What’s a gastropub, anyway? This culinary neologism has been floating around since the middle of the last decade, and some say it cries out for mockery. “Gastropub”? It sounds, a bit unnervingly, like some kind of medical condition afflicting the digestive system.
What’s more, plenty of the more pompous food scribes decry the term. I still remember an odd analysis by one local food reviewer, who dismissed “gastropub” as an annoying label, misused and meaningless, reserved for bars that wanted to serve house-made ketchup. Continue reading Dundee done be a gastropub now→
Remember the old joke about a hunter’s repeated efforts to bag a giant grizzly bear? It’s a little too long and risque to quote here in full, but it ends with the bear lovingly whispering, “You’re not really here for the hunting, are you, Bob?”
Folks in our Crescent Hill neighborhood have been watching with considerable anticipation as a crew associated with Louisville’s Bluegrass Brewing Co. sped through a major “gut rehab” of the old Darkstar tavern, converting what had been frankly a rather grim saloon into an airy, inviting temple to all things local beer and food. Continue reading Craft House packing them in on Frankfort→
I like to think I’m a bit of a beer geek, but our friend Don puts me in the shade when it comes to knowledge of things malty and hoppy. I’ll bet he could recite the rules of the ancient Reinheitsgebot beer laws forwards and backwards, and our multilingual pal Anne could help us do it in the original German. Continue reading We study Reinheitsgebot and good eats at The Brewery→
I’ll never forget my first and only visit to Ireland. We spent a week or two driving around the country, learning wrong-side driving and stopping at every pub we could find to enjoy a pint of Guinness. Damn, it was hard to find traditional Irish music, though. Pub after pub after pub, the food and the mood were Irish, but the music was international rock. When I finally found a crew with a harp singing “Danny Boy” in a tiny pub in Killarney, it was jammed with American tourists, of course. Continue reading Irish Rover takes us to the Emerald Isle→
How good is Exchange Pub + Kitchen? Why, it’s a Pillar of its community.
I mean that literally: This month the popular spot in New Albany’s buzzing downtown dining scene won one of the city’s Pillar Awards, which recognize contributors to downtown restoration and renovation. Exchange Pub won the Horizon Award, honoring co-owners Ian and Nikki Hall for their 2012 move from the Grant Line Road area into the historic 1875-era Shrader Stables building downtown, the New Albany Tribune reported. Continue reading Exchange Pub + Kitchen, a Pillar of Its Community→
Few of us are eager to admit we’re getting older. Every now and then, though, some sudden recognition of time’s passing steps up and smacks us in the face with a solid reality check.
Take Equus, for example: A local destination restaurant that opened just a few years ago. Well, OK, OK, it opened in 1985, but who’s counting? Not me, that’s for sure. In some ways, after all, Equus never seems to change very much. Continue reading Equus evolves, but its character stays intact→
NA Exchange got a new name when it moved down the New Albany hill: Now it’s The Exchange Pub + Kitchen. It got a new look, which is actually an old look, as it makes creative use of a historic building in New Albany’s rapidly gentrifying downtown.
But it didn’t get new food, insists Chef Rick Adams, who swears that the menu he forged at the previous location — including his signature shrimp and grits — hasn’t changed a bit.You would have a hard time making some of the Exchange’s regular customers believe that, though. Adams says one gentleman in particular is adamant that the “new” shrimp and grits is much better than the “old.”
When Tony Palombino opened AP Crafters over the smoking remains of the short-lived Indigo Joe’s in Westport Village a year ago last spring, I couldn’t help wonder what the guy who might rank as Louisville’s most innovative entrepreneur of good eats was up to now.
AP Crafters’ Vegetable Napoleon.After all, Palombino is the guy who built Tony Boombozz from a tiny pizzeria into a local chain of pizza-and-brew houses more than 15 years ago, while spinning off and incubating one new restaurant idea after another. Thatsa Wrapp, Benny B’s, Bazo’s … some flared then fizzled, while others have become local standards. Just last month, Palombino opened another new concept, Manny & Merle, in the Whiskey Row neighborhood, a hearty Bakersfield-style mix of Latino and Anglo food and music. I’ll head over there one of these days, but first, let’s see what’s going on at AP Crafters.
