Louisville’s dining scene is about to gain a new high-end culinary destination.
On April 9, 2026, the Dining Room at Murray’s Creole Pub will officially open to the public. It will be an intimate tasting menu experience above the well-known Highlands restaurant. The new idea will provide a more refined, chef-driven experience that is different from the lively pub atmosphere on the first floor.
The upstairs space at Murray’s Creole Pub will focus on seasonal, multi-course tasting menus that tell stories through food and are heavily influenced by Chef and Owner Lawrence Weeks’s Creole heritage.
The Dining Room will have a limited number of seats and serve a set menu of dishes, unlike the à la carte menu served in the Bayou Bar area of the restaurant.
“This space honors not only my family’s story but everyone from the South that has been told that our stories don’t matter, or we don’t have a valid food scene,” Weeks said to WLKY in a previous interview. “Creole culture lives beyond the restaurant and my vision brings the entire story to the plate.”
Weeks, a James Beard Award semifinalist known for his work with restaurants like North of Bourbon and Enso, designed Murray’s Creole Pub as a way to show off his cooking and honor his family. The restaurant is named after his grandfathers, Lawrence Xavier Murray and Lawrence Ignatius Murray, who were both from Saint Landry Parish, Louisiana.
The restaurant has two floors and mixes different cultures. The first floor is like a relaxed pub, with flavors from New Orleans. The upstairs Dining Room, on the other hand, will focus more on French Creole food through its reservation-only tasting menu format.
Weeks is known for its focus on careful craftsmanship, and almost everything in the restaurant is made there.
“We do everything the hard way,” Weeks said previously. “And it’s because I believe that this gives you the best products, the most nutrition, and you have to put love into it. I think people can taste it.”
The Dining Room’s menu will evolve regularly to reflect seasonal availability and encourage repeat visits. Its opening also marks a milestone for Louisville’s growing culinary scene, helping fill a niche for a dedicated tasting-menu restaurant.
Reservations will open March 17, 2026, and will be available through the Resy platform.
More information can be found at the restaurant’s website or by following @murrayscreolepub on social media.
This article appears in March 1-24, 2026.