LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Restaurant owners take their menus to the music.

What You Need To Know

  • Bourbon & Beyond and Louder than Life music festivals run back-to-back weekends in Louisville 

  • Restaurant owners across the state are spending the next two weeks feeding festival goers

  • Happy Belly Bistro and Four Pegs are featured vendors this season

  • Chef Ashlee Northington will make her third Louder than Life appearance

On any given day, Chef Ashlee Northington isn’t working with very much space. Her converted Airstream boasts about 75 square-feet.

However, the veteran chef is preparing to set up at a venue that holds tens-of-thousands of music.

“It’s really long days. Your line stays a mile long for probably about five hours,” Northington told Spectrum News 1 with a smile.

Northington is the owner of Happy Belly Bistro, a featured vendor at this year’s Louder Than Life festival. It’s Northington’s third go-around but the Bowling Green native is on the road a lot, two months out of the year bringing her Louisville eats to the masses.

“Even people coming here to my hometown, they’re coming from other states, they’ve coming from, you know, there’s people coming from other countries as well, so it’s cool to have them eat our food, wonder where we’re located on a permanent basis and maybe next time they come into town they come and visit Happy Belly,” she shared.

Northington says going mobile is an entirely different undertaking, but the pay-off can be as big as the festival lineup.

“It’s pretty cool to watch those kinds of people come out and enjoy our food. Hopefully, they take a piece of us home,” she said.

James Heep is the Satellite Food & Beverage Director at Four Pegs in Germantown and has been running their festival operations at Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life every year.

“I have been to every one, every single one, even back when it was at Champions Park, the big mud fest,” Heep said. Heep has added 20 members to the staff, including individuals living at several drug and alcohol recovery centers. “Anyone that shows up and does a good job I think deserves to have a job,” Heep said.

Back at Happy Belly, Chef Northington is ready to rock and roll. “Anybody that’s eaten my food, they always say they need a lot of napkins.”

Bourbon & Beyond continues today and runs through Sunday. Louder than Life kicks off next Thursday and runs through the weekend as well.

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