Volare Italian Ristorante is an italian restaurant in Frankfort Avenue, Louisville.
Volare in Louisville pours seasonal Italian dinners with house-made pasta on Frankfort Avenue, three years running the Louisville Magazine readers' best Italian.
Signature dishes: Sea bass piccata, Tomato salad
Must order: The sea bass piccata, the kitchen's most-ordered plate.
Tip: Book the dining room online. The bar opens at 16:30 and pours a sharp aperitivo list.
Address: 2300 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, KY 40206
Garage Bar on East Market in Louisville turned a former auto-service shop into a wood-fired pizza pub with a courtyard ping-pong table and a Kentucky bourbon list.
Signature: Wood-fired pizza, Pork meatballs
Order: The wood-fired pork-meatball pizza, with a Kentucky bourbon old fashioned.
Tip: Kitchen serves until late on weekends. The patio fills first on warm nights.
Naive Kitchen in Louisville cooks vegetable-forward Latin plates from a Butchertown corner on East Washington Street, the neighbourhood's vegan-friendly room.
Signature: Vegetable-forward plates, Latin-inspired bowls
Order: The seasonal grain bowl, plus a margarita with house chile salt.
Tip: Book on OpenTable. The bar runs a separate cocktail list with mocktail-forward options.
Game Restaurant in Louisville grills exotic-meat burgers from antelope to yak inside a lodge-themed Lexington Road dining room near Butchertown.
Signature: Venison burger, Wild boar burger
Order: The venison patty with Gorgonzola and mint pesto on a pretzel bun.
Tip: Closed Sundays. The patio is dog-friendly with the full menu.
Hammerheads in Louisville packs forty seats into a Germantown basement on Swan Street, running smoked lamb ribs and pork sliders out of an open kitchen.
Signature: Lamb ribs, Smoked sliders
Order: The lamb ribs and a pork-belly slider, plus a local draft.
Tip: No reservations. Get there before 18:00 or expect a 45-minute wait on weekends.
Doc Crow's on West Main in Louisville smokes brisket and shucks oysters on Whiskey Row, pairing both with a bourbon library of more than 2,700 expressions.
Signature: Smoked brisket, Raw oysters
Order: Smoked brisket with two sides, plus a flight of three Kentucky bourbons.
Tip: Book on OpenTable for dinner. Lunch runs walk-in until 14:00.
J. Graham's Cafe in the Brown Hotel serves Louisville's original Hot Brown, the open-faced turkey-and-Mornay sandwich invented here in 1926.
Signature: Hot Brown, Bourbon flights
Order: The Hot Brown, served the way Fred Schmidt wrote it in 1926.
Tip: Walk-in for lunch. Book the Lobby Bar through the hotel for an evening Hot Brown and bourbon.
