Robin Garr's LOUISVILLE Restaurant Reviews

84	Diamond's 2427 Bardstown Road (502) 454-9944

All right, pay attention now ... the heritage of this new Highlands bistro requires a little explaining, being just about as filled with "begats" and "begots" and entangled family lines as one of those obscure books near the start of the Old Testament.

First there was Timothy's, a lovably eccentric eatery on East Broadway, founded by the late Tim Barnes who opened it in the early 1980s after he and Bim Deitrich went their own ways upon the closing of their Cherokee Triangle landmark "Formally Myra's." In the autumn of 2003, Timothy's moved across the Ohio to Jeffersonville, Ind., the former red-sauced home of the original Ray Parella's, a change of venue that some likened to a blue-state metrosexual taking up dairy farming in Kansas.

Meanwhile, there was Bobby J's, a clubby, funky little spot that the eponymous Bobby "J" Johnson opened in the early '90s in a small building out Frankfort Avenue (later Abyssinia and now vacant). Bobby J transferred the venue that bore his name to Bardstown Road a few years later, then moved on again, leaving the new Avalon behind at that location to open Steam Fire & Ice in a former biker bar near the Douglass Loop.

Still with us? We're almost there. Last summer, in a surprising move, Johnson announced that he was retiring and closing Steam, muttering imprecations about how Fourth Street Live was killing the city's independent restaurant business. Within weeks, Timothy's abandoned its short-lived Jeffersonville venture and returned to the Bluegrass, occupying Steam's former quarters with a new name - Diamonds - and much of Timothy's old menu (including its famous trademarked white chili), while retaining a bit of Steam's retro-'70s mood.

The switch was so smooth and apparently friendly that Timothy's retained Steam's telephone number and much of its idiosyncratic decor, although that striking ancient Egyptian mummy case is gone. The spacious two-room venue remains, with its trademark rectangular bar in the middle and striking shadow-box displays of Egyptian dog-goddess sculptures.

Overall, the decor is what you might call discreet urban-upscale, as Son of Timothy's makes its final break from the leopard-skin and fringed lampshade tradition: walls in dark brick-red enamel, black-leatherette banquettes, art-deco lighting, black-and-white framed photos of '40s-era starlets, and dining tables draped in black, set with simple leatherette-padded side chairs, white cloth napkins, and attractive frosted-glass votive candle holders to highlight the romantically dim rooms.

The menu is a bit shorter than Timothy's last bill of fare, primarily, it appears, because pizzas and Italian-accented entrees have been dropped. The popular white chili remains, as noted, with a nominal price increase to $2.95 for a cup, $4.25 for a bowl. You'll still find the familiar fried fish platter and T-Burger, oops, it's the D-Burger Platter now, both up a dollar at $9.95. About a dozen soups, salads and appetizers are $2.25 (for a cup of the soup of the day) to $9.95 (for a smoked-salmon wrap appetizer).

The 14-item entree list might be just a bit more affordable than before, with the luxury end now topping out at $25.95 (for beef tenderloin filet with red-wine mushroom sauce). Other dishes, most falling broadly into the "upscale American" category, include a honey-pecan chicken breast, sauteed almond-crusted trout meunière (both $16.95), pan-seared crab cakes with red-pepper aioli ($17.95) and jumbo coconut shrimp with grilled pineapple and spicy peanut-butter sauce ($20.95). A daily special neatly illustrated the kitchen's yupped-up approach to down-home favorites: It was presented as "a petite filet lightly breaded and fried with a cream sauce." I'd call that "country-fried steak with sawmill gravy."

The magisterial bar, illuminated from above by a glowing rectangle of round light fixtures, offers a broad range of drinks, of course. The wine list appears to have been rewritten since the move, presumably because of different suppliers and availability on the Kentucky side. It's not overly long, and as a wine hobbyist, I'd love to see more offbeat and artisanal wines and not so many Chardonnays and Merlots from the usual suspects.

Overall pricing is fair, though, with reasonable markups at about double retail, and many selections in the affordable $20s. About 30 wines, most available by the glass, range in price from $19 ($5 a glass) for Beringer White Zinfandel to $48 (for Merryvale Starmont Cabernet Sauvignon or Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, neither available by the glass). The top glass price is $9.50 ($39 for a bottle) for Kendall-Jackson Reserve Merlot. A short list of "import" bottled beers, all $3.50, features mass-market labels Heineken, Corona, Bass and Newcastle, plus a non-import, the upscale Blue Moon label from Coors.

