LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(By Paige Moore-Heavin)
When my friend Lynn suggested Captain Pepper Jack’s Aero Bistro for girls’ night out, I was a little confused. This place, which opened near Bowman Field in May, was new to me. “It’s part Southern American and part Mediterranean,” she said. Well, that’s an odd combination. But, ever the foodie, I was willing to give this culinary mash-up a try.
Continue reading Fried chicken? Falafels? Captain Pepper Jack’s mixes it up
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LouisvilleHotBytes.com in The Voice-Tribune
Okay, who wants organ meat? Internal organs, that is, livers, kidneys, hearts and even more unmentionable selections.
All together now: “Eeeeuuuuwwww!”
But wait! People around the world have been enjoying organ meats for millennia, and those who shun them on the basis of the “eeuuww” factor are missing something good.
This is one of the many reasons I love dining with my wife, Mary, and our good friend Lucinda. They’re adventurous foodies, and showed it the other night when we spotted sweetbreads on the menu at Equus.
“I’m having that,” Lucinda said with a happy smile. “Can we share?” asked Mary. Me, too.
What’s a sweetbread? It isn’t bread, and it’s not a dessert. It’s a calf’s thymus gland, or perhaps a bit of his pancreas. Vegetarians please look away.
Continue reading Classy Equus drops prices and tablecloths but keeps high style
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Everybody loves a parade? Maybe. Let’s say that most people love most parades. But the procession of broken dreams that has recently passed through the St. Matthews space that once was home to Rick’s? That’s a parade not so easy to enjoy.
For the historical record, let’s retrace the genealogy of this spot that once housed the offices of the then-Voice of St. Matthews: Rick Dissell established the original Rick’s around 1980, and earned his popularity the old-fashioned way, with a 17-year run in that location.
Continue reading Wathen’s Kentucky Bistro bounces back
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LouisvilleHotBytes.com in The Voice-Tribune
(Published May 13, 2009)
The Highlands carry-out branch of Tony Boombozz Pizza on Bardstown Road – once the location of an urban White Castle still remembered fondly by Baby Boomers – has re-emerged after a major renovation as a splendid pizzeria and high-tech beer dispensary, the East End mini-chain’s fourth property and perhaps its most exciting yet.
Curved banks of silvery metal tubes soar over the bar to pipe down a selection of more than 20 draft beers, most imports and microbrewery beers. What’s more, the region’s only “ice bar” features artificially made “snow” blanketing a strip at the back. Want your beer ice cold? Set your mug on the icy white line.
Continue reading High-tech bar, award-winning fare lift Boombozz Taphouse
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
So we’re walking down Baxter just north of Highland Avenue, well into the city’s club zone, and suddenly a new hanging sign catches my eye.
“BUNZ,” it reads, like a hip-hop interpretation of a bread store specializing in … naw, can’t be. We swerved into the tiny quarters that had previously housed Omar’s Gyros and found a spiffy new shop specializing in hamburgers – fat, dense and beefy burgers, mounted, of course, on exceptional buns. Er, bunz.
Located just across the street from Derby City Dogs and a block or so north from the new Highlands branch of Lonnie’s Taste of Chicago, another hot-dog store, this recent arrival would seem to mark a new high-water mark for restaurant specialization in the neighborhood.
Continue reading Great Bunz, loaded with splendid burgers
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Want a fried whitefish sandwich on rye that’s as good as you’ll find in this fish-loving town? Want a gyros that’s bigger than your head, piled high with excellent Greek-style grilled beef and lamb, so big you really need to eat it with knife and fork?
Never before has one been able to enjoy such disparate ethnic goodies at a single table in Louisville.
Let’s hail the arrival of Zaytún Mediterranean Grill, a small, casual but attractive eatery that’s packing in crowds for lunch and dinner at the small Highlands spot that once housed Andrew’s, a forgettable diner.
Browning’s is back. The brewpub in Slugger Field, with its upscale sister restaurant Park Place on Main, had abruptly closed back in October. Although Browning’s continued brewing craft beer for outside sales, Louisville Bats fans were left high and dry.
Now Chef Anoosh Shariat, backed by investors, has put up nearly a half-million dollars to revamp the restaurant and revise its menu. Browning’s reopened May 12. The Park Place space is available for private parties.
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
As soon as I read about 732 Social coming to East Market Street, I knew I was going to love it. It would be as urban as urban could get, chic and trendy yet “green” as grass, and it would spit in the face of the recession, boldly stepping out where a string of lovable but short-lived eateries have failed.
Here’s the scenario: Brothers Steven and Michael Ton of Basa join Chef Jayson Lewellyn, late of Jeff Ruby’s. They present quality fare – lots of small plates, and some large ones, too – that goes beyond mere fusion to blend the flavors of Europe, the Americas and Asia. They set it forth in the certifiably trendy Green Building, making adaptive reuse of well-worn barn wood and subtle tones, of course, to keep it close to the earth.
And, as the name suggests, they sought to build a consciously “social” environment, with tightly spaced tables and a community vibe that would encourage diners to converse with their neighbors and maybe even share bites or make new friends.
Continue reading Let’s get Social at 732 … What? I can’t hear you!
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Does size matter? Some of the Metro’s tiniest restaurants rank among its most cozy and attractive. From this assertion I do not exclude New Albany’s iconic Little Chef, a 10-seat diner so small that it once wore wheels; or, for that matter, the trendy, crowded, noisy and compact new 732 Social on East Market Street, about which we’ll be telling you more anon.
This week, though, we turn to another Lilliputian favorite, Simply Thai, housed in the freestanding building at the corner of Wallace and Wilmington avenues in St. Matthews.
Succeeding a short-lived barbecue joint and a forgettable Chinese fast-food eatery, Simply Thai crams about eight tables into a small space, with a couple more patio tables out front.
Continue reading Tiny Simply Thai packs ’em in
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
The smiling gentleman forked a sizzling dish of bhaji in my direction. It sizzled gently, wafting wonderful aromas noseward: sweet, caramelized onion and an elusive mix of spices.
This is ethnic-foodie heaven: Omar Fast Food Restaurant, a new eatery featuring the fare of Pakistan, a South Asian nation that most of us have heretofore been more likely to encounter on the front page than on our dinner plate.
I took the plate hungrily.
“Ketchup?” the gent inquired, offering a fistful of red foil envelopes of Hunt’s finest.
Continue reading Ketchup, globalization and Pakistani fare