Some say that the art of soul, in music or in food, can never be mastered by white folks, and I can buy this hypothesis: Lacking a history of slavery and oppression, we just don’t have the tools born of heritage. But we can certainly enjoy soul, and honor it, whether we’re listening to Aretha or dining at someplace like Shirley Mae’s. Continue reading Shirley Mae’s puts the soul in soul food
District 6 brings a taste of Vietnam to St. Matthews
If you think “District 6” is an odd name for a Vietnamese restaurant, think again. This moniker honors the heritage of its owners, Hanh Duong, Tram Thai, and Vinh Thai, whose parents hail originally from the District 6 neighborhood in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, formerly known as Saigon. Continue reading District 6 brings a taste of Vietnam to St. Matthews
The Table does well by doing good
Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if every restaurant followed the pay-what-you-can model of The Table in Portland? What if Vincenzo’s or Jeff Ruby’s, for example, made its menu pricing variable depending on what the diner could afford? Or offered creative alternatives like putting in a few hours serving tables or helping out with kitchen chores? Or invited you to pay your tab forward so someone else could take a seat at the table?
Yeah, I know. Not. Going. To. Happen. Continue reading The Table does well by doing good
The Keto Mosquito
Recently, while I was dining out, there was a table of folks nearby. One member of their party was a new adopter of the ketogenic (keto) diet. He was pretty animated as he discussed it, so we could overhear a lot of the conversation. Continue reading The Keto Mosquito
Six Forks: simple, affordable quality
A restaurant doesn’t have to be expensive to be good, and it doesn’t have to be elegant to be pleasing. I present in evidence Six Forks Burger Co., an amiable little eatery that specializes in hamburgers, hot dogs, and more.
Six Forks recently arrived in a Shelby Park street-corner storefront that, in years past, housed Louisville’s only Pakistani restaurant and later a fried chicken-and-fish shop. Continue reading Six Forks: simple, affordable quality
Biscuit Belly boosts the biscuit trend
“The next wave of hot restaurants could be a basket full of biscuit concepts,” the trade journal Restaurant Business prophesied in 2016, focusing on Cracker Barrel’s planned biscuit-eatery spinoff Holler & Dash. Continue reading Biscuit Belly boosts the biscuit trend