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Run Thanksgiving like a restaurant at home
November 5, 2009
INDUSTRY STANDARD:
Insider Info For Those Who Dine Out
With Columnist Marsha Lynch
Who doesn’t love Thanksgiving? Oh, my — I see a few of you raising your hands. That’s probably because it’s being held at your house, and you remember being up to your elbows in a sink of soapy water at 9 p.m. last year, muttering “Never again. Next year, we’re going out to eat.”
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Café Thuy Van: Vietnamese off the beaten path
November 4, 2009
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| (Photo by Robin Garr.) |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
More than 30 years after the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants came to Louisville, these refugees and their children and grandchildren have moved into the mainstream of community life.
Much like our Latino, Bosnian, Senegalese and other immigrant neighbors, these refugees of war brought Louisville a gift that delights both our hearts and our tummies. Our Vietnamese community has made a significant contribution to the cityscape in the form of inviting Vietnamese restaurants and groceries.
Just about every resident foodie knows and loves Vietnam Kitchen. In the same South End neighborhood, Café Annie and Pho Binh Minh all have their partisans. But it takes a few more left and right turns past the South End cluster and into less familiar territory to bring you to Café Thuy Van, a culinary delight that’s been around for nine years but is just far enough off the beaten path to have escaped many foodies’ notice.
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TanThai sets new standard in Thai food
October 21, 2009
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(Photo by Robin Garr.)
Foodies, food lovers and food geeks who’ve been around town for a while will recall the happy shock that comes with the discovery of an ethnic spot that stands out from the pack: A new arrival with food preparation and style that hint at something special going on in the kitchen.
So it was with Vietnam Kitchen, almost a generation ago now, around the same time as the Mayan Gypsy truck went land-based with its first bricks-and-mortar location. More recently, we’ve seen it with Saffron’s for Iranian and Red Pepper for hardcore authentic Chinese.
In each case, the food, the mood and the service — but especially the food — signal that this place is, well, different.
Now welcome another ethnic standout, TanThai Cuisine of Thailand. It’s been in its shopping-center quarters on Charlestown Pike, north of New Albany, for close to a year now. But word of mouth travels slowly when there’s a broad river to cross, and TanThai remains unfamiliar to most of Louisville’s ethnic-food fanciers.
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Café Mimosa returns
October 21, 2009
By Kevin Gibson
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
The familiar logo on the former Lentini’s reads “Café Mimosa,” but the sandwich board out front says it all: “We open now!”
A fire destroyed Café Mimosa’s former location — along with its partner Egg Roll Machine — in January. Owner Phat Le vowed to reopen; the former Lentini’s made sense since, well, he already owned it.
The new Mimosa, replacing recent tenant Jarfi’s, seems more upscale than the old, but food and prices are much the same.
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The Patron won’t go away, and we’re glad
October 7, 2009
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(LEO photo by Ron Jasin)
Early in August, Chef Amber McCool announced “a new path” for the popular Patron Restaurant, involving a move to a still-undisclosed location at an uncertain time. In the meantime, the restaurant at the corner of Frankfort Avenue and Cannons Lane would continue catering and wholesale operations as well as “calendared events.”
That calendar, it seems, has been full, with food and music events on Wednesdays (Kim Sorise’s “Wax on Wednesdays,” with 12-inch LPs and 12-inch pizzas), many Fridays (“Burger Night” with music, burgers and brews), and a tasty menu-based brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.
My wife and I didn’t really have food in mind when we drove past the Patron early on a recent Sunday afternoon, but the sight of a jammed parking lot lured us in. Sure enough, the place was slammed with happy brunchers, but it took a minute or two for us to be seated.
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Industry Standard: Let’s go somewhere new tonight
October 7, 2009
Insider Info For Those Who Dine Out
With Columnist Marsha Lynch
“Where do you want to eat?”
“I don’t know; where do you want to eat?”
Familiar scenario? You’re not alone. All too often, we end up dining somewhere we’ve been many times before. Familiarity is soothing. Predictability is comfortable — like an old pair of shoes you love to wear but hope no one scrutinizes too closely.
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The Windsor is slick, and so are its napkins
September 16, 2009
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
“Five-second rule! Five-second rule!”
It didn’t matter whether I was decked out in fancy all-weather wool slacks on a Thursday evening or well-worn jeans for a Tuesday lunch: No matter the fabric, no matter how I folded and knotted the thing, the slick, slippery burgundy polyester napkin would not stay on my lap.
I must have invoked the five-second rule a dozen times or more, grumbling every time I plucked my fallen napkin from the floor, during a couple of recent meals at New Albany’s otherwise delightful Windsor Restaurant and Garden.
Come to think about it, the irritating napkin slide was just about the only nit I could find to pick with this splendid eatery, a worthy successor to the late and still lamented Bistro New Albany.
Young co-chefs Justin McMillen and Cory Cuff were barely old enough to legally sample their own wine list when the classy dining room and bar, with its lovable New Orleans-style patio, reopened in the old New Albany Inn last year.
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Soul train stops at Lonnie’s
September 10, 2009
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LouisvilleHotBytes in The Voice-Tribune, Sept. 10, 2009
Here’s a geographical conundrum: How can you walk from the familar suburban scene of St. Matthews into Chicago’s South Side in one small step? It’s simple, assuming that small step takes you through the door of Lonnie’s Best Taste of Chicago.
Cubs and White Sox and Bears, oh my, not to mention portraits of Chicago mayors Harold Washington and Richard Daley and photos of Windy City landmarks like the John Hancock building convert the small, free-standing building on St. Matthews Avenue into a fair approximation of a South Side lunch spot.
As it is in Chicago, so it is in St. Matthews, at Lonnie’s at least, where you can order Chicago-brand Vienna Beef dogs with a variety of toppings, plus Kronos gyros - also made in the Windy City - and other Chicago culinary traditions including spicy Italian beef sandwiches, corned beef, wings, Polish and Italian sausages and more.
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Thai comes to Fern Creek
September 9, 2009
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LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
With all due respect, the Fern Creek neighborhood has long been the kind of place where “ethnic” means barbecue or diner fare.
But the arrival last year of Sake Blue, one of the region’s top Japanese restaurants, changed that metric forever. Now add Thai to the mix with the opening of True Thai in the Glenmary Plaza shopping center just east of the Snyder.
Small but bright and attractively decorated, True Thai is operated, I’m told, by a former employee of Louisville’s Thai-Siam. A menu of about 30 standard Thai dishes is attractively priced with all dishes under $10. Stir-fry, noodle and fried-rice dishes are $8.95 for chicken, pork or tofu dishes; add a buck for seafood. Curries are $7.95 and $9.95.
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