For those of us who grew up in an age when we thought a bipartisan series of presidents wanted to send us off to exotic places with strange names like “Vietnam” and “Thailand” to meet nice people and kill them, it is a fine thing that we now go to Vietnamese and Thai restaurants right here in Louisville, meet nice people and eat their delicious food.
When DiOrio’s pizza first settled into the former home of Karem’s Meats in St. Matthews, it already seemed that this booming nightspot zone was attracting more pizzerias than it could reasonably handle … and that was before Coal’s or Mellow Mushroom came to town. Continue reading DiOrio’s earns its place on Pizza Row→
Chef Edward Lee’s insanely popular new restaurant MilkWood at Actors Theatre of Louisville reminds me more than a little of Chef David Chang’s acclaimed Momofuku Ssäm Bar and other Momofuku eateries in New York, Toronto and Sydney, but I think MilkWood has the potential to be even better. Continue reading MilkWood reminds us of Momofuku, only better→
Some restaurants become landmarks through longevity in place, gaining familiarity by virtue of “always” having been there.
The Seelbach’s Oakroom and Brown Hotel’s English Grill fall easily into this category of historic worth, and a generation of Baby Boom icons — the original Bristol, Jack Fry’s, Lilly’s, Equus, Pat’s, DelFrisco’s and quite a few more survivors of the ’70s and ’80s — have become fixtures on the local dining map. (This, perhaps, is why so many felt particular pain as the former Azalea building, a graceful restaurant venue since 1870, was allowed to fall into grubby disrepair so as to justify its destruction in favor of a modern replacement for an upscale eatery, Mesh.) Continue reading Blackstone settles in as Prospect destination→
Fried scrod on rye at Fish-Fry House.When the Fish-Fry House opened in the Highlands last year, it generated a lot of excitement among local fried-fish lovers (who, of course, are legion), but not entirely for the right reasons. People emailed, they called, they stopped me on the street to pronounce the good news: “The Fishery has opened a branch in the Highlands!” Actually, not so much. In fact, when this purveyor of fried fish and other fried things changed its name from Blue Lagoon about a year ago, it hoisted a logo that looks an awful lot like The Fishery’s: Same fat serif font, same big F at the start and big Y at the end; the only difference is a little “-f” replacing The Fishery’s little “e” in the middle of the word. Drive out Bardstown just past Kroger and check it out. Chances are it will fool you, too.
In fact, the tenuous connection reportedly goes back to an old franchise agreement for a different location. The similar sign was not exactly welcomed by the original Fishery folks, or so I’m told.
But the argument has apparently abated, as the sign still stands. Live and let live. It takes plenty of fish to satisfy all the fish lovers in this fish-happy town, anyway, and that goes double when it’s Lent, the season when a lot of believers, in the spirit of sacrifice, switch over from delicious red meat to delicious fried white fish during the 40 days before Easter.
You don’t have to believe a thing beyond “I believe I’ll have me a fish sandwich” to enjoy the goodies here, though; and I’ll testify that Shahram Pouranfour (who also operates Sharom’s Fishery Station on Outer Loop) is a master of breading and frying. In a recent visit, we didn’t taste a fried item that wasn’t crisp, golden-brown and delicious. The offbeat venue only adds to Fish-Fry’s curb appeal: It’s located in the ‘20s-era gasoline service station that was lovingly renovated for restaurant use by the late, lamented Diamond Station.
The menu, as noted, depends substantially on frying, with fried Boston scrod, chicken, shrimp, chicken livers, oysters, salmon croquettes; even fried alligator tail and fried shark bites, along with a few tasty non-fried items such as oven-baked scrod, on a family-friendly menu topping out at $12.95 (for a fried oyster platter with choice of two sides). The bar is currently shut down, a sign on the door announcing that wine, beer and liquor won’t be available “until further notice.”
We made do with iced tea and filled up on a well-made fried scrod on rye ($6.50), an oversize rolled oyster ($5.75) that resembled a giant hush puppy with tiny fresh oysters baked in, and sides of outstanding fried green tomatoes, standard-issue green beans and, reflecting Pouranfour’s Persian heritage, Iranian-style dilled rice.
Our fried lunch for two, filling enough to set aside any plan for a serious dinner that evening, came to $27.78, plus a $6 tip.
NA Exchange got a new name when it moved down the New Albany hill: Now it’s The Exchange Pub + Kitchen. It got a new look, which is actually an old look, as it makes creative use of a historic building in New Albany’s rapidly gentrifying downtown.
But it didn’t get new food, insists Chef Rick Adams, who swears that the menu he forged at the previous location — including his signature shrimp and grits — hasn’t changed a bit.You would have a hard time making some of the Exchange’s regular customers believe that, though. Adams says one gentleman in particular is adamant that the “new” shrimp and grits is much better than the “old.”
Taco Punk is just over a year old now in February 2013, and I am mighty happy to see it pass that first birthday, the make-or-break point that conventional wisdom sets as a marker of success in the restaurant business.
Some observers might have doubted that owner-chef Gabe Sowder’s amiable NuLu storefront would reach this point, as it has faced more wacky challenges in its first 12 months than I’ve seen in quite a few years on the eats beat. Continue reading Kick (re)start Taco Punk? Sure, why not?→
It says something good about Louisville’s dining scene, I think, that our town’s Latino dining experiences go way beyond just plain Mexican. Not that there’s anything wrong with traditional pan-Mexican/Southwestern/Tex-Mex, mind you, but an hombre can’t live on tacos, rice and beans alone. Continue reading Eat like a Mayan and love it at Mayan Café→
“Downtown” St. Matthews has come a long way, from the generation when it was best known for dark bars populated by portly gentlemen drinking cold beer, to the modern era that finds it chockablock with hipster bars populated by trendy young folks wearing skinny jeans and drinking specialty cocktails. I won’t even open the door to a discussion about whether this trend is beneficial or regrettable, although I’ll suggest that this opinion lies largely in the eye of the beholder. Continue reading “It takes real bocconcini”: Mellow Mushroom takes on the locals→
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