Quattro

Jess (in the blue dress) highly recommended that next time I’m by Louisville to try this place.

I’m in Louisville for business, and priceline sets me up at the Hyatt Regency downtown. I assume I’m in a hotel desert, with nothing nearby. Or I’ll find a restaurant where more salt and more butter is the usual culinary solution for a traditional «business» dinner.
Email a friend. She can’t meet, but says «Go down to Quattro on 4^th. I know the chef…» Very good advice. And it’s only about a block away.
Bim, the host and co-​owner gives a warm welcome. I sit at the bar for drinks and dinner. Grant at the bar also knows the chef. They’ve been friends since high school. I ask about beers and mention I like hoppy ales. He provides a Kentucky brewed IPA that fully fits the bill.
I’m not sure about my appetite, so I start with only an appetizer, Eggplant Caponata with sweet peppers, pine nuts, and golden raisins. Accompanied by grilled polenta. Creative and simple. A good sign for what follows.
I follow with Grilled Romaine hearts with roasted chicken, feta, and pumpkin seeds. Still simple and creative.
At that point, I ask if they make their own deserts. They do. Grant recommends a lemon «something» with rosemary. Bim recommends a Pinot Grigio. They both seem to enjoy seeing me enjoy my dinner.
I grew up in Kentucky. I’ve lived in San Francisco for a long time. I travel for business, and it’s a huge relief to find great restaurants in unexpected places. I like «simple and creative». But, to paraphrase Thomas Keller, a great chef is 2% creativity, and 98% the willingness to do the tedious work over and over until perfection is achieved.
This was demonstrated in the appetizer with the polenta. Polenta is often an afterthought added to the creative part of the dish. This was the best I’ve ever had. Somehow the grilling gave a gradient of texture and flavor from outside to inside. It reminded me of my grandmother’s Kentucky cornbread from many years ago. Perfect.
The grilled romaine was the «simple» part of the salad. But it’s hard to get it perfect. Again, a demonstration of a great kitchen.
Josh, the chef and co-​owner, stops by and asks about the meal. His passion for food, and his concern for my dinner shine through.
If you’re in Louisville on business, skip the unnamed steak and sushi house. I did that the next night. Competent; expensive; totally forgettable.
If you’re a local, and you love food, make the trip downtown to Quattro. You’ll be surrounded by owners and staff who care about food and care about you.

Very subpar. We came with a group of 18 that reserved a table 2 weeks ahead of time… When we got there, they told us they couldn’t seat us together so we all sat at the bar. They also told us during our phone reservation that they would do the 502 restaurant special, which they then told us they no longer had once we got there. Keep in mind, this was supposed to continue until march 3 (the next day). Horrible food, tiny portions, and subpar service… We will never go back and can’t wait for the next restaurant to open on 4^th street.

Antoinette rocks the bar. See her for a Mount Gay and tonic with lime.
Fourth Street in Louisville is sort that generic, tourist experience one finds in lots of cities these days. Lots of lights, both neon and otherwise, a superstructure that is arguably pointless and chain restaurants one finds everywhere.
So it was uplifting to see that, as some of the chains were moving our of «Fourth Street Live» some locals were filling the gaps.
So it was Quattro. After walking the street and looking at our options we opted for Quattro and the immediate warm greetings we were offered seemed to reinforce our admittedly somewhat random choice.
We sat at the bar and Antoinette greeted us similarly. Brought us drinks in a manner so fast we wonder if there wasn’t some mind-​reading going and chatted us up while we perused the menu. My business companion and I browsed the menu of (sort of) Italian inspired New American offerings, made a choice and we were off.
Ok, interior. Nicely decorated. A mix fo reds, coppers, cherry wood and some great robot images made the interior warm and inviting and interesting. Comfortably bar stools (we opted to not sit a table) and lots of TV screens for the sports inclined.
Great selection of things to drink. Nice, if relatively small beer selection (and really, aren’t eight great offerings every bit as good as 150 things you won’t be inspired by).
The food was excellent. Beautifully presented, well prepared and always interesting. My friend got the pork chop, I had one of the flat bread pizzas and they were both very well done and reasonably priced. I had a wonderful pear tart for dessert.
The prices are ridiculously reasonable, the service warm, genuine and friendly, the surroundings both pleasant and interesting. If you want a nice, relatively quiet dinner with some interesting and delicious food prepared by a great local chef/​owner, check out Quattro. It’s a much better choice than the chains and, it’s no more expensive than those chains cookie-​cutter, pre-​packaged grub.
I’ll go back to Quattro next time I am in Louisville.
Thanks Antoinette!

As a cornerstone of Fourth Street Live!, I ‘m glad to see that this location is once again up and running. They’ve made a few modifications to the Red Star’s and short-​lived Mozzaria’s interior to make the space their own.
I checked it out for lunch. The menu is great with salads, soups, paninis and flatbreads. Of all the choices, only three of the menu items are vegetarian — two salads and one flatbread. That limited what I could select, so I went with the grilled romaine heart salad ($ 9) and the mushroom and caramelized onion flatbread ($ 13). Both were delicious, but the portion sizes matched the prices and were huge. If I go again, I’ll split the salad and the flatbread with another person.
My dining mate ordered the turkey panini served with truffle oil chips. She was also overwhelmed by her portion and only able to eat half, but she agreed that it was quite tasty.
My recommendation to the owners — cut the prices and the portion sizes for your lunch menu and you’ll be full every work day.

