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| The original Mazzoni’s rolled oyster, now available only at Flabby’s. Photos by Robin Garr |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
With the regrettable closing of Mazzoni’s last month after 124 1/2 years in local business, Flabby’s Schnitzelburg in Germantown – under the same family ownership – is now the only place in the world where you can still munch on the original Mazzoni’s rolled oyster.
Continue reading Mazzoni’s is gone, but the rolled oyster lives
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| The Napa Tuna Sandwich, an awesome new menu item at Meridian Café. Photos by Robin Garr |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
In last week’s column, I kvetched about Napa River Grill overcooking its tuna, something I didn’t expect a fine, upscale eatery to do. This week, I visited Meridian Café, one of my favorite casual lunch spots, and found an awesome new tuna dish on the menu. They cook it right, and they call it, koinkidentally, the “Napa tuna sandwich.”
Chef Mike Ross mounts nicely seared tuna with a bright-pink interior on grilled brioche, dressed with Bibb lettuce and avocado and a hot-sweet chili sauce. It’s $9.25. I like! (Actually, I like just about everything at Meridian Café, where Ross’s eclectic and affordable bill of fare offers winning options for both breakfast and lunch.)
Meridian Café
112 Meridian Ave.
897-9703
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| Shady Lane Café owners William and Susi Smith have been in business two years. Two excellent dishes are the meatloaf (left above) and the tomato basil soup. Photo by Robin Garr |
This friendly East End spot has long been a favorite for breakfast and lunch; when my mother and sister arrived ravenous from Florida on a late-afternoon flight, I was delighted to learn that Shady Lane stays open for dinner Tuesdays through Fridays until 8 p.m.
The four of us presented ourselves for duty and had a hard time choosing from all the goodies on the blackboard menu. And fine goodies they are, priced for recessionary times. Sandwiches and specials range from $3.95 (for my mother’s choice, a classic grilled cheese sandwich, molten cheddar spilling over toast grilled to a mouth-watering golden brown) to $6.95 (for my sister’s pick, the cranberry, Granny Smith apple and walnut salad with blue Gorgonzola cheese and Dijon mustard dressing).
Continue reading Shady Lane Café: Make yourself at home
By Kevin Gibson
It’s no secret that Louisville has an excellent fine-dining scene, especially for a city its size. Still, sometimes you just want to kick back with a good sandwich and a beer.
Enter Big Al’s Beeritaville in Clifton. With a cozy bar, front patio with tables and an outdoor beer garden complete with a horseshoe pit and cornhole, it’s a fun, laid-back place to spend a Saturday afternoon or a weeknight happy hour. LEO Weekly’s own Bar Belle, Sara Havens, wrote earlier this year that the bar at the newly made-over Mac’s is “like hanging out in a friend’s basement,” which pretty much says it all.
Continue reading We kick back at Big Al’s Beeritaville
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| Kentucky Bar-B-Cue’s BLT sandwich. Photo by Robin Garr. |
Bearing in mind Columnist Marsha Lynch’s dissertation last week on selecting the special menu item at local indie eateries, I took her advice and tried a truly offbeat special last week at Kentucky Bar-B-Cue Co.
This relatively new outfit, located in the drafty, homey old Clifton saloon that used to house Café Lou Lou, now sports a new coat of red interior paint and a gallery of beer signs. It’s the latest home of the smoked-meat establishment formerly known as Bourbon Brothers BBQ.
Continue reading Turbo-charged BLT at KY BBQ Co
Serving up simple, affordable down-home fare since 1929, the Cottage Inn is one of Louisville’s oldest eateries in continuous operation. It trails Mazzoni’s (1884); but unlike the peripatetic home of the rolled oyster, which has moved repeatedly and only settled down in its new Middletown quarters this year, the Cottage Inn has remained in its original home. Kaelin’s didn’t come along until 1934, and I’m having a hard time thinking of another contender.
Continue reading Something special at the Cottage Inn
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| Located in the back of Ditto’s Grill on Bardstown Road, Stevens & Stevens has built a loyal following the old-fashioned way, providing quality fare at reasonable prices. Photos by Robin Garr. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Let’s start right out by admitting that I’ve lived in New York City off and on, had plenty of exposure to the NYC deli phenomenon, and don’t really get it.
In a metropolis known as one of the world’s great cities for fine dining, how exactly did such a genre evolve? Heavy, fatty, overpriced food, served by rude waiters whose shtick seems to be insulting the customers … and the customers love it?
It’s no surprise to me that authentic New York deli has never gained much traction in Louisville.
But make a few small changes to accommodate to the local culture, and deli can thrive in the Derby City. As evidence I cite Stevens & Stevens, a lovable eatery that certainly qualifies as a deli … but a deli with a difference. Continue reading Deli belly
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| Jason’s Deli, a relatively new arrival, is attracting big crowds to the East End suburbs. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
If Stevens & Stevens is the ultimate Louisville urban deli, a relatively new arrival, Jason’s Deli, is attracting big crowds to the East End suburbs. This 20-year-old national chain originated in Tucson, Ariz., a mighty long way from the Big Apple, but they’re obviously doing something right: There’s almost always a crowd, but the lines move fast, and I’ve never had a problem finding a table.
Continue reading Deli in the ‘burbs
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| We’re great fans of the Louisville Bats and thoroughly smitten by Slugger Field, but we’ve found ballpark food service consistently disappointing on Centerplate’s watch. Photo by Robin Garr. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes.com
Centerplate Inc., the South Carolina-based arena and ballpark catering company, has been getting a rough ride lately, with the New York Yankees dumping the company as Yankee Stadium concessionaire after a 40-year ride, and its shares plunging on Wall Street in the wake of blows ranging from financial bad news to a discrimination lawsuit by a Yankees’ bartender.
But Centerplate still rides high in the Derby City, where it not only sells us our hot dogs, peanuts and Cracker Jack in Slugger Field and Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium but is slated to be concessionaire in the controversial downtown sports arena, and also recently emerged as operator of the new Wolfgang Puck Express, an upscale fast-food emporium in downtown’s Kentucky International Convention Center.
Does New York know something that Louisville is missing? Continue reading The Yankees’ loss is our … hey!
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Ann’s by the River in Jeffersonville lives up to its tag line: “Home-cooked food like Grandma used to prepare for Sunday dinner.” LEO photos by Ben Schneider. |
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes
With guest writer Kevin Gibson
Winter is dragging its feet as it slouches on into springtime, and the closing years of the Bush economy are scaring us all as they slouch toward the dustbin of history. We’ve seen some sad restaurant closings (worst case: The lamentable loss of The Jazz Factory), and we fear that other Louisville Originals and Louisville original restaurants and nightspots might not be doing as well as we could wish.
As Derby season nears and brings smiles back to the metro landscape, we’ll be coming forth with some strong buy recommendations for local dining – and supporting the local businesses that provide it.
Today, let’s talk comfort … affordable comfort … Continue reading Simple comfort