Grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of soup: the classic combination you grew up with. Done adequately, it’s a comforting duo that fills you up and cures what ails you. Taken to the next level, with super-fresh ingredients and creative flavor combinations, it can be downright transformational.
Continue reading Tom + Chee and goetta makes three
Ever since North End Cafe opened in Clifton nearly a decade ago, the name of the place seemed a little odd to me. When I grew up in Louisville, we sorted our town into East End, South End and West End, and back in those Baby Boom days of Elvis, tail fins and ducktails, those were the urban ends of the city, not the suburbs. There was not much out there but farms, as far as we knew.
So the arrival in 2003 of this comfortable, casual bistro in Clifton made little geographical sense to me. What’s a North End? Someplace over in Indiana? Nope, it’s right there on lower Frankfort Avenue, inner end of what we used to call the East End.
Continue reading East End, South End, where’s the North End?
Back in the day, trendy new eateries like the Bristol and Myra’s fired up a generation of Louisville foodies with the revelation that fine dining could be about more than white tablecloths, surf-and-turf and fancy Italian cuisine.
But it didn’t take long for us to become blasé. Even as the city’s dining revolution burst all around us, with still-standing landmarks like Equus, 610 Magnolia and Le Relais, we were soon whining for more. “Get us Greek food,” we ranted. “We want a real Jewish deli! And Indian food! We need an Indian restaurant!”
Continue reading Kashmir keeps on keeping on
Remember those old commercials for Certs? “It’s a breath mint!” “It’s a candy mint!” “It’s two, two, two mints in one!” And then there was the goofy spoof from the gang at “Saturday Night Live”: “It’s a floor wax!” “It’s a dessert topping!” I think the lesson most of us ultimately drew from this is that a product that tries to be two things in one ends up doing neither very well.
And Ramsi’s Café on the World, I regret to say, is kind of like that, too.
Continue reading Ramsi’s: It’s 24, 24, 24 restaurants in one!
If you like the way the crew at Salsarita’s, Qdoba, Quizno’s or Moe’s throws together a burrito to order, using fresh ingredients they assemble on the spot, I think you might like Uncle Maddio’s pizza, too.
Continue reading Get your pizza burrito-style at Uncle Maddio’s
Today let us consider the humble soybean. Those savvy Asians have been chowing down on them for 5,000 years, and making tofu for most of the last millennium. Soybeans became a major U.S. crop after World War II. We feed most of it to animals. Offer most people a bite of tofu, and they’ll go, “Eeuuww.”
Continue reading Heart & Soy gets to the heart of soy
Seviche has been around for 10 years now, if we count Jicama, its predecessor in the same Highlands space, and Chef Anthony Lamas just keeps making it better and better. This sets a mighty high standard for an eatery I’ve been raving about since the start. I gave Jicama a 93-point rating in its first incarnation. Then when it reopened as Seviche in 2005, I kicked the number up to 95.
Continue reading Seviche grows and keeps getting better
Gather round, young ‘uns, and let me try to explain why we graying Baby Boomers care so much about bagels. You see, there was a time in Louisville when you couldn’t grab one at every coffee shop or buy ‘em by the sack at the grocery store.
No, until the 1970s or thereabouts, a bagel was a rare and unusual thing. You basically had to go to New York City or Chicago to get one. When a bagel bakery opened in Cincinnati some time during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, we would actually drive up there to get a bag full. And when Louisville’s first bagel shop opened in Hikes Point a few years later, the city knew bagel jubilation.
Now they’re everywhere! Continue reading Want a New York City bagel? Try Baby D’s
We’re responsible people. We would never (well, hardly ever) recommend dining and dashing, running out without paying after your restaurant meal. But you can come mighty close to enjoying this unsavory practice at Avalon.
In fact, the invitation to steal almost comes from Avalon’s management, which came up with the idea of addressing recessionary times with a remarkably affordable lunch menu featuring about two dozen tasty goodies — not only appetizers but midday main courses — all priced $7 or less.
