106. Ray’S Monkey House And Kid Cafe
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (502) 459-4373
Address: 1578 Bardstown Rd.
Description: Top-quality coffee and organic beverages and food items aren’t the only thing on the menu at this funky, Deer Park neighborhood hangout. It’s also a kid-friendly community gathering place with a focus on progressive issues such as sustainability, environmental responsibility, and social justice. In addition to outdoor seating, they also have spaces for groups to meet and children to play. Ray’s Monkey House also provides a place for artists to perform and do their thing.
107. Blue Dog Bakery & Cafe
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (502) 899-9800
Address: 2868 Frankfort Ave.
Description: Apart from an assortment of cookies and pastries baked daily, the Blue Dog Bakery & Cafe has some wonderfully elegant desserts that make for a relaxing afternoon break or an early-morning shot in the arm. A popular choice is the individual lemon tart, a saucer-size treat with tangy lemon curd in a crumbly sugar cookie crust. In addition to hot coffee and espresso drinks, you’ll also find a nice variety of soups, sandwiches, salads, and quiches meant to complement the tasty baked goods produced next door in a $50,000 Spanish wood-fired oven. Authentic, European-style artisan breads—as good as any you’ll find—are a draw at the Blue Dog Bakery & Cafe, so don’t forget to take a loaf of bread along.
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Address: 2144 Frankfort Ave.
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Address: 2309 Frankfort Ave.
110. Zen Tea House
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (502) 618-0878
Address: 2246 Frankfort Ave.
Description: Located between the neighborhoods of Crescent Hill and Clifton is the Zen Tea House, an offshoot of the Zen Garden Restaurant. In addition to light fare and compassionate vegetarian cuisine, there is a vast assortment of fine loose-leaf teas from estates around the globe. In addition, the second floor of the tea house has been designed as a large relaxing space for tea meditations, which—under the instruction of the Compassionate Service Society—are offered regularly. Open to the public free of charge, the tea meditations help heal the body, mind, and spirit. Read more about the Zen Garden Vegetarian Restaurant, located next door at 2240 Frankfort Avenue, in the Close-up earlier in this chapter.
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Address: 1800 West Muhammad Ali Blvd.
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Address: 1489 South Fourth St.
113. Sunergos Coffee
City: Louisville, KY
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (502) 634-1243
Address: 2122 South Preston St.
Description: From the ratty sofa and beat-up ’50s-era furniture to the eclectic assortment of lamps dangling from the ceiling, this gem in the St. Joseph neighborhood is your quintessential coffeehouse. Its comfortable, unpretentious vibe attracts a wide array of java drinkers, but it’s the excellent on-site micro-brewed coffee that keeps them coming back from all parts of town. The name of the coffee shop is derived from the Greek word sunergos, which was used in the first century to refer to relational collaborative service. This theme is evident in the development and operation of this company today. Aside from a thorough appreciation of fine coffee, the folks at Sunergos want to encourage creative reflection in their patrons.