Louisville, KYSouthern

Chef Edward Lee's flagship in an Old Louisville carriage house, and a fixture on LEO Weekly's list of restaurants worth the splurge. Southern ingredients meet Korean American technique across a tasting menu that turns over with the season. Dinner runs Wednesday through Saturday, a reservation is the only sane approach, and the meal takes an entire evening.

The room LEO Weekly's splurge survey mentions more than any other, running on Bardstown Road since the 1930s. Spicy fried oysters and shrimp and grits anchor the menu, live jazz plays most nights, and the walls have not changed in any way a regular would notice. Louisville has been sending out of towners here for a very long time.

Robin Garr scored the kitchen 91 out of 100 for LEO Weekly and called the beef brisket an outstanding example of the smoker's art. Shrimp and grits share the menu with a raw bar, all of it inside a restored 1870s whiskey warehouse on Main Street. Southern cooking downtown, with the bourbon shelf behind the bar to match it.

Chef Dallas McGarity's Grinstead Drive room, written up by LEO Weekly. The cooking is seasonal and Southern with a Mediterranean lean: lamb meatballs in tzatziki, chili glazed brussels sprouts, and a menu that turns over as things come into season. Small, dark, and comfortable enough that people tend to linger well past the check.

A Southern gastropub in old Anchorage, open since 2010, which LEO Weekly readers placed third in the 2024 Readers' Choice Hot Brown category. The Hotter Brown comes baked and broiled, and the patio draws a crowd on any night the weather cooperates. It is a drive out from downtown, and worth it for the setting alone.