Ahh, it finally feels like autumn, and I’m thinking of comfort food.
This nostalgic meme rarely attaches itself to the light, low-calorie and cooling dishes of summer. “Comfort” means stews and hearty soups, spaghetti and meatballs or maybe a thick pan of lasagna – the kinds of warming, stick-to-your-ribs dishes that Mom used to make, or at least you wish she had. Nor need comfort food be complicated or hard to cook.
Continue reading Make Mine Grilled Cheese, Pleese!
Okay, let’s run the numbers here. Vietnam Kitchen has been open for about 20.5 years, six days a week. That’s roughly 6,500 days of serving the public since Alex and Kim Lam brought this lovable institution to town in 1993.
Thinking out loud, that means that if every day they sell five orders of “K8,” the menu shorthand for H? ti?u Saté, a delectable rice-noodle dish that’s surely one of Vietnam Kitchen’s top hot-and-spicy dishes, they must have stir-fried way more than 30,000 orders of it by now.
If the Lams were more boastful types, they could put out a flashing sign that boasts, “Nearly 50,000 K8’s sold!” (Yeah, I know I guesstimated 30,000, but hey, nobody fact-checks Mickey D’s “billions and billions” either, right?)
Continue reading Vietnam Kitchen: 50,000 K8’s Sold?
Hey, Chihuahua? What kind of a name for a restaurant is that? With a wacky Señor Gonzales accent? Really? Are they talking about the state of Chihuahua in Mexico, or calling a little dog? Or maybe, just possibly, poking a thumb in the eye of “Yo quiero Taco Bell“?
Continue reading Don’t judge the name. Try Hay!! Chi Wa Waa
North End Cafe has just about become a Louisville institution, and it didn’t take all that long to do so. Co-owner and Chef Christopher Seckman celebrated the 10th anniversary of the original North End Cafe on lower Frankfort Avenue last spring – it’s a place of enduring popularity. Now the second North End Cafe, located at the Douglass Loop in the former Club Grotto location, appears to be going strong after a year and a half.
Continue reading North End Cafe: Now a local institution
We live in the age of the chef-driven restaurant. Across the nation and around the city, chefs have become outside personalities, featured on stage, screen and TV. Louisville has been no exception to this principle, with our top chefs turning up on Food Network, competing in chefly combat and scrambling after awards, honors and, of course, sweet, profitable publicity for Louisville’s eateries and for the city.
Continue reading Marketplace: Top Chef, No Hype
Okay, I have to admit, I was dubious at first about the idea of this new place in J’town bringing together mussels and burgers as its signature dishes.
When I heard that Cristina and Fernando Martinez and his cousin, Yaniel, were going to build a bill of fare around two such disparate edibles, my imagination pushed back: “One of these things is not like the other.”
Continue reading Mussel & Burger (& Elotes) Bar
Who doesn’t like a table full of tapas? These days, when just about every eatery from diners and dives to classy upscale joints offers small plates to tickle the taste buds, tapas are just about everywhere.
But that word may not mean quite what you think it means. Continue reading Whatever you think it means, Mojito does tapas right
It’s noisy, casual and fun. Located in a historic building in a historic neighborhood, its food and music and liquor celebrate the folk culture of Bakersfield, gritty capital of the south end of California’s agricultural Central Valley, where Chicano and Okie ways met and mingled in a zesty ethnic stew.
You think I’m talking about The Silver Dollar, right? Not so fast, bubbeleh. This is Manny & Merle on Market Street, the latest venture of Tony Palombino, the paterfamilias of Louisville’s popular Boombozz pizza chain and incubator poppa of a dozen restaurant concepts, some of which flew while others fell not far from the nest.
Continue reading If Manny doesn’t feed your spirit, Merle will
Brunch … again? Well, sure! Why not? Brunch, after all, is perhaps the most civilized of meals, a lavish repast shared with friends or family in the low-pressure environment of a favorite setting.
And when better than on those lazy, hazy days of summer Sunday afternoons. Or, now that I think of it, even summer mornings, now that Louisville has joined our Southern Indiana neighbors in permitting the sale of adult beverages with your Sunday meal beginning as early as 10 a.m. Continue reading Brunch at the Bristol: The Tradition Endures
Ahh, Captain’s Quarters! From its striking ski-lodge-style wood and glass building to the decks that ramble over its scenic riverfront slope just up the Ohio at Harrods Creek, within skyline’s view of downtown Louisville, what’s not to like? Continue reading Sunday brunch tough choice at Captain’s Quarters
