We live Northeast of Louisville Kentucky on a farm near a historic smaller town in La Grange Kentucky. It’s a great small town and we are constantly meeting new neighbors who ask for advice on all things. Knowing that we are food nuts, we are often asked where we buy our groceries. We have come to realize there are very few meaningful reference points related to “high quality” grocery sources, and hope some folks may benefit from our publishing this local knowledge.

As with all things on this blog, we only focus on the best of the best. With that in mind, here are our favorite places to buy good, high quality food.

We make a food run a couple times a week and found the best of the best is closer to the Northeast side of Louisville. We hop on route 42 from La Grange and head Southwest toward Louisville, making our first stop at The Fresh Market, at the intersection of Brownsville Road and 265. It’s just west of that 265 intersection.

At The Fresh Market we purchase all of our meat, seafood and bakery goods from their butcher shop and bakery. We find their service, selection, and quality superior to all other markets, and we are willing to pay a slight premium in price for higher quality food stuffs. It has always amazed me that so many backyard cooks spend hours, sometimes 12 to 16 hours when they smoke meat, yet buy a low quality product at a discount store. The Fresh Market also has specials, (get on their email list), at different times.

After visiting The Fresh Market we often go right across the street and visit The Party Mart. If you are looking for specific wines, beers or other alcohol, it’s the place to go. Their selection is superior.

Then we head back toward our home on Brownsboro Road to Paul’s Market. There you will find the best high quality selection of produce, just about anywhere. Paul’s Market is across from Holiday Manor and also across from Ballard High School. You may also find some other really good prepackaged items, and if our grandkids are with us we can never leave without a Mango smoothie or two.

Lastly, we cut over and get back on route 42 heading Northeast and visit the Kroger in Prospect. The Prospect Kroger has a huge selection of food, is very well managed, has very wide aisles and unlike some other grocery stores, is a pleasant place to browse. It also has the best selection we have found for cheeses of all types, nice flowers, good sushi and Boars Head deli meats. 

So, as with all things in life, if you want the best you have to go looking for it. Rarely does a “one stop shop” create excellence in all areas. For us it’s meat, seafood and bakery items at The Fresh Market, alcohol at The Party Mart, produce at Paul’s, and cheese, flowers and deli meat at the “Prospect” Kroger.

Sure, there are many options closer to our home but luckily, all of the places we have mentioned are within 4 miles of each other, making a shopping trip a pretty easy venture.

We hope this helps other home cooks in our local area navigate the food procurement process.

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