I know this may seem an odd thing to say about an eatery in New Albany, but it’s true: A visit to Louis Le Français comes surprisingly close to dining in France.
How authentic is it? Here’s how: I decided to give my limited language skills a workout by ordering a dish in French. Continue reading Let’s say “bonjour” to Louis Le Français
It’s hard to believe that Decca opened its doors only about three months ago. This long-awaited arrival on the NuLu scene came in with a sense of excitement, occasioned both by its setting in one of the 1870s brick buildings that long had housed Wayside Christian Mission and by the San Francisco culinary heritage of its founding team. Continue reading Decca earns its place in the NuLu scene
Since the loss of Deitrich’s and the short-lived Le Beaujolais at the Douglass Loop, the lack of a good French bistro in this town has been a major whining point for foodies. Sure, we have the awesome Le Relais, but it’s a fancy, upscale restaurant, hardly a bistro by any standard.
So what is a bistro? It’s hard to define simply in English, but let’s call it the Parisian model of a friendly, family-owned neighborhood restaurant that offers a simple bill of fare and tasty libations at wallet-friendly prices, with no pomp or circumstance.
Continue reading La Coop brings bistro to town
The buzzing gallery and nightspot zone along East Market Street that the PR-meisters wish we would call “NuLu” has become so crowded lately that, as Yogi said, nobody goes there anymore. Of course, this is not true. In fact, thousands of people joyously cram the nabe in pursuit of art and good things to eat and drink, and doubly so on weekend evenings.
Continue reading Beating the crowds with a weekday lunch at Rye
Preview by Deb Hall
This is a report on a pre-opening media tasting. La Coop opens to the public on Tuesday, April 24.
The latest addition to the East Market corridor – La Coop-Bistro A Vins – aims for the welcoming ambience of a neighborhood French bistro, and succeeds very well. They’ve done amazing things with the former 732 Social space- now transformed from its former industrial vibe into a warm and inviting space that feels very much like the actual bistros in France.
Continue reading Craving French bistro? Here comes La Coop!
The blue and white logo on the western side of Decca’s 136-year-old building in NuLu may be painted to look weathered and old, but this popular spot is actually one of the hottest new tickets in its rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
But it would be a mistake to think of Decca as merely another NuLu hipster hangout. Consider it instead an icon-in-the-making, book-ending the eastern end of the downtown strip as Proof on Main holds down the west.
Continue reading Decca is an icon in the making
You would think that everyone in town knows that Caffe Classico is far more than just another Frankfort Avenue coffee shop by now. After all, I’ve probably told about 80 percent of you personally! But for whatever reason this Clifton jewel remains undiscovered, at least by quite a few, so let’s say it again, this time to the whole group of you: “Caffe Classico is far more than just another coffee shop!” Continue reading Caffe Classico: A classic in Clifton
Ever since North End Cafe opened in Clifton nearly a decade ago, the name of the place seemed a little odd to me. When I grew up in Louisville, we sorted our town into East End, South End and West End, and back in those Baby Boom days of Elvis, tail fins and ducktails, those were the urban ends of the city, not the suburbs. There was not much out there but farms, as far as we knew.
So the arrival in 2003 of this comfortable, casual bistro in Clifton made little geographical sense to me. What’s a North End? Someplace over in Indiana? Nope, it’s right there on lower Frankfort Avenue, inner end of what we used to call the East End.
Continue reading East End, South End, where’s the North End?
Let’s welcome the Voice-Tribune’s move to NuLu late in 2011 with a word of praise for another long-time St. Matthews institution that’s thriving there. The classy bistro Wiltshire on Market is a direct descendant of Susan Hershberg’s much-loved Wiltshire Pantry, which got its start on Wiltshire Avenue in St. Matthews.
Its always appealing menu is based on American culinary traditions with international touches, and a strong emphasis on fresh, local produce and meat. Wiltshire opened on Market in April 2009, so it’s practically an institution by the fast-moving standard of its trendy neighborhood. Continue reading Wiltshire is thriving on Market
If you’re sitting in a friendly diner working on a stack of blueberry pancakes, and you suddenly realize the bar at the back of the room offers selected tastings of small-batch and single-barrel bourbons with tasting sheets to record your impressions, you have almost certainly found your way to Bardstown, Ky. Continue reading Bardstown: epicenter of bourbon and good eats
