This morning I participated in the Great Commission 5K, which Southern Seminary puts on every year to raise money for missions. It was a cold, rainy morning: NOT my ideal circumstances for a run, though I guess it could've been worse. Afterward, I was REALLY in the mood for some good, hearty food.
Enter The Silver Dollar on Frankfort Avenue. Its real claim to fame is that it's one of the best whiskey bars in the US, but they recently started serving brunch on the weekends, so we decided to give it a go.
(Does this look at all like a photo from a CD insert? Maybe I'm overestimating the power of Instagram...)
The Silver Dollar has great atmosphere. It kinda reminds me of a honky-tonk. Not that I've ever been to a honky-tonk. But it looks and feels like honky-tonks I've seen in movies and stuff...There was an record player behind the bar, cranking out music from folks like Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash. And the building looks like it used to be a firehouse. Lots of exposed brick. Very cool.
The food at Silver Dollar is described as "American South meets Southern California": lots of Southern favorites with a Southwestern twist. Tom and I did our usual brunch custom of ordering one sweet dish and one savory dish and splitting them in half; Tom ordered cornmeal pancakes, and I ordered flank steak and eggs, and we also got a side of hashbrowns.
Before our food came out, our server brought three different kinds of sauce to the table--a Mexican hot sauce, a salsa verde, and a mild ancho chile sauce--all made in-house, which I think is pretty special. (Doh, it just now occurred to me that I should've asked if they sell them by the bottle, 'cause they were all pretty good.)
The flank steak had a nice coffee-and-spice rub and was served atop a roasted poblano sauce, and it came with two eggs, over-easy. The hashbrowns were the thinnest I've ever seen, and they tasted like they'd been cooked in an ancient cast-iron skillet (that's a good thing, by the way), though I thought they could've been cooked just a little longer. They went really well with that ancho chile sauce, though. The pancakes were enormous and really good. They were nice and crispy on the outside, thanks to the cornmeal, and soft on the inside, with a hint of sweetness; and they came with butter, maple syrup, and homemade blueberry jam. YUM.
My only real complaint was that I didn't feel like the prices for the steak or the hashbrowns really matched the amount of food we got; but everything was so good that I would definitely go back if someone else was footing the bill. Overall, I think it was a pretty good choice for a place to celebrate my 5K.
1761 Frankfort Ave; Louisville, KY
Price tag: $$
My rating: 4 stars
Tom's rating: 4 stars
Combined rating: 4 out of 5