It’s funny how Avalon has settled so comfortably into the Highlands scene since it opened (and earned my 90-plus rating) in the spring of 2002, nearly a decade ago. Like the Island of the Blessed Souls of Celtic mythology, where King Arthur’s bones rest hidden in oceanic mists, Louisville’s Avalon has become part of the local culinary legend, albeit perhaps a place I often think of more for its popular, expansive and nearly all-weather al fresco dining than its eminently credible bill of fare.
Now the $7 lunch menu offers a compelling reason to come back again, even if you dine indoors as we did on a recent summer weekday. The multi-level dining rooms remain stylish and urbane in their simple, earth-toned decor, and service — somewhat distracted by a large party on the other side of the room — remained courteous and friendly although not quite as attentive as I might have wished.
Did I say $7? The lunch list is actually $6.95 or less, and includes smaller but still ample portions of many of the popular Bardstown Road bistro’s signature dinner items, including the Avalon burger ($6.95), knife-and-fork grilled cheese ($6.95) and macaroni and cheese ($5.95).
The menu describes its starters as “snacks and appetizers,” an invitation to graze, and brings most in at well under the $7 line, starting as economically as $3 (for jalapeño pretzel bites with BBC Nut Brown Ale beer cheese), and including such goodies as cornmeal-dusted fried okra ($3.50), warm country olives and almonds ($4.50), and smoked chicken egg rolls topped with roast corn guacamole salad ($6.95). Soups and salads are $5.50 to $6.50, although you can push through the $7 ceiling should you choose to super-size, er, add tuna to your salad, which brings it up to $8. Finally, the eight lunch main courses are all $6.95 except the BLT, a bargain at $4.95.
We took advantage of the low prices and built a substantial yet still affordable midday meal on appetizers and main courses.
The deviled egg starter ($4) is built on local organic eggs — two big thumbs up for that — three halves deviled in traditional fashion, dotted with paprika, garnished with a crisp length of potato fried chip-style and served with a dish of thin, hot-sweet Avalon hot sauce. Mary’s appetizer pick, macaroni and cheese ($5.95), was a big winner: Substantial enough to make a meal, a bowl of round orecchiette (“little ears”) pasta was sauced with a creamy mix of Kenny’s Kentucky White Cheddar and earthy Italian Fontina cheese and garnished with a nest of crispy potato strings.
Mary’s main course, half of a large, crisp and thin toasted flatbread ($6.95), was topped with sautéed wild mushrooms and melted herbed cream cheese, garnished with arugula leaves and served with a small side salad of mixed lettuces. The pizza-like flatbread was good (caprese salad or BBQ chicken options are also available), but the salad was a frustrating disappointment. Why must so many fine restaurants pay so little attention to serving bagged mesclun? I’m sure the bag says “washed,” but trust me, folks, it’s not. Leaves with slimy, rotted spots and particles of potting soil could easily be avoided with minimal attention in the kitchen. Dumping the bag on your plate without examination? Fail.
My entrée was more successful. The black bean burger ($6.95), a meat-free burger fashioned from a lightly spicy mix of pureed black beans, onions and corn, was poised on a hefty sesame-dotted bun and topped with a tasty, crunchy salad of julienned jicama, carrots and bell peppers. Outstanding flavors; a bit dry, but the hostess’ suggested addition of a bit of Avalon’s chipotle ranch sauce brought it right around.
With fresh iced tea, a filling midday meal for two came to $28.46, plus a $6 tip.
Lunch at Avalon
1314 Bardstown Road
454-5336
www.avalonfresh.com
Rating: 82
If you’re a vegetarian who’s been pining for a nice local restaurant where you can get fancy meatless fare in an upscale setting, then your dream has come true. If you’re a guilty carnivore who claims you’d go vegetarian if only some place served meatless dishes so good that you wouldn’t even miss meat, look out. This may be put-up or shut-up time for you. And if you’re an unapologetic meat-eater who thinks vegetarian fare can only be bland and prissy, get ready to have your prejudices challenged, if you’re brave enough to try it.
Continue reading No animals were harmed for dinner at Roots
