Just about every successful restaurateur worked hard to achieve that dream, but for some of our immigrant neighbors, that’s only half of the story.
Consider, if you will, an Iranian-born chef who learned Italian cooking at Vincenzo’s, then with his Afghanistan-migrant wife bounced from the upscale Italian eatery to a popular Italian food truck and restaurant that has now expanded into Louisville’s first Afghan eatery: Bellissimo.
There’s a lot to love about the spicy, aromatic wonders of Ethiopian food, and I’ll tell you right now that I love it. But Ethiopian cuisine makes some folks nervous.
Why is that? Here’s why: Walk in to an excellent Ethiopian restaurant like Louisville’s Queen of Sheba without a prior introduction to this ancient East African cuisine, and you’ll see surprising things.
Food-loving Louisville folks often complain that our city just can’t get a genuine, New York Jewish deli like Shapiro’s in Indianapolis, or for that matter like Katz’s or Sarge’s or the late, touristy Carnegie Deli in actual New York.
I have never quite gotten this. We have excellent Louisville-style delis here where you can get a pastrami or corned beef on rye that gives New York a run for its money.
But nope, that doesn’t seem to satisfy the deli-hungry crowd. “That’s not autheeeennnntic, they cry.
You wouldn’t expect Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood to have a deep resonance with Louisville, but that erroneous conclusion overlooks the importance of Harold Henry “Pee Wee” Reese.
Louisville seems to be having a ramen renaissance right now, and I am here for it.
Yes. we’ve had access to genuine ramen that didn’t come from a cheap supermarket packet for a while. Of course you can still get your ramen fix at full-service Japanese and other Asian restaurants. And we’re not even talking about all the tasty Vietnamese pho and Thai yum, which are delicious soups-as-a-meal too but entirely different.
But there’s no substitute for those memorable places where the chefs treat ramen as a calling, a spiritual experience that must be done properly and consumed with respect but quickly, before the broth cools.
Here’s the thing you should probably understand about the five restaurants that line the walls of cavernous Village Market in Paristown: This is a place to have fun and grab a bite and a drink and enjoy music, and that’s a good thing.
Just don’t expect a destination dining experience. That’s my conclusion after a Saturday visit and stops for a bite at each of the five eateries and a long look at its extensive bar.
I felt pretty sad last month when I read El Mundo’s social-media post announcing management’s decision to “put the original, quirky, tiny Frankfort Avenue location on pause until the Spring.”
The good news was that El Mundo’s newer, larger Highlands shop, which opened during the Covid-19 pandemic, remains open. It has expanded service to seven days a week, and recently launched an impressive Saturday, Sunday, and Monday brunch.
When was the day the disco died? Surely the dance and the surrounding culture were already fading by the late 1970s. But historians trace its ultimate demise to July 12, 1979, when a wacky “Disco Demolition” night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park boiled into a riot that caused at least nine injuries, 39 arrests, and the forfeit of that night’s Major League Baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.
It was a momentous occasion, I’m sure. But riddle me this: Why am I recalling this sad event to introduce this week’s restaurant review? Stay with me. I’ll get there as fast as I can.
Any discussion of Louisville’s oldest and most iconic restaurants can’t reasonably overlook Twig & Leaf. Founded in 1962, this Douglass Loop neighborhood landmark with its iconic leaf-shaped neon sign has been a local go-to spot for diner fare for a long, long time.
Sure, this place has had its ups and downs. Passing though many ownership hands over the years, it’s been cherished at times, avoided at others: Favored by ‘60s hippies with the late-night munchies, later hailed by the Highlands lunch set, sometimes widely ignored, the Twig endures.
As autumn 2020 chilled into the first Covid winter, one of the hardest hits of a run of bad restaurant news came when Uptown Cafe announced that it was closing on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, seemingly ending a 35-year run as a fixture on Bardstown Road’s Restaurant Row.
Uptown was comfortable, cozy, reasonably affordable, yet stylish, more a bistro than a diner. If it wasn’t a place where everyone knew your name, at least it was a place where your face was always familiar. Continue reading New Uptown Cafe, a lot like the old Uptown Cafe→
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