Seviche has been around for 10 years now, if we count Jicama, its predecessor in the same Highlands space, and Chef Anthony Lamas just keeps making it better and better. This sets a mighty high standard for an eatery I’ve been raving about since the start. I gave Jicama a 93-point rating in its first incarnation. Then when it reopened as Seviche in 2005, I kicked the number up to 95.
Continue reading Seviche grows and keeps getting better
Category Archives: BY LOCATION
Want a New York City bagel? Try Baby D’s
Gather round, young ‘uns, and let me try to explain why we graying Baby Boomers care so much about bagels. You see, there was a time in Louisville when you couldn’t grab one at every coffee shop or buy ‘em by the sack at the grocery store.
No, until the 1970s or thereabouts, a bagel was a rare and unusual thing. You basically had to go to New York City or Chicago to get one. When a bagel bakery opened in Cincinnati some time during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, we would actually drive up there to get a bag full. And when Louisville’s first bagel shop opened in Hikes Point a few years later, the city knew bagel jubilation.
Now they’re everywhere! Continue reading Want a New York City bagel? Try Baby D’s
Family dining at Cubana in Clifton
So where does a restaurant critic go out to dinner if he has family in town? This is not always an easy question. Go to the finest dining rooms, the places I love?
That’s easy counsel, and way tempting, but more often than not I’ve checked out the local favorites too recently to justify going back. Drag them along to the next place I have to go, whether they like it or not? That can be tempting, too, as any therapist who knows a thing about sibling rivalry can attest.
But in the real world of practical matters, the answer lies somewhere in between. Briefly stated, it’s something like, “Pick a place that’s due for review and that I think they’ll enjoy.”
And so it was when my brother, Matt, came through town recently on sabbatical from his job in Lima, Peru. Matt speaks Spanish like a Peruvian native, so an eatery with a Latino accent made sense. I’d been keeping an eye on Cubana since it opened in Clifton early this year anyway.
I’ve enjoyed lunch at Cubana several times, but for one reason or another had never focused on the place for a dinner review. Matt’s visit offered a good opportunity to catch up, and Cubana proved to be an excellent choice for the occasion.
That Spanish thing didn’t work out for us, though: The servers at Cubana spoke Louisville English as fluently as I do, although I’m sure there was a Cuban chef back in the kitchen. The building that houses Cubana boasts quite a local-restaurant heritage: It was briefly Danielle’s, an excellent but short-lived upscale bistro where Chef Allan Rosenberg plied his art, well before he achieved local fame as the founder of Papalinos NY Pizzeria. Further back, Baby Boomers will remember it as the home of the original Lynn’s Paradise Cafe; a Jamaican joint with great homemade ginger beer; and a pretty good Korean spot called Little Bit of Seoul. With such a diverse culinary heritage, a Cuban eatery fits right in, and newly painted walls in aqua and peach give it the sunny tropical look of a Havana plaza.
Its menu contains many of the Cuban standards that have become familiar to local foodies since the arrival of Havana Rumba in 2004 kicked off a Cuban boomlet. Even if you aren’t familiar with Cuban dishes, though, the menu makes it easy, subdividing the bill of fare into portions based on the main ingredient and helpfully offering an English translation. (Carnes is meat, puerco is pork, pollo is chicken, and so it goes.)
There must be a couple dozen main-dish choices, ranging in price from around $10 (for vegetarian dishes and meal-size sandwiches, including the classic Sandwich Cubano for $9.99) to the mid-teens: A hearty seafood casserole in Creole or cream sauce au gratin is $15.99. You’ll also find enough appetizers ($6.59-$9.59) to put together a tapas meal; and a lunch menu, available from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, offers about 16 choices, including a sandwich and soup-or-salad choice for $8.99. I’ve enjoyed the Cubano on past visits and can testify that it’s a worthy example of the genre.
