Vincenzo and Agostino Gabriele reinvented the Louisville dining scene a generation ago. Now Agostino’s sons, Carmelo and Michael Gabriele, have opened their own Italian restaurant in Germantown, named Sarino after the family nickname for another uncle, Rosario.
Will Sarino be something like Vincenzo’s Jr., then? I’m going to say no. But that’s no slam. Sarino is delightful in its own right, but it is as different from Vincenzo’s as millennials are different from baby boomers and as different as downtown is from Germantown. Continue reading Appealing Sarino carries Vincenzo’s DNA, but it’s no clone→
When I hear news that a restaurant has decided to make big changes, I worry. Over the years we’ve seen more than a few popular establishments decide to reinvent themselves in some significant way. Remember them? Nope, me either. That’s because changing courses in the middle of the stream too often begins a sad slide downward into the place where memories go to die.
If you held a magical mystery mirror up to Louisville’s historic Germantown-Schnitzelburg neighborhood in hope of perceiving what’s going on in this changing community, the chances are the image that first appeared would be Lydia House. Continue reading Lydia House reflects its changing neighborhood→
I won’t deny that being a restaurant critic is fun, but it’s hard work also. And there is one truly significant downside: When duty calls you to eat out someplace new every week, it’s not easy to return to dine casually at places that make you happy.
Nevertheless, there’s a handful, or maybe two, of local eateries that please me enough – and, frankly, are affordable enough – that I’m likely to drop in now and then even when I’m not wearing my food-critic’s chapeau.
In case you hadn’t noticed, summer has clamped down on us fully now. It’s 95 outside as I write this, and the central air is struggling. The humidity? Don’t even ask. It’s as if the giant evil spaceship in Independence Day: Resurgence is dropping down over the metro, only it’s a giant sponge dripping hot water.
Yuk. Nothing seems very appetizing when the weather is like this.
Welcome, Louisville newcomers, by which I mean anyone who’s been here less than five years or so. Here’s a quick lesson in the way we give directions around here: Monnik Beer Company is located where the old Zeppelin Café used to be. If that doesn’t nail it, Zeppelin was where the old Heitzman’s Bakery used to be. Continue reading Come to Monnik for the beer, stay for the food→
Can a person – well, this person, anyway – ever get tired of international food, the vast smorgasbord of culinary delights from all the world’s regions? I would say not. Give me Indian, Mexican, Thai, Argentine, African, Chinese, German, Korean, Yugoslavian, French or German cuisine, and I’ll bounce right back in pursuit of the next fascinating thing. Continue reading Home-style comfort food with a twist at Cottage Inn→
Mary claims that I never met a pizza I didn’t like, but this is a gross exaggeration. Sure, I like pizza, a lot, and I generally won’t say no to a slice. Why should I?
But liking the stuff doesn’t mean that I give up my critical discernment, dammit! Show me a Corporate Pie™ and I’ll shrug and go “Meh.” I know pizza, and I know what I like. And I’m here today to tell you that I like the pizza at The Post, an appropriately hip, casual pizzeria in a shotgun house that was once home to Lone Wolf Post #5636 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Louisville’s Germantown. Continue reading The Post’s pizza earns our salute→
Ah, Germantown, that lovable little urban neighborhood. Who can drive, stroll or bike through its tidy streets of shotgun houses and sturdy brick storefronts without feeling connected with our city’s German heritage? Continue reading Is Eiderdown German? Is Germantown German?→
Okay, I am just going to come right out and say it: I am so over Food Network. Have been for years, really.
She’s like an old flame, full of bad memories of a romance that I try to suppress now that I’m no longer quite so young and stupid. Oh, I loved her back then, I truly did. It was late coming to Louisville, and I lusted after it in my heart when I read my friends’ stories online about her seductive wiles. And when she finally came to town, sometime around the turn of the millennium, as I recall, I was smitten, so smitten. Continue reading Food Network loves The Coach Lamp, but who loves Food Network?→
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