— Best of Louisville Covers, Categories and cringe (1986-2025)
By Josh Moss, editor, Louisville Magazine
We’re gonna publish every Best of Louisville cover, plus plenty of canceled categories, longtime winners, bygone bests and more fun from the archive. Starting with the first decade, 1986-1995.
The First Best of Louisville, July 1986
Cover caption: For the inaugural (very ’80s) Best of Louisville, the zebra was for the Louisville Zoo, which was the Best Place to Take Children, a category we headlined — gulp — Kiddie-Catchers. The woman in the shades and zebra-print earrings was Best TV News Personality Melissa Forsythe, and the “zebra brownie” was from Best Desserts winner Cafe Metro.
Inside the issue: In 1986, U of L hoops coach Denny Crum was the Best Celebrity You’d Most Like to Meet, with readers also mentioning the actress Cybill Shepherd and the actor Tom Selleck, even though, we wrote, “they’ve never set foot on our hallowed soil, at least as far as we know.”
Bygone Bests From ’86
Category: Best VHS Rental Shop
Winner: Video Madness
Category: Best Bookstore
Winner: Hawley-Cooke
Category: Best Nightclub
Winner: Phoenix Hill Tavern
Category: Best Women’s Store
Winner: Byck’s
Category: Best Business Lunch
Winner: Sixth Avenue
Category: Best Romantic Restaurant
Winner: Casa Grisanti
We’re Still Here From ’86
Category: Best Burger
Winner: W.W. Cousins
Category: Best Interior Design Firm
Winner: Hubbuch’s
Categories: Best Neighborhood Bar, Best Brunch
Winner: the Bristol
Category: Best Bakery
Winner: Heitzman
Category: Best Men’s Store
Winner: Rodes
Category: Best Tourist Attraction
Winner: Churchill Downs
Category: Best Florist
Winner: Nanz & Kraft
Category: Best Mall
Winner: Oxmoor
Pearce Pierced
“Kentucky’s best-known journalist,” John Ed Pearce, offered his “counterpoint” to the awards. (Pearce, who died in 2006 at 89, had a career that included writing for the C-J and winning a Pulitzer Prize.) He wrote, “Should anyone say which is the best hamburger in town until he has eaten them all?” FWIW, on his ballot for the Best Hamburger category, he answered: the Bristol.
Pearce pierced:
“Louisvillians watch television more than they read.”
“They complain about local government and charge that the town is run by rich people in the East End. But it is hard to get them involved in politics.”
“Incredibly, the town has only two riverside restaurants.”
“Many Louisvillians consider a Derby poster high art.”
“Louisville is more beer and coolers than dry white wine.”
But Pearce praised too:
“What do I like about Louisville? River Road, the Center for the Arts, the Humana Building (and the Columns restaurant there), Cherokee Park, Bernheim Forest, Hawley-Cooke bookstore, the orchestra, the view of the dam from the Citizens Plaza or First National Building, autumn, the dogwoods and azaleas at Derbytime, The Courier-Journal, the library, the Y, the Water Tower, the Cherokee Triangle Art Fair, the St. James Art Fair.
“One thing about Louisville is the great variety of its people, which is a big plus. No matter what you like to do — alligator wrestling, Ugandan cookery, whips and leather — you’ll find a few others who do the same things. A town can have lousy hamburgers, visual arts, athletic teams, restaurants, movies and places to rent dirty video tapes, and still be a great town if it has great people. I love the people.”
On his ballot, for the Best Pizza category (won by Impellizzeri’s), he wrote: “Don’t like pizza. It’s for kids.”
1987
Cover caption: “The best show their mettle. Models by Alix Adams. Tux courtesy of Sam Meyers Formal Wear.”
Inside the issue: Best Newspaper Columnist Bob Hill, of the C-J, announced his preferred drink: “wry whiskey.”
Bygone Bests From ’87
Category: Best VHS Rental Shop
Winner: Video Village
Category: Best Children’s Clothing Store
Winner: Animal Crackers
New Categories From ’87
Category: Best Cheap Eats
Winner: White Castle
Category: Best Thing to Happen in Louisville Since July 1986
Winner: Mayor Jerry Abramson
Category: Best Idea for Improving the City
Winner: Riverfront development
We’re Still Here From ’87
Category: Best Neighborhood Fair/Festival
Winner: St. James Court Art Show
Category: Best Neighborhood Bar
Winner: Gerstle’s
Category: Best Hotel for Visiting Guests
Winner: The Seelbach
Category: Best Bakery
Winner: Plehn’s
Category: Best Nursery/Landscape
Winner: Frank Otte
Category: Best Place to Buy Gifts
Winner: Bittners
Category: Best Pizza
Winner: Impellizzeri’s
An Ode to Circuit City
Circuit City won the Best TV/Stereo category, accompanied by a poem (with, we wrote, “thanks and apologies to Robert Frost”):
“Shopping for Goods at Circuit City”
Whose goods these are I think I know,
This VCR, this stereo —
I lose my mind when shopping here,
With Circuit City’s prices low.