Cubana wasn’t terribly crowded fairly early on a Thursday evening, which made conversation easy. We started our dinner with a shared appetizer, Empanadas Vegetarianas ($6.59): A pair of flaky pastry pillows were stuffed with a mix of spinach, corn, chopped onions and bell peppers, and cheese. They were so grease-free that I almost wondered if they’d been baked, not fried; but their flavor was great, and if two empanadas required careful carving for three to share, that’s OK, as it made it easy for me to nip a little more than my share. They came with a dish of pink dipping sauce that was creamy and sweet, not hot, and went well with the veggie stuffing.
Matt’s pick, Pollo con Mojo ($12.99, described as “marinated chicken breast”), started with a flattened skinless, boneless chicken breast, a cut that can be mighty boring but that gained interest here from a tangy-sweet citrus marinade, a spell on the grill to add flavor and texture, and a tasty topping of grilled onions and Cuban-style mojo sauce, which is basically a garlicky citrus vinaigrette. All the main dishes were accompanied with exceptionally good white rice, tender black beans and a couple rounds of fried plantains.
Mary’s Cerno alla Parilla ($14.99) earned a thumbs-up: A mild, flaky grouper fillet was rubbed with a mojo-like mix of garlic and olive oil, with a blend of chopped parsley and aromatic cilantro to add herbal notes in place of the sour citrus.
My choice, Pincho Vegetarianas ($10.99), scored as the most colorful dish of the evening and was in competition for most flavorful. Literally “veggies on a spike,” it consisted of big, bright squares of yellow, red and green peppers, red onion and chunks of summer squash and zucchini, drizzled in garlicky mojo and grilled on a skewer until they were sizzling and irresistible.
Dessert? One flan ($4.99), please, and three spoons. Dubbed “Abuelita’s flan,” which means something like “Granny’s caramel custard,” it was creamy, smooth and rich, good enough to have come from a sweet grandmother’s kitchen, assuming we’re talking about a Cuban grandmother.
There’s a bar including a short wine list and some Latino bottled beers, but we went with water on this jaunt, bringing dinner for three to an affordable $57.61, to which I added a $12 tip.
Cubana
2206 Frankfort Ave.
409-4828
Rating: 81
A world of Mexican delights at El Mundo
You’ll find a lot of different kinds of Mexican eateries around town. “Mexican” dining experiences run the gamut from tacquerias so authentic that you’ll need to bring a Spanish-English dictionary (or at least a smile and a plan to point out what you want) to, well, Taco Bell, which barely qualifies as Mexican at all.
Continue reading A world of Mexican delights at El Mundo
Fill ’er up at the Garage Bar
The Garage Bar looks so much like an old, run-down country gas station that I can barely go in without feeling tempted to pick up a few packages of peanut butter crackers and a cheap six-pack and go out back with my buddies to smoke, tell dirty jokes and drink beer in the dark.
Continue reading Fill ’er up at the Garage Bar
Avalon’s $7 lunch menu is a steal
We’re responsible people. We would never (well, hardly ever) recommend dining and dashing, running out without paying after your restaurant meal. But you can come mighty close to enjoying this unsavory practice at Avalon.
In fact, the invitation to steal almost comes from Avalon’s management, which came up with the idea of addressing recessionary times with a remarkably affordable lunch menu featuring about two dozen tasty goodies — not only appetizers but midday main courses — all priced $7 or less.
It’s funny how Avalon has settled so comfortably into the Highlands scene since it opened (and earned my 90-plus rating) in the spring of 2002, nearly a decade ago. Like the Island of the Blessed Souls of Celtic mythology, where King Arthur’s bones rest hidden in oceanic mists, Louisville’s Avalon has become part of the local culinary legend, albeit perhaps a place I often think of more for its popular, expansive and nearly all-weather al fresco dining than its eminently credible bill of fare.
Now the $7 lunch menu offers a compelling reason to come back again, even if you dine indoors as we did on a recent summer weekday. The multi-level dining rooms remain stylish and urbane in their simple, earth-toned decor, and service — somewhat distracted by a large party on the other side of the room — remained courteous and friendly although not quite as attentive as I might have wished.
