Category Archives: Commentary

Robin Garr’s musings about food and restaurant matters that don’t fit neatly into the “review” category.

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Downtown, NuLu and Butchertown, Pubs, Brew Pubs, GastroPubs, underSlideshowEntries

Surfin’ the bacon bubble at The Blind Pig

Sandwich
The Blind Pig's Ivory Bacon sandwich. PHOTO: Ron Jasin

The chattering classes in the urban centers are badmouthing bacon, and I don’t want to hear it.
“We are in the midst of a bacon bubble,” The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, and The Atlantic gleefully passed it on. “A growing number of chefs … say it’s about to pop,” snorted Journal reporter Katy McLaughlin. “Bacon had a good run, but now it has gone flabby — used too much and too often, it’s lost its novelty and coated fine dining with a ubiquitous veneer of porky grease.”
Harrumph. I’m callin’ bacon fat.
Bacon, like pizza and barbecue, is one of nature’s finest foods. Continue reading Surfin’ the bacon bubble at The Blind Pig →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Italian (and Pizza), St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, underSlideshowEntries

Naked Pizza strips down to the essentials

pizza with olives
Mediterranean Pizza from Naked Pizza
Voice-Tribune review by LouisvilleHotBytes

What’s a Naked pizza? Just about everyone does a double-take when they first hear the name of this popular new takeout eatery in St. Matthews.

So let’s get a couple of things straight: First, the pizzas here are not served, er, bare. They’re fully clothed with sauce, cheese and delectable toppings. What’s more, you don’t have to be naked to go there. In fact, public nudity is just as strictly discouraged within these quarters as it is everywhere else in St. Matthews.

So what’s this Naked thing? Frankly, it’s hard to tell. I’ve perused this new but fast-growing franchise chain’s Website carefully, but they don’t spell it out. Continue reading Naked Pizza strips down to the essentials →

Commentary, underSlideshowEntries

Herbocrite seeks veggie enlightenment: Creative veggie dishes at local restaurants

burger on bun with chips

This story appears in LEO’s Dining Guide 2010.

Some days you feel like a nut, as the old Almond Joy commercial told us, and some days you don’t. As for me, some days I feel like a bloody haunch of barely seared cow flesh. Some days I feel like alfalfa sprouts and tofu.

Is there a name for a wannabe vegetarian who likes meat way too much to give it up? I’m thinking “herbocrite,” and I’m willing to bear the label with pride.
Continue reading Herbocrite seeks veggie enlightenment: Creative veggie dishes at local restaurants →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Hikes Point, underSlideshowEntries, World Food

Mr. Pollo Restaurant offers a simple and safe taste of Peru

grilled chicken and fries
Mr. Pollo's chicken (photo: Ron Jasin)
LEO’s Eats with LouisvilleHotBytes

Ahh, the cuisines of Peru. Some of my most memorable food experiences occurred in this hospitable South American land.
Like the time we stayed over in Cuzco, high in the Andes, after a trip to Machu Picchu. Bored by our hotel’s American-style dining room, we went in search of something more authentic: pollo a la brasa — charcoal-roasted chicken, that is, modern Peru’s people’s fare. We soon found a cozy spot with a sign that read, simply, “Pollo” (“Chicken”).
Continue reading Mr. Pollo Restaurant offers a simple and safe taste of Peru →

$ Budget (under $30), Breakfast and lunch spots, sandwich spots, Commentary, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, underSlideshowEntries

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.
Continue reading Breakfast gets even better at Meridian Cafe →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Southern Indiana, underSlideshowEntries, World Food

Boomin’ Cuban comes to New Albany: Meet Habana Blues Cuban Tapas Restaurant

lamb chops on plate

A few weeks ago, reporting from El Rumbon, the Cuban street-food trailer near Oxmoor, I uttered this simple forecast: “Cuban food is starting to look like the next big thing on the Louisville culinary scene.”
Continue reading Boomin’ Cuban comes to New Albany: Meet Habana Blues Cuban Tapas Restaurant →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Commentary, Guest columnist, Pubs, Brew Pubs, GastroPubs, St. Matthews, Westport Village, and environs, underSlideshowEntries

Cleavage Wars: Hooters vs. Tilted Kilt

beef and pepers on plate

Well, well, well — Hooters has some competition in its previously uncontested milieu. You know: laid-back environment, pub grub, cold beer, multiple TVs ablaze with sports. Oh yeah, and cleavage. Lots of cleavage.

After hearing the buzz about the Tilted Kilt, 6201 Dutchmans Lane (the former Ernesto’s building, Oldenburg before that), I considered checking it out. But hey, Hooters is like an old friend; I didn’t want to be disloyal.
Continue reading Cleavage Wars: Hooters vs. Tilted Kilt →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Frankfort Ave., Clifton, Crescent Hill, Pubs, Brew Pubs, GastroPubs, underSlideshowEntries

‘Crack-a-licious’ small plates at the Irish Rover

Salmon potato puffs

The Irish Rover has been my comfy neighborhood pub for a long time now. We moved back to town from exile in New York City in 1994, not long after the Rover had opened its authentically Irish digs in a historic Crescent Hill building that began life more than 150 years ago as a saloon.
Continue reading ‘Crack-a-licious’ small plates at the Irish Rover →

$ Budget (under $30), Bistros, Commentary, Northeast Metro, underSlideshowEntries

Big Ben swings like a pendulum do

Fish tacos at Big Ben Cafe

Voice-Tribune review by LouisvilleHotBytes

England swings like a pendulum do.
Bobbies on bicycles, two by two.
Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben …

Roger Miller’s memorably kitschy tune is one of those melodies that sticks in your head until you want to bang your skull on the wall to make it go away.

Louisville’s new Big Ben, happily, isn’t anything like that. But drop by during a busy lunch hour or balmy evening, and chances are you will find the place swinging.

Head for the village center of new-made-to-look-old Norton Commons, and you can hardly miss the busy scene of outdoor tables and red umbrellas set up across the front of Big Ben’s red-brick quarters. Within, it’s an independent eatery made to look a great deal like a franchise chain, a dream that I suspect the owners have in mind.
Continue reading Big Ben swings like a pendulum do →