A wife’s love for plants and a husband’s 20-plus years of experience behind a bar have resulted in Pretty Decent, a new plant-shop-slash-cocktail-bar set to open at 2235 Frankfort Ave. in Clifton on Saturday, April 8.
Owners John and Jeanne Douglass hope to bring something different to Louisville’s cocktail bar scene with a full plant shop in the front and a cocktail bar serving up a selection of plant-based spirits in the back.
Jeanne, the resident plant connoisseur, hopes to stock the botanical storefront with spider plants, hoyas, succulents, cactus, floor plants, seedlings, and flowers. She said all of the greenery will be pet-friendly and will come from farms in Kentucky.
The plant shop will be in the front of Pretty Decent with soil and pottery (made by local artists) for customers at a pot-your-own-plant potting bar. Jeanne wants the store to cater to everyone “from plant professionals to plants newbies” and even those with no green thumb at all. For her, it’s all about “matching people with plants” that fit their lifestyle, living space, and personality.
You’ll find Jeanne working at the plant bar during the day while it's open. She hopes to have opportunities to show people how to “DIY things” when it comes to potting plants and taking care of them.
“You can walk out of here with a nice plant and a nice pot for 25 bucks,” she said.
The botany shop will be open from noon to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.
Meanwhile, the bar will be open from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and from noon to 10 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Both the plant shop and the bar will be closed on Tuesday.
Behind the bar, John will be making cocktails, spritzes, mimosas, coffees, cold brews, and non-alcoholic mocktails.
John wants guests who visit Pretty Decent to have a different experience than one centered around the barrel-aged bourbon Louisville is known for.
“We’re not trying to compete with that,” he said.
Spirits on the cocktail menu come from plants like agave and sugarcane, sticking to Pretty Decent’s plant theme. John said the spirits are made by traditional distillery methods native to the spirits’ countries of origin.
The selection of spirits is inspired by the husband-and-wife duo’s love of traveling the world. Their adventures have taken them to agave farms in Mexico where they witnessed mezcaleros distill mezcal firsthand.
“These guys [mezcaleros] are farmers as well as distillers. You’re in the countryside and it’s beautiful, and that connection was also really eye-opening and interesting to meet people who are actually making those spirits. And it’s been in their families for hundreds of years,” Jeanne said about the experience.
Spirits distilled on farms like these will be offered on Pretty Decent’s cocktail menu.
While you’ll find familiar American-made brands of rye, gin, bourbon, and vodka behind the bar, it’s those smaller “family- or community-owned” spirits made overseas that John wants to highlight at Pretty Decent.
As such, the cocktail menu features plant-based spirits like PiscoLogia pisco from Peru, plus Cinco Sentidos, Real Minero, and El Jolgorio mezcals from Mexico.
While the bar may be inspired by travels far from Louisville, John wants the bar to feel like home for its patrons.
“Bartending is about an interaction with a guest,” he said. “The trick is, it's just like you had somebody coming in your home, [like] you invited somebody over to your house for dinner.”
