Robin Garr’s musings about food and restaurant matters that don’t fit neatly into the “review” category.
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
My friend Joe’s face flushed to a deep crimson, and his eyes welled with moisture.
“I can’t even describe how my mouth feels right now,” Joe said after devouring 10 Cluckin’ Inferno Wings at Cluckers, a new chicken-centric bar and grill in New Albany. He later added: “I’m hurting.”
Continue reading At Cluckers, it’s all about chicken — and the sauces
“Why are Louisvillians so utterly opposed to waiting for a table?”
A manager at an ultra-hot Louisville eatery recently posed this question on our local foodie forum, LouisvilleHotBytes.com. I love it when a column topic plops directly into my lap.
Continue reading Waiting to inhale
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.
The chattering classes in the urban centers are badmouthing bacon, and I don’t want to hear it.
“We are in the midst of a bacon bubble,” The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, and The Atlantic gleefully passed it on. “A growing number of chefs … say it’s about to pop,” snorted Journal reporter Katy McLaughlin. “Bacon had a good run, but now it has gone flabby — used too much and too often, it’s lost its novelty and coated fine dining with a ubiquitous veneer of porky grease.”
Harrumph. I’m callin’ bacon fat.
Bacon, like pizza and barbecue, is one of nature’s finest foods. Continue reading Surfin’ the bacon bubble at The Blind Pig
What’s a Naked pizza? Just about everyone does a double-take when they first hear the name of this popular new takeout eatery in St. Matthews.
So let’s get a couple of things straight: First, the pizzas here are not served, er, bare. They’re fully clothed with sauce, cheese and delectable toppings. What’s more, you don’t have to be naked to go there. In fact, public nudity is just as strictly discouraged within these quarters as it is everywhere else in St. Matthews.
So what’s this Naked thing? Frankly, it’s hard to tell. I’ve perused this new but fast-growing franchise chain’s Website carefully, but they don’t spell it out. Continue reading Naked Pizza strips down to the essentials
This story appears in LEO’s Dining Guide 2010.
Some days you feel like a nut, as the old Almond Joy commercial told us, and some days you don’t. As for me, some days I feel like a bloody haunch of barely seared cow flesh. Some days I feel like alfalfa sprouts and tofu.
Is there a name for a wannabe vegetarian who likes meat way too much to give it up? I’m thinking “herbocrite,” and I’m willing to bear the label with pride.
Continue reading Herbocrite seeks veggie enlightenment: Creative veggie dishes at local restaurants