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88	RockWall 3426 Paoli Pike Floyds Knobs, Ind. (812) 948-1705

Website: http://www.rockwallbistro.com/

Who says you have to go to Bardstown Road or Frankfort Avenue for a sophisticated dining experience in Louisville? Not RockWall's loyal fans. This atmospheric eatery in scenic Floyds Knobs offers a creative menu with a light Louisiana accent, plus an interesting, affordable wine list. It's well worth the 15-minute trip across the Ohio for one of the metro area's most enjoyable dining experiences.

Taking full advantage of its setting in a historic house nestled in an 1800s-era rock quarry, RockWall's understated decor reflects its environment, featuring muted dove-gray walls, varnished golden maple trim and discreet art, including a number of close-up, textured color photographs of rock formations in simple reddish-gold-hued wood frames. Tables are draped with light white cloths protected by white paper, and set with attractive shiny maplewood side chairs. Those who fancy plaid and paisley might find it "boring," but it looks tasteful and relaxing to me.

Weather permitting, I like to sit on the attractive patio that's carved from a semicircular quarry rock wall. Exterior walls and an angled lean-to roof provide protection from the rain and make it a comfortable place to dine for most of the year. The patio room is furnished with heavy black iron tables and chairs, a couple of taller bar-type tables and tall chairs, some backed into nooks in the rock wall to create a semi-private environment. Tiny white lights twinkle amid plastic ivy overhead; in a corner, a small waterfall cascades down in a thin, bubbling stream.

Inside and out, the tables are set with black cloth napkins, quality flatware and attractive cut-glass candleholders. Servers wear black, shirts, slacks and aprons. We've found them consistently friendly yet professional, cordial and helpful, but they don't put on a phony effort to act like your best friend. The background music is just right, too, not elevator music but serious blues, played at a level where you can listen if you want to or ignore it if you don't.

Overall, the tone and style are just right. The music, the atmosphere, the food, the service are all relaxed, not stuffy, but there's a touch of class, and it all comes together in an exceptionally pleasant experience that makes you want to lean back, enjoy your dinner and hang out for a while.

The owner, Guy Sillings, boasts 30 years' experience in the restaurant business; Chef Andrew Badon is from New Orleans and shows it with light grace notes - this is not a New Orleans or Cajun-Creole restaurant by any means - but a bit of blackening here, a touch of Creole spice there adds piquancy and color. Meanwhile, pastry chef Ada King, a graduate of Lilly's, brings an artful touch to RockWall's impressive desserts. (Note: in Autumn 2004, Tony Sorrell, once of Louisville's Club Grotto, took over as chef.)

The menu changes periodically. At the time of our autumn visit, it featured about a dozen soups, salads and appetizers. A trio of soups were $5.25 (for tortilla soup or gazpacho) to $7.95 (for New Orleans-style gumbo). Three salads were $6.75 (for the "Little Italy," a caprese-style blend of Roma tomatoes and mozzarella with roasted garlic) to $11.25 (for the imposing Poseidon salad, named after the Greek god of the sea, shrimp and grilled teriyaki on a Caesar bed). Seven appetizers ranged in price from $4.95 (for fried green tomatoes) to $9.95 (for a sample choice of any three).

Fifteen entrees were divided into categories including "grill," "seafood," "pasta" and "fowl and such," ranging from $7.95 (for the, er, Rockslide openface burger) to $18.95 (for a filet mignon wrapped with hickory-smoked bacon and finished with Bordelaise sauce). The chef's vegetarian delight ($8.95) features seasonal fresh local and regional produce in a meatless choice of the day. A rock game hen or chicken alfredo portion is $10.95; seafood pasta with shrimp, scallops and crab is $15.95, and a grilled or blackened "plantation" salmon fillet topped with lump crabmeat in a pecan caramel sauce is $18.25.

The wine list is affordable and surprisingly eclectic, a well-chosen selection of about 45 wines including such oddities as the French red or white Lillet for an aperitif ($4.50 a glass) and a couple of bottles of Indiana wine from the nearby Huber Orchard & Winery, including its imposing Indiana Heritage, a very good wine indeed, for $25 a bottle or $6 a glass. Overall, prices by the bottle range from $10 (for Sutter Home White Zinfandel, $3.25 a glass) to $38 (for a bottle of Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay), not counting that celebratory jug of Veuve Cliquot Champagne for a cool $148.

For openers, we enjoyed a bowl of gazpacho ($5.25), a fresh, chilled Spanish treat, somewhere on the cusp between a salad you can drink and a thick, cold soup. A thick, cold tomato soup, that is, loaded with good crunchy bits of green pepper, cucumber, white and green onions and a hint of piquant spice, garnished with six oversize, herb-dusted croutons.

