All posts by Robin Garr

Germantown

Eiderdown, back to its Germantown roots, remains a delight

When I hear news that a restaurant has decided to make big changes, I worry. Over the years we’ve seen more than a few popular establishments decide to reinvent themselves in some significant way. Remember them? Nope, me either. That’s because changing courses in the middle of the stream too often begins a sad slide downward into the place where memories go to die.

So I fretted a bit, just about this time last year, when Eiderdown’s owners told the beloved Germantown restaurant’s social-media followers that they were closing for a couple of weeks to make some changes. Continue reading Eiderdown, back to its Germantown roots, remains a delight →

$ Budget (under $30), BBQ, Burgers & Down-Home, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, LEO's Eats, QuickBytes

Cozy lunches at Old Louisville Tavern and bar Vetti warm our icy bones

Well, 2018 sure came in with a “Brrrr!” The temperature didn’t rise above freezing for a week, and relief took its sweet time coming. When the air makes my face hurt, my instinct is to keep the doors shut and hole up at home with the thermostat cranked up to high.

When hunger and cabin fever set in, though, and the urge to get out in the world becomes irresistible, I can hardly think of a better cold-weather destination than the friendly confines of a cozy bar and grill that takes its commitment to good food as seriously as its beverages. Continue reading Cozy lunches at Old Louisville Tavern and bar Vetti warm our icy bones →

$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), LEO's Eats, New and noteworthy, Seafood & Water's Edge, Southern Indiana

Hull & High Water’s oysters inspire hymns of praise

When we headed over to the new Hull & High Water the other evening, our friend Don said he was afraid he would be a pretty tough judge. Just back home from a conference in Boston, he had taken advantage of the opportunity to sample some of Beantown’s finest oysters and fish.

A half-hour later, though, he was singing a different tune, and Mary and I and our friend Anne were joining the hymn of praise in four-part harmony. Continue reading Hull & High Water’s oysters inspire hymns of praise →

$ Budget (under $30), LEO's Eats, QuickBytes, Soul Food, South End, World Food

Caribbean Cafe delivers a happy taste of Haiti

As autumn marches toward winter and colder weather wraps the region in its frigid embrace, thoughts of the sunny Caribbean dance in our heads like visions of sugar-plums and other happy things.

Mention the Caribbean, and chances are you’ll think of white-sand beaches, cruise ships, sun-tans, strong drinks served in coconut shells, and balmy relaxation. Tourism, after all, is the No. 1 economic driver for the region, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, and the people of the 700 islands that make up the Caribbean archipelago are working to recover from the damage dealt by Hurricanes Irma and Maria this summer as quickly as they can. For Puerto Rico, Barbuda and a few others, sadly, that’s going to take a very long time.

While we wait, here’s good news: Caribbean restaurants are blossoming in the metro. Continue reading Caribbean Cafe delivers a happy taste of Haiti →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Commentary, Farm-to-table, Indian, LEO's Eats, New and noteworthy, Northeast Metro, Pacific Rim, World Food

Tandoori Fusion masters the science of fusion

When I first heard about Tandoori Fusion, the new Indian restaurant way out in the East End across the way from Costco, my imagination leapt up. I know that the tandoor, the iconic Indian clay oven, can reach temperatures upward of 900ºF, a searing fire that does something magical to meats and flatbreads too.

But Tandoori Fusion? Can these people possibly have mustered nuclear fusion, the fierce energy that lights up H-bombs and the Sun itself? Crazy! That would make some remarkable tandoori food, all right, and it would be wicked fast.

Nope. Continue reading Tandoori Fusion masters the science of fusion →

$$$ Upscale ( $50 - $80), Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, Italian (and Pizza), LEO's Eats, New and noteworthy

Lupo’s pizza and pasta sing a fine Italian song

Whatever might prompt two members of an indie rock band with a 17-year record and three songs on the Billboard 200 to leap from the world of music to the hard work of opening Lupo, an Italian restaurant that features pizza and pasta?

That’s just what vocalist and guitar player Adam Turla and cellist-keyboardist Sarah Balliet of the band Murder by Death have done, though. In August they joined Sarah’s brother Max Balliet, owner of the popular Holy Molé taco truck, to open Lupo, a fine, casual eatery in a nicely restored 19th century red-brick house on the far inner end of Frankfort Avenue where Clifton meets Butchertown. Continue reading Lupo’s pizza and pasta sing a fine Italian song →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), LEO's Eats, QuickBytes, South End, World Food

Delicious food and an idea for world peace at Jerusalem Kitchen

I don’t know anybody who thinks that the world is in great shape nowadays, and all the saber-rattling going on over Iran and North Korea is just the beginning. Things haven’t changed much since the 1960s, when the Kingston Trio famously sang in The Merry Minuet, “The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles. Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch … and I don’t like anybody very much!”

And that’s before we even start talking about the tensions that tear at Southwest Asia, that region of seemingly never-ending wars: Iraq and Syria and Lebanon and Israel and Palestine, oh my!

Will the world ever know peace in our time? I’ve got my doubts. But, my imagination fired with a delicious, filling meal at Jerusalem Kitchen, I’ve got an idea: What if we all tried just a little harder to get to know our neighbors through food? Continue reading Delicious food and an idea for world peace at Jerusalem Kitchen →

Industry Standard, Marsha Lynch

The Highwire of Ordering

A chef or kitchen manager has to juggle their many other daily tasks and also order fresh products and dry goods and front-of-the-house supplies. Sometimes deliveries don’t go as planned. Then it’s up to that person who’s in charge of ordering to call their purveyors and ask for corrections that will (hopefully) arrive in time to make service happen successfully. Continue reading The Highwire of Ordering →

$ Budget (under $30), Hikes Point, LEO's Eats, Mexican, Cuban, Caribbean, QuickBytes

Bodega mi Sueño — worlds of delicious I

Well, here we are again, another week that finds me torn between two new spots that feature cheap, delicious world cuisine: Bodega mi Sueño in West Buechel dishes out mouth-watering Cuban fare in oversize portions in the casual setting of a traditional bodega. Ngon Appétit in Clifton Heights offers a short but tasty list of Vietnamese fare with a hint of the French accent that a colonial empire left behind.

Let’s go to both! Continue reading Bodega mi Sueño — worlds of delicious I →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, LEO's Eats, Pacific Rim, QuickBytes

Ngon Appétit — worlds of delicious II

I’m afraid LEO Weekly’s Taste Bud writer, Kevin Gibson, who wrote fondly of Sam’s Hot Dog stand on Lower Brownsboro in 2015, is going to be sorry to learn that Sam’s has gone away. I expect his regret will be tempered, though, as it is for us all, by the recent arrival of Ngon Appétit, successor to the late and lamented Four Sisters, serving up Vietnamese-French crêpes, banh mi, and a worthy pho. Continue reading Ngon Appétit — worlds of delicious II →