Verbena Café is one of those places that always seems to smell like home. For Mike Cortino, the smell is likely a reminder of much more.
Mike and his wife, Laurie, opened Verbena in Norton Commons this past autumn. They based Verbena’s fare on dishes served in restaurants founded by Mike’s grandfather and operated by his family back in the 1960s in Chicago. Verbena specializes in omelets, crepes, pancakes, waffles and eggs Benedict, and offers sandwiches, entrées and salads for the lunch crowd. Continue reading Verbena could make Grandpa proud→
If your idea of mozzarella is bland shreds in a plastic bag from the supermarket, or pale, stringy cheese pulling away from the top of your pizza like bubble gum, you’ll want to reset your expectations before dining at Mozz.
This new, upscale and trendy Italian eatery landed this month in the Cobalt Building that once housed Primo. The name means “mozzarella,” and mozz’ is what they do.
We’re talking real, fresh mozzarella, like fior di Latte (“flower of the milk”), cheese that’s delicate, sweet and silken, made in-house with fresh, hormone-free milk from locavore cows; a far cry from the Styrofoam stuff in the supermarket bag. Continue reading Meeting mozzarella again for the first time at Mozz→
If you’re an adventurous “foodie” who loves to cook and gets as much of a kick out of touring the world on your dinner table as I do, then your grocery list probably looks something like mine: A weird blend of the familiar (chicken, milk, peanut butter) and the unusual (Gai lan, Daikon and Chayote).
One of the biggest and best changes I’ve seen in our town over a Baby Boomer’s lifetime in Louisville has been the surprising ethnic and cultural diversity that has blossomed here over a generation. As outgoing Mayor Jerry Abramson likes to point out, more than half of our city’s population growth nowadays takes the form of new residents arriving from other countries. Youngsters in Jefferson County public schools speak more than 80 different languages at home, and Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus, among others, gather peacefully in their own places of worship.
Who doesn’t like doughnuts? There’s something comforting about these fried spheres of goodness with a hole in the middle, and most doughnut lovers have strong opinions on the subject.
Louisville boasts many local bakeries and doughnut joints. But not all doughnuts (or, if you prefer, “donuts”) are created equal, so I set out to try a random sample of five locals to see how they compared. Continue reading In search of the city’s best doughnuts→
I wouldn’t want to say that my food preferences are those of a city boy, but let’s put it this way: In years of dining at my parents’ table, I never realized grits were served with breakfast until I ran into this odd practice elsewhere. And I was a fully grown adult before my first encounter with country-fried steak. Continue reading For a good country-fried steak, go to Goose Creek Diner→
Eiderdown’s Kentucky Country Ham Sandwich. LEO photo by Ron Jasin.Edelweiss, Edelweiss,
Every morning you greet me …
No, wait, dammit! Rewind! I meant “Eiderdown,” sorry. Edelweiss is an Alpine flower, small and white. Eiderdown is soft, warm down from the breast feathers of the female eider duck, which famously plucks down from her chest to line her nest and keep her eggs and infant duckies safe and warm. Continue reading Double down in Germantown at Eiderdown→
Who doesn’t know Danny Mac? If you follow local social media, you’ve surely run into this guy, who’s been selling a lot of pizza and authentic Philly-style cheesesteaks out of a storefront on Clarks Lane. Continue reading Danny Mac rocks it in new quarters→
Rootie’s Sports Bar on Westport Road doesn’t look like anything special — just another sports bar, with lots of TVs and a few pool tables.
But owner Marty Stein knows a thing or two about the classic Buffalo wing. He and the original Rootie’s location hail from Buffalo. He’s been making Buffalo wings for more than 30 years, having bounced from upstate New York to South Florida and now to Louisville, with stops on “The Today Show” and “Regis and Kathie Lee” along the way. Continue reading Rootie’s wings are the real deal. Really.→
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