thomas of 4 Street Live to talk about the Pig and Swig event ⁓ that's coming this April. ⁓ So Tony, thanks for spending a few minutes with us to talk about this event happening at 4 Street Live. Tony Thomas: No problem. Thanks. Thanks for letting me come on the show. Jake Lewellen: Yeah, no, it's exciting when when bourbon meets, you know, downtown Louisville, good things tend to always happen with People get to come and experience what it's like to be in the bourbon capital of the world, you Louisville and then not too far away from Bardstown. So, you know, excited to talk about the event. But first, you know, what do you do for 4 Street Live? Tony Thomas: I am the COO of Four Streets. I all the tenants, leasing, with the marketing. I run all of our team restaurants, ⁓ Overseas Sports and Social, Tavern, Gaffieris, Pizza and PBR. And then all the street events, the concerts and bars. Jake Lewellen: Yeah, and it seems like ⁓ hot summer nights are coming back here soon. That was one of my favorite four street live things when I was in high school ⁓ down there and seeing the likes of Eric Church ⁓ some folks in back to back weeks. coming back year with Kip Moore just as an aside here, I saw. Tony Thomas: Yeah, he's a Friday of Derby. And then Hot Country Knights right now we have Tyler Hubbert, Ian Munsik, Winchester 49, and we're working on some other big ones. It's one thing that, you I said, you really need to start pushing again. We have some other lineups coming up that aren't country. I'm not really allowed to announce two of them, but we do have one called Three Ball Monterey. It's actually Hispanic kind of a... Jake Lewellen: Yeah. Tony Thomas: band DJ type performance. So we're just kind of dipping into a little bit of everything. ⁓ Jake Lewellen: Yeah, I mean, you gotta get people out to Fourth Street. mean, like when it was built, right, it was built as being kind of like the epicenter where the Galleria was and reforming all of that. I used to get my haircut in the Galleria, speaking of. And, you know, retransforming that, it's hopefully with Louisville kind of coming back, especially downtown, getting people back down to Fourth Street would be a big deal. Tony Thomas: Yeah, I think it's, you know, a lot is good coming. We have big hotels that are going up, a JW Marriott next to us, two other big hotels. We probably one or two new venues that we're working on for Four Street Live this year that will open this year, hopefully. ⁓ And one or two of those being local as well. So putting points with local ⁓ restaurants and bars down here. Jake Lewellen: Yeah, it's great. mean, and you I think you've seen the success of like Derby City, gaming's had big success, you know, not too far, you know, on the south end of four street. know, Stake Bourbon has had a resurgent in the old Z's oyster bar So ⁓ I think are wanting and willing to come back downtown, which is big after COVID and all the other stuff that happened ⁓ during the times. Tony Thomas: Yeah, I agree. think there's kind of a perception though that, you know, it's not safe, but a lot of people that say that don't really come down here. mean, Development Louisville has a lot of people in the orange shirts walking around helping out, you know, making sure it's clean. If they see any issues, they call, you know, for help. And a lot people walking around helping out. think, ⁓ you if anything ever happens, Jake Lewellen: Mm-hmm. Tony Thomas: bad, of course, you makes the news and travels a lot faster. Jake Lewellen: Yeah, always does. But also it helps that the convention center's back open and everything downtown. Like people don't realize that was close for quite a bit, getting renovated and making that look good and getting ⁓ back downtown. That's deal when that goes away for a little bit and it takes a while to get all those people back into downtown, which gets you into 4th Street Live pretty easily. Tony Thomas: Yeah, I mean, they, ⁓ it was closed for a while and those conventions were booking, you know, two years at a time at other places. So I think downtown lost, lost out a lot on that, but the conventions that are the new upgrade and the expansion of it. It's huge. I mean, we have crazy, you know, conventions down there all the time and it's, anywhere from, you know, tattoo exposed to the volleyball tournaments, basketball tournaments to, you know, tons of work conventions. So. Jake Lewellen: Yeah. Yeah. So how many, how many spaces are in for street live currently? Like how, where can people go? I haven't been down there in a while myself. Tony Thomas: Yep, we have the Brazilian Steakhouse. Brazellos, also opened a spot called Benefita. It's an Italian restaurant. They opened that in the old Maker's Mark space. So they were doing well enough for their Brazilian spot. They decided to open an Italian spot. Both of those are really nice. Howl at the Moon is still a staple. Fudgery for some ice cream and some snacks. And then PBR. Guy Fieri, Pizza Bar. Jake Lewellen: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tony Thomas: Sports and Social and then Tavern above Sports and Social is open for private events, but that's actually getting a renovation in June and it's going to be open every weekend after that. So, yeah. Jake Lewellen: ⁓ awesome. So a lot of good things happening in 4th Street, excited to get down there, which leads us to, you know, creating events and opportunities to get people to experience 4th Street Live. And Pig and Swig