Road Tips

Wild Eggs - Louisville, KY

During our trip last year to Louisville to play "tourist" for a couple days, we had eaten one evening at a place called Wild Rita's, a contemporary Mexican restaurant with some very good food and interesting decor.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Wild Rita's.)  It turned out the gentlemen who owned Wild Rita's owned a breakfast place that had become wildly popular in the greater Louisville area.  And one was located a short walking distance from the hotel we were staying at in downtown Louisville.  Eschewing the free hotel food one morning, we took a walk over to Wild Eggs to have breakfast.  

J.D. Rothberg became the owner of the upscale Napa River Grill in Louisville in 1999, with Shane Hall as his general manager.  The two entered into a new venture together, a local breakfast spot called Wild Eggs in 2007.  It quickly became one of the hottest restaurants in Louisville and it wasn't long before there were three locations around the city.  The pair brought in Tony Estratiadis to be their executive chef.  

Pictured right - Shane Hall and J.D. Rothberg

In 2012, Rothberg sold his stake in Napa River Grill to local restaurateur and entrepreneur Junior Bridgeman to focus fully on the Wild Eggs concept.  Rothberg, Hall and Estratiadis all had a part in opening Wild Rita's in 2014, but Hall and Rothberg both relinquished the day-to-day operation of Wild Rita's to Estratiadis in 2015 after receiving capital from an investment firm to help grow the Wild Eggs brand.  Today, there are 16 company-owned and franchisee-owned Wild Eggs locations in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.  

The downtown Louisville location of Wild Eggs is located on S. Floyd Street between Main and Market.  (see map)  We got there around 10 a.m. figuring that we wouldn't have any trouble getting in on a weekday morning.  Well, we were wrong about that.  It turned out that we had about a 10 minute wait before we could get a table in the dining room.  We hung out up front near an area that had a small semi-circular breakfast bar.  

It was more like a 15 minutes wait (with more people coming in after us while we waited) before a young lady took us into the dining room and sat us at the table near the front of the building.  The dining room had a high ceiling with walls painted with light earth tones.  The dining room was open and airy, and very well lit from both the LED lighting from above and the natural light coming through the windows.

Now, I can usually remember the names of our servers, but for some reason the name of the young lady who waited on us that morning at Wild Eggs escaped me.  And I feel bad about that because she was a wonderful server.  She was outgoing, witty, chatty without being a nuisance, made some great recommendations for food and joked with me when I ordered espresso.  "Going for that morning jolt halfway through morning," she said.  "Well, there's nothing wrong about that."  My wife and I both also got glasses of their fresh squeezed orange juice.  

The breakfast part of the menu at Wild Eggs (they also serve lunch up to 2:30 p.m. through the week) was wide and varied from basic breakfast favorites like biscuits and gravy, to omelets, crepes, pancakes, waffles and French toast.   They had a number of egg dishes as well as an assortment of Eggs Benedict plates.   One that jumped out at me was the Smokin' Hash with housemade corned beef hash mixed in with peppers, potatoes and onions were served with two eggs any style.  Also, they had something called the Wild Chicken and Waffle that featured a seasoned chicken-infused waffle, a Nashville-style hot chicken breast, along with chopped bacon and a housemade buttermilk maple syrup gravy.  Many of the foods served at Wild Eggs are locally sourced and made from scratch in-house.  

They also had a number of breakfasts with a Mexican-influenced breakfasts including something my wife got - the Chili Verde Huevos Rancheros.  "Good choice," our effervescent server told my wife.  It featured two eggs any style - she got scrambled egg whites - and it was topped with pico de gallo, sour cream, green onions, and a green chili sauce served with a flour tortilla.  Black beans and potatoes came on the side.  My wife was in heaven with her breakfast.  She couldn't stop raving at how great it tasted.  

I did the Kelsey KY Brown - Wild Eggs' version of the Hot Brown dish that Louisville is famous for.  (You gotta try a Hot Brown in Louisville at least once in your life.)  It had roasted turkey, applewood smoked bacon, and a fried egg (over easy) on toasted sourdough bread, then topped with a white cheddar Mornay sauce and sprinkled with chopped tomatoes and smoked paprika.  I also got a side of 3 strips of applewood smoked bacon.  The Kelsey KY Brown was heavenly - full of flavor with a richness in each bite.  I knew that I wouldn't need to have lunch today after eating everything in the bowl down to the bottom.  It was simply outstanding.  