Did I say $7? The lunch list is actually $6.95 or less, and includes smaller but still ample portions of many of the popular Bardstown Road bistro’s signature dinner items, including the Avalon burger ($6.95), knife-and-fork grilled cheese ($6.95) and macaroni and cheese ($5.95).
The menu describes its starters as “snacks and appetizers,” an invitation to graze, and brings most in at well under the $7 line, starting as economically as $3 (for jalapeño pretzel bites with BBC Nut Brown Ale beer cheese), and including such goodies as cornmeal-dusted fried okra ($3.50), warm country olives and almonds ($4.50), and smoked chicken egg rolls topped with roast corn guacamole salad ($6.95). Soups and salads are $5.50 to $6.50, although you can push through the $7 ceiling should you choose to super-size, er, add tuna to your salad, which brings it up to $8. Finally, the eight lunch main courses are all $6.95 except the BLT, a bargain at $4.95.
We took advantage of the low prices and built a substantial yet still affordable midday meal on appetizers and main courses.
The deviled egg starter ($4) is built on local organic eggs — two big thumbs up for that — three halves deviled in traditional fashion, dotted with paprika, garnished with a crisp length of potato fried chip-style and served with a dish of thin, hot-sweet Avalon hot sauce. Mary’s appetizer pick, macaroni and cheese ($5.95), was a big winner: Substantial enough to make a meal, a bowl of round orecchiette (“little ears”) pasta was sauced with a creamy mix of Kenny’s Kentucky White Cheddar and earthy Italian Fontina cheese and garnished with a nest of crispy potato strings.
Mary’s main course, half of a large, crisp and thin toasted flatbread ($6.95), was topped with sautéed wild mushrooms and melted herbed cream cheese, garnished with arugula leaves and served with a small side salad of mixed lettuces. The pizza-like flatbread was good (caprese salad or BBQ chicken options are also available), but the salad was a frustrating disappointment. Why must so many fine restaurants pay so little attention to serving bagged mesclun? I’m sure the bag says “washed,” but trust me, folks, it’s not. Leaves with slimy, rotted spots and particles of potting soil could easily be avoided with minimal attention in the kitchen. Dumping the bag on your plate without examination? Fail.
My entrée was more successful. The black bean burger ($6.95), a meat-free burger fashioned from a lightly spicy mix of pureed black beans, onions and corn, was poised on a hefty sesame-dotted bun and topped with a tasty, crunchy salad of julienned jicama, carrots and bell peppers. Outstanding flavors; a bit dry, but the hostess’ suggested addition of a bit of Avalon’s chipotle ranch sauce brought it right around.
With fresh iced tea, a filling midday meal for two came to $28.46, plus a $6 tip.
Lunch at Avalon
1314 Bardstown Road
454-5336
www.avalonfresh.com
Rating: 82
No animals were harmed for dinner at Roots
If you’re a vegetarian who’s been pining for a nice local restaurant where you can get fancy meatless fare in an upscale setting, then your dream has come true. If you’re a guilty carnivore who claims you’d go vegetarian if only some place served meatless dishes so good that you wouldn’t even miss meat, look out. This may be put-up or shut-up time for you. And if you’re an unapologetic meat-eater who thinks vegetarian fare can only be bland and prissy, get ready to have your prejudices challenged, if you’re brave enough to try it.
Continue reading No animals were harmed for dinner at Roots
Food truck fare hits the road in the Metro
If you’re trying to save on fuel during a summer that makes the case for global warming and when gasoline prices flirt with $4 per gallon, there’s a lot to like about a friendly food truck operator who brings lunch to your neighborhood. Across the country, a veritable food truck race is under way, with food truck “pods” growing in with-it towns like Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore.
