Perfect pair: Hot Brown, meet pizza

BoomBozz’s Hot Brown Pizza

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

The famous Hot Brown — allegedly fashioned as a midnight snack for Roaring Twenties revelers famished after a night of dancing in the Brown Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom — is just an open-faced sandwich of turkey, bacon and cheesy Mornay sauce. Nothing so inventive there, and it’s a cardiologist’s nightmare.

The inventive folks at BoomBozz Taphouse in the Highlands have put a new spin on the old tradition by marrying it in weird but delicious union with a pizza.

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Here’s anuddah New York pie. Got a problem widdat?

LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

Pizza originated in prehistoric times, food experts say, when Stone Age tribes pounded wheat grains into a coarse batter and baked rough rounds on hot stones. Then they would top this primitive flatbread with whatever roadkill or gleanings were available. They didn’t call it “pizza,” but we think they probably called it good.

Tomatoes and cheese weren’t added for a few millennia, but by the time pizza as we know it was created in Naples and emigrated to the New World in the Ellis Island days, aficionados were surely already fighting over whose style was best.

Locally, folks who’ve tasted the joys of New York City pizza engage in a constant quest to find something akin to the Italian-immigrant style of pie that’s sold on almost every street corner in Gotham. It’s not an easy quest, as Louisville’s own pizza form (perhaps best demonstrated in the mile-high Impellizzeri pie) has earned a strong following in its own right.

Nevertheless, the quest continues, and when I heard that Perfetto Pizzeria had recently opened in the Plainview quarters last occupied by the short-lived Slice of NY, I rushed eastward to check it out.
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High-tech bar, award-winning fare lift Boombozz Taphouse

LouisvilleHotBytes.com in The Voice-Tribune
(Published May 13, 2009)

The Highlands carry-out branch of Tony Boombozz Pizza on Bardstown Road - once the location of an urban White Castle still remembered fondly by Baby Boomers - has re-emerged after a major renovation as a splendid pizzeria and high-tech beer dispensary, the East End mini-chain’s fourth property and perhaps its most exciting yet.

Curved banks of silvery metal tubes soar over the bar to pipe down a selection of more than 20 draft beers, most imports and microbrewery beers. What’s more, the region’s only “ice bar” features artificially made “snow” blanketing a strip at the back. Want your beer ice cold? Set your mug on the icy white line.
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The Boombozz theory of evolution

The most recent addition to the Tony Boombozz empire is the brand-new upscale casual Boombozz Bistro in Jeffersontown with an expanded menu and table service. The walls are bright and bold, the colors of tomato sauce and mozzarella, artichoke and sun-dried tomato. Photos by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eats with Louisville HotBytes

Like a primordial anchovy creeping out of the sea and beholding bigger and better things on shore, the first Tony Boombozz pizzeria burst into view just a decade ago as a tiny but portentous creature.

Louisville’s pizza lovers looked upon it and saw that it was good. So it wasn’t long before the small pizzeria moved into larger quarters on Frankfort Avenue, then spawned a second location on Bardstown Road, cannily providing artisan pizzas on both of the city’s primary restaurant rows.

Now there are four, with the addition of a fast-casual dining room in Springhurst, and, out past Jeffersontown in the distant ‘burbs, the subject of today’s sermon: a brand-new upscale casual Boombozz Bistro with an expanded menu and table service. (Coming later this year, an expanded Bardstown Road operation and tap room with 30, count ‘em, 30 draught microbrews.)
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Treat your sweetie on the cheap: Share!

Primo’s Ippoglosso di Ligure, mild white fish poached in olive oil with basil, is influenced by the cuisines of the Liguria region around Genoa. Photo by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eats with Louisville HotBytes

Here’s a cheeky way to treat your sweetie to a Valentine’s Day dinner (or other romantic occasion) at a fancy restaurant, enjoying an expansive meal while keeping the price under control: Share dinner.

I’m talking serious sharing here, the kind you would only want to undertake in the company of someone close enough that you don’t object to taking food from the same plate.

