Category Archives: Commentary

Robin Garr’s musings about food and restaurant matters that don’t fit neatly into the “review” category.

Commentary, Pizza

Sample 10 top local pizzas with our Pizza Guide

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Will I ever get this constant craving for pizza out of my system? I really doubt it. Why in the hell should I even want to abandon this adorable creation?In other words, here I am again, talking about pizza for the second week in a row. You got a problem widdat? What’s more, this one is for you folks: Behold, my thoughts on 10 worthy pizzas I’ve praised in recent years.

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Commentary

Beyond, Impossible, beef: Who wins?

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I actually like Beyond Meat, Impossible, and the rest of the growing cadre of plant-based, meat-like alternative proteins. I think they’re better for the environment than meat, better for me, certainly better for the animals sacrificed in the meat industry. And I think they taste good.

This shouldn’t be a controversial statement, and yet, like so much else in modern life, it’s possible that someone out there reading this is feeling a burning rage at the very idea of praising meat made from vegetables. That’s right. Even meat vs. not-meat can be a political wedge issue in these troubled times.

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$$ Modest ($30-$50), Commentary, Indian, South End

Kathmandu Kitchen: A taste of Nepal

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Kathmandu: Even the sound of the name of Nepal’s historic capital, gateway to the Himalayas, evokes feelings of romance and exotic travel. The bustling, noisy city of 850,000 lies in a green valley at 4,500 feet above sea level. It’s not even as high as Denver, but on a clear day you can see Mount Everest from historic Durbar Square in the old city, home to seven Unesco World Heritage sites.

Want to go? It will take you maybe 26 hours including layover time to get to Kathmandu from here. The price? Don’t even ask.

But here’s an easy workaround: Head to Kathmandu Kitchen on Old Bardstown Road in Buechel, and you can enjoy a fantastic Nepalese meal without all the hassle of international travel.

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Commentary

Cheap eats, good eats, why pay more?

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBygtes.com

A couple of weeks ago I devoted this space to a conversation about some of our town’s finest places to go for a special-occasion $200-plus blowout. I heard plenty of favorable comment from folks who filed the information for the next birthday or anniversary feast.

A few of you, though, appropriately cautioned me about this slide into territory usually occupied by oligarchs, day traders, and hedge-fund managers. 

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Commentary

Fancy dining? How much can you afford?

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

The $200 dinner for two is no longer a treat that we must travel to larger cities to enjoy.

Indeed, if you wish to treat your partner or friend to a fancy evening out in Louisville – particularly with drinks, dessert, and an appetizer or two – you’d better make sure that your credit-card limit can handle a three-figure toll.

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Commentary

When bad things happen to good food

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Your steak is too well-done for your liking. It’s dry, tough, and leathery. Your partner’s tenderloin is too rare for their liking. It’s dripping bloody juices that make them go “ick.” You find dirt in your dish. Mold in your dish. A hair, or several!

Grossed out by now? You haven’t heard anything yet. You find a dead cockroach in your potatoes. Or even a live parasite squirming in your swordfish.

And how about that time you told the server about your kid’s allergy and got a dish that triggered it anyway?

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$$ Modest ($30-$50), A RESTAURANT LISTING..., Coffee Shops & Desserts, Commentary, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill

Blue Dog’s new owner keeps on keeping on

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

It was a chilly, cloudy Saturday morning in January. The temperature was hovering around 37º. Even so, the sidewalk tables in front of Frankfort Avenue’s beloved Blue Dog Bakery & Café were filling up just the same, hungry travelers clad in parkas and mittens, eagerly awaiting a steaming coffee drink and pastry treat.

Inside Blue Dog’s warm, cozy space was jammed with more eager supplicants. Counter service would begin any moment, and they were ready.

“It’s always like this,” Blue Dog’s new owner Libbie Ackerman Loeser said with a smile.

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