There’s no way to put this but bluntly: I don’t think some Louisville restaurants are is taking the Covid-19 pandemic as seriously as they should.
Why the worry? You probably saw the news item about eleven Louisville businesses that got inspection blasts from Metro Public Health and Wellness over the Fourth of July weekend for failing to follow Covid-19 safety guidelines.
This matters: When I’m deciding where to dine during this pandemic, I want to have some confidence that the restaurant’s management doesn’t slack off on health and safety.
If you haven’t been watching Padma Lakshmi’s new series, Taste the Nation, on Hulu, you really should start. The host of Bravo’s popular Top Chef moves to something completely different with this series that focuses on food culture in America through the eyes and taste buds of immigrant communities.
In Episode 1, “Burritos on the Border,” she covered restaurants and tortillas and immigration and politics in El Paso, Texas, and its neighbor Juarez, Mexico. The program was fascinating, and it made me crave tacos so hard that we headed straight for MexA Steak Tacos the very next day. Continue reading MexA Taco deliciously satisfies our Mexican-food crave→
I hate moving. I can’t imagine that anybody would really like the sorting, culling, boxing, shifting, trucking and heavy lifting that comes with a move. Now imagine moving during a pandemic, with masks and serious social distancing in a play, and you’ll have some idea what it must have been like for bar Vetti last month. Continue reading bar Vetti lands in its new space→
Support Black-owned restaurants, and other Black-owned businesses, too! You’ve heard me yell this for quite a while. Every time I head west of Ninth Street for a good meal and a friendly welcome, I urge you to do the same. Erasing that imaginary, unnecessary wall that cuts off Louisville’s West End from the rest of Louisville is the important and right thing to do. Continue reading We support a black-owned business with a great meal at LuCretia’s→
This is our preliminary list of as many Black-owned restaurants as we could find in Louisville. Please give them your support!
The list is compiled from our own records, bolstered by lists assembled by social-media friends. You should be able to quickly find more information by searching the restaurant names on Facebook or your favorite search engine; in coming days we’ll also work to provide links and additional information.
It’s been almost two months since Gov. Andy Beshear ordered Kentucky restaurants closed to sit-down dining in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and even with the partial reopening of restaurants at 33 percent indoor capacity (moving up to 50 percent on June 22), the restaurant scene looks very different than it did before the pandemic. Continue reading A moment of silence for restaurants closed by the pandemic→
I’ve never been tempted to sample fugu, the Japanese pufferfish whose internal organs are filled with poison so powerful that even a speck left in your sashimi by a careless chef can drop you dead after a few horrifying hours of pain. Plenty of Japanese gourmands will pay upwards of $200 for a fugu meal, but not me.
Why bring this up? Because the idea of sitting down for a meal at a local restaurant during this pandemic felt way too much like bellying up to a fugu bar. I needed to think it over before sitting down to something that’s sounds like fun but that could kill you.
And yet we did it anyway, settling in on the pretty, shady and very properly distanced patio at Selena’s at Willow Lake Tavern this week. We had a good meal and a good time, too, albeit against a backdrop of nervous unease perhaps similar to the emotions that fugu aficionados must feel. Continue reading We dine well at a proper distance on Selena’s patio→
Some people crave potato chips or chocolate. The other day I started craving Guinness stout. The more I thought about that dark, malty, bitter-chocolate beer with its creamy head so thick that you could float a farthing on it, the more I wanted a pint.
Jake and Elwood’s opened its Chicago-style pizzeria in Clifton at 11 a.m. Monday, March 16. Does that date sound familiar? Yep! That’s the day that Gov. Andy Beshear told all the state’s restaurants to put a halt to dining-in at 5 p.m.
“We are mandated to close for dine-in at 5 p.m. today,” the restaurant posted on its Facebook page less than two hours later. “CARRYOUT is available!!! We’re working on delivery. The blues will prevail!” Continue reading Jake and Elwood’s masters the Chicago pie→
It all started, as things so often do, on social media. I was browsing Instagram, tapping through a lot of the local restaurants that I follow, when a simple white-on-black text image caught my eye.
