My long-suffering fiancé and I, peckish on the day after Derby, decided to try a hip new-ish spot. It’s not so new that they shouldn’t be on point already, but still new enough that most folks we know hadn’t been there yet.
What? What did you say? I’m sorry, what? We nod, we smile. We cup our hands behind our ears. We attempt lip-reading. There is a number of times (right between four and five, I believe) that Americans can bear to ask and re-ask “What did you say?” After that, all bets are off. We nod and smile again, but this time, we are sort of pretending we understood what you said. Continue reading It’s getting loud in here→
In a full-service restaurant, the front (service team) and back (cooking, prep, warewashing and janitorial team) of the house have to work together in concert. As two teams, we rise and fall together like a chamber orchestra, like a synchronized flight demo team. If everything’s going well, we look like heroes. But if even one team member gets off script in any way, it’s chaos we have to look forward to. Continue reading Kitchen communication→
A few days ago, a server friend of mine posted the following Facebook status: “I’m at a restaurant and I’m looking at this couple I’ve waited on somewhere. They were regulars wherever it was. They were rude, bitter, bad tippers and everyone would cringe when they walked in.” Continue reading The Terrible Couple→
Is it OK to bring an infant to a high-end fine dining restaurant? My short answer is no, but I have a column word-count allowance to blow, so allow me to elaborate. Continue reading Oh, baby→
January: In an attempt to choose a catchy title for my column about the closing of Lynn’s, I found that each of the fantastic puns I came up with had already been used elsewhere. Note to self: Don’t ever try to fit the word “cornbread” into a Lady Gaga lyric again.
A recent spirited discussion on the LouisvilleHotBytes.com forum prompted me to think deeply about how long it’s appropriate to wait for a table in Louisville, and what circumstances might change the answer to that question.
The short answer for most people is: It’s complicated. There is a built-in butterfly effect that may consist of traffic patterns, what time of which day of the week it is, how hungry you are, and the current hipness level of the spot where you’re trying to dine. Continue reading The hardest part→
Foodies are constantly on the prowl for inspiration, often from the Internet. I have a friend whose disorganized “food bookmarks” folder on her computer is at least a thousand entries long. To qualify for inclusion in the folder, a recipe needs little more than a stunning photograph attached, or even just a title that “sounds good.” Continue reading Home Truths→
Sometimes I find myself getting cranky about the excessive bounty of vine fruits and root vegetables that seems to overload restaurant menus like a seasonal cornucopia this time of year. (I know it’s true because I just re-read my column from this time last year.) Continue reading Fall back→
I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that Louisville keeps making the national and international news lately for its chefs, restaurants and foodie scene. Maybe I’m just noticing more because we cut the cable umbilical at home a couple of months ago, but I don’t really think so – a lot of these recent articles and mentions are in other media besides television. In the last six weeks alone, it’s as if the national culinary media were astronomers discovering Planet Louisville for the first time, orbiting along deliciously at the other end of their telescopes. Continue reading Critical mass→
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