It’s Derby Week, and I should be writing a pithy column about how to score the best reservation and where to get the best box lunch to take with you to the track. I should be schooling you on how to sneak your liquor into the infield, via fake breast implants and/or false-bottom cooler magic.
However: a five year old child died in an Atlanta restaurant last Friday. Continue reading This Should Never Have Happened
Have you strolled, jogged or biked across the Big Four walking bridge yet? Who hasn’t? According to the Waterfront Development Corp., about 1,500,000 people enjoy the mile-long bridge between Louisville and Jeffersonville, Ind., every year. Reopening the abandoned, rusting 1895 railroad bridge as a linear public park has proven to be a great idea.
And now, thanks to another great idea, it’s even better. Step off the Indiana end, and what to your wondering eyes should appear, directly across Jeffersonville’s Pearl Street from the foot of the bridge ramp, but a beautifully restored, 181-year-old mansion and extensive gardens, now revealed as Parlour, an inviting pizzeria and beer garden. Continue reading Parlour offers a cozy oasis for bridge walkers and everyone
We all love hamburgers, don’t we? During a thoroughly satisfying lunch at Grind Burger Kitchen the other day, I found myself thinking existentially about the burger. What exactly is a hamburger, anyway? The Oxford American Dictionary gives us the basics: “A round patty of ground beef, fried or grilled and typically served on a bun or roll and garnished with various condiments.” Continue reading Grind Burger Kitchen: not cheap, but worth it
Let’s see … Mexican, Mayan, Venezuelan, Nigerian, soul food, Indian. What culinary genre haven’t I tried lately? Oh, wait, how about some good, old-school American food? Continue reading We relax with upscale comfort food at The Blackstone Grille
I’m pretty sure I have told you before that I love Indian food. Why do I love it? Let me count the ways: It brings bold, bright flavors, that may be as fiery as the gates of hell or as mild as a baby’s kiss, whichever way you like it. Continue reading We celebrate and highly recommend the Indian joys of Tikka House
I attended culinary school in a night and weekend program that lasted most of three years, while still working full time at a bank job where I had employer-assisted health insurance, paid sick days and vacation. Sometimes I look back and laugh at the fact I was putting myself in years of debt to be trained to work a job that nearly always pays less than a full-time office position, and rarely has any benefits like insurance or paid time off, but that’s a subject for another column. Continue reading Line Cooks – What do they do all day?
We’ve got a great idea to restore vibrant commerce to Louisville’s West End, and it doesn’t have anything to do with Walmart or a hip food park.
No, our plan is much simpler: We start by erasing that infamous and wholly imaginary wall along Ninth Street. We go to the West End. We make friends. Then we give our business to the local institutions that are already serving the community with pride.
I can’t think of a better place to begin than Irma Dee’s, a charming, bright little cafe that opened a few weeks ago on a main street in the city’s Parkland neighborhood. Continue reading Go west for meat-and-three at Irma Dee’s
What do Americans know about Nigeria? Not much, to be frank, and sadly enough, a lot of what it isn’t good. Beyond Internet scammers with wacky schemes and Boko Haram terrorists, what do we know?
The most populous country in Africa, whose Yoruba culture goes back more than 1,000 years, and one of the world’s top producers of oil, Nigeria boasts coastal cities with glittering office towers and luxury living for the 1 percent. On the other hand, about 70 percent of Nigerians live in extreme poverty.
In other words, it sounds a little bit like Trump’s America! But let’s not go there today. Let’s focus instead on the warm and friendly people of a tropical nation with a hearty cuisine that’s well worth discovering. Continue reading Funmi’s favors us with Nigerian flavors
Our immigrant neighbors have taught us to love tacos. They’ve introduced us to gorditas, and roti, chapatis and naan, bao and banh mi and pitas and lavash and much, much more; and for all these carb-loaded delights we are much in their debt.
Now say hello to the Venezuelan arepa, yet another appealing way to enclose something good to eat within a tasty wrapper, a hand-held treat that long pre-dates the invention of Lord John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich. Continue reading Arepas y mas! Nahyla’s brings us Venezuelan delights
Recently, I got a call about a memorial wake for a fellow industry worker who had died unexpectedly while working at a city he’d moved to out west. The man who died wasn’t elderly, but he had been feeling poorly in the weeks leading up to his death. He didn’t seek medical help because he didn’t have health insurance. Continue reading A Tribe Called Us