This approach need not be cheap or sleazy, and any good restaurateur will gladly accommodate you in your plan. We tried it the other night at Primo, one of my favorite restaurants.
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Take that short drive to Stratto’s

Jerome Pope is now the chef at Stratto’s in Clarksville. Look for his new menu after the first of the year. LEO Photo by Nicole Pullen.

LEO’s Eats with Louisville HotBytes

If you’ve been meaning to check out some Southern Indiana dining spots but worried that it’s a little too far, consider this: It took me just 11 minutes to drive from my house in Crescent Hill to Stratto’s in Clarksville on a rainy Saturday night.

OK, maybe I couldn’t have made it that fast during a weekday rush hour, but it’s still a quicker trip for me than a ride out to The Summit or Brownsboro Crossing in endless suburbia.

What’s more, the comfortable historic-house setting and hearty Italian-accented comfort food at Stratto’s makes it well worth the short trip across the finally repainted Kennedy Bridge.
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No Hoosier joke: Pie are square

Like most pizza in Southern Indiana, Pizza King’s classic pie is cut in squares, not wedges. LEO Photo by Nicole Pullen.

LEO’s Eats with Louisville HotBytes
(Pizza King, Arni’s Pizza, Uncle Tubby’s)

It happens anywhere that a state line crosses through a metro area: Folks on one side of the border tell rude jokes about the other, and vice-versa.

So there’s no use pretending that Kentuckians don’t tell Hoosier jokes. We laugh at their rumored penchant for turning left from the right lane and we’re still kicking around Coach Bobby Knight after all these years. And we can’t resist keeping alive the memory of the embarrassing moment in the Indiana State Legislature in 1897, when a few wacky Hoosiers tried to redefine the mathematical constant pi as a simpler number.

But here’s a Hoosier culinary constant that is no joke: Over there, pie are square.
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Eating for two (or more) at Buca di Beppo

Buca di Beppo is notorious for its zany, tongue-in-cheek New Jersey-style Italian-restaurant décor and its huge portions of Italian-American dishes. The restaurant recently launched a new “Buca Mio” (”My Buca”) menu that features smaller portions meant to feed a single diner. LEO Photo by Nicole Pullen.

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes

My friends know me as the un-chained guy, an obligate foodie with a strong preferential option for locally owned and operated eateries, where you’ll find a distinct local flavor, and where you’ll find the host on the premises, working without strings being pulled by accountants and lawyers in a distant corporate office.

My reasoning should be obvious: While chains may provide consistency and a predictable experience, the heavy hand of the bean counter and the cold reality of the quarterly balance sheet almost invariably inspire corner-cutting, and this is as true in the restaurant industry as it is in, well, the newspaper business.

Still, it wouldn’t make sense to avoid chain dining entirely - heaven knows, it’s popular - and I might miss some good eats. Here and there around the Metro, and particularly in the chain-rich environment of the East End, there’s decent dining to be found in at least a few of the big-name brands.

One of the best bets, in my experience, is Buca di Beppo, (more…)

Charlestown Pizza Co.

On the town square in tiny Charlestown, Ind., a short trip upriver from Jeffersonville, Charlestown Pizza Company occupies a large venue that looks almost like a dance hall, complete with a big, funky circular crystal light fixture above - a legacy, apparently, from a Chinese restaurant that was a prior tenant.

Seven months in business and building a strong word-of-mouth reputation, it turns out that it’s run by folks who learned their pizza and beer at New Albanian Brewing Company (née Rich O’s/Sportstime Pizza). That’s a very good pedigree indeed, and it’s reinforced on Charlestown’s beer list, which features a, er, mug shot of New Albanian publican Roger A. Baylor, warning diners away from mass-market “lite” beers with a stern, “Don’t Drink Swill.”

Indeed, these folks are very serious about their beer, and the selection is exceptional, featuring about 18 bottled beers, all extremely interesting artisan brews with a strong focus on Southern Indiana and the Louisville area.

Draft microbrews, they tell us, are coming soon.

We couldn’t resist splitting a discreet lunchtime glass of The Three Floyds Pride And Joy Mild Ale from Munster, Ind.; and a pleasant glass it was, golden in color with a creamy head, a very fresh, nose-tingling “dry-hopped” citrus-grapefruit aroma and pleasantly bitter flavor.