is something that is going to get not just the bourbon consumer down there, but people who enjoy food down to 4th Street Live Tony Thomas: 11th, think. All good. ⁓ Jake Lewellen: April 11th, sorry. Can you tell us about the genesis of the Pig and Swig event? Tony Thomas: Well, it started years ago. was down here on a prior extent and probably 2010 or 2012 it ran good for a while. And then Kyle Layman ⁓ took it and really, you when he took over the bars on the street, really start putting a focus on the partnerships with the Bourbons rather than, you know, them just being a vendor. So he started getting some partnerships, all types of different distilleries and bourbon companies and it's really taken off. Last year it was actually in February and they still sold close to 600 tickets. It was cold outside so we decided to push it till April and then try to make it a little bit bigger where it's not cold outside and try to run it that way. Jake Lewellen: Yeah. Well, don't say it's not going to be cold at April 11th because it is Kentucky, right? And we can see on Derby. We could definitely see snow on April 11th. I don't wish that on anybody, but you know, ⁓ possible. Yeah. ⁓ for event, it's a ticketed event for people. Like what's it, what's it like to get in? How does somebody get registered and how do they get going? Tony Thomas: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So they can go to 4th Street Labs website to purchase tickets on there. And then it will give you the option of the tokens and all. So the tokens are good for the bourbon samplings and the food samplings. can come down to 4th Street that day. But if they want to take part in samplings of the food and the bourbon and all, then they would purchase a ticket and tokens and all. So if you want to go food heavy, can buy a bunch of food tokens. If you want to go Jake Lewellen: Yeah. Tony Thomas: you know, sample a of bourbons, you can buy the bourbon tokens. Jake Lewellen: And there's also a VIP area as well and VIP that you can buy with more tokens and more allocated pours potentially for you to have available during the event, correct? Tony Thomas: Correct, yeah, it's going to have a lot of the higher end bourbons and all, a lot of the to get allocations, ⁓ for us. It have its own private area. So that's little bit ⁓ nicer perk. get extra tokens for ⁓ that package purchase ⁓ and some food options as well. Jake Lewellen: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's really cool because it does kind of, you know, feel like encompass all of Four Street. It's not just like in one spot, you can kind of bounce around and you're getting different experiences at different locations throughout venue, I guess is what you would call it. You know, so what's it like to have just people being able to move through Four Street for you all so they can get the safe experience and see kind of what's going on ⁓ with Street from your point of view. Tony Thomas: Yeah, I mean, it's almost like a bar hop because each bar is going to be partnered with a different bourbon. have a map. So if you want to go try a certain bourbon, you look at your map, you go, you might go inside of sports and social and go to the side bar. And that will be a partner with a bourbon or you might go upstairs at Tavern or you might go upstairs to PBR ⁓ inside the gaffieres or pizza bar. So, you know, it's, for people to, check everything out as well and see all the venues. We so many different bars at. between all the venues that it gives us a lot of partnership spaces. And then also on the street, there'll be partners on the street and there'll be partners upstairs as well. Jake Lewellen: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of opportunities, right, to be able to utilize space that you have and get people engaged ⁓ that, which is, ⁓ think, really kind of an important part of this that people don't really pay attention to is, know, sports and social is a giant, giant bar, right? ⁓ And people to kind of get through that experience, all of that, I think is ⁓ really, cool. Tony Thomas: Yeah, I mean you'll go in there. There's three different bars in there. If you go upstairs to the tavern right above it, there's two huge bars up there. ⁓ has three bars. ⁓ beer bridge, I believe, is the private event area. So, you know, all the bars have different partnerships with different bourbons. I mean, there's going to be well over 100 bourbons down here, so. Jake Lewellen: Yeah. ⁓ you know, what's the what's the timing of the event? And it's pretty, pretty ⁓ event timeline, I believe. Tony Thomas: Yeah, doors open at 2 o'clock. And ⁓ you can ⁓ start using your tokens and your food purchases and all. Jake Lewellen: Yeah, well, and the other thing is there's a big concert happening at L&N Financial Credit Union Field. Zach Bryan is doing big things. ⁓ we'll, ⁓ you know, I can't be good at everything. ⁓ I'm good doing what I do. you know, when you brought this back up, you know, what were, you know, some things that you all wanted to accomplish out of having Pig and Swig and moving it to April? You know, what are the things that someone should expect, I guess? Tony Thomas: So with us, you know, hopefully having better weather with it, we have some experiences on the street that we'll have. Amber and Ash is going to be here rolling, know, cigars and stuff. ⁓ It us more opportunity for more food on the street. I think last year when we read the surveys from after the event, ⁓ people