Category Archives: Commentary

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

Commentary, Guest columnist

Industry Standard: The Invisible Menu Page

A friend of mine recently told me she had to cut short a restaurant visit because her godson couldn’t find anything on the menu that he wanted to order. “Why didn’t you just get him a grilled cheese, or a kid’s pizza or something?” I asked. Her answer? “Those weren’t on the menu.”

All of a sudden, I realized she didn’t know about The Invisible Menu Page. I found myself wondering how many other people are unaware of this glorious restaurant phenomenon.
Continue reading Industry Standard: The Invisible Menu Page →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Commentary, Guest columnist, Seafood & Water's Edge, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs

Unchained Macca’s delights at Westport Village

Macca's
Macca’s Florida Seafood Grill & Bar holds down a prime spot in the Westport Village center. Outside seating, clean restrooms and a full bar, with plenty of scurrying employees wearing matching attire, put Macca’s squarely in the upscale-casual realm. Photo by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com, with Guest Critic Kevin Gibson

If Macca’s Florida Seafood Grill & Bar, with its clean, corporate, angular design and requisite marine-centric décor, looks like it could be part of a chain, that’s probably more than coincidental – this sleek, family-friendly restaurant was originally going to be an R.J. Gator’s franchise, but corporate expansion plans by the Florida-based restaurant chain got put on the back burner, reportedly for economic reasons.
Continue reading Unchained Macca’s delights at Westport Village →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Bistros, Commentary, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill

Make mine migas at North End Café

Migas at North End Cafe
North End Café’s migas are the Tex-Mex breakfast of champions. Photo by Robin Garr.

Looking for a tasty Tex-Mex breakfast? One of my favorites comes from North End Café, a popular eatery renowned for its breakfast but not often counted among the city’s destinations for Border Country cuisine.

North End’s expansive breakfast menu features more than two-dozen goodies, including such traditional items as biscuits and gravy ($4.75), steak and eggs ($11.99), or even a warm bowl of oatmeal ($4.79). Some dishes add creative touches – you can get your biscuits, for example, with the option of vegetarian mushroom gravy; and French toast ($5.49) gets a subtle touch from the addition of orange spice flavors.

Down at the bottom of the menu you’ll find a tasty Tex-Mex snack: Continue reading Make mine migas at North End Café →

Commentary, Guest columnist

Industry Standard: It’s called “the special” for a reason!

“Hi, I’ll be your server tonight. Would you like to hear about the specials?”

Thousands of diners across Louisville hear this invitation every time they dine out. Most of them will smile, nod, and then order from the menu, not realizing what they could be missing.
Continue reading Industry Standard: It’s called “the special” for a reason! →

$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, Commentary, Pacific Rim, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs

Sushi is good in the neighborhood

Oishii Sushi
Word of mouth has quickly built a good reputation for Oishii Sushi in the Highlands, and it’s drawing crowds with its friendly, outgoing sushi chefs and wide selection of sushi treats like these. Photos by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

A few weeks ago, I had occasion to nosh my way through Sushi In The City, a sociable fundraising event at which a random selection of local sushi bars (and a few other eateries) provided samples of their wares.

The experience was so tasty that it left me craving even more of the stuff, so in recent weeks, I’ve made it my business to check out a couple more recent arrivals on the metro sushi scene.

Some people are still a bit wary of sushi – the concept of eating raw fish does take some getting used to. But as I said in the previous report, 125 million Japanese can’t all be wrong, and enough of us have acquired the taste to support more than 20 good sushi restaurants around town.

Two more have arrived recently: Oishii Sushi in the Highlands opened last month and Hanabi Sushi & Japanese Cuisine in Prospect around the end of the year. A third arrival, Hiko A Mon in Westport Village, opened just last week, and I’ll take my chopsticks and get out there, too, one day soon.
Continue reading Sushi is good in the neighborhood →

Commentary, Guest columnist

Industry Standard: Always make a reservation

This week it’s my pleasure to introduce an old friend from LouisvilleHotBytes.com and the local restaurant community. Marsha Lynch, the pastry chef at Café Lou Lou, is a culinary graduate of Sullivan University and has worked at Louisville independent restaurants, including Limestone, Jack Fry’s, Jarfi’s and L&N Wine Bar and Bistro.

