Follow Insider Louisville
-
-
-
About the author
Steve Coomes
Steve Coomes is a Louisville restaurant industry veteran turned food writer. In his 22-year career, he has edited and written for dozens of national trade and consumer publications including Nation's Restaurant News and Southern Living. A past restaurant critic and food feature writer for Louisville magazine, he pens features for Edible Louisville magazine and is online editor for Food & Dining Magazine. He also serves as ghostwriter for multiple companies in the restaurant segment. Click here to read other articles by Steve Coomes.
Hyatt Louisville unveils major lobby renovation that includes new restaurant, Sway
Entry to Sway comes off the main lobby. No elevators to the top floor dining room anymore. (All photos by Steve Coomes for Insider Louisville. Click on photos to enlarge.)
If you’ve not been to downtown Louisville’s Hyatt Regency Hotel in a while, you should pay it a visit.
The Chicago-based hotel chain spent $5.8 million dollars on a refresh for the 34-year-old Louisville hotel that looks— to my amateur eyes, at least — like it cost much more.
The overhaul included the basics such as a new registration desk, entrance lounge, workout room, etc., but the restaurant and bar areas are the most dramatic spaces.
The bar has lots of room for, um, networking.
Ample wood and stone surfaces give the space an organic and contemporary feel, and there’s loads of comfy furniture available for relaxed lingering.
Weather permitting, the glass walls along the backside of its spacious bar-lounge slide open onto Fourth Street and allow the commingling of urban noise and cocktail chatter.
Sway’s main dining room. Recall my mention of roomy?
The views of the activity outside are cool as well.
Sway (which is short for “Southern Way”) seats 97 with room for many more. Diners surely will appreciate the hotel not cramming chairs into every nook—doubtless table servers will, too.
Its kitchen is captained by executive chef David Barrett, a Hyatt veteran, who has been in the Louisville hotel for about a year-and-a-half.
A cozy corner of the lounge.
Barrett told me a few weeks ago that Sway will have a farm-to-fork focus that will draw heavily on products from area ranchers, dairies and vegetable growers.
Though Barrett grew up in Chicago, his mother is from Middlesboro, Ky., which meant he was raised on southern food. Sway’s menu bears that influence, he said
(The menu is not yet online, otherwise we’d have linked it here.)
The bar from another angle. Notice the fully opened glass walls, allowing passage to and from 4th Street.
More good news: Sway has a “come as you are” dress code.
Whether you wear a suit or your jeans, you’ll be fine.
Have a look at the photos below for a better idea of what the refurb looks like.
Click on any photo to enlarge.