If you find lower, never fear,
They’ll make it up and shed no tear,
Plus 10 percent of what you guessed
It cost, they’ll give you in the clear.
For price, selection, and the rest,
That’s why we say, at your request,
That Circuit City, by a heap,
Has just been named Louisville’s Best.
These styles! These Goods! And all so cheap!
These piles of things I have to keep!
And aisles to go before I sleep.
And aisles to go before I sleep.
1988
Cover caption: “Foil stamping by Wonderfoil.”
Inside the issue: WAVE-TV’s Bob Domine, the Best Sportscaster, described his most difficult interview: covering the Kentucky Colonels in 1974 and San Diego Conquistadores coach Wilt Chamberlain. “He grabbed my hand [to shake it]. He didn’t mean to, but he almost busted it. I like a firm handshake, but that was beyond it. I mean, I’m only two questions in and I’m still wiping the tears out of my eyes.”
In a piece about Roadrunner Videos, the Best Video Rental Shop, we wrote, “The manufacturers of video-cassette recorders probably don’t know it, but they’ve made Terry Schneider a millionaire. The 75-percent owner of 10 Roadrunner Video stores in the Louisville area…started out small — his initial investment was $33,000 — but ‘hit the market at a perfect time.’ That was 1982, when the video-rental listings covered an inch of Yellow Pages space, not the four columns they take up now.”
Bygone Bests From ’88
Categories: Best Dance Floor, Best Sophisticated Nightspot
Winner: Splash
Category: Best Happy Hour
Winner: Butchertown Pub
Category: Best New Restaurant
Winner: The Islands
New Categories From ’88
Category: Best Place to View the River
Winner: The Belvedere
Category: Best Word to Describe Louisville
Winner: Friendly
Category: Best Best-Kept-Secret Neighborhood
Winner: The Highlands (followed by Crescent Hill and Old Louisville)
We’re Still Here From ’88
Category: Best Derby Festival Event
Winner: Great Balloon Race
Category: Best Restaurant View
Winner: Captain’s Quarters
Category: Best Hot Brown
Winner: The Brown Hotel
1989
Cover caption: “Hizzoner” Jerry Abramson, winner of the Best Citizen category.
Inside the issue: An instructor at the YMCA, home of the Best Aerobics Class, said, “Usually (I teach) with pop music as a background, but I try to suit everyone’s taste, from Dwight Yoakam to Glenn Miller.”
Bygone Best From ’89
Category: Best Riverside Attraction
Winner: Louisville Falls Fountain
New Categories From ’89
Category: Best Overall Menu
Winner: T.G.I. Friday’s
Category: Best Salad Bar
Winner: Sizzler
We’re Still Here From ’89
Category: Best Steak
Winner: Del Frisco’s
Category: Best Fish Sandwich
Winner: KingFish
Category: Best Chairty Event
Winner: WHAS Crusade for Children
1990
Cover caption: “Best Local Athlete and former U of L basketball player Felton Spencer takes a turn as King Louis XVI outside the Jefferson County Courthouse.”
Inside the issue: A story about Spencer included this photo, with the caption describing what he was watching as “his big-screen TV.”
Bygone Bests From ’90
Category: Best Place to Buy Antiques
Winner: Joe Ley Antiques
Category: Best Bread
Winner: Great Harvest
Category: Best New Restaurant
Winner: Baja Bay
Category: Best Bar With Food
Winner: The Brewery
New Categories From ’90
Category: Best Place for a Child’s Birthday Party
Winner: Chuck E. Cheese
Category: Best Place to Find Neat Stuff You Don’t Need
Winner: Pier 1
Category: Best Television Ad
Winner: Liberty National Bank
Category: Best Public-Television Program
Winner: Sesame Street
We’re Still Here From ’90
Categories: Best Restaurant Service, Best Power Lunch, Best Candlelit Dinner
Winner: Vincenzo’s
Category: Best Place to Beat the Heat
Winner: Lakeside Swim Club
Category: Best Performing Arts Group
Winner: Actors Theatre
Category: Best Dry Cleaner
Winner: Highland Cleaners
1991
On the cover: The Falls Fountain (and for some reason a sparkler? Thunder?). The floating fountain debuted in 1988, malfunctioned often, became a money pit and was gone less than 10 years later.
