Monthly Archives: July 2007

$ Budget (under $30), Chinese, QuickBytes, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, World Food

It’s fast … it’s casual … it’s Asian!

Lettuce wraps
The lettuce wraps at Yang Kee Noodle (top) and I Ching Asian Cafe are similar, but Yang Kee provides more lettuce and goodies on the side. Photos by Robin Garr

(Yang Kee Noodle, I Ching Asian Cafe, Voice-Tribune, July 12, 2007)

If you like the fresh, healthy and enticing flavors of the colorful cuisines of East Asia, but feel a little wary about dining at ethnic eateries where the menu is printed in a language you can’t speak, then fast-casual Asian dining may be just right for you.

Coming from the West Coast, as so many modern food trends do, this spreading development is largely carried by franchise chains like Pei Wei (P.F. Chang’s little brother), Rice Boxx, Pick Up Stix Fresh Asian Kitchen, Chef Martin Yan’s Yan Can and Tokyo Joe’s.

Like the similarly swelling wave of “fresh burrito” chains, competition is keen in this niche, and the concepts are so similar that sometimes the only way to tell where you’re dining is to look at the corporate logo.

None of the Asian chains have reached Louisville yet, but the concept is going strong in the East End, with two independent properties competing from shopping-center venues just a mile apart on Shelbyville Road.
Continue reading It’s fast … it’s casual … it’s Asian! →

$ Budget (under $30), Pacific Rim, Southern Indiana

Asian adventures, New Albany style

The Onion
The Onion Restaurant and Tea House has built quite a following since it opened in New Albany a few years back. LEO photo by Nicole Pullen

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(Onion Restaurant and Tea House, Tran Japanese Steakhouse)

It’s been a great pleasure, in recent years, to see such a surge of restaurant-related activity on the north side of the Ohio. The arrival of a growing variety of eateries in Southern Indiana is good news for “foodies” on both sides of the river.

In addition to the obvious – the boomlet of chain eateries on the riverfront and across the Clarksville strip – the region has been gifted in recent years with interesting, locally-owned independent restaurants that range from taquerias and Asian spots to casually sophisticated dining rooms. We’ll have more on that, and a deeper look at the New Albany restaurant renaissance in particular, coming soon.

One of the many epicenters of Southern Indiana eats activity, perhaps just a bit out of sight and out of the way for Kentucky diners, lies along Grant Line and Charlestown roads near I-265 on New Albany’s north side. Continue reading Asian adventures, New Albany style →

$ Budget (under $30), Mexican, Cuban, Caribbean, New and noteworthy, South End, West End

Mexican hat trick: tacos three ways

Jay Denham
Lining up for lunch at Taco Tico. LEO photos by Nicole Pullen

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(Taco Tico, Taco Bell, El Zarape)

Way back at the dawn of time (oh, all right, during the 1970s), back when most people in Louisville thought “nacho” was just a cool way of saying “righto” and even the cognoscenti pronounced “taco” as “tack-oh,” indeed even before the first Taco Bell rang the region’s chimes, there was Taco Tico.

(Actually, for the sake of historical accuracy, the first Taco Tico was founded in Wichita, Kan., in 1962. Glen Bell opened his first eponymous taqueria in Downey, Calif., that same year. Louisville, however, slow during that era to embrace culinary change, failed to embrace the fast-food taco for a while.)

Taco Bell, of course, prospered and grew. Now a property of Louisville-based Yum! Brands, it boasts about 6,000 outlets around the world. Taco Tico, on the other hand, topped out in the ’80s with about 120 outlets before falling off to about half that peak. It’s in just eight states, the lion’s share in Kansas and nearby states, with a handful in Kentucky.

But now, after a 10-year hiatus, Taco Tico is back in Louisville Continue reading Mexican hat trick: tacos three ways →

Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, White tablecloth, deluxe

Getcher red hots … with truffle aioli and fennel kraut?

Jay Denham
Park Place chef Jay Denham is taking over for Anoosh Shariat, and he has implemented a new “ball park menu” that may be a preview of changes to come. LEO photo by Nicole Pullen

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes

We went to the Bats game the other night and enjoyed the best ballpark repast I’ve ever had: A succulent hot dog, a classy fish taco and an order of sizzling fries with a little special something.

