All posts by Louisville Hot Bytes

Breakfast is finger food at Queen of Sheba

plate of small food items
Breakfast plate at Queen of Sheba

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

Let’s face it: Breakfast can be as boring as, well, a bowl of oatmeal. Even such treats as ham and eggs and crispy bacon just don’t get one’s motor running in the morning anymore. Mexican desayuno at Zapata’s Corner or migas and breakfast tacos at North End Café? Been there, done that. Even the rolling carts of Chinese snacks at Jade Palace’s dim sum seem so familiar now.

Not that any of these breakfast or brunch options are bad, mind you, but if they no longer bring the exciting shock of the new, perhaps it’s time to wheel over to Queen of Sheba on a Sunday to check out an Ethiopian breakfast.
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Baseball’s back! Eater up!

sandwich and pickles
The Slugger Sandwich at the ballpark

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
It’s hard to comprehend that Louisville Slugger Field hosted its first game 10 years ago this month. Our “new” ballpark has been open for a decade. During that time, we’ve seen a few pennant-winning teams and a couple that didn’t do so well.

Sadly for foodies who like to enjoy an interesting dining experience along with a game, concessions have generally been, well, a little boring. Peanuts and Cracker Jacks, burgers and dogs, brats and Italian sausage, nachos and Papa John’s pizza, with ice cream to sweeten the mix.

At the start of the 2010 season, however, we spotted a handful of new food items that have potential to turn the ballpark into a downscale bistro.
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This Blind Pig’s no visually impaired porcine

plate of spaghetti puttanesca
The Blind Pig’s Spaghetti Puttanesca

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
When I heard The Blind Pig in Butchertown, just down the street from that bacon-makin’ factory the neighbors are trying to run out of town, was ready to open last month, I was right there. And so were about 5,000 other foodies who’ve kept this charming new spot slammed since Day One.

Now, The Blind Pig isn’t only about pigmeat, although in honor of its historic neighborhood, partners Joseph Frase (once of El Mundo) and Michael Grider do offer a bill of fare with plenty of pork dishes featuring locavore meat, sausages and bacon made in-house.
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Studio’s Grill and Pub stuffs it right

photo: cheeseburger platter
Studio’s Grill and Pub’s stuffed cheeseburge

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

By Kevin Gibson

Every so often, a carnal pleasure will come along that staggers you. It might be a new sushi roll or a red wine or even a candy bar (tried the Reese’s Dark yet?). Once you discover it, you just can’t stop going back to the well.

Enter the Studio’s Grill and Pub stuffed cheeseburger.

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Baxter Station: Everyone’s neighborhood bistro

Voice-Tribune review by LouisvilleHotBytes
(published March 11, 2010)


Baxter Station’s proprietor Andrew Hutto is one of the moving forces behind the Louisville Originals restaurant group, and his eatery – a popular local spot to eat and drink since 1989 – fits the “Originals” description to a T.

No franchised chain operation this, its cozy storefront setting is one-of-a-kind, with a railroad theme, a friendly bar up front, a comfy dining room with a warm fireplace, and a rear deck with curtain walls that roll up to allow alfresco dining in good weather and roll down to hold in the heat from powerful overhead warmers on wintry days.
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This Joe Davola won’t kibosh you

sandwich
The Belligerent BLPT at Joe Davola’s

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

Fans of “Seinfeld” will remember “Crazy” Joe Davola as an ominous character, a violent psychotic who threatened to “put the kibosh” on people he didn’t like, which meant pretty much everyone.

So who’d name a restaurant after that scary guy? The odd shtick works for partners James Tyler and Christopher Stockton, who push the Crazy Joe concept to the ragged edge with menu names like “Belligerent BLPT,” “Psychotic Savory Roast Beef” and “Violent Veggie Meat Loaf.”
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We follow the yellow brick road to Arbor Ridge

crab cakes
Arbor Ridge’s crab cakes

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

Arbor Ridge’s menu is extensive and, management attests, “serves a fresh, flavorful and healthy cuisine with Californian and Mediterranean flair.” It is certainly a giant step beyond boring, although I wouldn’t rate it adventurous.
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Perfect pair: Hot Brown, meet pizza

hot brown pizza

The famous Hot Brown — allegedly fashioned as a midnight snack for Roaring Twenties revelers famished after a night of dancing in the Brown Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom — is just an open-faced sandwich of turkey, bacon and cheesy Mornay sauce. Nothing so inventive there, and it’s a cardiologist’s nightmare.

The inventive folks at BoomBozz Taphouse in the Highlands have put a new spin on the old tradition by marrying it in weird but delicious union with a pizza.
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No animals were harmed in making this chili dog

chili dog
Vegan chili dog. Photo: Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

Speaking of creative eateries, Conez & Coneyz may be one of the smallest dining venues on Frankfort Avenue, but it’s also one of the most eager to please.

When the owners chose to set up a hot-dog stand last year near the epicenter of an urban neighborhood rich in recovering hippies and seminary students (occasionally both embodied in the same person), they weren’t all that surprised to hear an instant demand for a vegetarian dawg.

Ultimately, they sourced two dogs that weren’t merely vegetarian but vegan: a Loma Linda brand item that turns to textured vegetable prote for almost-sausage flavor; and a Vegi-Dog made by Cedar Lake that’s all-grain protein. One chilly afternoon, I tried the Loma Linda as a chilidog, topped with vegetarian chili and chopped onions.
Continue reading No animals were harmed in making this chili dog