$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), Bistros, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs

Cruisin’ down the (Napa) River

Ahi Cornucopia
The Ahi Cornucopia appetizer from Napa River Grill. Photos by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

The landscape of Louisville restaurant history is littered with the dry bones of eateries whose owners thought it would be a really good idea to move to a new location and expand to a larger space.

The most recent victim, Mazzoni’s, fell just one year short of celebrating its 125th birthday. The home of the “rolled” oyster, it had survived several moves over the years before landing on Taylorsville Road in the 1980s. A move to shopping-center quarters in Middletown last year proved its undoing.

Similar fates befell Greek Paradise, which moved from a small, homey spot near Radcliff, Ky., to a hulking hall in Butchertown that proved more than it could handle; Hoosier standard Frank’s Steak House when it expanded into larger quarters in Louisville; and the last owners of Lentini’s, whose aggressive expansion plan yielded three eateries that all shut down fast.

Napa River Grill seems to be breaking the spell. Continue reading Cruisin’ down the (Napa) River →

Industry Standard

Your table is now available

Before I joined the restaurant industry, I often felt awkward when I was being seated at a restaurant. Is it OK to request a specific table? Is it OK to ask for a four-top when there are only two of us? Would it be OK to ask to sit by the fireplace? Good news: It is, it is and it is! The key to getting the table you want is knowing the basics of how tables are assigned to guests in most dining rooms.
Continue reading Your table is now available →

$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), Bistros, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill

Varanese: A most wonderful bird is the turducken

Turducken at Varanese
For the birds: Varanese’s turducken features turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken stuffed with Cajun stuffing and topped with a clear duck velouté. Photo by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

If you’ve never heard of the wondrous holiday bird called turducken, you just haven’t been paying attention. If you’ve ever seen and actually tasted one, you fall into a much more exalted category, as this Cajun feast is so difficult to prepare that it’s almost as rare as the dodo bird.

Purportedly the invention of Paul Prudhomme, the rotund chef at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans, the turducken is a combination of a partially deboned turkey that’s been stuffed with a deboned duck, stuffed in turn with a deboned chicken. Spicy Cajun stuffing is piped into the inner spaces like tasty grout; the hulking combination is roasted, sliced crosswise into impressive rounds, and served with a spicy Cajun sauce.
Continue reading Varanese: A most wonderful bird is the turducken →

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

Secret to a great Chinese banquet: Cook for me, chef!

Table topper
This table-topper at Red Pepper Chinese Cuisine featured cranes carved from daikon radish, perched on “rock piles” made from yams, decorated with what looked like taxus yew sprigs from the bushes out front. Photo by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Are you the kind of adventurous diner who has always wanted to experience an authentic Chinese banquet but have despaired after too many meals of sweet and sour pork, fried rice and the like at chopsticks houses and Asian buffets?

Here’s good news: With a little advance planning, a willing spirit and a smile, you can enjoy a Chinese spread right here in Louisville that will take you surprisingly close to what you’d be served in Shanghai or Beijing.

All you have to do is get together a group of like-minded foodies, drop in on your favorite Chinese restaurant and ask the management’s assistance in organizing a special banquet.

This approach probably won’t work at a fast-food Chinese eatery or buffet. It requires a quality Chinese restaurant with a highly skilled chef. Louisville boasts several of these, my current favorite being Red Pepper Chinese on Brownsboro Road, where Sichuanese Chef Shen Hong Huang boasts restaurant experience in Chicago and in Chinese embassies around the world.
Continue reading Secret to a great Chinese banquet: Cook for me, chef! →

$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, World Food

Seviche: And then there was one. That one!

Mahi Mahi tacos at Seviche

What does fine dining have to do with politics? Consider this: The post-election map of the metro’s voting precincts painted a telling picture of Jefferson County demographics in stark red and blue, and we’re not talking Cardinals and Wildcats. Inside the Watterson, the city’s liberal enclaves and African-American neighborhoods were solid Obama blue. The suburbs, in contrast, bled McCain red.

As a statistical generalization, the city and its suburbs are different, and that difference extends to dining preferences. There’s a reason why the ‘burbs are awash with chain dining while most of the independent local eateries that make Louisville weird are located in the People’s Republics of the Highlands, Clifton and Crescent Hill, plus enclaves in and around downtown and St. Matthews.

So, while I was really sorry to learn that Chef Anthony Lamas was closing Seviche A Latin Bistro, his suburban operation on Goose Creek Road, after just under a year in business, I was not surprised.
Continue reading Seviche: And then there was one. That one! →

Industry Standard

Become a regular

Do you get miffed when another table seems to be getting all your server’s attention? You stare hungrily at your empty table. They’ve already got their appetizer … and they were seated five minutes after you! Up comes their second round of cocktails! Guess what: They’re probably regulars.