My wife and I found out first hand why Wild Eggs is growing so quickly with up to 16 different locations in four states (and more on the way this year).  Both our breakfasts were interesting and delicious, and the service was excellent as our service was attentive, friendly and chatty.  We were comfortable in the place and it was spacious enough that we didn't feel like we were on top of other diners in the place.  I would have no problem stopping back for breakfast at any Wild Eggs location I may encounter during my travels.  

Patrick O'Shea's - Louisville

My wife and I got into our hotel in downtown Louisville much later than we anticipated thanks to an hour-long traffic back-up on the bridge that took us over the Ohio River.  Tired and hungry, we asked the front desk staff of a place that was close by that we could grab a sandwich and a beer.  They suggested one place that sounded good and we went over there.  However, when we walked in, we were told that they closed the kitchen at 9 p.m.  "There's Patrick O'Shea's right next door," the server who gave us the bad news told us.  "Their back door is just back up the stairs and to the right."  We found the door, but ended up traveling up too many flights of stairs before we went back down and finally found the (unsigned) back entrance to Patrick O'Shea's Public House on the first flight level behind a door that wasn't marked.  It was a confusing start to our first visit to this Louisville Irish pub.  

Mary Pool was born in Oklahoma in 1904 and was raised there on a farm with her nine siblings.  Not wanting to continue the hard life of working 10 hour days, six days a week, Mary ended up moving to Chicago at the age of 19 and found work in restaurants and diners around the city.  She loved the fast pace of the big city and her work ethic she learned growing up helped her advance in her jobs.  

Mary married Tom O'Shea and had two sons, Kevin and Tom, Jr.  The family moved to Louisville where the O'Shea's opened Mary's Chateau Lounge, a cabaret-style place that had live entertainment and was a popular watering hole for many Louisvillian's.  (Is that the correct term for people from Louisville?)  All four members of the family were involved in the business, and eventually their grandchildren started to work at the lounge.  

In the early 80's, Kevin O'Shea took over the Mary's Chateau Lounge, turned it into an Irish pub and gave it the new name of O'Shea's.  However, Kevin O'Shea passed away in 1986 and his four children - sons Tom, Kevin, Tim and daughter Kelly - found themselves in charge of the restaurant/pub.  By 1994, Tom and Kevin were involved in the business and they had taken on a partner, Dave Zimmerman.  They moved to a new location in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville that same year and have been there ever since.  

O'Shea's Irish Pub immediately became a hit with the college crowd and the O'Shea's and Zimmerman wanted to have a place that catered more toward the burgeoning craft beer movement.  Not far from O'Shea's Irish Pub, they found a space to put in their new concept - Flanagan's Ale House - that featured a more eclectic mix of beers on tap.  

In 2006, two partners - Joe and John Murphy - joined the O'Shea's and Zimmerman in the businesses and they opened Brendan O'Shea's in the St. Matthews area of Louisville.  In 2010, the group opened their showcase Irish pub - Patrick O'Shea's Public House - in downtown Louisville.  And in 2016, the O'Shea's opened H.M. Frank's: An O'Shea's Pub across the river in Jeffersonville, IN.  The pub was named after the original dry goods store owned by Homer Monroe Franks and is housed in a building that dates back to the late 19th century.  (In 2012, Brendan O'Shea's was bought by another group who wanted to put a new restaurant in its place.)  

Patrick O'Shea's is situated in a long, narrow building along E. Main St. that dates back to either the late 19th century or the early 20th century.  (see map) There was a back room that we walked through that opened into a larger room with the bar area along the east wall.  The ornate woodwork throughout the bar area was pretty impressive.  There was a large party in the bar area and it was sort of loud in there.  

We took a seat in a booth along the opposite wall and we were soon greeted by our server, Janelle.  She assured us that their kitchen was, indeed, open for a couple more hours as she dropped off a couple menus for us.  Asking us if we wanted anything to drink, I ordered a West 6th IPA from the West 6th brewery in Lexington, KY.  My wife got a Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA to take the dust of a long day's travel out of her mouth.  

