Rootie’s Sports Bar on Westport Road doesn’t look like anything special — just another sports bar, with lots of TVs and a few pool tables.
But owner Marty Stein knows a thing or two about the classic Buffalo wing. He and the original Rootie’s location hail from Buffalo. He’s been making Buffalo wings for more than 30 years, having bounced from upstate New York to South Florida and now to Louisville, with stops on “The Today Show” and “Regis and Kathie Lee” along the way.
Continue reading Rootie’s wings are the real deal. Really.
Surfin’ the bacon bubble at The Blind Pig
The chattering classes in the urban centers are badmouthing bacon, and I don’t want to hear it.
“We are in the midst of a bacon bubble,” The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, and The Atlantic gleefully passed it on. “A growing number of chefs … say it’s about to pop,” snorted Journal reporter Katy McLaughlin. “Bacon had a good run, but now it has gone flabby — used too much and too often, it’s lost its novelty and coated fine dining with a ubiquitous veneer of porky grease.”
Harrumph. I’m callin’ bacon fat.
Bacon, like pizza and barbecue, is one of nature’s finest foods. Continue reading Surfin’ the bacon bubble at The Blind Pig
Naked Pizza strips down to the essentials
What’s a Naked pizza? Just about everyone does a double-take when they first hear the name of this popular new takeout eatery in St. Matthews.
So let’s get a couple of things straight: First, the pizzas here are not served, er, bare. They’re fully clothed with sauce, cheese and delectable toppings. What’s more, you don’t have to be naked to go there. In fact, public nudity is just as strictly discouraged within these quarters as it is everywhere else in St. Matthews.
So what’s this Naked thing? Frankly, it’s hard to tell. I’ve perused this new but fast-growing franchise chain’s Website carefully, but they don’t spell it out. Continue reading Naked Pizza strips down to the essentials
Herbocrite seeks veggie enlightenment: Creative veggie dishes at local restaurants
This story appears in LEO’s Dining Guide 2010.
Some days you feel like a nut, as the old Almond Joy commercial told us, and some days you don’t. As for me, some days I feel like a bloody haunch of barely seared cow flesh. Some days I feel like alfalfa sprouts and tofu.
Is there a name for a wannabe vegetarian who likes meat way too much to give it up? I’m thinking “herbocrite,” and I’m willing to bear the label with pride.
Continue reading Herbocrite seeks veggie enlightenment: Creative veggie dishes at local restaurants
Yes you can
With a wealth of independent restaurants gracing the regional dining scene, local foodies have a surfeit of prix fixe dinners to choose among. Last week, I counted at least five beer-paired multi-course dinners for Louisville Craft Beer Week, and it seems we are offered at least two wine or beer-paired multi-course dinners every month.
Continue reading Yes you can
Mr. Pollo Restaurant offers a simple and safe taste of Peru
Ahh, the cuisines of Peru. Some of my most memorable food experiences occurred in this hospitable South American land.
Like the time we stayed over in Cuzco, high in the Andes, after a trip to Machu Picchu. Bored by our hotel’s American-style dining room, we went in search of something more authentic: pollo a la brasa — charcoal-roasted chicken, that is, modern Peru’s people’s fare. We soon found a cozy spot with a sign that read, simply, “Pollo” (“Chicken”).
Continue reading Mr. Pollo Restaurant offers a simple and safe taste of Peru
Breakfast gets even better at Meridian Cafe
I like breakfast. Eggs, bacon or ham, French toast or pancakes, hash browns, whatever, it’s all good to me. I can eat breakfast in the morning, I can eat it for lunch. I’ll even consider eating breakfast for dinner, or an omelet anyway.
Continue reading Breakfast gets even better at Meridian Cafe
Boomin’ Cuban comes to New Albany: Meet Habana Blues Cuban Tapas Restaurant
A few weeks ago, reporting from El Rumbon, the Cuban street-food trailer near Oxmoor, I uttered this simple forecast: “Cuban food is starting to look like the next big thing on the Louisville culinary scene.”
Continue reading Boomin’ Cuban comes to New Albany: Meet Habana Blues Cuban Tapas Restaurant
Cleavage Wars: Hooters vs. Tilted Kilt
Well, well, well — Hooters has some competition in its previously uncontested milieu. You know: laid-back environment, pub grub, cold beer, multiple TVs ablaze with sports. Oh yeah, and cleavage. Lots of cleavage.
After hearing the buzz about the Tilted Kilt, 6201 Dutchmans Lane (the former Ernesto’s building, Oldenburg before that), I considered checking it out. But hey, Hooters is like an old friend; I didn’t want to be disloyal.
Continue reading Cleavage Wars: Hooters vs. Tilted Kilt
‘Crack-a-licious’ small plates at the Irish Rover
The Irish Rover has been my comfy neighborhood pub for a long time now. We moved back to town from exile in New York City in 1994, not long after the Rover had opened its authentically Irish digs in a historic Crescent Hill building that began life more than 150 years ago as a saloon.
Continue reading ‘Crack-a-licious’ small plates at the Irish Rover