Bygone Bests From ’91
Category: Best Italian Restaurant
Winner: Mamma Grisanti
Category: Best Intimate Dinner for Two
Winner: Terrace Restaurant
Category: Best Store for Women’s Clothes
Winner: Bacon’s
New Categories From ’91
Category: Best Mexican Restaurant
Winner: (The very American) Tumbleweed
Category: Best Public Sculpture
Winner: “The Thinker” at U of L
We’re Still Here From ’91
Category: Best Produce
Winner: Paul’s Fruit Market
1992
On the cover: Terry Meiners, who won his first Best of Louisville award in 1986, the inaugural, for Best Radio Personality and has won a total of 18. In 2012 he won Best Louisville ’Lebrity, a category won in subsequent years by Ned Beatty, Larry Birkhead and Jennifer Lawrence.
Inside the issue: “In an election year, it’s nice to have Best of Louisville, a party everybody’s glad to join.”
Bygone Bests From ’92
Category: Best Desserts
Winner: Lilly’s/La Peche
Category: Best Place to Buy an Oriental Rug
Winner: Frances Lee Jasper
Category: Best New Restaurant
Winner: La Paloma
New Category From ’92
Category: Best Person You’d Most Like to See Return to Louisville
Winner: Muhammad Ali
We’re Still Here From ’92
Category: Best Place for Live Entertainment
Winner: Kentucky Center for the Arts
Category: Best Fish Sandwich
Winner: the Fishery
1993
On the cover: The Vogue, winner of Best Movie Theater.
Inside the issue: Louisville loves hoops, sure. So, re the Best of Louisville nominees:“They stand tall. They always have their game faces on. Their reach, although extraordinary, seldom exceeds their grasp. They devote a lot of time to goal-tending. They fill the seats. They draw oohs and aahs from appreciative audiences. They slam-dunk the competition. They score in bunches. They make the All-Stars. They make the magazine.”
Bygone Bests From ’93
Category: Best Place for Desserts
Winner: Queen of Tarts
Category: Best Restaurant for Seafood
Winner: L&N Seafood Grill
Category: Best Movie Theater
Winner: the Vogue
New Category From ’93
Category: Best Place to Use a Telephone Without Having to Rent a Room
Winner: Galt House Mezzanine
We’re Still Here From ’93
Category: Best Deli
Winner: Stevens & Stevens
Category: Best Women’s Boutique
Winner: She
1994
On the cover: Coyote’s.
Inside the issue: Coyote’s (RIP) won Best Dance Spot and Best Place for Country Music, and finished second to Phoenix Hill Tavern for Best Place for Live Music.
Bygone Bests From ’94
Category: Best Coffeehouse
Winner: Daily Grind
Category: Best Sporting Goods Store
Winner: Allied
Category: Best Chili
Winner: Timothy’s
Categories: Best Breakfast, Best Vegetarian Food
Winner: Lynn’s Paradise Cafe
Category: Best Desserts
Winner: Sweet Surrender
Category: Best Fish Sandwich
Winner: Stan’s
Category: Best CDs/Records/Tapes
Winner: ear X-tacy
Category: Best Blues Club
Winner: The Blue Bird
Category: Best Cafeteria
Winner: Morrison’s
Category: Best New Restaurant
Winner: Shariat’s
New Category From ’94
Category: Best Radio Talk Show
Winner: Rush Limbaugh
We’re Still Here From ’94
Categories: Best Pasta, Best Specialty Food
Winner: Lotsa Pasta
Category: Best Oriental (again, this was the mid-’90s) Restaurant
Winner: August Moon
Category: Best Pet Supplies
Winner: Feeders Pet Supply
Category: Best Gallery
Winner: Edenside Gallery
Category: Best Steak
Winner: Pat’s Steakhouse
1995
On the cover: Samaki Walker, U of L basketball player/winner of the Best Athlete category.
Inside the issue: Dan Crutcher, the magazine’s owner at the time, wrote in a Publisher’s Letter, “The most visible signs of Best of Louisville’s success are the black-and-gold-and-red awards themselves. You see them displayed on walls at the most notable establishments in town, from Vincenzo’s (five wins so far) to White Castle (1987, Best Cheap Eats; 1991, Best Late-Night Dining).”
Tenth Anniversary
