Sunday seafood brunch is a Lucullan feast

When Volare popped up on Frankfort Avenue the summer before last, I gave it a warm if somewhat mixed review, placing it somewhere between the ’50s-style Italian-American vibe of Lentini’s and the more upscale Northern Italian ambience of Vincenzo’s. It lost some ratings points for unfulfilled pretentiousness and good-but-could-be-better food and service, but I marked it as a place to be watched and with room to grow.

Quite a bit has changed since then: A Chicago-based partner has moved on, the affable Majid Ghavami, popular proprietor of Saffron’s and a veteran of front-of-the-house years at the old Casa Grisanti and Vincenzo’s, has moved in as a partner and maitre d’, and Chef Dallas McGarrity (hey, at least there’s a vowel on the end of his name) has grown from good to better with a little experience under his toque.

Volare just recently added an expansive, seafood-rich Sunday brunch to its offerings, and an indulgent sampling today left me persuaded that this place is now offering Mr. Ghavami’s former employer, the other Big V, a serious run for its money as the city’s top Italian table.
Continue reading Maturing Volare’s star shines bright →

First, a rant: I’ve always thought there’s something kind of needy and pathetic about the way that Louisville looks to New York to validate the things we do here. Bring in a speaker from the Big Apple to make your fund-raiser a success; punch your chef’s ticket by jetting off to Gotham to cook dinner at Beard House. Get a review in The New Yorker or a mention in The New York Times, or choose a New York architect for your landmark building … if it doesn’t earn a New York stamp of approval, we seem to think, it must not be worth much.

So naturally it comes as no surprise that the strong New York connections of the city’s hottest new item – Proof on Main – have dominated the early buzz and almost fawning media coverage about this stylish new spot on West Main Street, our neighborhood that’s often, and accurately, compared with New York’s SoHo for its impressive collection of historic cast-iron storefronts.

For the record, yes, we know Proof on Main is managed by a prominent New York restaurant firm, Drew Nieporent’s Myriad Group, the folks who operate such culinary Manhattan landmarks as Tribeca Grill, Nobu and Montrachet.
Continue reading Proof proves out →

One bold statement may be made about Diamante Bar & Grill without serious fear of contradiction: It is surely the city’s best restaurant located in a former gasoline station.

But we don’t need to cut our definition so fine in order to praise this amiable establishment. Yes, it really is built around the original beige-tile facade of the 1920s-era Diamond Gulf Station, and once you know that, you can easily see how the big open squares that give access to the cozy bar might once have been fitted with overhead garage doors. Suddenly you wonder if a sputtering 1937 Maxwell might pull up next to your table with a happy yell, “Fill ‘er up!”

The casual, arty and urban mood of this Bardstown Road favorite is only the starting point. It’s not at all stuffy, but clearly a step – or several – up from your basic city saloon … Continue reading Diamante’s a diamond, but not rough →

This is February’s LouisvilleHotBytes dining column in The Voice-Tribune, Louisville’s suburban weekly newspaper. We’ll publish monthly restaurant reviews and wine-tasting reports in The Voice, which is available on East End news stands and by subscription.

It’s almost St. Valentine’s Day, and you want to treat your sweetie right. You’ve got chocolates and long-stemmed roses wrapped and ready, but you know you’ll put that starry-eyed gleam in her if you escort her to dinner for two at a romantic restaurant.

To help you make your pick, I’ll tell you about some of my favorite local eateries in the wine-and-roses-and-romance category.

But first, for those of you who combine your natural romantic spirit with a practical sensibility, here’s a discreet little piece of advice. Step close, I don’t want to say this loud enough for everyone to hear:

Valentine’s Day may not be the best time to fully enjoy a fine place to dine. Like Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve and Derby Day, these popular holidays are the busiest days of the year in the restaurant business. Loud, demanding crowds put waitstaff and chefs under pressure and can challenge even the best-managed eatery. Savvy diners skip the holiday in favor of enjoying a quieter, less frenzied scene a day or two before or after.
Continue reading A dozen Valentine roses:
The city’s top romantic dining rooms →

Chinese New Year, also called “Spring Festival” in China, is under way under the light of the crescent moon; set by the lunar calendar, the Year of the Dog began Sunday with the New Moon.

Westerners usually think of Chinese New Year mostly in terms of the colorful and traditional Lion Dance celebrated in Chinese-American communities. For Chinese families, the New Year is a time of joy, when friends and families exchange gifts in envelopes colored bright red for luck, wish each other good fortune, and – getting to the point of this report – spend much of the 15-day period of celebration eating very, very well.
Continue reading Gong Xi Fa Cai at Peking City →

The Winter 2006 edition of our sibling print publication, Food & Dining Magazine Louisville Edition, is now available on news stands and local groceries and food specialty stores. (Click the cover image for more information and a great subscription offer!) Here, as a free preview, is our quarterly report on openings, closings and changes on the local restaurant scene:

Every three months, Food & Dining reviews restaurant openings, closings and other dining-industry changes in the metro area during the past quarter. This time around, like the quarter before it, saw considerable activity, with the good news that openings (including more than 30 new-business starts and about 10 additional locations for existing businesses) again significantly outnumbered the bad news of 20 restaurant closings.

As Food & Dining went to press, perhaps the loudest restaurant-news buzz of the season accompanied plans for several hot new spots that were set to launch during the early months of the new year.
Continue reading What’s New Around Town – Winter ’06 →

I’m delighted to announce a new partnership between LouisvilleHotBytes and The Voice-Tribune, Louisville’s suburban weekly newspaper. We’ll publish monthly restaurant reviews and wine-tasting reports in The Voice, which is available on East End news stands and by subscription.

For many years, Westerners who craved a taste of truly authentic Chinese food have been pretty much out of luck. Even if we followed the traditional wisdom for tracking down the finest Chinese fare (“look for the places where Chinese people eat”), our round eyes and pink complexions gave us away.

Invariably, even the most impassioned request for those exotic, delicious-looking dishes we could see all around us would meet kind but firm resistance. “You won’t like that. Try this.”

But the times are a’changing as a new generation of Chinese-immigrant entrepreneurs comes into the restaurant business; and nowadays at least a few Asian eateries are willing to give diners of European heritage a peek at the Chinese-for-Chinese menu.

Here’s news that may surprise you if you haven’t been paying attention: One of the best places in Louisville to find genuine, home-style Cantonese fare the way the Cantonese like it is the Oriental House in St. Matthews.