The original Mazzoni’s rolled oyster, now available only at Flabby’s. Photos by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

With the regrettable closing of Mazzoni’s last month after 124 1/2 years in local business, Flabby’s Schnitzelburg in Germantown – under the same family ownership – is now the only place in the world where you can still munch on the original Mazzoni’s rolled oyster.

This Italian-style treat, a recipe that the Mazzoni family held secret through all those years, is a big, fried ovoid roughly the size of an elongated baseball. Inside, a steaming, tender dough made from the old family batter, called “pastinga” in the old country, looks like it’s made from white cornmeal, maybe. It cloaks at least four or five small, juicy and perfectly fresh shucked oysters and is armored in a crispy golden-brown breading.

Add a dash, or several, of spicy horseradish cocktail sauce from the squeeze bottle and you’ve got a traditional Louisville fried-oyster sandwich to be eaten out of hand. Flabby’s price for one: $3.90. Take two, they’re small. Well, they’re not. But they are good.

Flabby’s Schnitzelburg
1101 Lydia St.
637-9136