Anchoring a corner of the Westport Village shopping center, AP Crafters mirrors the evolution of Westport Village, a modern remake of the old Camelot center that has thrived on a base of local restaurants and indie businesses that make an attractive commercial magnet for its suburban neighborhood. AP Crafters fits right in, taking the place of a franchised sports-bar concept with 47 units in 10 states. Never mind that it seemed to cover much of the same sports bar ground as had Indigo Joe’s; there was a familiar face at the helm and clubby dark-wood paneling and antiques, and it was all good.
They called it a “gastropub,” which is OK, I guess, as this is a malleable term, although when I hear that trendy buzzword I think of something more like Butchertown’s estimable Blind Pig, which at first glance didn’t seem to have a lot in common with AP Crafters except for a very good beer list.
But AP Crafters is evolving, and during a leisurely dinner visit the other night, I was delighted to discover that, while it still executes pub grub very nicely, the place has also developed a more upscale persona featuring serious, well-executed entrees such as you might expect at a more trendy bistro on Bardstown Road or Frankfort Avenue or NuLu’s urban streets.
The menu begins, as it has from the start, with a good selection of soups, salads and munchies, offering a broad choice among healthy green salads ($7-$8) and delicious fatty and salty goodies, including charred wings ($8) or a platter of crisp beer-battered fried pickle chips with ancho dipping sauce ($7). Those who choose the gastropub route may be infatuated with a charcuterie plate ($11, and none dare call it “cold cuts”) or the chef’s weekly selection of hummus and olives with pita — whole wheat, of course.
Sandwiches, served with your choice of seasoned fries, slaw or fruit, are mostly $8 (for a griddled cheese sandwich, with 75-cent upcharges for tomato or bacon), to $11 (for a grilled chicken BLT). Burgers include a fancy Reuben burger ($11), a burger topped with pastrami, kraut and Swiss atop your all-beef patty. Or they’ll hold the patty on request and make it a plain Reuben. Another option: Schmear your burger with beer cheese, bacon and onions and serve it on a pretzel roll ($11). If a more traditional burger is your style, go for the Build Your Own option, which does burgers the way Boombozz does pizza: Start with the basic dressed patty ($7.50), then make it your own with a smorgasbord of toppings at 75 cents each: cheese, bacon, an egg, onions, sauce … just about anything but the proverbial kitchen sink.
More and more, though, diners are flocking to AP Crafters for the entrees, a short but interesting list of nine items from $10 (for chorizo and pulled-pork tacos or fish tacos) to $28 (for blackened beef filet medallions with blue cheese Mornay).
Twenty craft beers on tap plus shorter selections of bottled domestics for those who insist give Crafters a brewpub feel; there’s also a short but well chosen wine list and a good mix of creative cocktails.
We went with a group and enjoyed sharing bites, and not one of us uttered a discouraging word about crisp retro iceberg wedges loaded with blue cheese and BLT toppings ($8); bacon bruschetta ($7), toasted baguette rounds spread with bacon jam, caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula and more; or a tasty side bowl of broccoli florets ($3.50) flavored with garlic and Parmesan.
A trio of fish tacos ($10), served Baja-style with blackened fish, also drew praise, as did the bistro-style braised lamb shank ($22), long-simmered and very tender, served on a succulent slab of potatoes au gratin. Perhaps our favorite entrees were the smoked pork chop ($18), a good-size chop, bone-on, juicy and tender and very flavorful, coated with a tart-sweet sun-dried tomato-basil demiglace atop a rich pool of creamy, cheesy polenta; and the fire-roasted vegetable napoleon ($14), an artful stack of roasted veggie-polenta cakes sandwiched with fresh arugula, tomatoes, chunks of zucchini and mild goat cheese.
Dinner for two, with a couple Crafters-brand microbrews, came to a reasonable $58.28 plus tip.
AP Crafters Kitchen & Bar
1321 Herr Lane
Westport Village
690-5000 apcrafters.com
Rating: 88
Even in a region singularly blessed with strong local microbreweries and brewpubs, Against the Grain stands out in its relatively short life (it opened last October) as an operation seriously dedicated to the production and enjoyment of excellent beer. Continue reading Against the Grain stands out on brewpub scene→
Louisville's top spot for talk and reviews from the food and restaurant scene
