LOUISVILLE ROAD TRIP - Part IV - THE LIMESTONE

I saved our favorite Louisville restaurant experience for last. But darn it, discovered I brought home nothing comparable on the photo front. When we arrived at the Limestone at 10:30 for Sunday brunch, we were practically the only people in the place.

I could have snapped some pics of the colorful aquariums atop the half-wall that wraps around the main dining area.

I could have tried to capture the airiness of the space, or the views of blue sky and woods that sunny morning outside this unlikely deserted suburban strip-mall location.

I could have photographed the lovely spread of salads, the giant shrimp cocktail display, the carving station with a glistening whole beef tenderloin, or the staggering dessert table . . . before the restaurant filled up and I lost my nerve.

Instead, here's what I've got.

The Limestone's brunch is an all-you-can-eat buffet for something like $16.95 or $17.95 (must take better notes in future). So the dishes you're about to see are as we served ourselves, not as the restaurant would plate. 

Cindie and I decided to start with "breakfast" and samples from the hot food station. I chose bacon, cheesy Weisenberger grits, a made-to-order omelet, a bit of house-made barbecue, some roasted potatoes, and warm black beans with cilantro and melted cheese - they looked stunning in their latticework presentation before being devoured by the post-church-going Louisvillian crowd (alas, another missed photo op).

We also tried the Limestone's signature bourbon sour-mash biscuits and (unphotographed) gravy.

For plate #2, we sampled the salads and afore-mentioned shrimp.

They included a creamy potato salad, an Asian-inspired whole-wheat noodle salad with yellow squash, a corn, black bean & chickpea salad, leaf lettuces with mojito vinaigrette (note to self: must try to figure out how to make this at home) and a cucumber-tomato-onion salad that was probably a little too early for the season. 

But the highlight of the cold buffet had to be this house-smoked salmon with scallion cream cheese, diced red onions, and capers.

By plate #3, we were ready to delve into the prime rib with - what else? - more Weisenberger grits. We'd seen the name "Weisenberger" affixed to grits the previous evening at Lilly's too, and Cindie asked one of the cooks about them. Our guess was that they must be made of locally ground corn (which may be the case). The cook she spoke to replied that "Weisenberger" had something to do with being cooked with cheese in a casserole fashion. Whatever the case, they were some darn fine creamy, cheesy grits.

This is Cindie's plate, avec horseradish sauce and sans jus. That's cabbage, with hints of apple, at top right. And Weisenberger grits to the left of the cabbage (in front of barbecue).

As we approached our feast's 2-hour mark, we were finally ready to tackle dessert.

(Clockwise from top) Bread pudding made with Limestone's house-made sour-mash bread; cheesecake square (I drizzled raspberry sauce over mine, although it might have been intended for the angel food cake also on offer); mini chocolate lava cake drizzled with bourbon ganache; and tiny blackberry muffin.

Even if I didn't take the best photos, or the best notes, we thoroughly loved this brunch. A steal for the plenitude and the price, it gave us a sense of what Limestone's food is all about and convinced us to put it at the top of our list for a (much pricier) dinner on our next visit . . .when I promise to bring back better photos and have at least inched up on being a better blogger.