Next we turned to appetizers. RockWall's signature walleye chips ($6.95) consist of bite-size pieces of walleye pike coated in a crunchy cornmeal breading and deep-fried dark golden brown, attractively plated on a creamy, spicy remoulade-style "Cajun aioli." Tender and boneless, this red-fleshed fish is on the strong-flavored side, not for those who prefer mild-to-bland finny fare like scrod; but my fish-eating wife loved it and defended her plate against my efforts to sample more than one.

Rock hen flautas ($5.95) were another appealing appetizer. Four flour tortillas were rolled around tender shredded meat seasoned with spicy-hot, smoky chipotle peppers and deep-fried, egg-roll style. They were served in an X-shape on a pretty off-white china plate with a broad black band, plated on field greens and garnished with fresh tomato dice, artfully decorated with tangy pale-green stripes of something like a wasabi horseradish cream.

Somewhere around this point, a complimentary bread basket turned up, a couple of warm slices of a fresh, simple white cheese bread with a ball of whipped "Cajun butter."

RockWall's upscale take on fried chicken, rock game hen ($10.95), was "semi-deboned," wings on, lightly dusted with seasoned flour, and deep-fried to perfection. In fact, everything that's fried at RockWall is done with a real command of the fryer's art: Crisp, sizzling, fried so hot and drained so well that you can pick them up without getting grease on your fingers. Within that crispy crust is tender, savory and steaming game-hen meat: What's not to like? My wife's choice of side dish, garlic mashed potatoes, was textured and dense, with bits of skin, green onions and garlic mashed in.

My main course was the pork chop Louisiane ($14.95), a neatly trimmed 10-ounce pork chop on the bone. It was tender and flavorful, spicy and peppery in its Paul Prudhomme-style blackened coating, served surrounded with a brownish, spicy fresh tomato sauce that featured a well-executed combination of long-simmered tomatoes with some barely-cooked tomato and green onions added at the last minute for texture. The accompanying pilaf was less successful: Simple "converted" rice, just cooked through and still a bit chewy, seemed like little more than a careless afterthought. I saved my applause for the other accompaniment, three big, thick slabs of tart, crisp-tender green tomato, fried very well indeed - simple, light and crisp breading encased thick-sliced and crispy-tender green tomatoes almost as sweet as fresh fruit.

This may seem surprising for a certified wine geek, but I went with an Indiana wine - Huber Winery's 2000 red "Heritage" ($25) - and was glad I did. A blend of French-American hybrid grape varieties that aims at a style resembling popular Merlots, it showed attractive red-fruit aromas with pleasantly earthy "barnyard" notes, dry and tart but attractively fruity and well balanced. It reminded us of a good Southern Rhone red and was fully competitive with California and European dry reds at the same price point.

Homemade strawberry sorbet and coffee ice cream ($3) and strong coffee made a fitting finish to a very fine meal that was enhanced by RockWall's cozy setting. Dinner for two came to $78.05 plus a $15.95 tip; not cheap, but for a full meal with two apps and a soup, entrees and a dessert and bottle of wine, it's toward the lower end of the fine-wine dining experience in the metro area.

ROCKWALL BRUNCH:

RockWall's lavish Sunday brunch has become a regular destination for us. We dined inside on a review visit on a sunny Sunday in mid-autumn, and sampled just about everything on the buffet.

About 10 chafing dishes offer a substantial, mostly traditional brunch with such offerings as cheese grits, a simplified eggs Benedict, French toast, and fresh asparagus, crisp-tender and flavorful, served at room temperature in a tangy lemon vinaigrette. Luncheon-type choices include excellent fried chicken, crisply coated and peppery; baked salmon and dense mashed potatoes.

Everything was good, and much of it better than good. The fried chicken was superb. Homemade biscuits were tasty, and the sausage gravy was amazing - I don't usually like this stuff, but this is the Cadillac of sausage gravy, not mere greasy milk gravy but a well-crafted bechamel sauce made with heavy cream, smooth and rich, cloaking tender balls of high-quality country sausage.

There's also an omelet station where you can have an omelet made to order with your choice of fillings (a ham and Cheddar model was fine) and lean roast beef sliced to your order, whether you want it bluish-rare from the cool center or crusty and well-done from the edge.

A cheese tray offered a Brie-type and a fancy layered cheddar-and-blue wedge plus simple water crackers. The salad bar featured a Caesar-type salad, lots of fresh fruit, honeydew melon and cantaloupe, strawberries, and oh, yum, fresh figs in season. Room for dessert? Choices included a bowl of trifle, cheesecake, strawberry shortcakes, chocolate cake and brownies.

Buffets are $13.95 all-inclusive, making a filling Sunday midday meal for $29.57 plus $6.05 tip.

$$$

(August and September 2003)

ACCESSIBILITY: Fully accessible to people in wheelchairs.

RockWall 3426 Paoli Pike New Albany, Ind. 47150