Tag: Featured

RSVP

Lady Mary would absolutely approve: Guests dress for success at the Long Run Hounds Hunt Ball

Big smiles, big personalities and big business networking — yes, it’s everyone’s favorite feature in the society shiny sheets: party photos! Boulevard picks through the pics, choosing our favorite coverage. Today’s entry is from Nfocus Louisville.

EvelynNapier
Napier’s nattier.

Long Run Hounds Hunt Ball
“The invitation,” Tonya Abeln writes, “eloquently stated the dress code as ‘White or Black Tie — Scarlet, if convenient,’ and for most of the members, their scarlet riding frock, designed as a bright form of identification as well as to denote a seasoned Hunt member, was the perfect dapper ensemble.”

In other words, picture “Downton Abbey’s” Honorable Evelyn Napier, looking askance in the photo, above right.

Annette Adams chaired the party at the Pendennis Club, where a silent auction was all about some serious and even mysterious paraphernalia: vintage English lapel pins, hunt bridle (?) and breastplate (?!).

Lest readers blanch at the thought of tearing a fox to pieces, not to mention the traditional “blooding” procedure, Nfocus urged calm: “Foxhunting could more accurately be called fox chasing, as LRH is one of many ‘no-kill’ hunt clubs, indulging in the sport purely for the enjoyment of the outdoors with their four legged friends.”

Phew!

Related: more Nfocus party photos. Buy a vintage Gordon Weatherill gent’s red hunt coat for £255 ($372 at current exchange rates). Check out the latest rankings in The Boulevard Social 400.

Photo, top: Lady Mary Crawley and Napier, whose Turkish hunting companion was dying to bed her.

Real Estate

We will sell this house today! Owsley Brown Frazier’s $4.9M ‘mansion that whisky built’

An occasional look at premium homes on the market.

The marketing campaign for the philanthropist’s country manor, “The Avish,” steps up tonight, when Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty hosts a private cocktail party and showing for clients, brokers and agents. Owsley Brown Frazier, an heir to the Brown-Forman distillery fortune, died four years ago at 77. The seller is his daughter, Laura L. Frazier; its assessed value is $4.8 million, according to Jefferson County tax records. The Avish is at 5224 Avish Lane in Harrods Creek, the wealthy enclave in northeast Louisville.

The asking price is $4.9 million, down from $5.3 million in December, when the listing was pulled after a pending sale from March 2015 fell though, according to Zillow. When it originally hit the market in 2012 after Brown’s death, Curbed put the list at $6 million. Later that year, Zillow says, it sold for $4.8 million, presumably to Laura.

Owsley Brown Frazier
Frazier

The Avish translates to “Rocky Hill” in Gaelic, and is named for the Brown family’s ancestral home in Ireland, according to The Voice-Tribune. It was built in 1910 by Brown’s grandfather, Owsley Brown, according to Curbed, which called it the “mansion that whiskey built.”

Here’s Lenihan’s description: This impressive estate is on The National Register of Historic Places and sits on 10 acres overlooking the Ohio River. With nearly 18,000 finished square feet, there are two master suites, four additional bedrooms, nine full baths and two half-baths. The grand foyer is flanked by a reception room, dining hall and a formal parlor with adjoining conservatory. The first floor is also comprised of the catering and main kitchens and the owners office suite. You may access the private living quarters on the second floor by one of three stair cases, service or passenger elevator. The third floor features a private suite that’s perfect suite for an in-law, an au pair or nanny. The grounds feature a gorgeous arbor, stunning formal garden with garden house and attached greenhouses, walkways, barn and guest/managers quarters with two bedrooms and bathrooms. The lower level is where you’ll find the indoor pool and solarium, private his-hers bathrooms with dressing areas, entertainment areas, laundry facilities, office and garages.

Related: Brown’s last will and testament. Plus, Boulevard is reminded of this scene starring Annette Bening from 1999’s “American Beauty.”

Travel

Louisville to France: an $88,000 Memorial Day Weekend in a sunny place for shady people

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us, and we’ve decided to inaugurate the start of summer with a beach vacation — to Monte-Carlo! No, not that tacky hotel in Las Vegas. We mean the glittering jewel of the French Rivera, made famous by the late Princess Grace, and the occasional ne’er-do-wells who’ve made it a sunny place for shady people.

The weekend weather forecast is mostly sunny, with a high only touching 80 degrees. Here in Louisville, it’ll be closer to 90. Here’s our itinerary.

When: May 26-31. Airline: Delta. Route: Louisville to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Nice, then a 40-minute drive to Monte-Carlo. How much: $13,724 per person airfare for a mix of economy and business class. About 15 hours 30 minutes flight time with layovers. Delta reservations.

