LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
(By Paige Moore-Heavin)
When my friend Lynn suggested Captain Pepper Jack’s Aero Bistro for girls’ night out, I was a little confused. This place, which opened near Bowman Field in May, was new to me. “It’s part Southern American and part Mediterranean,” she said. Well, that’s an odd combination. But, ever the foodie, I was willing to give this culinary mash-up a try.
Continue reading Fried chicken? Falafels? Captain Pepper Jack’s mixes it up
 |
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.
Continue reading High-tech bar, award-winning fare lift Boombozz Taphouse
 |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
So we’re walking down Baxter just north of Highland Avenue, well into the city’s club zone, and suddenly a new hanging sign catches my eye.
“BUNZ,” it reads, like a hip-hop interpretation of a bread store specializing in … naw, can’t be. We swerved into the tiny quarters that had previously housed Omar’s Gyros and found a spiffy new shop specializing in hamburgers – fat, dense and beefy burgers, mounted, of course, on exceptional buns. Er, bunz.
Located just across the street from Derby City Dogs and a block or so north from the new Highlands branch of Lonnie’s Taste of Chicago, another hot-dog store, this recent arrival would seem to mark a new high-water mark for restaurant specialization in the neighborhood.
Continue reading Great Bunz, loaded with splendid burgers
 |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Want a fried whitefish sandwich on rye that’s as good as you’ll find in this fish-loving town? Want a gyros that’s bigger than your head, piled high with excellent Greek-style grilled beef and lamb, so big you really need to eat it with knife and fork?
Never before has one been able to enjoy such disparate ethnic goodies at a single table in Louisville.
Let’s hail the arrival of Zaytún Mediterranean Grill, a small, casual but attractive eatery that’s packing in crowds for lunch and dinner at the small Highlands spot that once housed Andrew’s, a forgettable diner.
 |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
We’ve talked before about how Louisville’s Iranian-American community started in the 1970s with a crowd of students at the University of Louisville who decided to stay around when the Ayatollah Khomeini led the Iranian revolution and things went sour back home.
Iran’s loss has been Louisville’s gain, as a surprising number of these folks went into the restaurant business. Initially many of Louisville’s Iranians worked at the late, storied Casa Grisanti. They eventually ventured out to start restaurants of their own, and in more recent years have begun introducing us to their native cuisine. (The respected restaurateur Majid Ghavami, for instance, bridges this gap, now serving as both owner of Saffron’s, the city’s first Iranian restaurant, and general manager of Volare, one of our most popular Italian eateries.)
Now comes another Italian-to-Iranian translation, as the owners of Café Glace on Frankfort Avenue, a gelato shop, have opened Caspian Grill, an excellent Persian restaurant on Bardstown Road, in the quarters formerly occupied by Sweet Surrender.
Continue reading A magic carpet ride to Caspian Grill
What does fine dining have to do with politics? Consider this: The post-election map of the metro’s voting precincts painted a telling picture of Jefferson County demographics in stark red and blue, and we’re not talking Cardinals and Wildcats. Inside the Watterson, the city’s liberal enclaves and African-American neighborhoods were solid Obama blue. The suburbs, in contrast, bled McCain red.
As a statistical generalization, the city and its suburbs are different, and that difference extends to dining preferences. There’s a reason why the ‘burbs are awash with chain dining while most of the independent local eateries that make Louisville weird are located in the People’s Republics of the Highlands, Clifton and Crescent Hill, plus enclaves in and around downtown and St. Matthews.
So, while I was really sorry to learn that Chef Anthony Lamas was closing Seviche A Latin Bistro, his suburban operation on Goose Creek Road, after just under a year in business, I was not surprised.
Continue reading Seviche: And then there was one. That one!
 |
|
| The grilled lamb with a spicy sauce is one of the many tapas available at De la Torre’s. Photo by Robin Garr |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
The next time you settle down to a selection of tapas and find yourself feeling grateful for small-plates dining, you might want to pause for a moment of silence in memory of King Alfonso the Wise of Castile.
Legend says that Alfonso, the 13th century monarch known for his smarts and taste for good eats and drink, invented the tapa as a get-well snack to be taken with good Spanish red wine when he was under a nasty illness. When he recovered, it is said, King Alf was so delighted with this healthy diet that he ordered taverns throughout the kingdom to serve it.
Another story traces the tapa to Andalusia, where Sherry bars developed the custom of serving glasses of the strong, sweet local wine with a slice of bread to serve as a cover or lid (“tapa” in Spanish) to keep the fruit flies out of one’s beverage. Soon a cagey entrepreneur dropped a few olives atop the bread; his competitor countered with a slice of Serrano ham, and before long, tapas had evolved.
Continue reading Small bites add up to fine dinner at De la Torre’s
 |
|
| Jarfi’s menu has changed a bit (it’s always evolving), but what is truly new here is the atmosphere. The fare ranges from that of a French-style bistro to a sushi bar. LEO photos by Jane Mattingly |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com; Guest Critic Kevin Gibson
Jarfi’s Bistro relocated from the Kentucky Center to the former Lentini’s Little Italy location on Bardstown Road in April. While it seems an odd metamorphosis for a place that, for more than 40 years, was Louisville’s epicenter of authentic Italian dining, Jeff Jarfi’s stylish international bistro is right at home in its new digs.
Jarfi’s menu has changed a bit (it’s always evolving), but what is truly new here is the atmosphere – whereas Lentini’s was upscale and old-world sophisticated, the new Jarfi’s is colorful, vibrant and ethnically diverse. Under one roof, diners can encounter a French-style bistro, a Moroccan lounge, a sushi bar, traditional formal dining and a Times Square-themed dining hall.
Continue reading Jarfi’s finds a new home in former Lentini’s
 |
|
| Ethiopian restaurant Queen of Sheba recently moved into the old Mazzoni’s building across from Bowman Field. Photo by Robin Garr. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
“Don’t eat with your fingers!” This nugget of parental advice is known to just about every child. It’s an integral part of the process of growing up with good manners.
From time to time, though, there’s a certain pleasure in casting aside knives and forks and diving right in. This casual approach works with fried chicken, for instance. Or the appropriately named finger sandwiches. Or a rack of juicy ribs. Just bring plenty of napkins.
Aficionados of ethnic food know another finger-food delight that, with a bit of experience, can actually be consumed with a degree of delicacy in a white-tablecloth setting. We’re talking about Ethiopian fare, an East African alternative that may currently be enjoyed at two local eateries.
Both Blue Nile and Queen of Sheba serve Ethiopian food in the traditional style, all dishes spread out on a large, communal plate lined with thin, spongy injera bread, with more of the bread served in rolls that replace our Western knives and forks.
Continue reading We eat with our fingers, tastefully
 |
|
| If you’re in the mood for a more casual experience, the rear patio at Le Relais is more laid-back and offers a bonus: It overlooks the runway and hangars, so you can watch small planes come and go. Photo by Robin Garr. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com, with Guest Critic Paige Moore-Heavin
Le Relais consistently ranks among my top five restaurants in Louisville, and on any given night, it can make the top one. Yet a lot of people are wary of experiencing this great dining room. Some fear it will be too expensive. Others sweat the potential embarrassment of being unable to read a fancy French menu.
There’s no need for concern, says LouisvilleHotBytes correspondent Paige Moore-Heavin, who recently checked out Le Relais and found the price doable (especially if you go for the special-deal prix fixe menu) and the friendly attitude entirely bilingual. Here’s her report:
Continue reading French Flying: Le Relais soars