Category Archives: BY LOCATION

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Bistros, Commentary, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, Guest columnist, underSlideshowEntries

Craving French bistro? Here comes La Coop!

Preview by Deb Hall
This is a report on a pre-opening media tasting. La Coop opens to the public on Tuesday, April 24.

The latest addition to the East Market corridor – La Coop-Bistro A Vins – aims for the welcoming ambience of a neighborhood French bistro, and succeeds very well. They’ve done amazing things with the former 732 Social space- now transformed from its former industrial vibe into a warm and inviting space that feels very much like the actual bistros in France.
Continue reading Craving French bistro? Here comes La Coop! →

$ Budget (under $30), Breakfast and lunch spots, sandwich spots, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, underSlideshowEntries, Vegetarian/Vegan

Grazing the salad bars at Whole Foods and Jason’s

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, my father came home one day and announced, “Kids, we’re going to Chicago this weekend, and we’re going to a new kind of restaurant. It has the most amazing salads on a giant buffet, and you can walk right up and take whatever you want.”

I don’t think the name “salad bar” had even been invented in those days, back in the dawn of the Baby Boom. Continue reading Grazing the salad bars at Whole Foods and Jason’s →

$ Budget (under $30), Pacific Rim, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, underSlideshowEntries, World Food

Learning and liking Indian food at Taj Palace

Just about everyone knows what an omelet is, and the difference between “easy over” and “sunnyside-up” is a mystery to only a few. As Louisville’s dining scene has grown and our restaurant roster become diverse, we’ve learned more and more. Marinara or alfredo? Easy. Corn or flour tortilla? Ditto!

But when it comes to Indian food, most of us are still learning. What’s a korma? A saag? A vindaloo? Want to learn Indian food vocabulary fast? I suggest a visit to the buffet at Taj Palace.
Continue reading Learning and liking Indian food at Taj Palace →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, Pacific Rim, underSlideshowEntries, Vegetarian/Vegan, World Food

Around the world on a dinner plate

Catching up with a bunch of items that have piled up in my critic’s notebook, let’s take a quick trip around the world on a dinner plate, stopping off at a trio of worthy spots for tastes of the Mediterranean, Korea and a Philadelphia treat — a surprisingly fetching “cheeze” “steak” that’s fully vegan.

Sampling the samplers at The Grape Leaf

Continue reading Around the world on a dinner plate →

$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), Bistros, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, underSlideshowEntries

Decca is an icon in the making

The blue and white logo on the western side of Decca’s 136-year-old building in NuLu may be painted to look weathered and old, but this popular spot is actually one of the hottest new tickets in its rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.

But it would be a mistake to think of Decca as merely another NuLu hipster hangout. Consider it instead an icon-in-the-making, book-ending the eastern end of the downtown strip as Proof on Main holds down the west.
Continue reading Decca is an icon in the making →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Bistros, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, underSlideshowEntries

Caffe Classico: A classic in Clifton

You would think that everyone in town knows that Caffe Classico is far more than just another Frankfort Avenue coffee shop by now. After all, I’ve probably told about 80 percent of you personally! But for whatever reason this Clifton jewel remains undiscovered, at least by quite a few, so let’s say it again, this time to the whole group of you: “Caffe Classico is far more than just another coffee shop!” Continue reading Caffe Classico: A classic in Clifton →

$ Budget (under $30), Breakfast and lunch spots, sandwich spots, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, underSlideshowEntries

Bruegger’s halts the bagel whine

It’s getting harder and harder to be a food snob around this town. Years ago, it was easy to complain about all the good things we couldn’t get to eat here. Real Mexican? Ethnic Chinese? Sushi? Thai? Back in the bad old days, Louisvillians who liked to complain about what they couldn’t have were in a target-rich environment.

Nowadays, thankfully, the sounds of whining have ceased, as our city’s lovably evolving restaurant scene has filled in most of the gaps. Sure, there’s still arguably a dearth of spots to enjoy authentic Greek, real kosher-style deli food or some finely nuanced variations on Tex-Mex. Nor have the raw-food or dining in the dark movements made inroads here, but that’s perhaps just as well.

The long-running jeremiads about Louisville’s lack of New York City-style pizza seem to have abated with the arrival of Papalino’s and Coals Artisan Pizza; and Roots has effectively silenced the quality-vegetarian complaints. Now, by and large, whiners are reduced to niche markets. Why can’t we have a Tibetan vegan momo bar, or a place to get Navajo fry bread?

But we can still complain about bagels! Continue reading Bruegger’s halts the bagel whine →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Pacific Rim, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, underSlideshowEntries

A taste of Korea at Charim

Even if you don’t have much experience with Korean food, you’ll find it easy to like, especially if you try it at an eatery as amiable as Charim.

For the most part, Korean dishes won’t seem unfamiliar to anyone who enjoys the varied cuisines of Asia. Some of its dishes seem to bear a resemblance to familiar Chinese fare; other items might remind you of Japan. Overall, there’s a robust, hearty and often spicy character that’s all Korean. Continue reading A taste of Korea at Charim →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, Italian (and Pizza), underSlideshowEntries

Volare continues the upscale Italian tradition

“Volare, oh oh … Cantare, oh oh oh oh … Let’s fly way up to the clouds …” With Dean Martin’s classic rendition of the pop Italian ballad firmly planted in our ears, let’s talk about Volare and how it fits into the pantheon of Louisville’s top Italian tables.

It’s all connected, after all, and goes back to the 1970s, when, for a century or more, “Italian” food had meant the hearty, tomato-sauced American-immigrant fare that families brought through Ellis Island from Calabria and Sicily, Italy’s poverty-ridden deep south.
Continue reading Volare continues the upscale Italian tradition →

$ Budget (under $30), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, Bistros, underSlideshowEntries

East End, South End, where’s the North End?

Ever since North End Cafe opened in Clifton nearly a decade ago, the name of the place seemed a little odd to me. When I grew up in Louisville, we sorted our town into East End, South End and West End, and back in those Baby Boom days of Elvis, tail fins and ducktails, those were the urban ends of the city, not the suburbs. There was not much out there but farms, as far as we knew.

So the arrival in 2003 of this comfortable, casual bistro in Clifton made little geographical sense to me. What’s a North End? Someplace over in Indiana? Nope, it’s right there on lower Frankfort Avenue, inner end of what we used to call the East End.
Continue reading East End, South End, where’s the North End? →