Don’t dismiss little ol’ Jeff

Our Best Restaurant in Jeffersonville is a family-owned business that started as a single eatery in Smithfield, Ky. Photos by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
(Our Best Restaurant, Perkfection Café; Z’s Fusion opening report)

It would be easy to dismiss the dining options in little ol’ Jeffersonville, especially when you look across the majestic Ohio River and see … Hooters. But there are some rich and varied dining choices over yonder, from the delicious and affordable Mai’s Thai to the old favorite Come Back Inn.

Reporter Kevin Gibson tried a couple of Jeffersonville’s choices recently – Our Best Restaurant, located just off Ind. 62, and Perkfection Café & Bar – and found good things at both.
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Recession-busting dining, cheap but fine

Bazo’s, which recently moved to new quarters off Dupont Circle, serves one of the city’s best fish tacos. Photo by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
(Bazo’s, Caffe Classico, J. Gumbo’s, Stan’s)

OK, everybody listen up. I’ve told you this before, and chances are you’re going to hear it again: There’s a recession on.

Yes, a recession, and a lot of us are hurting. We’re cutting back on luxuries and hoping we won’t have to cut back on necessities.

For those of us who love food and drink and dining out, we’re whipsawed: It’s harder to justify dropping a pile of bucks on a big evening out, so fine dining may be one of the first indulgences to drop off the budget. But this decision puts a hurtin’ on Louisville’s local, independent restaurant community, the Louisville Originals and Keep Louisville Weirds that make our city an exceptional place to dine for its size.
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Ready for the chicken feet challenge?

Don’t be shy, take the challenge – grab hold of Jade Palace’s chicken feet and don’t let go. Chicken feet aren’t much different than chicken wings, right? Photo by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com

So my wife Mary and I settled right in at Jade Palace on a brisk Sunday afternoon. Our foodie friend Stephen Dennison was to join us, but those speedy dim sum carts wouldn’t wait.

Peeking and pointing, we filled our table with the Chinese snacks we like best – har gao and siu mai dumplings; char siu bao stuffed steamed bread; lou mai gai chicken and rice in lotus leaves; and lots more.

Then the friendly Chinese guy with the big smile threw out a challenge: “Chicken feet?”

I paled. I love authentic fare and I’m adventurous, as is my bride. Still … chicken feet? I hadn’t gone there yet, and wasn’t sure I wanted to do so this day. “Maybe later,” I said. He winked. “Maybe next generation,” he chortled, moving on.

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Industry Standard: Now comes the lean season

Industry Standard: Now comes the lean season
With Columnist Marsha Lynch

On my first day of culinary school, the Basic Skills instructor warned that when we worked in restaurants, we would spend our holidays with co-workers, not our families.

“Get used to turning to the guy beside you on the hot line at midnight … to say ‘Happy New Year,’” Chef Graham said. “Get used to taking your wife out for Valentine’s Day some other day in February … Tell your mom you will be cooking her Mother’s Day feast on some other day of the week … Forget about seeing Churchill Downs on the first weekend in May ever again …”
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