Category Archives: QuickBytes

Short, conversational mini-reviews that report on new sightings, updates on previously reviewed restaurants or other restaurant reports that may not fit the full-scale review format.

BY PRICE FOR TWO, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, Italian (and Pizza), QuickBytes, South End, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs

NO-ni and more wacky pizzas

Danny Mac's pizzas
A couple of pies from Danny Mac’s: At left, the wacky bacon chicken ranch with a base of ranch dressing in lieu of tomato sauce. At right, a more traditional version with sausage, onions and peppers. Photo by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(Cafe Lou Lou, Primo, Tony BoomBozz, California Pizza Kitchen and Danny Mac’s)

Pizza fundamentalists, not unlike the other kind of fundamentalists, insist that there is only one true way. Any variation on the strict Neapolitan tradition – save possibly for a select few authorized New York City variations – is not merely blasphemous but perverted. Let the congregation answer: “Amen!”
Continue reading NO-ni and more wacky pizzas →

Commentary, QuickBytes

And now to cool off …

Sweet corn ice cream
Palapa Azul brand Mexican-style sweet-corn ice cream is very strange … and strangely addictive. Photo by Robin Garr.

Aficionados of the primal fire know there’s no better antidote for that chile-pepper burn than a cooling dairy treat. Milk and cream will neutralize the capsaicins (chile oils), while beer, tea or water merely wash them around your mouth, delivering the heat to all the nooks and crannies that it hadn’t previously reached.

Once I’m on a chile high, there’s no better way to ratchet it down gently than a bowl of ice cream. Continue reading And now to cool off … →

QuickBytes

Valentine treats

Vincenzo's
At Vincenzo’s, Chef Agostino Gabriele’s raspberry cream in heart-shaped puff-pastry topped with dark chocolate awaits Valentine’s Day diners. Photo by Robin Garr.

Valentine’s Day is coming up Wednesday, and if you’re thinking about treating your sweetie to something special for dinner but haven’t already made reservations, you’d better hop to it: Valentine’s Day ranks right up there with Mother’s Day and Derby Weekend among the busiest nights of the year for restaurants in Louisville.

From romantic special menus at Westport General Store, Old Stone Inn, Melillo’s, Nios at 917, Bistro New Albany, Vincenzo’s and L&N Wine Bar and many more, to heart-shaped pizzas at Bearno’s and Papa Murphy’s and a take-out or delivery Valentine pizza treat to celebrate at home from Tony Boombozz Pizza & Vino, the city’s eateries are celebrating the annual day for lovers with appropriate Cupidity. Even White Castle plans a special holiday repast! But don’t delay, reservation lists are filling up. To check out many of the options, click through to the following discussions and announcements in our Louisville Restaurants Forum:
Continue reading Valentine treats →

$ Budget (under $30), Coffee Shops & Desserts, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, QuickBytes

Coffee buzz

If we get many more coffee shops around this town, Louisville might just take over New York City’s reputation as the city that never sleeps, and the most audible Thunder Over Louisville may become a caffeine buzz.
The two latest entries – Blue Mountain Coffee House and Jackson’s Organic Coffee – both offer a truly splendid cuppa, but they differ dramatically in style.

Chris Stockton
Christopher Stockton is co-proprietor of Jackson’s Organic Coffee, a drive-through located next to the Sav-A-Step on Lexington Road near Payne Street. Photo by Robin Garr.

Jackson’s Organic Coffee is not even a coffee shop. There’s no sit-down or table service, only a drive-through window, at this little pumpkin-color building next door to the Sav-A-Step on Lexington Road near Payne Street.

Co-proprietor Christopher Stockton, an expatriate Brit, is an aggressive perfectionist about organic, sustainable and fair-trade coffees, sold through the drive-up window or canned on the premises for sale by upscale vendors like, so far, Rainbow Blossom, two of the Valu Markets and Mayan Café.

Coffee and espresso drinks range in price from $1.75 for a small drip coffee to $3.75 for a large cappuccino or latte. The drive-up window is open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays except holidays; closed weekends.

The other recent and welcome arrival is Blue Mountain Coffee House Wine & Tapas Bar (400 E. Main St., 582-3220), where host Nicholas Arno adds a Jamaican accent as he vends Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee in sleek, sophisticated new quarters. Eat ‘N’ Blog correspondent LEAH STEWART declares it her favorite caffeine dispensary, and files this report:

Blue Mountain is a treat to the senses. A curved saltwater fish tank inset into the bar greets guests with colorful fish; tempered glass countertops are the color of island waters, and artfully contemporary tables and chairs look as though they leapt from the pages of a magazine. Jamaican art adorns walls painted in a sun-kissed gold and sapphire blue.

Blue Mountain coffee is some of the most expensive in the world, and there’s a good reason for that. The Blue Mountains of Jamaica have the perfect climate, terrain and rainfall to produce coffee. It’s as if the coffee gods touched the earth at this one spot and said, “Here!”

I tried it in a drink combined with cocoa and chunks of chocolate. It was smooth, unbelievably rich and pleasantly not sweet. Some mocha coffees are sweet enough to make your teeth hurt, but Blue Mountain’s coffee drinks are decidedly adult. Our daughter’s Submarino, a sophisticated hot chocolate, was a decadent, silky chocolate experience created for sipping, not guzzling. For lunch, a Blue Mountain Cheese Platter ($9.95) consisted of three finely crafted cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, grapes and two kinds of crackers. Friends enjoyed the Southwest chicken paninis ($6.95), declaring them crispy on the outside and chock full of savory chicken on the inside.

