Category Archives: $$ Modest ($30-$50)

Four Pegs scores with smoky wings, ribs, and … jackfruit!?

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

It’s easy to run out of superlatives when we’re talking about the barbecue at Four Pegs in Germantown.

  • You’ve got those hefty, flavorful wings that come in a squadron of memorable flavors.
  • You’ve got those firm, flavorful, impeccably sauced baby back ribs.
  • And you’ve got that tender, mouth-watering pulled jackfruit

What?

Continue reading Four Pegs scores with smoky wings, ribs, and … jackfruit!?

Blue Dog’s new owner keeps on keeping on

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

It was a chilly, cloudy Saturday morning in January. The temperature was hovering around 37º. Even so, the sidewalk tables in front of Frankfort Avenue’s beloved Blue Dog Bakery & Café were filling up just the same, hungry travelers clad in parkas and mittens, eagerly awaiting a steaming coffee drink and pastry treat.

Inside Blue Dog’s warm, cozy space was jammed with more eager supplicants. Counter service would begin any moment, and they were ready.

“It’s always like this,” Blue Dog’s new owner Libbie Ackerman Loeser said with a smile.

Continue reading Blue Dog’s new owner keeps on keeping on

We love Sankalp Indian, once we found it

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

I try not to miss much when it comes to developments in local restaurants. It happened this month, though, when I finally got to Sankalp Louisville for what proved to be one of the best Indian meals ever.

Where has this place been all my life? Or to be more specific, why was I so clueless about this large, stylish Indian eatery that had announced its opening in an Instagram post almost exactly 18 months ago?

Continue reading We love Sankalp Indian, once we found it

Banish the winter chill with warming pho at Eatz

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Vietnam is a tropical country, mostly. In its southern reaches, around Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and the Mekong Delta, it’s searing hot and sopping humid virtually all year.

So how did a country so torrid give birth to pho, that aromatic, beefy soup-as-entree that’s delicious all year ‘round but lovably warming during winter’s icy blasts?

Continue reading Banish the winter chill with warming pho at Eatz

Indian? Mexican? Treat yourself to both at Tikka Tacos

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

What is tikka? Based on a Punjabi word meaning “small pieces of meat,” it’s an Indian dish of marinated, tandoor-roasted meat. Eat them right up, or serve them in a creamy sauce as tikka masala.

Okay, then, what’s a taco? You’re kidding me, right? Everyone knows what a taco is.

But what happens if for some inexplicable reason someone decided to put these two things together? Shazam! Now we’ve got Tikka Tacos, a curiously delightful new spot on Preston Street near Audubon Park.

Continue reading Indian? Mexican? Treat yourself to both at Tikka Tacos

Twig and Leaf goes Latin at dinner time

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Any discussion of Louisville’s oldest and most iconic restaurants can’t reasonably overlook Twig & Leaf. Founded in 1962, this Douglass Loop neighborhood landmark with its iconic leaf-shaped neon sign has been a local go-to spot for diner fare for a long, long time.

Sure, this place has had its ups and downs. Passing though many ownership hands over the years, it’s been cherished at times, avoided at others: Favored by ‘60s hippies with the late-night munchies, later hailed by the Highlands lunch set, sometimes widely ignored, the Twig endures.

Continue reading Twig and Leaf goes Latin at dinner time

Gasthaus space gives way to All Thai’d Up

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Wait! What? There’s a Thai restaurant in the space that housed the German restaurant Gasthaus for nearly 30 years!?

Yep, and the new arrival, All Thai’d Up, is a good Thai eatery, too. Still, it came as a surprise when Gasthaus announced its departure in a social media post in May 2022.

Continue reading Gasthaus space gives way to All Thai’d Up

We chaat it up at Shreeji Indian

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

I’m not great at small talk, but I love chaat. Okay, I can hear the chorus of boos from here. I’ll just show myself out.

Seriously, though, the Indian street food delight known as chaat appeals to me, so much so that a search on the word in the Louisville HotBytes archives brought up references at a dozen different local Indian eateries. I’ve eaten plenty of chaat, and I’ve spent plenty of words trying to describe it. Continue reading We chaat it up at Shreeji Indian

The Goose has landed, and we’re happy about that

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Two popular East End restaurants did a kind of corporate musical chairs this fall: It all started when Goose Creek Diner closed its shop on Goose Creek Lane after more than 20 years, and Sal’s Pizza & Sports Pub on Lyndon Lane closed last December after a dozen years.

Neighbors promptly begain grieving the loss of their familiar watering holes, but the events seemed unavoidable. Goose Creek Diner’s landlord decided to raze its building. Sal’s owner simply decided it was time to retire. Neighbors at both places wondered where they were going to go for down-home fare in a friendly environment.

It didn’t take long for Goose Creek to answer that question. Continue reading The Goose has landed, and we’re happy about that

New Uptown Cafe, a lot like the old Uptown Cafe

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

As autumn 2020 chilled into the first Covid winter, one of the hardest hits of a run of bad restaurant news came when Uptown Cafe announced that it was closing on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, seemingly ending a 35-year run as a fixture on Bardstown Road’s Restaurant Row.

Uptown was comfortable, cozy, reasonably affordable, yet stylish, more a bistro than a diner. If it wasn’t a place where everyone knew your name, at least it was a place where your face was always familiar. Continue reading New Uptown Cafe, a lot like the old Uptown Cafe