Category Archives: $$$$ Luxury ($80 and up)

Anoosh is back! Now, what is he going to do?

Here’s a pro tip for restaurant servers: Don’t suck up. Even if you think you’ve spotted a food critic in the house, don’t do it. It can lead to no good end.

Or maybe you don’t reserve the obsequiousness for suspected food writers. Maybe you fawn over everyone who comes in the door, thinking that bowing and scraping like a rug merchant in a Middle Eastern bazaar will prompt everyone to shower you with big tips.

Take this clue: It doesn’t work. Or it sure as hell doesn’t work for me, anyway.
Continue reading Anoosh is back! Now, what is he going to do?

The more Jack Fry’s changes, the more it stays the same

Jack Fry’s! The very name of this Highlands landmark makes many of us smile. Fry’s feels like an enduring landmark, a piece of Louisville culinary history that always stays the same. Which is kind of funny when you consider that it has changed both owner and chef since my last review.
Continue reading The more Jack Fry’s changes, the more it stays the same

Asiatique does fusion even when fusion isn’t a thing

Hey, when did fusion cuisine stop being a thing? It seems like only yesterday – well, OK, maybe it was the ’80s and ’90s – when top chefs had everyone oohing and aahing over such multicultural goodies as Wolfie Puck’s smoked salmon and caviar pizza at Beverly Hills’ Ma Maison or Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s pricey Thai-French mash-ups at his almost-eponymous Vong restaurant in New York City. Continue reading Asiatique does fusion even when fusion isn’t a thing

It’s an eatery! It’s an art show! It’s Proof on Main!

What the Flock?! No, that’s not a question. It’s a title, the moniker artist Johnston Foster bestowed on the “site-specific installation” (you or I might call it a “sculpture show”) that, since 2012, has filled the overhead space in Proof on Main with a squadron of exploding seagulls.

Let’s face it, Proof on Main is that kind of place. It’s housed in the trendy confines of Louisville’s much applauded 21c Museum Hotel, which includes the word “museum” in its name with good reason: The place is loaded with wacky yet meaningful art that incorporates everything from its signature red penguins to the giant golden replica of Michelangelo’s “David” out front to, well, exploding gulls. Continue reading It’s an eatery! It’s an art show! It’s Proof on Main!

Brasserie Provence shows grace and good eats in dinner rush

Je vais avoir le canard,” said my friend Anne, summoning a French teacher and one-time expat’s easy fluency.

Our server looked puzzled, though. “Maybe you could point it out on the menu,” he said, blushing a little. “I’m still learning the dishes.”

I’m not picking on the guy, though. He showed Hemingway-esque grace under fire as our party of four spent the evening on a lavish meal at Brasserie Provence. We enjoyed his service, a fine Loire Cabernet Franc and an excellent, mostly authentic Provencal meal while allowing plenty of slack for a kitchen slammed by capacity crowds on its first full weekend. Continue reading Brasserie Provence shows grace and good eats in dinner rush

Pat’s Steak House is a retro diorama of good eats

Imagine, if you will, a really excellent, life-like diorama, one of those fascinating museum displays that you’ll find in New York’s Museum of Natural History or Chicago’s Field Museum. It’s a large, almost life-size three-dimensional display that re-creates a historical scene, freezing a moment in time for our intrigued inspection.
Continue reading Pat’s Steak House is a retro diorama of good eats

Old-school comfort and fine dining at St. Charles Exchange

Americans have long formed a ready market for new things made to look old. From suburban tracts full of “colonials” to the Ethan Allen furniture company, we love the feeling of historical things around us, as long as we don’t have to live with sketchy wiring, noisy heating systems and plumbing that requires frequent professional assistance.

But now and then something that was old becomes new again and it works just right. I submit in evidence St. Charles Exchange, the lovely, appealing dining room and watering hole that appeared last spring in one of the oldest buildings on West Main Street.
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Lilly’s was locavore before locavore was cool

Turn the hands of your food-memory clock, if you will, back to 1987 or 1988. It was a very good time for Louisville restaurants – and when hasn’t it been?

The upscale bistro movement that had started with the Bristol, Formally Myra’s, Jack Fry’s and others a decade earlier had matured and blossomed. Our chop suey Chinese-American tradition had evolved into spicy regional eateries serving fare from Hunan and Sichuan. Fine French dining was here in the form of Le Relais. Authentic New Mexico cooking had arrived with Chico’s; our first sushi with Sachicoma, our first Korean hidden in the back room at Lee’s, and our first Thai at Thai Siam.

Frankly, local food lovers figured that we’d gone about as far as we could go. Continue reading Lilly’s was locavore before locavore was cool

How is Le Relais like a high-school reunion?

Imagine, if you will, a high school reunion. A seemingly ordinary reunion, perhaps 25 years after you graduated and left town for new challenges. You return, eager to see old friends again. Hey, Jack hasn’t changed a bit! Trent and Joanie got married, gained a few pounds as they slouched into middle age. Ronnie is bald!

And then, across the room, a tall, slender form appears. It’s Lizzie! The cheerleader you had a crush on. She must be a beauty still. You walk over to say hello. She turns, smiles and … oh.
Continue reading How is Le Relais like a high-school reunion?

Z’s and a lesson in steakhouse economics

Let’s consider the economics of steak. Hungry for a sizzling rare boneless strip? Meijer had USDA choice for $7.99 a pound this week. (Kroger had flatiron, a chunk of chuck, for just $5.99 a pound, but let’s keep things upscale with strip or rib eye.) Bring it home, slap it on the grill, add a potato and a salad, and you’ve got steak dinner for two for $10. Such a deal.

Now let’s tinker with this scenario. Continue reading Z’s and a lesson in steakhouse economics