LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (May 8, 2013)
Thomas Jefferson said it best: Government should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” This great American tradition, enshrined in the Constitution, would seem to protect us from governmental intrusion in such...Read more
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HotBytes report by Antonia Lindauer (May 8, 2013)
Sidebar, the latest about-to-be-hot spot in the Arena Zone, a hip bar and grill with a legal theme, is set to open to the public any day now. This week it’s been serving “VIP” guests in soft openings, something I generally avoid, so I invited HotBytes correspondent Antonia Lindauer...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (May 1, 2013)
If you think the Balkans are bad for bloody border warfare, just try to find a space in the maze of parking lots behind the busy storefronts of downtown St. Matthews. Warring posters warn of dire consequences if pilgrims bound for Mellow Mushroom, for example, or Plehn’s bakery, dare...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (April 26, 2013)
How do you like your cornbread? Like Scarlett O’Hara, most Southern folk don’t give a damn for sweet cornbread. North of the Mason-Dixon, however, cornbread without a touch of sweetness seems just plain weird. This topic came to mind the other day at Napa River Grill, where we were...Read more
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INDUSTRY STANDARD by Marsha Lynch (April 24, 2013)
Derby again already? I feel like I’m still recovering from last year. Since my column is usually published the last Wednesday of each month, I’ve written a few Derby week columns over the last five-plus years. I started out aiming to reread them this morning, thinking, “Well, I don’t...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (April 17, 2013)
Chipotle is here at last. Let the congregation say “Whoopee!” The 20-year-old Denver-based fast-food chain built about 1,400 units in 43 states (including a few properties in Lexington and about 30 in Greater Cincinnati) before one finally opened in downtown Louisville last month. Quite a few people have apparently...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (April 11, 2013)
I wouldn’t want to say that I’m an incurable fanboy, but I can’t deny that I’ve spent more than a few long days lining up at Oxmoor Center, eagerly waiting my turn to be among the first to grab the latest and greatest iDevice from the Apple store. And...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (April 10, 2013)
We rolled up to our destination in the gathering darkness, and I found a parking spot at the curb out front. I turned, looked up, and … wow! This looks just like our old neighborhood in New York City! It’s a sturdy, three-story block of brick, not brownstone —...Read more
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INDUSTRY STANDARD by Marsha Lynch (April 10, 2013)
A list of “50 Things They Never Told You About Being a Chef” is going around on Facebook. Naturally, I clicked. Why wouldn’t I? I enjoyed the list. Clearly it was written by a cook who’d paid some dues. There were obvious things included, like: “You will not cook...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (April 3, 2013)
Ah, burgers! Who doesn’t like a good, juicy burger? It’s ground bliss on a bun, and if you pair it with something else delicious and it gets even better. Burgers and cheese! Burgers and onions! Burgers and fries! Burgers and onion rings, oh my! But “let’s go get some...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (March 28, 2013)
Who doesn’t love a bento? Whether you grew up admiring doll houses or tool boxes, the neat, orderly compartments in a Japanese bento box, each carefully loaded with a tiny, artful portion, speaks not only to our hungry adult identities but the inner child within. In short, bentos are...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (March 20, 2013)
For those of us who grew up in an age when we thought a bipartisan series of presidents wanted to send us off to exotic places with strange names like “Vietnam” and “Thailand” to meet nice people and kill them, it is a fine thing that we now go...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (March 15, 2013)
When DiOrio’s pizza first settled into the former home of Karem’s Meats in St. Matthews, it already seemed that this booming nightspot zone was attracting more pizzerias than it could reasonably handle … and that was before Coal’s or Mellow Mushroom came to town. Still, even if the pizza...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (March 13, 2013)
Chef Edward Lee’s insanely popular new restaurant MilkWood at Actors Theatre of Louisville reminds me more than a little of Chef David Chang’s acclaimed Momofuku Ssäm Bar and other Momofuku eateries in New York, Toronto and Sydney, but I think MilkWood has the potential to be even better. Not...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (March 6, 2013)
Some restaurants become landmarks through longevity in place, gaining familiarity by virtue of “always” having been there. The Seelbach’s Oakroom and Brown Hotel’s English Grill fall easily into this category of historic worth, and a generation of Baby Boom icons — the original Bristol, Jack Fry’s, Lilly’s, Equus, Pat’s,...Read more
