“I recently had the pleasure of dining at North of Bourbon, a New Orleans-style restaurant in Louisville. From the moment I walked in, I was transported to the vibrant, colorful world of the Big Easy.
“The atmosphere at North of Bourbon is lively and energetic, with good music, colorful Christmas decorations, and the smell of good food and spices in the air. The menu is filled with classic New Orleans dishes as well as more unusual offerings. The portions are generous, and the flavors are bold and spicy.
More than a year later, when the local food critic finally heads out to a fine local restaurant for a relaxing sit-down dinner, where does he go? For me, the answer is simple: It has to be Seviche.
I’m always reluctant to name any restaurant my Number One, as any of five or ten favorites could wear the crown on any given day. But Seviche always makes me happy. Continue reading Seviche always satisfies→
It’s hard to believe that Louisville got its first sushi bar, of sorts, as recently as the middle 1980s. (It’s also hard to believe that I’ve been writing about food and drink for that long, but that’s another story for another day.)
Back when Louisville had its first taste of locally-made sushi, served over a Fourth Street drug-store lunch counter on Thursdays only, the idea of sushi was a bit divisive. A few of us yelled “Yay!” A substantial percentage responded, “Yuk! Raw fish!”
Cochinita pibil. These two Spanish words – one common, the other not so much – shine a bright light on both the Mayan cuisine of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula and neighboring Guatemala and into one of Louisville’s favorite South-of-the-Border restaurants, Mayan Cafe.
So what’s a cochinita pibil? A little pig – that’s the easy part – long and slowly roasted in a tart, flavorful marinade of sour oranges and Mayan spices, housed in a large metal box and lowered into a pib, the traditional Mayan fire pit.
The tall gray stone sanctuary of Calvary Lutheran Church was approaching its 90th anniversary when its congregation, aging and declining in numbers, regretfully decided to pack it in. “Emptying the building. Sad work,” the Rev. Austin Newberry wrote in February 2016 in the final post on Calvary’s Facebook page.
SOU might mean “South.” It could represent “soul.” Yet the proper way to pronounce the name of this new Plainview-area eatery is not “sow” or “soo” but “So-you.” Intentional ambiguity seems to lie at the heart of this upscale dining room in a thoroughly renovated former Skyline Chili parlor, and that’s all right. Continue reading However you pronounce SOU, we sure like it.→
The bright mustard-yellow exterior paint job that made Bistro 1860 (2013-2018) stand out is gone, replaced by tasteful off-white with light sage-green trim. The huge 54-unit Cruvinet wine dispensing machine that made L & N Wine Bar (2004-2012) special is gone, too, a victim of disuse.
“Nobody goes there any more. It’s too crowded.” Yogi Berra purportedly said that, making the aphorism famous even if he didn’t say it first. Now I want to take an unlikely shot at similar fame with this Yogi-style observation: “I go to August Moon so often that I haven’t been there lately.” Continue reading Shine on, August Moon→
I love pasta in all its forms. Heck, I love it that there are so many forms. From skinny angel hair to broad pappardelle; long, short, or in-between, gimme. Pasta is my comfort food, and I’m delighted to report having achieved maximum pasta comfort at Amici Café in Old Louisville the other day. Continue reading Amici satisfies with fine pasta and more→
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