Continue reading Food truck fare hits the road in the Metro
Eclectic Majid’s adds Sunday brunch
Now the hospitable proprietor Majid Ghavami offers another option: Majid’s is now open on Sundays for brunch from 11:30 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. Those who wish an adult beverage may want to delay their arrival until 1-ish. We felt no such constraints and popped in before noon, enjoying dark coffee and fresh iced tea with our meal.
Now, let’s make one thing clear: This is not one of those gigantic, all-you-can-eat buffets. Not that there’s anything the matter with that, but Majid’s — like 211 Clover, another classy St. Matthews spot — takes the menu brunch route, offering a special brunch menu with a dozen stylish, even elegant brunch plates from Executive Chef Charles Reed’s kitchen.
Brunch dishes range in price from $11 (for smoked salmon and a bagel) to $18 (for steak and eggs, grilled beef tenderloin with eggs as you like them). There are plenty of hearty breakfast dishes (three eggs your way or three-egg omelets, buttermilk pancakes or French toast, all $12), and a good choice of lunch-type options for those who prefer to put morning behind them (venison meat loaf, $15, or lemon sole stuffed with crab and ricotta, $17).
Order your brunch dish, and before you know it goodies start showing up on your table. In addition to your main-course choice, brunch includes a chef de cuisine bakery plate (this day featuring a rich blueberry coffeecake and Danish pastry dough wrapped around blueberries), and a fresh fruit cup (an artful ration of watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melon balls dropped into a wine glass with a few blueberries, and a wedge of lime perched on the edge of the glass. Use it: A tart squeeze of lime really kicked up the flavors of the fresh, juicy fruit).
Most brunch dishes also come plated with the house potatoes — on this occasion, split roasted fingerlings — and the vegetable of the day, in our case a tender slab of roasted butternut squash and several crisp-tender asparagus spears.
Mary’s choice, the venison meat loaf ($15) was a brick-size slab of ground meat mixed with carrot brunoise, plated on a rich brown-onion gravy and served with the aforementioned veggies and potatoes.
My pick, huevos rancheros ($14), was as flavorful a rendition as I’ve had in Mexican restaurants. Two soft-fried eggs (my choice, you can have them your way) were served atop a chewy corn tortilla and topped with a bit of melted yellow cheese, sauced with a green-chile salsa and served with savory pinto beans and light Mexican-style rice. A halved, broiled jalapeño served as decor. “Watch it,” the friendly server warned.
Dessert, lemon mascarpone cheesecake ($8) was beautifully plated and tasted as good as it looked. It’s gluten-free, Majid said, creamy and tart-sweet on a crushed walnut crust, decorated with a surprising touch of cinnamon chutney and a dark, sugar-dusted homemade chocolate cookie.
An indulgent brunch for two came to a very fair $43.99, and courteous and not overbearing service earned a $10 tip.
Brunch at Majid’s St. Matthews
3930 Chenoweth Square
618-2222
www.majidstmatthews.com
Addis Bar & Grill offers tastes of Ethiopia and more
Ethiopia is a historic East African country that most Americans probably don’t know much about, save perhaps for sad images of hungry children suffering from famines in that troubled region.
But Ethiopia is worth getting to know. The only country in Africa that largely escaped colonialism, it boasts a proud heritage as a monarchy with roots extending back more than 2,500 years. It has been a Christian center since missionaries from Carthage planted a church in the third century. Haile Selassie, its emperor from 1930 until 1974, is known not only for his long, stable reign, but for having been declared the second coming by the Rastafari, for whom ganja, perhaps not coincidentally, is a sacrament.
Fortunately, no ganja is required for the enjoyment of Ethiopian food; and we have a new place to enjoy it with the recent arrival downtown of Addis Bar & Grill, named after Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Addis, formerly Lunchbox, has had a name transplant to highlight the Ethiopian aspect of its eclectic cuisine. It appears to be a popular spot for downtown workers on a quick lunch break, doing a very heavy takeout and eat-in business on a recent weekday, and even the bar seemed to be selling a lot of Bud and Bud Light to workers whose job situation permits such midday indulgence.
