Category Archives: Commentary

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

Product wrangling

I’m a morning person. Not that I greet the day by springing from bed singing songs with cartoon woodland animals like Snow White, all cheerful and such. But I am the morning person at a restaurant. I’ve always enjoyed being the first one in, greeted by a clean, cool, quiet commercial kitchen, with plenty of space and sparkling equipment to start the day’s prep.
Continue reading Product wrangling

The Post’s pizza earns our salute

Mary claims that I never met a pizza I didn’t like, but this is a gross exaggeration. Sure, I like pizza, a lot, and I generally won’t say no to a slice. Why should I?

But liking the stuff doesn’t mean that I give up my critical discernment, dammit! Show me a Corporate Pie™ and I’ll shrug and go “Meh.” I know pizza, and I know what I like. And I’m here today to tell you that I like the pizza at The Post, an appropriately hip, casual pizzeria in a shotgun house that was once home to Lone Wolf Post #5636 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Louisville’s Germantown.
Continue reading The Post’s pizza earns our salute

I want to bring the heat at Thai Cafe, but the chef won’t let me

Where in the world do you find the globe’s most fiery-spicy cuisine? This seemed like a simple enough question when I dreamed it up amid a sudden craving for culinary fire the other day, but it’s hard to get a definitive answer. Continue reading I want to bring the heat at Thai Cafe, but the chef won’t let me

Family meal

Did you know that many professional cooks have poor eating habits? We taste dishes over and over all day while we tweak and verify for consistency. We nibble at our mise-en-place: a few roasted pine nuts here, a few slices of prosciutto there. A plastic tasting spoon shoved in your face with a “Taste this and tell me what you think!” when you have no idea what you’re tasting. Continue reading Family meal

We mentor a budding food writer at Toonerville Deli

In this food-loving city full of food-fascinated folks, there must be a thousand food bloggers, freelancers and journalists. My friend Dana is one, and she does it well. So I was truly honored when Dana asked if I’d help mentor her 12-year-old cousin, Amber, visiting from Michigan, who wants to be a food writer, too.

How could I say no? Continue reading We mentor a budding food writer at Toonerville Deli

What Happens When a Restaurant Closes?

We all know what happens when a restaurant is getting ready to open. Projected opening dates get pushed back due to construction or licensing/permit delays. There’s a predictable shuffle of executive chefs, sous chefs, line cooks, general managers, bartenders and servers culled from other establishments in town. There are lots of bills for interior decorating and the first flush of new stemware, china and flatware. Finally, when the liquor license is granted at last: a “soft opening” or friends and family night. Kudos all around. Back-slapping. Rounds of beer bought for new staff at a local bar.

But what happens when a restaurant closes?
Continue reading What Happens When a Restaurant Closes?

Navigating a Tasting Event and a Bit of Other Derby Advice

Derby Derby Derby Derby Derby! For those of us in the biz in Louisville, it’s New Year’s Eve plus the Fourth of July times Easter Brunch this week. At least it’s not Derbygeddon this year (Derbygeddon is the nickname given to the years in which Derby and Mother’s Day fall on the same weekend. Yikes!).
Continue reading Navigating a Tasting Event and a Bit of Other Derby Advice