to see more food options. So this year, I believe we have anywhere from four to six more food options. Of course, the loud music on the street will always have that. And then we have a, I forget who it is, so I don't want be wrong, ⁓ a trailer coming in, which is like a lounge. ⁓ That very, very nice. So ⁓ the you know, we'll probably have more activation this year. Last year we had a big tent and tried to do it under a tent, you know, with it being in footwear and all. ⁓ So we're... ⁓ Jake Lewellen: Hmm. Tony Thomas: we're gonna go and hope that there's some good weather and set up a lot of activations on the street. lot of vendors coming in, we've reached out to some vendors, some companies and some hat companies and whatnot, stuff that's related and hopefully there'll be several vendors on the street that people can purchase some stuff, take some cool stuff home to their man cave or whatnot and maybe buy some goods. ⁓ Jake Lewellen: Yeah, well, like somebody who has had a poor to a bourbon to spend a little bit more on a cowboy hat or something that goes along those lines, you I think is ⁓ vital to available to them. You know, of the things that I just want to make sure everyone's aware of, if you are listening to the podcast right now and you'll see this in the show notes, we're going to be giving away four tickets to the event. And we'll be ⁓ highlighting that over course of social media over the next few weeks here. ⁓ So. Make sure that you are tuned in to our Instagram page because we'll give away four tickets so that you can come and hang out at Pig and Swig on the 11th starting at 2 p.m. And that's going to be really cool because we're excited to go down there for the first time and see what it's about and you know take part in ⁓ new events. I think it's always great when bourbon meets ⁓ whatever and time bourbon's meeting Louisville in a unique way at 4 Street Live and I think that's something people should be paying attention Tony Thomas: you Okay. Jake Lewellen: to because it's unique and different. Tony Thomas: Yeah, I mean, just be a fun event. ⁓ festival events that we've been doing and the new ones we're coming up with, it's to get a lot of people down that haven't been down in a while. And I get it. ⁓ and Saturday night might be not cup of tea ⁓ to to 4th Street. That's why we're trying to do these day events and the different bringing back more concerts and stuff like that that reaches a broader Jake Lewellen: Yeah. And I think ultimately at the end of the day, think, it's just creating an exposure, right? The more I expose myself to something, the more comfortable I feel with something, the more likely I am to go back and go back and go back and go back. And I think ⁓ what, ⁓ you know, I look forward to this is just getting exposed to going back down there, you know, downtown Louisville is 25 minutes from just about anywhere in the city. ⁓ if you have a clearer traffic day, ⁓ so it's, it's not an excuse to say it's too far away. you drive Hirsborne Parkway, from one end Tony Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Jake Lewellen: to one end, can spend 45 minutes, if not more. ⁓ you know, going downtown, I-64, westbound, head towards St. Louis, get off at 3rd Street, make a right there on Main, you make a left, you're right there. So it's not like it takes a long ⁓ to get there. So, you mentioned bourbon partners. Are there any big bourbon brands that might be coming there that would get people interested? Tony Thomas: ⁓ I mean, I a list. me see if I can pull it up. you know, ⁓ have. We'll have huge, yeah, I got a list right here that, I did. I mean, I know ⁓ the past we've had almost about every local brand you could think of. They me a list and I just clicked it to open it and I access denied. So it kind of sucks. know, you know, of course from our VIP allocation and all, we'll have, you know, all the random Pappies and ⁓ The VTAC collection and all that. know reached out to ⁓ everyone We've met a guy at the Frasier that introduced Kyle to a lot of local bourbon people. So I know he's out to every distillery downtown. We're hoping that they will get down here too. I was hoping to get year's list, but... ⁓ Jake Lewellen: ⁓ awesome. Yeah. Tony Thomas: I'm gonna have to probably send it to you. Maybe you can put it in the show notes because, yep, I opened it up and it gives me access to night on it, so. Jake Lewellen: ⁓ for sure. Well Tony, you're not as important as you think you are as a COO. Tony Thomas: No, maybe I'm fired and I don't even know it. Jake Lewellen: yeah. No, I think you're good. They put you on the podcast for a reason. But, know, excited about this. ⁓ I you spending some time. And so can go to ⁓ fourstreetlive.com to out more about the Pig and Swig event that's happening here in a few weeks, correct? Tony Thomas: Correct, yep. And then we'll also have our bourbon products by brand on there as well. Jake Lewellen: Yeah. So make sure you're checking out the website. Make sure you grab your tickets. Again, be on the lookout for our exclusive giveaway that's going to be happening during next week, the week before Jefferson County spring break. I will be doing a giveaway to highlight the Pig and Swig event happening April 4th, April 4th, highlighting the Pig and Swig event on April 11th at 2 p.m. and then going into the night there. So make sure you Tony Thomas: 11. Jake Lewellen: Join us there on 4th Street and we'll catch you next time. Cheers! Tony Thomas: Thank you.