LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and fans of Baz Luhrmann’s popular film adaptation know, the wedding of Daisy Fay, a Louisville socialite, and Tom Buchanan, a Chicago millionaire, took place in a hotel inspired by the Seelbach hotel in downtown Louisville, “with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before.” Buchanan, Fitzgerald adds, even “hired a whole floor” of the hotel for the wedding party.
Built in 1905 by Bavarian immigrants Louis and Otto Seelbach and located at the corner of Fourth Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard, the Seelbach is as grand today as it was when Fitzgerald first set eyes on it back in 1918.
This Gilded Age hotel, now Hilton owned (502-585-3200, tinyurl.com/ok6qaaw), has been frequented by presidents (from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to George W. Bush) and gangsters (Al Capone) alike.
Two suites are named in honor of Fitzgerald and his classic novel. The Fitzgerald Suite is on the eighth floor, and the Gatsby Suite is dramatically situated at the end of the hallway on the seventh floor. Though it is uncertain whether Fitzgerald stayed in either room, his presence is felt nevertheless.
Gatsby fans should not miss the Beaux Arts-style grand ballroom on the 10th floor or the magnificent Rathskeller Room in the basement.
Capone played poker in the hotel’s Oakroom, today the only AAA Five Diamond restaurant in Kentucky.
Fitzgerald was known to appreciate bourbon and a good cigar. In keeping with Fitzgerald’s exquisite tastes, Gatsby and non-Gatsby admirers alike should take time to enjoy the bourbon-smoked corn chowder and save room for the Seelbach pie (molasses custard, pecan and chocolate chip) at Otto’s Cafe or sip a glass of some of Kentucky’s finest bourbon in the Old Seelbach Bar; both are in the lobby.
The historic bar is a stop on the Urban Bourbon Trail, which consists of 20 bourbon bars and restaurants scattered throughout Louisville and environs.