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INDUSTRY STANDARD by Marsha Lynch (February 27, 2013)
Oh. Ugh. Burger King acknowledged a few weeks ago that some of its burgers sold in Britain and Ireland had unfortunately included a percentage of horsemeat. Some patties sold at British supermarket chain Tesco included up to 29-percent horsemeat. Worst of all, some crappy frozen lasagna included ground horsemeat,...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (February 21, 2013)
When the Fish-Fry House opened in the Highlands last year, it generated a lot of excitement among local fried-fish lovers (who, of course, are legion), but not entirely for the right reasons. People emailed, they called, they stopped me on the street to pronounce the good news: “The Fishery...Read more
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Robin Garr (February 21, 2013)
Fish is popular in Louisville all year ’round, and doubly so during Lent. Many Roman Catholic churches offer community fried fish dinners on Fridays during Lent. The season is under way, with most dinners continuing through the last Friday before Good Friday (March 22 this year). For a listing...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (February 20, 2013)
“You’re taking forever to eat your soup,” my wife grumbled. “What are you doing?” “Juft a minip,” I mumbled. I hate to talk with my mouth full. “… six, seven, eight …” This earned me a glare, but I kept on keeping on. “Garbanzo. Pinto. Great Northern. There’s a...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (February 13, 2013)
NA Exchange got a new name when it moved down the New Albany hill: Now it’s The Exchange Pub + Kitchen. It got a new look, which is actually an old look, as it makes creative use of a historic building in New Albany’s rapidly gentrifying downtown. But it...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (February 7, 2013)
Taco Punk is just over a year old now, and I am mighty happy to see it pass that first birthday, the make-or-break point that conventional wisdom sets as a marker of success in the restaurant business. Some observers might have doubted that owner-chef Gabe Sowder’s amiable NuLu storefront would...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (February 6, 2013)
It says something good about Louisville’s dining scene, I think, that our town’s Latino dining experiences go way beyond just plain Mexican. Not that there’s anything wrong with traditional pan-Mexican/Southwestern/Tex-Mex, mind you, but an hombre can’t live on tacos, rice and beans alone. Never fear, Latino culinary diversity is...Read more
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INDUSTRY STANDARD by Marsha Lynch (January 30, 2013)
When the announcement came that Lynn’s Paradise Cafe had closed, I considered writing a column headlined “(Lynn’s) Paradise Lost,” but before my monthly column’s week rolled around, there was already an article titled “Paradise lost” – in this very paper. For anyone living outside the Louisville Metro area (or...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (January 24, 2013)
“Downtown” St. Matthews has come a long way, from the generation when it was best known for dark bars populated by portly gentlemen drinking cold beer, to the modern era that finds it chockablock with hipster bars populated by trendy young folks wearing skinny jeans and drinking specialty cocktails....Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (January 23, 2013)
At least a few million megabytes of social media and a wastebasket full of old-media newsprint have surely been spilled over the recent startling and sudden demise of Lynn’s Paradise Cafe. I don’t see much point in adding more to that flood, other than to note that we may...Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (January 16, 2013)
The sun shimmers like a brass gong in the pale, washed-out desert sky. There’s not so much as a breath of cooling breeze. I can see a big cactus, but it’s not much good for shade. Thirsty. So thirsty. The sun beats down, baking, burning. And then my eyes...Read more
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Louisville Hot Bytes (January 12, 2013)
Lynn’s Paradise Cafe has abruptly closed, in the immediate aftermath of a media uproar about server tip pooling and management policies. Lynn Winter, proprietor of the 21-year Louisville tradition, writes, “We are touched to hear from so many of our loyal customers this morning. We’ll post an additional statement...Read more
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VOICE-TRIBUNE Review by Robin Garr (January 10, 2013)
Every now and then you’ll encounter an idea so simple, yet so brilliant, that you’ll suck in your breath and think, “Wow! I wish I had thought of that!” And when such a bright idea concerns breakfast, it’s hard to see how things could get any better than that....Read more
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LEOs Eats with Robin Garr (January 9, 2013)
What the heck is a wine geek? A wine geek loves wine, can carry on an extended conversation about the stuff, knows a little about how it’s made, and plans trips around winery visits. He rejects labels like “snob” or even “connoisseur,” though, preferring to be recognized for a...Read more
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