Butterfly Garden Café: quaint wonder for lunch
It takes a little bit of doing to find the Butterfly Garden Café the first time. Open only for lunch, the restaurant is tucked inside a Victorian home among a row of similar structures, and its sign is nearly impossible to read as one drives by on busy Bardstown Road. But don't give up the treasure hunt — this gem is worth the search.
What was once a tiny shop selling birdhouses and butterfly cages is now the Butterfly Garden Café, where owner Emily Peters serves up scrumptious homemade soups, eclectic salads, simple sandwiches and generously portioned desserts. The tiny eatery has just eight tables within and another four on the enchanting screened-in porch.
Nearly everything at the Butterfly Garden Café comes in generous portions at reasonable prices. The soup — two new ones on offer every day — are priced at $3.50 a cup and $4.50 a bowl. Entree-sized salads — seven offered daily, with the varieties changing with the seasons — cost $6.50.
The highlight of the Butterfly Garden Café is, of course, the sandwiches. The eatery boasts nearly a dozen kinds, in which simple fare is taken up a notch ($7.25). Take the chicken salad sandwich: grapes, pecans, onion and celery give the mayonnaise-drenched all-white meat chicken chunks just the right crunch and contrast. The tuna melt is grilled on an English muffin, and the mini-Reuben features tangy mayo and a Ciabatta roll. Sandwiches come with a side of thick-sliced gourmet potato chips.
Desserts at the Butterfly Garden Café, priced at $4.25, change daily and are generous enough to easily share.
The Butterfly Garden Café now has a second location in Shelbyville Plaza, 4600 Shelbyville Road.
Like what you see? Every few months, Emily Peters shares one of the recipes for her lovely food. Don't want to wait? The restaurant sells The Butterfly Garden Cookbook for $14.
For parties of five or more only, you can make reservations online or by calling (502) 456–4500 for the Bardstown Road location or (502) 895–1474 for the Shelbyville Plaza location.
If you're not pressed for time, drop by next door to the White Linen Tea Company, which is run by Sherry Williams-Kosfeld, Emily Peters' daughter, and located in the rear of the building. The shop sells bagged and loose teas, teapots from England and elsewhere, tea accessories, vintage silver and silverplate, candles, locally designed jewelry, notecards and more.
- by Ivonne Rovira, Louisville Reporter for HelloMetro
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Ivonne RoviraA graduate of the prestigious Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City, Ivonne Rovira worked as a reporter for the Miami News, The Miami Herald and The Associated Press. She has written articles for The National Catholic Reporter and The Courier-Journal. For more than 15 years, Ivonne wrote and edited articles aimed at middle-school children.
