From 1974 to 2005 owner Frank Foster's West Louisville cafeteria fed legions of neighborhood residents and downtown office workers fried chicken, chitterlings, smothered pork chops, BBQ rib tips and individual-serving pies.

Established in 1870 as a delicatessen-grocery and horse stable, Cunningham's became Louisville's first drive-in restaurant in 1942. Even into the 1990s Louisvillians could enjoy the restaurant's small dining rooms with saloon doors and ages-old odors of fried fish. The original closed after a fire in 2001, and though iterations have continued downtown and on the river, Cunningham's has never been the same. [Photo: University of Louisville Photographic Archives]

Built before the Civil War, this house on 5th near Liberty was once nationally known as "the local epitome of fine dining," at least from 1946 to 1995. [Photo: ebay]

The Blue Boar cafeteria chain began serving in 1931, with its downtown flagship really swinging through the '30s, '40s and '50s. At one point, Blue Boar had numerous locations throughout Kentucky and surrounding states, with some suburban locations (including Southland Terrace) surviving into the current century. The final closing was in 2003. Many Blue Boar recipes (including carrot and raisin salad, stuffed pork chops and stewed tomatoes with croutons) can still be found on the Courier-Journal's website. [Photo: Facebook]

By the late 20th century this downtown cafeteria in the Starks Building basement became known for its shambolic lunch line, where blue-haired ladies and downtown professionals vied for service in a system understood only by management and longtime regulars (some of whom had "assigned" tables). The Colonnade originally opened just down the street in 1913 before shifting to the Starks basement. What were people in the constantly shifting, confusing "lines" fighting for? Homey dishes including turkey and dressing, Waldorf salad, iceberg lettuce wedge with blue cheese/cottage cheese dressing and the homemade pie slices.

One of only two pre-Civil War homes still standing in downtown Louisville, the house was built in 1830. Miller's restaurant began in 1898, when the Miller family began serving meals to U of L Medical School students boarding there. Downtown workers through Miller's closing in 1998 remember chicken livers and salmon croquettes with white sauce and peas on the cafeteria line. [Photo: Business First]

What was once Louisville's iconic department store opened a restaurant on an upper floor of its downtown flagship in 1949. Former Courier-Journal editor, Keith Runyon, remembers that "the air of gentility was almost too thick for schoolboys, but the food was worth waiting for. The Orchid Room was decorated in the art-deco style of the 1940s, and you almost expected to see Joan Crawford or Jean Arthur join the line of ladies waiting for tables." People still talk about the salads (tuna, potato and chicken) made with homemade mayonnaise and the hot fudge sundaes, all of which were eaten sometimes in hats and white gloves. [Photo: University of North Carolina]

Opened in 1959 a family who simultaneously brought a plaster novelties business to Louisville, Casa Grisanti really took off in the 1970s, becoming Louisville's iconic northern Italian restaurant. To this day, many Louisville chefs trace their beginnings to Casa Grisanti, which closed in 1991 when the family failed to navigate a course between "casual" and "fine dining" audiences. [Photo: ebay]

Debuting in 1981 as Bardstown Road's first high-end restaurant, Cafe Metro virtually set the stage for everything that neighborhood would become known for. With vintage posters on the walls, amiable owner Nancy Shepherd offered craft cocktails, a prix fixe menu and many decadent desserts until shuttering in 2009, citing "a drop in fine dining." [Photo: Urbanspoon]

In 1870 John Bauer decided to start serving beer and sandwiches "next to his blacksmith shop and wagon manufacturing firm on the toll road." By the 1970s Bauer's was an established East End hangout, but that name retired in the early 1980s. It was later the site of Susan Seiller's La Paloma before an Atlanta restaurant outfit's Azalea closed the building. [Photo: LoopNet]

Three brothers from Genoa, Italy began Mazzoni's as a downtown bar in 1884, serving beer with free oysters. These "rolled oysters," more cracker/cornmeal than actual shellfish, were later priced at 5 cents apiece, and kept being popular even after the price rise and a move from Third Street to Seventh Street and finally to Taylorsville Road. Originally available only during "R" months, the rolled oyster remains as a unique gift to Louisville from the Mazzoni family, even though their eponymous restaurant closed in 2008. [Photo: CityVoter]

As Casa Grisanti was getting fancy downtown, Ferd's was throwing down homey Italian food in J'town. The downscale suburban Grisanti's survived longer than its fancier downtown cousin, with insiders still ordering veal alla panna (even after it was deleted from the menu) until Ferd's closed in 2008. [Photo: LoopNet]