Category Archives: Breakfast and lunch spots, sandwich spots

Get your lunch in the cone zone at Neighborhood Café

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Some say the ancient Romans loved ice cream, but that was really just Alpine snow, literally run down from the Alps to serve in the Caesars’ courts. Ice cream as we know it came about in Europe around the time of the American revolution, and Thomas Jefferson reportedly served it with delight at Monticello.
Continue reading Get your lunch in the cone zone at Neighborhood Café

Bardstown: epicenter of bourbon and good eats

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

Breakfast for lunch, and vice-versa, at Verbena Cafe

Breakfast appeals to me, and I’m more than willing to take on a platter of eggs, biscuits and hash browns at any time of day.  Breakfast for dinner? I’m there!

I like that about Verbena Cafe, a popular spot at Norton Commons: You can get breakfast any time they’re open, which makes an omelet, blueberry pancakes or even a raspberry Nutella crepe an entirely reasonable proposition even at 2 p.m.
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Want a New York City bagel? Try Baby D’s

Gather round, young ‘uns, and let me try to explain why we graying Baby Boomers care so much about bagels. You see, there was a time in Louisville when you couldn’t grab one at every coffee shop or buy ‘em by the sack at the grocery store.

No, until the 1970s or thereabouts, a bagel was a rare and unusual thing. You basically had to go to New York City or Chicago to get one. When a bagel bakery opened in Cincinnati some time during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, we would actually drive up there to get a bag full. And when Louisville’s first bagel shop opened in Hikes Point a few years later, the city knew bagel jubilation.

Now they’re everywhere! Continue reading Want a New York City bagel? Try Baby D’s

Don’t think twice — Highland Morning’s all right

Breakfast places come and go. Some last for just an eye-blink; some earn landmark status; some hang around long after they should have hung up the spatula.

Bardstown Road’s latest addition to the fast-breaking genre, Highland Morning, crept in quietly. After a bustling grand opening, last week the café had settled into a relaxed pace serving comfort food — with a bountiful twist.
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Verbena could make Grandpa proud

burritos

Verbena Café is one of those places that always seems to smell like home. For Mike Cortino, the smell is likely a reminder of much more.

Mike and his wife, Laurie, opened Verbena in Norton Commons this past autumn. They based Verbena’s fare on dishes served in restaurants founded by Mike’s grandfather and operated by his family back in the 1960s in Chicago. Verbena specializes in omelets, crepes, pancakes, waffles and eggs Benedict, and offers sandwiches, entrées and salads for the lunch crowd.
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For a good country-fried steak, go to Goose Creek Diner

country fried steak
Country fried steak at Goose Creek Diner

I wouldn’t want to say that my food preferences are those of a city boy, but let’s put it this way: In years of dining at my parents’ table, I never realized grits were served with breakfast until I ran into this odd practice elsewhere. And I was a fully grown adult before my first encounter with country-fried steak.
Continue reading For a good country-fried steak, go to Goose Creek Diner

Breakfast gets even better at Meridian Cafe

pita stuffed with lox

I like breakfast. Eggs, bacon or ham, French toast or pancakes, hash browns, whatever, it’s all good to me. I can eat breakfast in the morning, I can eat it for lunch. I’ll even consider eating breakfast for dinner, or an omelet anyway.
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Salads to order, chop chop at Chop Shop

salad with beef

Voice-Tribune review by LouisvilleHotBytes
Stand in the center of St. Matthews at lunch time and look around. Try to find something healthy. Okay, there’s … um … pub grub. More pub grub. And still more pub grub! There’s a hearty Irish stew. Over there, hot dogs. Quick-service Chinese food. Fast-food sandwiches. Fried fish, and more fried fish. Danish pastries, yum … and pizza!

Yep, we’ve got lots of goodies to tantalize the taste buds here, but options are more limited when you’re in the mood for a light and healthy lunch. Continue reading Salads to order, chop chop at Chop Shop

Looking for Mr. Goodlunch

Two new spots — Dish on Market and Hillbilly Tea

plate of fried fish, fries, slawIf dinner is about dressing up, hitting the town and unwinding at the end of a long day of work, lunch has more to do with packing as much enjoyment as we can into a breather from the toil. Two recent arrivals downtown do a worthy job of satisfying the crave.
Continue reading Looking for Mr. Goodlunch