The 'New Louisville' starts to hum

First came the art galleries. Then the boutiques. Then the food and drink (craft and farm-to-table, thank you very much). Then the -- record store?

Yes, yes, yes and yes, and that equation, spread across four rapidly developing blocks east of Louisville's downtown, has brought sudden vigor to a corner of Kentucky best known for its horses, bourbon and baseball bats.

While the world might not need another precious urban nickname, Louisville dearly needed NuLu -- or New Louisville, if you prefer -- for an infusion of the delicious, the trendy and the novel. Across this stretch of East Market Street, as it is properly known, about 30 locally owned businesses have sprouted, many during the past year, without a chain in sight.

By most accounts, Louisville's renaissance started in 2004 with Fourth Street Live!, a collection of neon and chain restaurants aimed at convention traffic that is as subtle as the exclamation mark might make you suspect. The next major landmark was the 2010 opening of a downtown arena for the University of Louisville basketball team (runner-up to Catholicism for the city's most popular religion). It also gave performers such as Lady Gaga a reason to add Louisville to their tours.

NuLu is a short walk from both spots as well as downtown's more traditional highlights, such as the Louisville Slugger and Muhammad Ali museums. If NuLu's resurgence can be described in two words, it would be these: exposed brick. Almost regardless of whether it's a restaurant, bar or boutique, NuLu spaces are handsome, comfortable and carefully retain decades-old charm.

Browse the boutiques and art galleries (there are about a dozen). Lounge with a coffee and check the vinyl stacks at Please and Thank You, a coffee shop that doubles as a record store (800 E. Market St., 1-502-235-2372; pleaseandthank youlouisville.com). Have a beer at the Louisville Beer Store (746 E. Market St.; 1-502-569-2337; louisvillebeerstore. com), a world-class bottle shop and a bar with eight hard-to-find craft beers on tap.

Find your way to Taste Fine Wine and Spirits (634 E. Market St.; 502-409-4646; tastefine winesandbourbons.com), a whiskey and wine shop that is one of NuLu's recent additions. There you can sample plenty of Kentucky bourbon. "What we do here is give you a pour of bourbon for $5," owner Paul Meyer, 63, said. "We serve it with ice, water or water and ice. If you want something with soda pop in it, I got nothing for you."

A James Beard Award semifinalist for best new restaurant, Harvest takes up the "farm-to-table" concept with utter sincerity and boasts an impressive seasonal cocktail menu to match. Heavy on the organic spirits, the cocktails are almost as high-minded as the food, but the concept isn't overly serious: A menu was printed on the back of a Habitat for Humanity envelope. Actually, maybe that is kind of serious. (624 E. Market St.; 1-502-384-9090; harvestlouisville.com.)

Other must-visits for dinner include the Mayan Cafe (813 E. Market St.; 1-502-566-0651; themayancafe.com) and Wiltshire on Market (636 E. Market St.; 1-502-589-5224; wiltshirepantry.com).

For breakfast and lunch, try Toast on Market (620 E. Market St.; 1-502-569-4099; toast onmarket.com). Garage Bar (700 E. Market St.; 1-502-749-7100; garageonmarket.com) offers wood-fired pizza and a thorough beer and cocktail menu, while Rye (900 E. Market St.; 1-502-749-6200; ryeonmarket.com) is a cocktail bar doubling as an ace restaurant.

Good things extend beyond NuLu. Check out the Meat cocktail bar and the Silver Dollar honky-tonk.

Meat, an elegant room in a quiet corner of town, is the heart of Louisville's suddenly serious cocktail scene. Almost any spirit imaginable appears on bartender/recipe author/co-owner Jeremy Johnson's menu. Don't be surprised to find seven or eight ingredients in your glass along with ice from a Kold-Draft machine. And it's open till 4 a.m. (1076 E. Washington St.; 1-502-354-3212; meatlouisville.com)

The legendary spots in town are just blocks from NuLu, such as the 21c Museum Hotel (700 W. Main St.; 1-502-217-6300; 21chotel.com), the Brown Hotel (335 W. Broadway; 1-502-583-1234; brownhotel.com) and the Seelbach Hilton (500 S. 4th St.; 1-502-585-3200).