Acting Up in Louisville

Whether you’re filling up before a concert or looking for breakfast the morning after a play, Louisville is a great place for great food. Try the lemon soufflé pancakes at Toast on Market and you’ll be tempted to order more. Wild Eggs offers a grits-of-the-day that shouts down-home, but with twists such as a dash of heat from chorizo sausage and bell pepper.

For lunch, you can’t go wrong at Winston’s Restaurant at Sullivan University’s main campus. Order the Not Brown, invented by Chef John Castro. Fried green tomatoes, shrimp, crab, and spinach, coupled with the traditional bacon and Mornay sauce, take the place of the Hot Brown’s turkey. This semisecret gem is only open for lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday and for Sunday brunch. The blue cheese burger at Bristol Bar & Grille is always a winner at midday too.

Dinner really shines brightly in Louisville. Try the Oakroom at The Seelbach, where chef Nicole Walker holds court over the only five-diamond restaurant in the state. If you’d rather sample this spot during the day, the Sunday brunch is a knockout, offering dozens of menu items from fresh fruit and house-made granola to Champagne. Jeff Ruby may have started his steak house in Cincinnati, but it’s been embraced here in Louisville too. The fillets are perfectly cooked, and you’ll also appreciate the suave Art Deco decor. For a hot choice away from downtown, try Corbett’s, a new restaurant in a refurbished 1850 dairy farmhouse. The food, such as truffled potatoes and fresh fruit sorbets, is fresh, local, and fabulous. Ask for table No. 1, the best seat in the house for watching the parade of diners eagerly enter.

For more information on Louisville, visit www.gotolouisville.com.

"This City Rocks" is from the February 2009 issue of Southern Living. Because prices, dates, and other specifics are subject to change, please check all information to make sure it's still current before making your travel plans.