Looking for a dry white to match our oysters, fish and chicken, I lingered over one oddity, the French-named Greek Lac des Roches from Boutari ($25) and the excellent Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Ranch Chardonnay ($36) before settling on a favorite, Bonterra 2002 Mendocino Chardonnay ($24), a Brown-Forman property that specializes in wines made from organically grown grapes. It was very lemony and sharply acidic when served ice-cold, so we waved away the ice bucket and let it warm into an exceptionally stylish Chardonnay, showing good apple and lemon flavors and mouth-watering acidity, with subtle, not overbearing nuances of tropical fruit and butterscotch. It made a spectacular match with the fried oysters and served well with the rest of the meal.

A complimentary serving of warm sliced white baguette came in a dark wicker basket lined with a white cloth napkin. It was served with an oval plate of olive oil laced with grated Parmesan for dipping.

A shared appetizer, fried oysters ($8.95), a carry-over from Timothy's old menu, was a dollar more than the last time but boasted a 25 percent increase in oysters, eight of them, juicy and very fresh oysters, lightly breaded and gently fried, perched atop a queen-size bed of crisply fried spinach leaves, an unusual but tasty crunchy snack. It was garnished with a lemon half wrapped in gauze, a small dish of creamy garlic aioli that could have passed for tartar sauce in the dim light, and a more-decorative-than-edible garnish of long, thin strips of sweet potato.

One good spinach called for another, and my wife summoned another favorite retained from Timothy's, the sauteed spinach salad ($6.50, same price as before). A large white oval dish bore a good-size portion of fresh spinach, sauteed until just warmly wilted with good olive oil, salt and lots of garlic; white Tuscan-style beans in a small bowl on the side were perfect, too, tender and subtly seasoned.

Don't tell my food-snob friends that I willingly ordered the lettuce wedge ($4.50). Iceberg lettuce is a slight guilty pleasure for me: I make fun of it behind its back but enjoy it in private for its crisp, cool crunch. I like it, and so does just about everyone else, and that's probably why it's coming back as a retro dish for the '00s. A sizable wedge was topped with tiny bits of diced, sauteed prosciutto and crumbled blue cheese and decorated with four half cherry tomatoes. A small bowl of chunky, creamy blue cheese came on the side.

The fried fish platter (regularly $9.95, half-price as a daily special) consisted of a white fish fillet, cod or equivalent, lightly breaded and crisply fried more golden than brown, cut into four "fingers" and set open-face on grocery-store marbled rye bread garnished with a pickle spear, thick slice of raw white onion, thick slice of pale winter tomato, a few leaves of iceberg lettuce, and a small bowl of tartar sauce that was just a little too sweet to suit us.

I debated between crab cakes ($17.95) and Greek chicken ($15.95) until the server nudged me toward the latter. "It's really good," he said, and I can't quibble with that report. A large white earthenware plate was artfully decorated with tiny dice of red, green and yellow bell pepper neatly arranged around its circumference. A large, butterflied deboned and flattened chicken breast was sauteed, then broiled, so it was tender and juicy in the middle with an appetizing crusty edge. It was coated with a thick, rather sweet lemony-buttery brown sauce and perched on a mound of long-cooked, soft orzo (short rice-shaped pasta) with a few bits of red bell pepper, a dash of oregano and a surprisingly pungent blast of finely ground pepper. A small garnish of thin green beans were OK, cooked through to a happy medium between trendy crunchy-raw and country-style long-simmered.

I was full and ready to skip dessert until I heard the words "crème brûlée," a confection that I find difficult to resist. This one was perfect, too, in the classic style, a pure white ramekin filled with custard, its surface beautifully torched to a crisp, glassy mahogany. The key to this dish is to achieve a perfect balance of creamy and crisp, hot and cold, custard and caramel, and no need to gussy it up with strange and offbeat extras. Diamond's passed on all counts, and cups of hot, strong coffee ($2, no espresso drinks are available) made a fine finish to an excellent meal.

Service was casual but friendly and courteous, and the tab for two, including the wine, came to $77.95 plus a $16.05 tip. $$$

(December 2004)

ACCESSIBILITY: Independently accessible to wheelchair users.