The venue is attractive, bright and clean, tomato-sauce red with accents of cream, heavy blonde wood tables and comfortable chairs, paper napkins and plastic service ware.
I can’t briefly describe the scene any more effectively than the folks at Addis do themselves, in lovably accented Ethiopian English on their Website: “Addis grill is the vegetarian paradise, and our appetizer such as our hummus, Kabobs, freshly grilled Fajita or Burritos, curries and Ethiopian vegetarian are the most admired dishes, that why we become the second busy lunch place in few months.”
Sounds good to me! We met our pal Jerry, who works nearby, and settled in for a hearty, affordable lunch.
As you may have discerned from the reference to burritos and fajitas, the bill of fare here extends well beyond Ethiopian. In fact, at first glance, Middle Eastern dishes such as hummus with pita ($3.25), stuffed grape leaves ($4.35), tabbouleh ($4.25) and a falafel wrap ($4.95) seem to dominate the lunch menu, not to mention those burritos and fajitas (mostly $5.35) and a chicken quesadilla ($7.95). Obligate gringos can satisfy themselves, too, with such simple fare as a burger ($5.95 with or without cheese), a fried fish sandwich on a hoagie bun ($5.95): a Philly cheesesteak ($6.25), and a steak sandwich ($6.50).
A list of more expansive Mediterranean and American main courses are $12.95 (For chicken kabob with rice, hummus, pitas and salad) to $23.95 (for the Addis Special for two, including a skewer of shish kabob, another of chicken kabob, two ground-meat kufta kabobs, rice and salad).
You’ve got to drill down to the bottom of the menu to find the serious Ethiopian fare, though, but it’s well worth the dig: Colorful and prepared well, these dishes are delicious and offer a filling meal for prices that are still more than fair.
Ethiopian vegetarian entrees are all $7.95, all come served on thin, spongy injera bread, and include Misir Wot (lentil stew), Kil Alicha (split peas), Gomen Wot (sauteed collards) and Atkilt (fresh veggie stew). A combo of all four is $10 at dinner time, $7.95 at lunch.
Prefer something more meatful? Ten carnivorous choices are $9.50 (for Doro Wot, spicy chicken-drumstick stew with fiery berbere sauce and a boiled egg, an Ethiopian tradition) to $13.99 (for Kitfo, hand-chopped lean beef, fired up with spices and customarily served “mitmita.” raw or lightly cooked. If the idea of Ethiopian steak tartare doesn’t appeal, they’ll cook it to your preference. Lamb dishes, Yebeg Wot and Yebet Alicha, are $12.95, or you can pick a three-way meat wot (stew) combo for $14 for one, $25 for two. Pescavores might go for Ye-Assa Tibs ($11.95), cubed marinated fish sauteed with onion, tomato, pepper and garlic.
Mary’s choice, Kufta Kabob ($7.25) brought her three football-shaped, tender beef meatballs – one more than the menu had promised – lightly flavored with onions and spice and served with a pool of creamy hummus, a ration of excellent basmati rice, pickles, tomato and a simple side salad topped with crunchies that appear to be squares of fried pita.
Jerry asked for chicken kabob but got chicken curry instead, a small language-barrier issue that didn’t bother him at all. The replacement dish was delicious: A generous bowl of tender, boneless chicken chunks swimming in a savory bath of thick brown onion sauce with the distinctive hot-and-spicy flavor of berbere.
I was delighted with my Ethiopian veggie combo, a bright assembly of red and green lentil stews, fine-chopped collards and onions and a yellow grain, neatly arranged on an oversize injera round and three more rolls of the spongy bread for eating with the fingers, Ethiopian-style. Don’t mind if I do!
A filling lunch for three, with two fresh iced teas and a diet cola, was a very reasonable $26.26, plus a $6 tip.
Addis Bar & Grill
109 S. Fourth St.
581-1011
www.addisgrill.com
Rating: 85