What better place to stay in Monte than the Diamond Suite Penthouse at the Hotel Hermitage? It promises three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a children’s playroom — and two terraces, with drop-dead views of the yacht-swollen harbor (photo, top). Best of all, Larvotto Beach is just a six-minute ride along seaside Avenue Princesse Grace.

Gustave teddy bearHow much for the suite? A steal at $18,523 a night. Of course, this doesn’t cover various optional enhancements that include a $51 Gustave teddy bear made exclusively for younger guests (photo, left). We do the math so you don’t have to: four nights would cost $74,092. Here’s one of the penthouse suite’s terraces:

Terrace

Bottom Line

Open wide: everything you want to know about Kentucky dentistry, plus some scary stuff

Kentucky regulators publish a laundry list of requirements to get a license to practice dentistry. At the top: Applicants must read, speak, and write English at least at the ninth-grade level. (The regulations don’t say anything about understanding patients’ garbled answers to questions asked during exams.) License applicants also must pass a nationwide criminal background check through the FBI or the Kentucky State Police. Would that have tripped up evil Dr. Christian Szell? More on that in a moment.

And they’re subject to discipline by the 10-member Board of Dentistry. It hasn’t dinged any this year, and only disciplined one in all of 2015. But in 2010, the board went after 72 dentists — far and away more than any other year. The board’s records don’t say why.

Nationwide, dentistry is one of the more segregated occupations. African-Americans hold 11.7% of all occupations nationwide, but are just 2.9% of dentists, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, for last year. They are just 3.6% of all dental hygienists, and 9.6% of dental assistants. (At the other extreme, they’re overrepresented among barbers, holding 40.7% of all.) Boulevard is trying to find comparable figures for Kentucky and for Louisville.

Scared of dentists? You’re not alone; up to 10% of U.S. adults are so afraid, they avoid dental care at all costs. Laurence Olivier only advanced those fears with his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Dr. Szell, a dentist and fugitive Nazi war criminal who tortures his patient in 1976’s “Marathon Man.” That’s him in the photo, top. Szell ranks as villain No. 34 on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years … 100 Heroes and Villains” list.

Related: Google lists dozens of dentists in the Louisville area. And, the Kentucky Dental Association has a searchable database.

Travel

Crazy-crooked houses, picturesque canals — it’s Louisville to Amsterdam for a $51,000 week-long visit

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

Boulevard loves Amsterdam: whimsical, cockeyed houses lining romantic canals; the recently reopened Rijksmuseum of Dutch Masters after an extensive renovation, and friendly, liberal-minded residents. And that’s not to mention all those coffee shops selling fine marijuana. Indeed, there’s even more to savor in a recent New York Times story about the city: Amsterdam, Revisited. (And don’t miss its fresh update on “36 Hours in” Holland’s capital.

Consider this itinerary:

When: Oct. 12-19. Airline: Delta. Route: Louisville to Detroit to Amsterdam, 10 hours and 17 minutes travel time, including a one-hour layover in Detroit. How much: $7,479, economy to Minneapolis and business class to Amsterdam. Delta reservations.

Related: TripAdvisor recommends the five-star Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam. The Brentano Suite is available during these travel dates for $4,721 per night; that’s the lovely sitting area, below. Reservations. And of course, don’t forget Airbnb Amsterdam apartments.

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The bottom line

For two travelers: airfare, hotel, plus $400 a day for meals, museum tickets and other incidentals: $51,000.

Jobs

Road rage! Two identical Louisville jobs. Which one pays three times more than the other?

Time clockBoulevard reports extensively on executive pay at big local employers. But we also look at what folks are making down in the trenches — in this example, along the streets.

Both major ride-sharing services — the 21st-century taxi companies — are advertising for Louisville drivers in Craigslist’s etcetera job listings.

Uber’s pitch: Meet your financial goals. Signing up takes less than 4 minutes, earnings area deposited directly into your bank account weekly; set your own driving schedule. To qualify, you need a four-door vehicle; valid driver’s license, be at least 21, own a smartphone, and have car registration and insurance. What it pays: $512 a week.

Lyft’s pitch: Drivers choose their own hours, drive their own car, and cash out whenever you want to, with payment directly deposited into your bank account weekly. As with Uber, to qualify you must have a four-door car, but from year 2004 or newer, be at least 21, own an iPhone or Android, and have a clean driving record and personal auto insurance. What it pays: a lot more, up to $1,500 a week.

Photo, top: The 1958–82 Checker A series cabs are the most famous taxi vehicles in the U.S.