From time to time, Marsha will step up to join me on this pulpit with a new column, “Industry Standard,” subtitled “Insider info for those who dine out,” a hearty menu of tips and tidbits aimed at offering the dining public a fresh view of the restaurant business from an insider’s perspective.

–RG

Always make a reservation

“What’s on the book?”
Continue reading Industry Standard: Always make a reservation →

Commentary

Magical evening at Corbett’s

You will often hear the term “Louisville’s restaurant community.” There’s no better way to describe the atmosphere that existed on March 9 at Dean Corbett’s “An American Place.”

“When we walked in the door, we were greeted by a woman from Sysco. And then, just a few minutes later, a server brought us a glass of wine — her jacket said ‘Rivue,’ ” said LouisvilleHotBytes forum member Jay Mazzoni, who attended the $150-a-plate event with his wife Karen. “It was that way all evening,” he went on. People from many different restaurants, the area’s top chefs — competitors on any other night — working together to create an evening of dining unparalleled in recent Louisville foodie history.
Continue reading Magical evening at Corbett’s →

Commentary, News announcements

In Memory of Danny Boyle

Click here to post your remembrances of Danny on the LouisvilleHotBytes forum

Tuscany

The Food & Dining and LouisvilleHotBytes family has suffered a devastating loss this week with the sudden death of co-worker and friend Danny Boyle, a kind and gentle man who was taken from us way too soon. To share our bad news with you all, here’s a brief memorial from Danny’s old and dear friend, John C. White, the publisher of Food & Dining:

For Danny:

“It is with the greatest of sorrow that I bring this news to the forum. Thursday was, and will remain, one of the saddest days of my life. Daniel F. Boyle, my best friend for as long as I can remember and my right-hand-man for Food & Dining Magazine, died suddenly of heart failure Thursday night.

“He leaves behind his loving and devoted wife Sara and two small boys: Jordan, 12, and Matthew, 6.

“I cannot begin to tell you what he has meant to me in my life, but I can tell you that he has touched so many more lives than mine.

“Most every restaurant owner and chef, hotel manager and purveyor of our humble magazine knew him in some way. Many counted him as a friend, and most all thought of him as he was, a kind, generous and loving man.
Continue reading In Memory of Danny Boyle →

Commentary

Something scary this way comes

Frank Elbl
There’s nothing sweet about sweetbreads – Palermo Viejo chef Francisco “Frank” Elbl shows off the Argentina delicacy, which consists of … wait for it … a calf’s thymus gland. LEO Photo by Nicole Pullen.

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(“Challenging” dishes at Palermo Viejo, Tokyo Japanese, India Palace)

It’s Halloween, blustery winds are whistling through the eaves and rattling the leaves, and there are ghosties and ghoulies and things going bump out there in the night. Let’s eat something scary!

How about a nice plate of sweetbreads, my dearies? The name sounds so appealing. Sweet meets bread. A dessert of some sort? A comforting sweet roll? Well, no. “Sweetbread” is a culinary euphemism, actually, for an organ that would be a much harder sell if it were explicitly identified as a calf’s thymus gland. It’s innards, OK? And it’s delicious.

Today let’s celebrate Halloween with visits to three local favorites for a trio of “challenging” dishes that tickle the taste buds but may require the diner to willingly suspend disbelief long enough to get them down. Trick or treat!
Continue reading Something scary this way comes →

Commentary

Bristol challenges wine-list markup

From Robin Garr’s 30 Second Wine Advisor

For many wine lovers, one of the most frustrating things about enjoying wine from a restaurant wine list is the significant “markup” that management tacks on to the price.

While the practice varies from state to state and around the world, in most states of the U.S. restaurants routinely set the wine list price at three to four times the wholesale price they pay for a bottle. As a result, diners selecting from the list can expect to pay at least twice as much for the wine of their choice as they would for the same wine in a retail store.
Continue reading Bristol challenges wine-list markup →