Robin Garr's LOUISVILLE Restaurant Reviews

*** Club Grotto
2116 Bardstown Road
(502) 459-5275
The name evokes a New Jersey Italian-American joint with Roman statues out front and red-checked tablecloths within, but Louisville's Club Grotto is higher-tone than that, with a classy setting that resembles a funky art gallery, and an international bill of fare that picks up a little from Italy, a little from Asia, a touch from here and a taste from there.

Spread through several rooms in a Bardstown Road storefront, Club Grotto's main room is vaguely Chinese in mood, with dark red walls, ebony black trim, and short stone walls around the lower walls that discreetly evoke a "grotto" theme ... about the only thing about the decor that does.

A collection of art as eclectic as the menu ranges from the fine to the bizarre: A winged frog over a table in the front and statuary reminiscent of the old Alice in Wonderland books, a lighted fish tank or two and a good collection of quality framed prints. A partial wall with cafe curtains divides the main room into two smaller sections with a bar at the back. The noisy crowd and loud big-screen television back there somewhat defeat the quieter ambience of the dining room, and smoke drifting from the bar into the non-smoking area is an irritation.

This is one of the few faults in one of the city's better dining rooms, however; in sum, the food, service and dining experience at Club Grotto are consistently fine.

The good size of the restaurant's multiple rooms allows sturdy white-draped tables to be spaced widely enough to avoid overcrowding. Heavy oak side chairs remind me of old-fashioned schoolrooms but prove quite comfortable for leisurely dining.

Chef-owner Jim McKinney's bill of fare offers a round-the-world tour on a dinner plate, with a good mix of down-home and "fusion" treats that span the globe. A half-dozen starters range from $6 (for wild mushroom strudel or salmon potstickers with ponzu sauce) to $9 (for bacon-wrapped scallops with corn and scallion fritters). Salads are $5; soups are $6, and about a dozen main-dish entrees range from $13 for chicken piccata with whipped potatoes and chef's vegetables to $28 for roast rack of Colorado lamb with rosemary Pinot Noir demi-glace with polenta fries, a side order that catches my fancy so much that I ache to order the dish just so I can try them. So many other items look appetizing that I find it unusually hard to choose: Sauteed calf's liver with caramelized onions ($14) ... spaghettini agli olio with a grilled chicken breast, pine nuts and arugula ($17) ... Southern fried walleye pike with watercress and tartar sauce ($17) ... even the seemingly oxymoronic chef's vegetable orgy ($17).

The sizable (80-item) wine list offers a pleasantly inviting guide to vino, being subdivided by grape with a short paragraph explaining just a bit about each style. ("Merlot is an amiable wine, superb with simple grilled red meats, chicken, game, duck and sausage dishes and smoky foods.") It's a user-friendly approach that invites the diner to try something new. A fair number are available by the glass from $5.50 (for Handley 1995 Sauvignon Blanc, a vintage just old enough for this drink-it-young wine to make me wary) to $8.75 (for a single-vineyard Pouilly-Fuissé). With the exception of a trio of pricey but fine Champagnes topping out at $170 for a well-aged 1998 Veuve Cliquot Grande Dame, everything on the list is under $70, with a few choices in the affordable ($20) neighborhood. There's a noticeable tilt toward West Coast wines along with a few French and Italian standards. I spotted a personal favorite, De Boisseyt-Chol Saint-Joseph from the Rhone, for $28, a very reasonable markup from its $19 retail price.

I went with a midrange New World Pinot Noir to span both pork and earthy catfish: David Bruce 1997 Sonoma County Pinot Noir ($38) showed ripe plum and sweet caramel aromas followed up by tart green-tomato and sour-cherry flavors that opened up with time in the glass.

Club Grotto wins extra credit, by the way, for its excellent wine glasses, large and delicate (they may even be the pricey Riedels), which elevate its wine service above the run of the mill and even above the klunky glasses used in some of the city's more pretentious dining rooms.

An appetizer of New Orleans barbecued shrimp ($8) was delicious, with a half-dozen generously large critters in a red ketchup-like sauce that lacked the dark-brown burnt roux quality of the Cajun-country original, which would also come complete with shells (including the heads and wobbling antennae), a touch that would probably be lost on many Louisville-area diners. Still, it's tasty - sweet, herbal and fiery, with the shrimp perched on a savory cake of grits bound with just a bit of garlicky cream cheese.

A special soup of the day ($6) was a lovely starter for a hot summer's evening: A cool, simple but elegant blend of fresh cucumbers pureed with gently tangy creme fraiche, chicken stock and an aromatic whiff of dill.

Caesar salad ($5) was crisp, fresh and cold, with a standard garlicky and just lightly creamy Caesar dressing, topped with good homemade croutons and grated mild Parmesan, with a whole anchovy on top as a reward.

The Grotto salad ($5) featured baby lettuces (I went on a botanical tour of the plate and identified oak leaf, romaine and frisee), Parmesan and blue cheese, chickpeas, chunks of canteloupe, artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers in a sweetish vinaigrette.

My wife settled on a special of the day, crispy Chinese catfish ($23). A catfish fillet the size of a small rowboat, thickly crusted with a delicious, spicy golden-brown breading, came perched on a bed of steamed Chinese cabbage, swimming on an aggressively sweet soy-based sauce with chopped peanuts. The catfish was great, fried to perfection within a delicious, spicy golden-brown crust, and the bok choy cabbage was crisp-tender and fine. The accompanying rice pilaf was bland, though, apparently instant or converted rice, and the sauce got a five-yard penalty for unnecessary sweetness.

My choice, a brine-cured pork loin chop ($20), was large, tender and juicy, appetizingly scored with criss-cross grill marks. It came perched atop a pillar of rich mashed potatoes and topped with a dollop of applesauce-like pear compote in a "vertical food" presentation that looked impressive but wasn't particularly easy to eat, surrounded by a dark-purple red-wine reduction sauce with pools of molten blue cheese floating on top. Good flavors, good contrast, good dish.

Crème brûlée was just right as a shared dessert, rich and creamy custard topped with a caramelized surface that shattered like glass; I'd just as soon have left off the whipped cream and strawberry on top, a procedure that rates as "gilding the lily."

Cups of strong, steaming espresso made a fine finish to a very good meal that came to $121.37 for two including the wine, plus a $23.63 tip to round the total off to $145. $$$