When I visited The Pine Room, a restaurant in the Harrods Creek community northeast of Louisville not far from the Oldham County line, the sun had already gone down, and the narrow, gently winding River Road, flanked by board fences and gracious homes, looked more like horse country than restaurant territory.
At the intersection of River Road and Wolf Pen Branch, I paused longer than the stop sign required, squinting into the darkness and wondering if I’d missed it. I hadn’t—The Pine Room was ahead, just beyond Harrods Creek Auto Repair.
The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nature of the community makes it seem an odd location for a new restaurant. But for developer Augusta Brown Holland, an urban planner and Harrods Creek resident, the place is the point. From its history to its menu to its welcoming-yet-upscale atmosphere, The Pine Room belongs exactly where it is.
“It’s a tiny little town, but you can tell it has a history,” said Holland, who grew up visiting her grandmother in Harrods Creek.
Part of that history is the original Pine Room—a piano bar and restaurant that operated from the early 1930s to 1977, when the kitchen caught fire (for the second time in its history), and the building was destroyed. The original Pine Room never reopened, but locals kept the memory alive.
Holland said that, while the small community is home to other beloved restaurants and businesses, she wanted to help restore the unique character of Harrods Creek, which has lost the majority of its commercial activity through the years.
“It was an opportunity to further enliven that little strip,” she said. “It has such a great and interesting history, and I feel like it’s a unique little town center that we don’t have many of in Louisville. I was excited to be a contributor to the pizzazz of the place.”
Sally Jean Wegert
As a Harrods Creek resident, Holland wanted to open a restaurant that was both family-friendly and date-night appropriate, and she wanted to incorporate a feeling similar to what she’d experienced living for several years in New York City, where she said, every neighborhood had its go-to spot. “Louisville has so many great restaurants, and Harrods Creek has other great restaurants, but none that kind of threaded that needle,” she said.
The new iteration of The Pine Room doesn’t seek to be like its predecessor. It’s not even on the same site—the location was formerly occupied by The Chick Inn, another storied restaurant. And yet, there’s a specificity to the place that somehow reminds patrons of what came before.
“It brings back a sense of nostalgia,” said general manager Steven Ton, who was a co-owner of Louisville restaurant Basa and a founding member of Doc Crow’s barbecue eatery. “It’s refreshing to have a restaurant that kind of brings a nod to the past but also brings something new to the table, too.”
It’s a cold night in early March when my wife and I arrive at The Pine Room, but inside, spring has sprung. A virtuosic jazz pianist, Kendall Carter, teases lush chords and tinkling melodies from a perfectly tuned upright. A globular steamed-wood chandelier blossoms overhead. An emerald-hued paper sculpture by Louisville artist Kate Mattingly reflects the green of the chairs, the menus, even the painted back of the piano.
The menu has a little bit of everything, with appetizers that run from nachos (dressed up with pickled cabbage and artichoke hearts) to duck meatballs served with balsamic cherry chutney. I’m easy to predict, though. If shrimp and grits are on offer, that’s what I’m having.
The piano is a delight while we wait. Within rich jazz textures, Carter embeds quotes from a dizzying array of music—praise and worship choruses, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Charlie Brown and The Flintstones, not to mention songbook standards like “Satin Doll” and “The Girl from Ipanema.” He integrates them seamlessly, rollicking up and down the keyboard with precision and fluent energy.
It’s hard to put my finger on why The Pine Room feels so special. Maybe it’s the music. Maybe it’s two young parents’ exhilaration at having a night away. It probably has something to do with my plate, an architectural mound of blackened shrimp atop a cake of fried blue cheese grits swimming in pimento gravy.
Altogether, The Pine Room feels like a passion project—the work of people who have something bigger to accomplish than good food.
Ton has been a friend of Holland’s for more than 10 years. He said her vision for the restaurant, which long predates the opening of The Pine Room, is what brought him on board.
“It was basically leaving a legacy—reviving Harrods Creek, which was a thriving town way back in the day,” Ton said.
Not that the neighborhood is in economic distress. Quite the opposite. According to Zillow, homes in surrounding Prospect have a median value nearly three times the median home value for the state. What’s lacking, Ton said, is the commercial activity that used to characterize the neighborhood.
“There’s nothing here,” Ton said. “It used to be a town but not anymore.”
Ton has big dreams for Harrods Creek. He’d love, one day, to see a country store, a grocery store, a coffee shop and wine shop, and maybe a yoga studio. Mostly, he wants to see new spaces where people can interact.
In the meantime, The Pine Room is already providing one of those places for community interaction, with an emphasis on welcoming everyone.
“Augusta and I both have kids, and it was important to us that families could come here and not feel intimidated,” Ton said. “I don’t like taking my son to places where I feel like I’m being a burden by bringing a child. This restaurant is very welcoming.”
“There’s a sense of place here, and it’s in the air,” Ton continued. “You can’t replicate that. It just exists, and we’re really fortunate to have The Pine Room here, because it has that feel. For some reason—I don’t know if the stars are aligned—but for some reason, it just feels right.”