The short menu includes a variety of Italian-style sandwiches ($3.75 for a half-sandwich, $7 for a whole), plus salads and a couple of hearty Italian-American dishes (baked spaghetti, $4.50, and baked lasagna, $6).

Fresh-made, hand-tossed pizza comes in three sizes (8-inch solo, 14-inch medium and 18-inch large), ranging in price from $3 (for a cheese solo) to $25.50 (for a large with “ultimate” toppings, your choice of five to 10 goodies that include the familiar - pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms - and the more out-there - jalapeños, pineapple, garlic, but no anchovies).

We went with a medium sausage, pepper and onion and were quite satisfied. The crust was well-made and paper-thin if not quite cracker-crisp. Tangy tomato sauce was painted on with proper discretion, topped with plenty of melted cheese showing appetizing brown caramelized spots. Our three-topping selection was amply topped but not overloaded with mild sausage (no hint of Italian fennel) and good, freshly chopped bits of green pepper and white onion cooked just to al dente crispness in the pizza oven. It’s cut in squares, not wedges, and qualifies as a good, straightforward rendition. No, it’s not New York style. Nor is it, well, “Tuscan.” It doesn’t have to be.

We packed about half of the oversize delight in a take-home box, and passed on the dessert pizza ($5), a small pie dressed with cream cheese and your choice of cherry, apple or peach.

A fine meal and a memorable beer (plus an iced tea and a cola) rang up a toll of only $20.71, plus a $4.29 tip.

Charlestown Pizza Co.
850 Main St.
Charlestown, Ind.
(812) 256-2699

Launch your gondola in a river of red

Tuscany Italian Restaurant dramatically exceeded expectations for shopping-center dining. The chef, a native of Mexico, has lived and cooked in Italy, and it shows. Photos by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes

Some days I feel like authentic Italian cuisine, and nothing but the real thing will do. Some days a plate of spaghetti and meatballs seems just right. Happily, our city offers a few good options for the authentic stuff (Primo and Volare top my list), and we’re practically awash in eateries (with Melillo’s leading the pack) where you can fill up with hearty, red-sauced Italian-immigrant cuisine. Not to mention pizza.

Food snobs may diss the long-simmered, garlicky tomato-sauced stuff as inauthentic, but who doesn’t love it? Still deeply rooted in the peasant cuisine of Sicily and Calabria in Southern Italy from where so many Americans came, it has become comfort food for us all, never mind whether we have a vowel on the end of our name.

This week we travel to opposite ends of the metro region to check out two worthy recent additions. We’ve been up the river a piece in Indiana to find excellent pizza and intriguing beers at Charlestown Pizza Company, and out into the South End to discover heart-warming comfort food with a hint of a south-of-the-border accent at Tuscany Italian.
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By any name, Varanese is a winner

Varanese - named for chef John Varanese, who’s been chef at the Cardinal Club and the late, great Azalea - opened last month in the old Red Lounge on Frankfort Avenue. The space has been completely renovated, and the food recalls Azalea. Photo by Robin Garr.

LEO’s Eat ‘n’ Blog with Louisville HotBytes

I was really excited when I heard about this new restaurant. Its name sounded like “Veronese.” Verona! The legendary home of Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorite cities anywhere, and Veronese food and wine rank among my favorite cuisines. If this new place was going to feature the delicious dishes of Northeastern Italy’s Veneto region, I would be a happy boy.

Duh. I wasn’t listening close enough. That’s VarAnese, not VerOnese. Never mind!

In fact, this new dining room - it opened Aug. 20 in the former Red Lounge - is named for its owner and chef, John Varanese; and that’s not a bad thing, not bad at all.
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Forumites check out baseball and ballpark fare

A crowd of LouisvilleHotBytes.com Forum participants took over a luxury box at Slugger Field for a Louisville Bats game Tuesday evening. The Bats nearly blew an early 9-1 lead but hung on to win 9-8 over the Toledo Mudhens, and the happy foodies worked their way through a sampling of ballpark fare from nachos and dollar hot dogs to fish sandwiches and more.

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