Many diners believe an enduring myth that service staff “vet” guests as they come in, then decide to fawn over and spoil a lucky few based on their clothes and accessories, the technological elegance of their cell phones or the class of the vehicle they arrived in.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Continue reading Become a regular →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Commentary, Pacific Rim, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs

Something old, something new … sort of

Sage Indian
Sage Indian, which replaces the short-lived India Palace on Oechsli Avenue, has mostly kept its menu – featuring standard Northern Indian dishes – the same. Photos by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

This week let’s make quick visits to a couple of St. Matthews-area eateries where you can fill the tank for a reasonable price and go away satisfied.

Shady Lane Café, a homey storefront nook in Brownsboro Center, qualifies as “old,” sort of, by local restaurant standards: Owners and cooks William and Susi Smith have been doing business in this location going on two years now, and they’ve built a following the old-fashioned way, earning loyalty through a savvy combination of high-quality, down-home fare at a price that’s right, even when there’s not a recession going on. (See my report in the post below)

Sage Indian makes the grade as “new,” sort of: It arrived last month in the quarters vacated by the amiable but short-lived Royal India, which put up the shutters well under a year after it opened last winter.
Continue reading Something old, something new … sort of →

$ Budget (under $30), BBQ, Burgers & Down-Home, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs

Shady Lane Café: Make yourself at home

Shady Lane dishes
Shady Lane Café owners William and Susi Smith have been in business two years. Two excellent dishes are the meatloaf (left above) and the tomato basil soup. Photo by Robin Garr

This friendly East End spot has long been a favorite for breakfast and lunch; when my mother and sister arrived ravenous from Florida on a late-afternoon flight, I was delighted to learn that Shady Lane stays open for dinner Tuesdays through Fridays until 8 p.m.

The four of us presented ourselves for duty and had a hard time choosing from all the goodies on the blackboard menu. And fine goodies they are, priced for recessionary times. Sandwiches and specials range from $3.95 (for my mother’s choice, a classic grilled cheese sandwich, molten cheddar spilling over toast grilled to a mouth-watering golden brown) to $6.95 (for my sister’s pick, the cranberry, Granny Smith apple and walnut salad with blue Gorgonzola cheese and Dijon mustard dressing).
Continue reading Shady Lane Café: Make yourself at home →

Commentary

LEO’s Recession-Proof Dining Guide

LEO Dining Guide

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

LouisvilleHotBytes.com is proud to be associated with LEO’s 2008 “Recession-proof Dining Guide,” a local-restaurant guide like no other, with a tongue-in-cheek hard-times spin.

In addition to a comprehensive directory of LEO Dining Guide Listings 2008, many of them based on our weekly LEO/LouisvilleHotBytes reviews, we think you’ll enjoy all of these articles by LEO and LouisvilleHotBytes contributors:

One-stop noshing: Stuff your face at buffets, by Mat Herron.

Beyond chicken-finger purgatory: Dining out with the kids in tough economic times, by Andrea Essenpreis.

Full of it: How I survived 14 days of eating exclusively in west Louisville, and why just surviving is not enough, by Phillip M. Bailey.

A friend indeed: Soup Kitchens report hunger is on the rise in Louisville, by Kevin Gibson.

Champagne dining on a beer budget: A guerrilla guide to eating well in recessionary times, by Robin Garr.

On the cutting board: As the economy sucks, so too the restaurant business, by Marsha Lynch.

$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), Baxter, Bardstown, Highlands, BY LOCATION, World Food

Small bites add up to fine dinner at De la Torre’s

Tapas at De la Torre's
The grilled lamb with a spicy sauce is one of the many tapas available at De la Torre’s. Photo by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

The next time you settle down to a selection of tapas and find yourself feeling grateful for small-plates dining, you might want to pause for a moment of silence in memory of King Alfonso the Wise of Castile.

Legend says that Alfonso, the 13th century monarch known for his smarts and taste for good eats and drink, invented the tapa as a get-well snack to be taken with good Spanish red wine when he was under a nasty illness. When he recovered, it is said, King Alf was so delighted with this healthy diet that he ordered taverns throughout the kingdom to serve it.

Another story traces the tapa to Andalusia, where Sherry bars developed the custom of serving glasses of the strong, sweet local wine with a slice of bread to serve as a cover or lid (“tapa” in Spanish) to keep the fruit flies out of one’s beverage. Soon a cagey entrepreneur dropped a few olives atop the bread; his competitor countered with a slice of Serrano ham, and before long, tapas had evolved.
Continue reading Small bites add up to fine dinner at De la Torre’s →

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