This article first appeared in Louisville Magazine's EATS Dining Guide 1998
© 1998 Robin Garr

I, in turn, seek delicacy, finesse and balance in the dessert movement of the dinner symphony ... a flan is perfect for me, or a creme brulee; the culinary equivalent of a Mozart sonata, never your noisy march by Sousa. My wife calls them "FALSE desserts," waits a beat, and then, of course, adds greedily, "are you going to eat all of that?"

Between us we can cut a swath through just about any dessert menu in town. And there's no better time than the holiday season, when calorie-counting goes into abeyance, to do just that! Here's my report on a selection of Louisville's best desserts, in venues ranging from swank white-tablecloth eateries to down-home pie kitchens.

• LILLY'S is one of Louisville's top restaurants, and its CHOCOLATE VELVET is the kind of dessert that catches my bride's eye. A multi-layered calorie bomb, it features both chocolate mousse and Amaretto-flavored toffee wrapped in a comforting blanked of rich pound cake and iced with dark chocolate. With vanilla ice cream alongside -- nothing, after all, succeeds like excess -- one serving was more than enough for two. Among other top Lilly's desserts, CREME BRULEE was delicate and subtle, just as it should be; it came wrapped in a non-traditional but deliciously buttery hull of flaky puff pastry. Marking the austere end of the dessert spectrum, a fresh TEXAS PINK-GRAPEFRUIT SORBET with a splash of Absolut citron was light, fresh and palate-cleansing.

(Lilly's, 1147 Bardstown Road, 451-0447)

• INDIGO BISTRO AND BAR, tucked out of sight in a nondescript St. Matthews shopping center, is one of Louisville's hidden culinary treasures. We love its bistro-style fare, and it particularly shines in the dessert department. There wasn't a loser in the trio we chose: CHOCOLATE PASSION was pure essence of deep, dark chocolate, a horrendously rich item containing pounds of chocolate, butter and eggs. GINGER CREME BRULEE represented my idea of dessert perfection -- delicate yet rich, subtle cream custard with a delicious, lemony ginger note adding character, flamed on top to a crisp, glassy caramel crust. TIRAMISU was a classic preparation of this southern Italian specialty, rich whipped cream and ladyfingers, a delicate work of culinary chamber music.

(Indigo Bistro and Bar, 3930 Chenoweth Square, 893-0106)

• Speaking of TIRAMISU, there's no better spot for this Italian specialty (whose name, in dialect, means "it picks you up") than VINCENZO'S, the city's top spot for white-tablecloth Italian dining. Airily aromatic and feather-light, this rendition doesn't just pick you up, it wafts you away on a cloud of creamy delicacy ... and, of course, calories.

(Vincenzo's, 150 S. Fifth St., 580-1350)

• RUTH'S CHRIS quickly made a name for itself in Louisville by disproving the conventional wisdom that a restaurant's quality is inversely proportional to its distance above the ground. This scenic-view restaurant continues to impress with steaks of the finest quality -- and prices as stratospheric as its building-top location. Even if you indulge in the 32-ounce T-bone, you still must save room for its signature CHEESECAKE, one of the best I've ever tasted. This is a classic New York-style cheesecake, heavy and rich, tart and not too sweet, baked within a crumbly, rich and toasty crust and topped with a light cream layer: Perfection.

(Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Kaden Tower 16th floor, 6100 Dutchmans Parkway, 479-0026)

• CAFE IRIS, a St. Matthews storefront eatery, bills itself as "Louisville's Best Desserts," setting a bold goal and one that I fear it can't quite reach. Call it "Louisville's Pretty Good Desserts," though, and it's certainly worth a stop when a sugar craving calls. PECAN-CHOCOLATE-CHIP-BOURBON PIE, an affectionate effort at emulating trademarked Derby Pie, was toothsome, a layer of rich, dark chocolate laced with enough Bourbon to stagger a street drunk, topped with a layer of pecan-pie filling studded with semisweet chocolate morsels, borne in a straightforward pie-pastry crust. A hefty slab of COCONUT CAKE was a bit on the dry side, with a creamy-sugary white coconut icing.

(Cafe Iris & Louisville's Best Desserts, 3921 Chenoweth Square, 899-9989)

• SWEET SURRENDER, located in a historic toll-house building and run by one of the city's top pastry chefs, is a frequent winner of Best of Louisville awards. I can stand for a long time, mouth watering, watching a dozen remarkable desserts rotating slowly in its tall, cylindrical display case on which some wit has posted the warning, "Don't lick the glass!" I find the desserts here variable, though. They're never worse than good and sometimes great, but I can't rate them consistently best.

GERMAN'S CHOCOLATE CAKE, for example, was fine, a like-Mom-used-to-make rendition of this American classic, dark, rich and moist with a perfect coconut-pecan frosting. A CHOCOLATE CARAMEL CAKE was perfection, too, managing to be both rich and airy, with delicious caramel frosting that stays on the right side of the line between dark, silken caramel and mere burnt sugar. But CHERRY CHEESECAKE seemed to have been left too long in the oven, and a pretty food-as-art FRUIT FLAN looked seductive, but the flavors failed to merge and the pastry was tough and leathery. A slice of CHOCOLATE MERINGUE PIE brought us back on course, though, with its rich, pudding-like filling and light meringue in a good flaky crust.

(Sweet Surrender, 2311 Frankfort Ave., 896-0519)

• They're serious about desserts at HOMEMADE ICE CREAM AND PIE KITCHEN, and it shows: The pies, cakes and pastries here are consistently among the best in town, made with love and served with care. CARAMEL CAKE is one of the few non-chocolate desserts that my wife craves -- it's a childhood thing. The Pie Kitchen's rendition is perfect, a moist and rich yellow cake with a thick, buttery-creamy caramel icing that makes me want to reach over and grab a fingerload. The SHAKER SUGAR PIE, though, is my idea of dessert perfection. It's very simple, very delicate, an artful blend of subtle flavors and textures that come out just right. Silken dairy filling and sweet sugar, caramelized into crackly islands on the top, with a good, short crust. As the artist said, "Less is more." And I believe I'll have a little more, thanks.

(Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen, 2525 Bardstown Road, 459-8184)

• My parents went to EHRMANN'S BAKERY a half-century ago, and it's still making the best ice cream in the universe. When the Mid-City Mall was built on its old location in the early 1960s, the management simply took their antique marble soda fountain, oak bar and pastry cases inside the mall. It's still there, still dispensing that amazing ice cream, still at '60s prices, and sometimes I think even the people who work there haven't changed since my parents were kids. The mall may be dingy and downscale, but the ice cream is worth a special trip. I favor the chocolate, so rich with cream that you'll find globules of butter scattered through your cone. But the snow-white, creamy vanilla is good, too, not to mention the tangy burnt-sugar flavor of the caramel ... or the maple nut ... or the strawberry. Go. Soon. It may not be around forever. You won't be sorry.

(Ehrmann's Bakery, 1250 Bardstown Road, 451-6720)