Decided last Friday night (²⁄₈) to check out Quattro and grab a late night bite with a buddy of mine. Quattro is technically located in 4^th Street Live, however, unlike the other places in 4^th Street, Quattro is primarily focused on being a restaurant rather than a bar. Quattro has a warm and inviting feeling that begs you to grab a table and set there for a few hours and enjoy everything the restaurant has to offer. Since we got there late we decided to sit at the bar. As soon as we sat down the bartender took our drink order and gave us a menu. We decided to try a couple appetizers (the fried calamari and the pork rillettes) and a couple entrees (duck that was the nightly special and the pork chop). The pork rillettes were salty, fatty, and delicious. The accompaniments with it provided a nice depth of flavor. The only bad thing was I didn’t think it came with enough bread, but the bartender brought us some more to finish it off. The fried calamari was my favorite of the two appetizers. It was lightly fried, flavorful, and the herb dipping sauce that came with it was awesome. It would probably rank as one of the best fried calamari appetizers I’ve had. Definitely check it out if you like fried calamari. As far as the entrees go the pork chop was a nice thick cut, juicy, and had hint of lemon that provided a nice surprise. The Brussels sprouts and fingerling potatoes were great sides. I think I could have made a meal just out of those two things. The duck was my favorite of the two entrees and I’m sad that it’s not on the menu because I would love to have it again. The skin was crispy and the duck was perfectly cooked. If you happened to go there on a night when the duck is on special be sure get it, you won’t be disappointed. Overall, I thought the service was great, the food was fantastic, the portions were just right, and I thought the prices are reasonable for what you get. I will definitely return soon to try out more of their menu.

we went to Quatrro for their opening night and had a wonderful time! awesome space, great food, fantastic service! the wine selection is perfect. so perfect we had two bottles:) definitely making this a go to spot!

Had an amazing time at Quattro! I was there for the soft opening and had the opportunity to taste several items on the menu. The eggplant caponata and pork rillette appetizers were delicious. Seriously. Delicious. I also had a taste of the pancetta and margherita flatbreads, and both were very good. For my entrée, I had the pork chop. It tasted very good, but I definitely think I will explore other options on the menu on my next visit. Other than my pork chop, we ordered the chicken cacciatore and rigatoni dishes and everyone agreed that Quattro really nailed both of those. I must say, for a soft opening, they REALLY impressed – it certainly did not feel like it was the first time they were putting the wheels in motion. I am very excited to go back and try some of the other menu options and the lunch. It’s so refreshing to finally have some local presence on 4^th Street Live. It’s so exciting that it takes shape as great atmosphere and a stage for a talented chef to showcase some of the talent that Louisville has to offer!

A trio of points goes to Quattro on week one in business, but the restaurant promises the hopes of earning its name in stars, if it can fix the little things.
I was a fan of the previous iteration of Italian-​fare at this location, Mozzaria, because their lunch salads were phenomenal, chocked full of ingredients. Quattro, unfortunately, missed on my first salad there, the mixed green salad. Other than its namesake, the salad lacked too many of its ingredients… a smattering of meat, a spoon full of beans, and a promise of a citrus dressing that went untasted by me, and my friend who ordered the same salad. A lunch portioned salad for $ 9 should have more… it doesn’t have to be a chef salad, but may 8 skinny strips of meat instead of 4, and enough dressing to remind the eater that there is a citrus component to the salad would be appreciated.
As a celiac, I skipped the sandwich list, bemoaned the fact that they decided not to serve a grilled calamari appetizer that was on the pre-​opening menu, and asked for a side of the truffle-​oil chips. The chips were light and crispy, and I could tell that there WAS truffle-​oil on them, but the surprising lack of salt kept me from actually TASTING the truffle-​oil. The table lacked salt, and the server never returned to ask if we needed anything until it was too late, so I wasn’t able to try the chips properly seasoned.
Finally, another friend ordered a sandwich, which came piled high with meat… far too much for him to eat, and a delicious fresh pesto sauce. The meat was authentic capicola, salami, and mortadella piled high. A great value, and what everyone said was a delicious sandwich.
I will be back… it’s close to my workplace, and Quattro is another place with promise that could outstanding with the right balance of ingredients.

Popped in on accident for opening night, and REALLY diggin’ this place! Fantastic ambience (which is what drew me in — thought i was walking into a Maker’s Mark lounge extension, but that’s next door), super friendly staff. You can tell a lot of work went into design and lay-​out. I sat at the bar and the large, flat-​panel t.v.s are angled just right for maximum viewing. The FOOD, marvelous! I got the pork rillette with Tormaresca Chardonnay, great combo. If you like Pâté or Foie gras, you’ll like their rillette! Refreshingly, their wine list is not the usual line-​up. Absolutely going back.

My husband and I almost stayed home last night because of the weather. So glad we didn’t! The short rib dish was worth braving frost bite. The pasta ran a close second. Can’t wait for warmer weather to sit outside.

I’m not exactly sure if I would go back again… the food was ok, nothing wowed us. I had the pork chop with brussel sprouts and duck fat fingerling potatoes (the duck fat flavor was absent). My partner had a rigatoni dish with pancetta. I also ordered the pear tart, but was given the panna cotta, not once, but twice. I told the server twice that it was panna cotta, but he said that the kitchen insists that it was the pear tart. I took one bite of the panna cotta and sent it back. It most definitely was not a pear tart. Anyway, a manager came by to ask me about the pear tart/​panna cotta mishap, but he was more concerned that the server didn’t know the difference… he never offered to get me a pear tart, he said «oh, we took it off your bill». Um, yeah, you took it off because I never ordered a freaking panna cotta! Geez, I just wanted a pear tart!