All posts by Robin Garr

Epic Sammich Co. is not Rumplings, but it’ll do

For a too-short, brilliant seven months, the glory that was Rumplings blazed like a comet soaring across the sky of Louisville’s dining scene.

Then, just like that, one night in early June, Rumplings went dark, accompanied by a chorus of wails from despairing fans.

Okay. I admit it. That’s kind of dramatic. But dammit, that’s how I felt, and judging from the anguished voices I heard, I don’t think I was alone.
Continue reading Epic Sammich Co. is not Rumplings, but it’ll do

New urbanism, same old Chinese in Norton Commons

There we were, Mary and I, sitting and chatting as we waited for our apps in the comfortably cozy confines of Tea Station Chinese Bistro. We sipped Tsing Tao beers and gazed out at the main drag of Norton Commons, the new subdivision with the old-time look, trying to figure out why this village somehow feels both appealing and a little creepy all at the same time.

Norton Commons was Louisville’s first large venture into the “New Urbanism” (or at least the first since St. James Court was developed in 1887). Hey, New Urbanism is cool! Something new, made to look old, compact and walkable, retro in style, quaint but, um, “safe.”

So what’s not to like?
Continue reading New urbanism, same old Chinese in Norton Commons

We’ve got Dystopia: Louisville’s food scene in 2065

LOUISVILLE, New South United People’s Zone, April 1, 2065 – The recent discovery of a large trove of 50-year-old LEO Weeklys, lost in the rubble-filled basement of one of the old buildings in the old city’s fabled New Lew (Nulu?) district before it was destroyed in the Troubles of ’37, sheds fascinating light on the city’s dining scene in those times.

How different it all seems from our perspective! Continue reading We’ve got Dystopia: Louisville’s food scene in 2065

Welcome, PGA visitors! Looking for Louisville’s best eats?

The gang over at the LouisvilleHotBytes forum has just completed a monthlong process of narrowing down to the city’s favorite restaurants, with 14 worthy eateries making the final cut.

Whether you’re here in our town for the PGA goings-on or other tourist, convention, vacation or business matters, or if you’re a local looking for new ideas, the HotBytes favorites will offer you a good “bucket list.”
Continue reading Welcome, PGA visitors! Looking for Louisville’s best eats?

Loop 22 is a fine addition to the Highlands restaurant scene

When baby boomers were kids, our parents overcooked our veggies until they were mushy and bland. A generation later, baby millennials got their veggies crisp and barely cooked, reflecting the then-trendy restaurant style. You’d think that by 2014, some kind of balance might have been achieved between the extremes of ’70s mush and ’90s crunch, but noooo … Continue reading Loop 22 is a fine addition to the Highlands restaurant scene

Road food road trip!

I can’t believe it’s Labor Day weekend already and I hadn’t made my annual (short) road trip across the Ohio to enjoy old-style roadside dining at two local favorites, A.J.’s Gyros and Polly’s Freeze.

We rectified this lapse today with a delicious lunch of gyros and falafel sandwiches and a plate of dolmades at AJ’s, followed by a soft-serve Brown Derby cone and a butterscotch shake at Polly’s. “This is what fast food was like before there was McDonald’s,” Mary mused over gyros. True. It’s fast food as our parents knew it, and our grandparents, too, before there were interstates. Continue reading Road food road trip!

Now frying …

Fish is popular in Louisville all year ’round, and doubly so during Lent. Many Roman Catholic churches offer community fried fish dinners on Fridays during Lent. The season is under way, with most dinners continuing through the last Friday before Good Friday (March 22 this year). For a listing of more than 60 in the Archdiocese of Louisville, click http://ow.ly/hEQo1. If you’d like your Lent Episcopal style, St. Luke’s in Anchorage (1206 Maple Lane, stlukesanchorage.org) and St. Mark’s in Crescent Hill (2822 Frankfort Ave., stmlky.org) also have noteworthy Friday fish fries.