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This archived review dates from 2007 or before. Use SEARCH above to find all recent reviews.

** Mazzoni's
2804 Taylorsville Road
(502) 451-3586
Consider the rolled oyster. Perhaps a Louisville tradition, although it has some of its roots in New Orleans and others in Italy. Not, as its detractors allege, a mere doughball with an oyster in it, this treat is essentially a fried oyster sandwich. Develop the taste, and you'll never lose it.

Mazzoni's, boasting that it is now in its third century of "serving hospitality" in Louisville, opened in 1884 and was downtown for most of its life, surviving urban renewal before moving to its present suburban location in the 1980s. The owners brought their historic serving bar and back bar and tin ceiling along, making an incongrous but cozy impression in its aggressively '50s-style building across from Bowman Field, where the interior takes you straight back to old Mazzoni's, with its bar-like setting and smoky environment.

It's changed a bit since the move, expanding its down-home menu to add few froo-froo items (fettuccine Alfredo, blackened-chicken salad, sun-dried tomato and garlic fettuccine) or two, but old-fashioned Louisville bar food is still its forte, ranging from hearty beef chile ($1.25 for a cup with beans and spaghetti, $2.50 for a bowl with all the above plus cheese and onions) and white bean soup ($1.25-$2) to bratwurst ($1.75 with kraut, $1.50 alone), salmon croquettes ($4.75), cod fish sandwiches ($3.75) and, of course, the rolled oyster ($2.10).

What is this rolled oyster thing that some love and others love to hate? It's said to be an old-country tradition, although I've never seen the like of it in travels through Italy: A handful of fresh-shucked oysters is rolled in a secret-recipe cornmeal batter called "pastinga," breaded in a thick cracker-crumb coating, and deep-fried until it's sizzling hot and dark, mahogany brown. The whole thing is baseball-size, crunchy on the outside, with steaming, barely cooked oysters borne in what has become a moist, silken breadlike interior ... a fried oyster sandwich that you eat from your hand, applying spicy red cocktail sauce to taste. One's a good appetizer; three make a meal. Maybe two, if you're not that hungry.

A fried cod sandwich was good, if not so uniquely memorable. A thick slab of white fish, thickly breaded and fried, is pulled from a hot-storage bin, popped between two pieces of grocery-store rye bread, and served with your choice of commercial tartar sauce or cocktail sauce. It wasn't bad, although seemed to be made from frozen fish. Not up to the fancier new fish-sandwich shops like Stan's or Fish House, frankly. Stick with the rolled oysters, that's my advice.

Lunch for two here rarely exceeds $10, not a bad rate for all the oysters you can eat and a nostalgic taste of Louisville history. $