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
Category Archives: BY PRICE FOR TWO
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
Times are changin’ at Marketplace
In the spring of 1958, when Thomas Merton had his epiphany at what was then the corner of Fourth and Walnut in downtown Louisville, Fourth Street was a happening place. Crowds of businessmen in suits and fedoras and moms shopping in their best dresses scurried around the Starks Building and landmark Louisville department stores Stewart’s and Kaufman-Straus.
Continue reading Times are changin’ at Marketplace
Westport General Store rewards a short road trip
This mere half-hour trek through the meadows, farms, forests and tract mansions of northern Oldham County is well worth it — the reward at the end of the road is an exceptional meal that matches, or surpasses, just about anything you’d find in the city.
Chef David Clancy is back at the helm, and that’s good news. The combination of Clancy’s kitchen crew with Westport’s amiable proprietor, Will Crawford, makes this a destination that would be worth an even longer trip.
Westport bustled in its early years, when it was a steamboat stop upriver from Louisville, and Westport General Store still has a bit of the look and feel of a rural village’s favorite gathering place, although there’s a stylish bistro overlay. Local bands and musical groups often perform here. “Like” its Facebook page (on.fb.me/westportgen) to keep up.
Crawford describes the restaurant’s culinary style as “upscale Southern cuisine,” and that’s fair; props also to his commitment to use local produce, meats and poultry to support his community and local farmers whenever possible.
Signature dishes include a local bison steak (market price), produced just down the road at Goshen’s Kentucky Bison Co., grilled to order with “smashed” potato and seasonable farm vegetables; and “red eye” shrimp ($15.95) wrapped in country ham from Shelby County’s Finchville Farms, served with Weisenberger Mill stone-ground grits and fresh collards.
A half-dozen main courses mostly sell in the range of $14.95 to $16.95. Vegetarians are well served by a trio of well-crafted dishes including a tomato-topped farfalle pasta ($12.95), vegan black-eyed pea stew ($10.95) and a chipotle black bean “burger” ($6.95). Sandwiches top out at $8.95 for the bison burger or fried fish sandwich, crafted from an 8-ounce fillet of cod. A sizable selection of appetizers, soups and salads are mostly $5 or thereabouts; and the kiddos are well taken care of with a children’s menu of simple, child-friendly dishes under $5.
Adult beverages are available, too: Westport General Store was the first restaurant to take advantage of Oldham County’s entry into the 20th century early in the 21st with “moist” laws allowing liquor sales in restaurants. Now it offers a short but respectable selection of beers, wines and bar service.
We started a recent meal with a shared appetizer order of Baby Hot Browns ($6.95), a spiral of thick-sliced toast points cloaked in a thick, cheesy Mornay and topped with plenty of crisp bits of locavore bacon and diced fresh tomatoes. It was garnished with a pretty sprig of large, fresh sage. Appetizer? Hah! It was delicious but filling, a hearty way to start a meal.
Mary ordered the vegetarian pasta pomodoro ($12.95), farfalle (bow-tie) pasta with a subtle tomato and sun-dried tomato sauce — no heavy red “gravy” here, but plenty of garlic — garnished with thin-sliced basil chiffonade and two fresh basil leaves.
My dinner choice, the aforementioned red-eye shrimp, suited me just fine: A row of plump, tender shrimp were blanketed under squares of Finchville’s finest and painted with a dark, reddish-brown, sweet-tangy barbecue sauce. The contrasting textures and flavors hit the spot, and a bed of creamy Weisenberger Mill grits and mild-flavored collards made for a country-style meal fit for a city boy.
A shared portion of a first-rate blackberry cobbler made with seasonal fruit under chunks of pastry crust ended the meal on a high note, and the affordable tab, $48.55 for two, left plenty of change to cover gas for the short trip out. Polished service earned a $10 tip.
As Crawford famously warns, don’t count on MapQuest, Google Maps or even your trusty GPS to get you there. Westport may be a historic village with roots all the way back to the 1780s, but these modern resources can’t find it.
Technology is hardly needed, though: Simply head out U.S. 42, through Prospect, into Oldham County, then pass Goshen and Skylight until you see a gigantic radio tower piercing the clouds on your left. Just before the tower, turn left on KY 524 and drive down the scenic, winding forest road until you reach Westport. The restaurant will be the brown building on the right with the veranda and, most of the time, a crowded parking lot out front.
Westport General Store
7008 Highway 524
222-4626
www.westportgeneralstore.com
Rating: 87
Coals ranks high among the city’s pizzerias
Hold on a minute! Didn’t we just write about pizza last month, with a report on Frascelli’s in Crestwood?
Well, yeah.
And not that long ago, around Christmas, didn’t we review Di Orio’s, a new pizzeria in St. Matthews?
That, too.
I told you that pizza was getting to be the next really big thing. Continue reading Coals ranks high among the city’s pizzerias
Southern fare is just what the Doc (Crow) ordered
Amid all the recent angst about Louisville’s Whiskey Row on West Main Street and the arguments over whether these historic buildings are in danger of falling down, it’s instructive to step into Doc Crow’s impressive quarters.
Continue reading Southern fare is just what the Doc (Crow) ordered