This may seem high praise, considering my frequent rants about the mostly lackluster, overpriced fare served up at Slugger Field.

But that may be because this ballpark dinner didn’t come from the ballpark’s concession stands. We dined before the game at Park Place on Main, which with its sibling Browning’s occupies the renovated 19th century industrial building that houses the city’s lovable Slugger Field.

Browning’s, with its brewpub ambience, affordable menu and casual style, has always been a good place to grab a beer and a burger (or even something a little more fancy) before or after the game, although it boggles credulity that its excellent beers aren’t sold inside the stadium.

Park Place, on the other hand, is upscale and elegant, a place that I associate more with an indulgent dinner that extends over a leisurely evening than a quick pre-game bite.
Continue reading Getcher red hots … with truffle aioli and fennel kraut? →

$ Budget (under $30), Bistros, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill

Jarfi’s artful fare now at two centers

Wings To Go
Also featured this week: Wings To Go, a small chain spot in New Albany that makes a credible version of the original Buffalo chicken wing. Photo by Robin Garr

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes
(Jarfi’s @ Mellwood; Wings To Go)

One of Louisville’s more striking dining venues has to be Jarfi’s Bistro, which makes stylish use of its space in the Kentucky Center, the big, black modern building on West Main Street that suffered the tragic loss of its useful subordinate clause “… for the Arts” in a marketing decision a while back.

Jarfi, born in Morocco but international in his culinary inspiration, presides over a broad bill of fare at his eponymous eatery, a comfortably upscale place that’s equally well suited for an indulgent, lingering dinner, a quick pre-theater repast, or even an artful plate of sushi.

And now he’s branching out, quietly opening another, much more casual venue in an attractive if lower-profile center for the arts. Regular Eat ‘N’ Blog correspondent KEVIN GIBSON picks up the beat from the new Jarfi’s @ Mellwood in the Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Center. Here’s Kevin’s report:
Continue reading Jarfi’s artful fare now at two centers →

$ Budget (under $30), BBQ, Burgers & Down-Home, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, Southern Indiana

Butterburger better?

Some pals with roots in Wisconsin (let’s not call them “cheeseheads”) were all but agog with delight when the Culver’s Butterburger chain came to town early this year, and I have to confess that the very idea of a butterburger intrigued me, too. Butter … burger … fat cooked in fat! What’s not to like?

It’s a pretty little fast-food place, too, a sizable cottage in blue and white, neat as a pin, with little square-paned windows that give it a sort of corporate faux-Colonial style.

The signature Deluxe Butterburger was thin and irregularly handformed, not unlike the burgers my mother used to make when we were young. It had a good beefy flavor but was too thin to make rare or juicy, and if there was any butter in it, I sure couldn’t tell by tasting it. The “deluxe” model came with a thin layer of bland yellow cheese, iceberg lettuce and pale tomato and pickle chips, perched on a large, boring white bun that dwarfed the burger.

A side of “cheese curds,” a Wisconsin specialty, proved to be balls of bland cheese, breaded and greasily fried. Frozen custard was the hit of the meal, properly creamy and smooth, although the chocolate flavor was very mild, more like cocoa than dark chocolate. Hmm … Butterburger, breaded-and-fried cheese and rich custard … I don’t think I should get my cholesterol checked today.

My wife’s choice, the Wisconsin Swiss Melt, was an even thinner burger topped with a paper-thin slice of bland white cheese and a ration of limp, greasy fried onions, grilled on rye until the rye was crunchy (and greasy, too). It came with limp and uninteresting fries.

With two soft drinks, all this came to $19.06, a bit spendy for a fast-food burger. I’d certainly choose it over Mickey D’s or Burger King, but it’s not worth a return trip to its suburban locale for me. Next time I want a burger, I’ll get the real thing at Granville Inn or maybe W.W. Cousin’s.

Culver’s of Louisville
4630 Hurstbourne Pkwy.
671-2001
http://www.culvers.com/
(There’s also a Culver’s in Corydon, Ind., at 240 Federal Drive, 812-738-6464.)