An evening visit proved that there are people downtown at night! Several groups of friends were discussing work, sampling and choosing wine at the wine bar and enjoying coffee and tea. A basic espresso drink, a decaf latte, was dark and rich, topped by a generous head of foam. A chai tea was deliciously different: Not sweet, and without any overpowering notes of clove and cardamom, the peppery chai was spiced delicately and perfectly.

Commentary, QuickBytes

G3/Great Bite: Behind The Pink Door

Pink Door

(By Jim Murphy. Republished with permission from G3 Illustrated)

We heard about The Pink Door from our good friends, Mike Neal and Big Jim Stewart. They had gone several months ago and encouraged us to feature the new restaurant as A Great Bite. Given Mike’s temperamental palate, I knew that The Pink Door would be good.

The Pink Door is located in Douglass Loop and does actually possess the symbolic “pink” door. The owners, Brian and Heather Werle, transformed the previously dreary pub décor into a light and airy Asian-inspired eatery.

Drawing from Brian’s Korean roots, Heather created a menu which has something for everyone – Thai, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Continue reading G3/Great Bite: Behind The Pink Door →

News announcements, QuickBytes

Little bit of coffee in your beer?

Play video
Click the image to open a video interview with BBC Head Brewer Jerry Gnagy

If you like beer but worry that a mug or two will make you sleepy, get ready for this: Bluegrass Brewing Company and Heine Brothers’ Coffee have joined forces to launch a new microbrewed coffee stout, a rich and warming BBC black beer with two good shots of Heine’s mellow Mexico Stout blended in.

The caffeinated brew, made with organic, fair-trade coffee, will go on sale at BBC in St. Matthews on Friday, Feb. 9.
Continue reading Little bit of coffee in your beer? →

Commentary, QuickBytes

Circling the globe on your dinner plate

Voodoo chicken
Gumbo A Go-Go’s new voodoo chicken needed no extra hot sauce, blogger Kevin Gibson reports. That’s a first. Photo by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(Gumbo A Go-Go, Porcini chef at Gourmet to Go, Mayan Café)

One of the most enjoyable aspects of dining out for me is the opportunity to sample a world of cuisines, from the familiar to the exotic.

With relatively few exceptions, ranging from such culinary delights as Indonesian rijstafel to more morally dubious items like Japanese whale sushi or Chinese “fragrant meat” (a euphemism for dog, which is illegal even in China), Louisville’s dining scene offers pretty much anything a diner could want; and if we can’t get it here, we probably don’t really want it anyway.

This week we take a world tour on a dinner plate, with quick trips to Louisiana’s Acadiana, Tuscany and the Yucatan.
Continue reading Circling the globe on your dinner plate →

Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, BY PRICE FOR TWO, QuickBytes, World Food

Gumbo A Go-Go Goes to J-town

Gumbo A Go-Go

(Gumbo A Go-Go, Voice-Tribune, Oct. 12, 2006)

There’s plenty of sadness to go around amid the vast devastation that Hurricane Katrina left along the Gulf Coast last year, but for those of us who love good food, good drink and good times, the loss of the city of New Orleans as we once knew it has to be one of Katrina’s most enduring blows.

Sure, the City That Care Forgot will come back, and indeed it’s already doing so. But will it ever be the same? Who knows?

Meanwhile, though, the good news is that wherever people love the bold and colorful Creole and Cajun cuisines of New Orleans and Acadiana, chances are that someone nearby will be cooking the stuff and doing it well.

That’s certainly the case in Louisville, where Gumbo A Go-Go – a relatively recent arrival that opened last year in small quarters in Clifton – has now opened a suburban branch in Jeffersontown.
Continue reading Gumbo A Go-Go Goes to J-town →

$ Budget (under $30), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, BBQ, Burgers & Down-Home, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, QuickBytes, South End

Chili today, hot tamale

Flabby's chili
Flabby’s chili is a simple, classic preparation – coarsely ground beef in chunks with tender red beans and just enough short strands of spaghetti to make it Louisville-style. Photos by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(Five noteworthy bowls of red; Karma Café)

Tomatoes or no tomatoes? Beans or no beans? Chopped meat or ground meat? Chile powder or dried chilies or fresh? And by the way, is it “chile” or is it “chili”? Gimme a break! This is almost like listening to the Kentucky legislature arguing about whether evolution or intelligent design should be taught in our schools.

Much of the chili debate centers around the argument that chili is a historic dish with a long tradition that started in the Texas-Mexico border country and was spread across the heartland by cowboys on the open range, and that it must be a pure, unadulterated combination of beef and chile peppers, nothing more, without adulterants or fillers no matter how delicious those additives might be.
Continue reading Chili today, hot tamale →

$ Budget (under $30), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, QuickBytes, South End, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, World Food

Fast food follies

Corn dog nuggets
How does A&W get those little dogs to roll around in corn? Photos by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(A&W’s corn dog nuggets, White Castle’s chicken rings; also Primo and more)

The life of a food critic is not all white tablecloths and fawning service and foie gras for breakfast. Take it from me, folks, sometimes I do these things so you won’t have to.

Occasionally it becomes necessary to follow a food trend wherever it takes us, even when it takes us down a road that I would just as soon avoid.

Let us consider, then, the corn dog nugget.

As I reported in our State Fair feature in August, I feel a once-a-year craving for corn dogs that can only be satisfied with one, annual dog-on-a-stick. OK, maybe two.

But what if these crunchy, fatty delights were available year-round, as close as a familiar fast-food spot?
Continue reading Fast food follies →