Category Archives: A RESTAURANT LISTING…

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, New and noteworthy, Pacific Rim, QuickBytes, Southern Indiana

TanThai sets new standard in Thai food

Ginger chicken with green beans

Foodies, food lovers and food geeks who’ve been around town for a while will recall the happy shock that comes with the discovery of an ethnic spot that stands out from the pack: A new arrival with food preparation and style that hint at something special going on in the kitchen.

So it was with Vietnam Kitchen, almost a generation ago now, around the same time as the Mayan Gypsy truck went land-based with its first bricks-and-mortar location. More recently, we’ve seen it with Saffron’s for Iranian and Red Pepper for hardcore authentic Chinese.

In each case, the food, the mood and the service — but especially the food — signal that this place is, well, different.

Now welcome another ethnic standout, TanThai Cuisine of Thailand. Continue reading TanThai sets new standard in Thai food →

$ Budget (under $30), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, Commentary, Guest columnist, News announcements, Pacific Rim

Café Mimosa returns

By Kevin Gibson
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

The familiar logo on the former Lentini’s reads “Café Mimosa,” but the sandwich board out front says it all: “We open now!”

A fire destroyed Café Mimosa’s former location — along with its partner Egg Roll Machine — in January. Owner Phat Le vowed to reopen; the former Lentini’s made sense since, well, he already owned it.

The new Mimosa, replacing recent tenant Jarfi’s, seems more upscale than the old, but food and prices are much the same.
Continue reading Café Mimosa returns →

$ Budget (under $30), Bistros, Commentary, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill

The Patron won’t go away, and we’re glad

Crab and eggs

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(LEO photo by Ron Jasin)

Early in August, Chef Amber McCool announced “a new path” for the popular Patron Restaurant, involving a move to a still-undisclosed location at an uncertain time. In the meantime, the restaurant at the corner of Frankfort Avenue and Cannons Lane would continue catering and wholesale operations as well as “calendared events.”

That calendar, it seems, has been full, with food and music events on Wednesdays (Kim Sorise’s “Wax on Wednesdays,” with 12-inch LPs and 12-inch pizzas), many Fridays (“Burger Night” with music, burgers and brews), and a tasty menu-based brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

My wife and I didn’t really have food in mind when we drove past the Patron early on a recent Sunday afternoon, but the sight of a jammed parking lot lured us in. Sure enough, the place was slammed with happy brunchers, but it took a minute or two for us to be seated.
Continue reading The Patron won’t go away, and we’re glad →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Bistros, Commentary, Southern Indiana

The Windsor is slick, and so are its napkins

grilled salmon

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

“Five-second rule! Five-second rule!”

It didn’t matter whether I was decked out in fancy all-weather wool slacks on a Thursday evening or well-worn jeans for a Tuesday lunch: No matter the fabric, no matter how I folded and knotted the thing, the slick, slippery burgundy polyester napkin would not stay on my lap.

I must have invoked the five-second rule a dozen times or more, grumbling every time I plucked my fallen napkin from the floor, during a couple of recent meals at New Albany’s otherwise delightful Windsor Restaurant and Garden.

Come to think about it, the irritating napkin slide was just about the only nit I could find to pick with this splendid eatery, a worthy successor to the late and still lamented Bistro New Albany.

Young co-chefs Justin McMillen and Cory Cuff were barely old enough to legally sample their own wine list when the classy dining room and bar, with its lovable New Orleans-style patio, reopened in the old New Albany Inn last year.
Continue reading The Windsor is slick, and so are its napkins →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, New and noteworthy, Pacific Rim

Thai comes to Fern Creek

Pad Thai at True Thai

With all due respect, the Fern Creek neighborhood has long been the kind of place where “ethnic” means barbecue or diner fare.

But the arrival last year of Sake Blue, one of the region’s top Japanese restaurants, changed that metric forever. Now add Thai to the mix with the opening of True Thai in the Glenmary Plaza shopping center just beyond the Snyder.
Continue reading Thai comes to Fern Creek →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, Commentary, Guest columnist, Mexican, Cuban, Caribbean, New and noteworthy

Tequila Factory manufactures fine Mexican chow

Tequila Factory

(CLOSED)

Thank goodness it’s not another faux Irish pub.

Tequila Factory Bar and Grill is the latest tenant in the revolving-door location at 917 Baxter Ave., the former home of @tmosphere, Bazo’s and two or three iterations of Nio’s, among other short-lived concepts.
Continue reading Tequila Factory manufactures fine Mexican chow →

$ Budget (under $30), BBQ, Burgers & Down-Home, Commentary, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, QuickBytes

Burgers, dogs and cones, oh my!

Five Guys dog and burger

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(Five Guys, Home Run, Conez and Coneyz)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Conez and Coneys is now closed.
For all the talk of market indicators and the rebounding Dow and yada yada yada, you and I know there’s still a recession going on. And so, apparently, do a lot of Louisville’s restaurateurs.

I’ve reported recently on the ways some of the city’s top-tier eateries are responding to tightened consumer spending with menu-price reductions. Small-plates restaurants, always popular, are on the rise.

And, in a time when the economy and other things that go bump in the night look scary, many of us crave cheap, hearty and, yes, fatty comfort food. New spots that specialize in economical edibles such as hamburgers and hot dogs are springing up all over.
Continue reading Burgers, dogs and cones, oh my! →

$ Budget (under $30), BBQ, Burgers & Down-Home, Commentary, QuickBytes, South End

Ole Hickory Pit, old Western Kentucky tradition

Ribs at Ole Hickory Pit

Anybody want a little mutton? I can hear you going “Eeuuww!” all the way from here.

Once beloved by our English and Australian cousins, who had a lot of sheep around, mutton has all but died out in modern times. You’ll rarely if ever see it in the grocery store or on a restaurant menu. In an age of mild beef, chicken and pork, “the other white meat,” mutton has a bad reputation as strong, greasy and gamey meat.
Continue reading Ole Hickory Pit, old Western Kentucky tradition →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Commentary, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, White tablecloth, deluxe

Rivue brunch goes round and round

Chocolate spinner at Rivue

If you haven’t been up to the revolving top of the Galt House for a while, you may be surprised to see how much things have changed. Gone is the faux sailing ship look, with its blocks and tackles and green, purple and gold running lights.

Exit the elevators on the hotel’s 23rd floor now, and you step into a series of sleek rooms decorated in stark black and white. Light fixtures made from stacks of clear globes look like bubbles rising in champagne. But the real eye-catcher, as it has always been, is the lofty view of the Ohio River and the city all around.
Continue reading Rivue brunch goes round and round →