Most of the items served at Patrick O'Shea's is the typical pub fare - sandwiches, burgers, and appetizers.  They also had a handful of entries such as fish and chips, short ribs, shrimp and grits, and a Southern-style shepherd's pie that featured meatloaf and barbecue sauce mixed in with mashed potatoes and smoked gouda cheese.  We really didn't want a big meal as it was well past 9 p.m., so a sandwich was going to be fine with us.  

I ordered the reuben sandwich and it came on thick pieces of grilled swirl rye bread.  The corned beef was thick cut, tender and tasty.  For a side, I was happy to see that they had tater tots as an option.  The sandwich was very good and very filling.

My wife got the grilled chicken sandwich that was topped with Swiss cheese, bacon slices and guacamole.  She asked Janelle to leave the bun off the sandwich and that's how it came.  She got fries for her side.  My wife thought the grilled chicken was cooked perfectly and wasn't hard or overdone, and the combination of the Swiss cheese, bacon and guacamole offered an array of flavors.  She thought her meal was just perfect for a late evening choice.  

About the only hiccup for the meal was that Janelle was the only server in the place and she was trying to keep up with the large table of people that were toward the front of the restaurant.  I had run out of beer and wanted a second one, but she was nowhere in sight.  She was nice, though, and we did cut her some slack when she came back about 15 minutes after she had brought out our food to check on us.  

Other than getting somewhat lost when we came in the back door and that our server was overworked that evening, we both felt our food at Patrick O'Shea's was very good for what it was.  I thoroughly enjoyed my reuben sandwich and the tater tots were a nice surprise as a side dish.  My wife's bun-less grilled chicken/Swiss cheese/bacon/guacamole sandwich was also a spot-hitter for her.  Patrick O'Shea's wasn't our first choice, but we're glad that we were able to go there for a late light dinner in downtown Louisville.

Wild Rita's - Louisville

During our little trip to Louisville earlier this year to go and do and see things that I don't get the chance to when I'm there on business, we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant not far from our hotel in downtown Louisville that we had passed earlier in the day - Wild Rita's.  

The partners behind Wild Rita's - J.D. Rothberg and Shane Hall - have a somewhat long history with Louisville area restaurants.  Rothberg was the owner of the upscale Napa River Grill since 1999 while Hall was his general manager.  The two started a local breakfast spot called Wild Eggs in 2007 and it quickly became one of the hottest restaurants in Louisville.  By 2011, the Wild Eggs concept had grown to three locations in Louisville with an eye on expanding even more.  Rothberg sold his stake in Napa River Grill to local restaurateur and entrepreneur Junior Bridgeman in October of 2012 to focus fully on the Wild Eggs concept.  

In 2013, Rothberg, Hall and their Wild Eggs executive chef Tony Efstratiadis were brainstorming about a new restaurant concept for lunch and evening dining.  Setting their sights on doing traditional Mexican foods with a modern twist, the three came up with the idea of Wild Rita's, a Mexican cantina-style restaurant that also served a large number of different types of tequila.  But before they could open Wild Rita's, the group decided to go into the heart of Mexico to experience the foods and tastes of authentic Mexican food and a wide variety of tequilas.  

It was during their culinary explorations that they also found a unique hand-made piece of art - a mosaic mask that depicted a face that was half-human and half-jaguar.  The locals called the mask a "were-jaguar", it roughly translates into "man-jaguar".  Dating back to the early history of Mexican civilization, the were-jaguar was folklore that represented a supreme being where man meets animal, guiding the civilization to live a life of adventure and happiness.  When Rothberg and Hall opened Wild Rita's Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar in the spring of 2014, the were-jaguar was a prominent piece of art in their restaurant.  

(In 2015, Rothberg and Hall received an investment of capital from a local equity group to help with further expansion of the Wild Eggs concept.  The two stepped away from the day-to-day operation for Wild Rita's to concentrate on their expansion plans for Wild Eggs.  Tony Efstratiadis has stepped in to oversee operations at Wild Rita's for Rothberg and Hall.)

Wild Rita's is located at the corner of E. Market and S. Jackson on the east end of Louisville's downtown area, near the I-65 overpass.  (see map)  Some may call it an "iffy" area as the overpass is a gathering place for Louisville's homeless and drug-addled.  It was sad to watch the world they were living in literally across the street from the restaurant.  It wasn't the nicest part of Louisville, but it was safe enough.  

We were greeted by a host who took a bit of time to figure out where we needed to be seated.  He seemed sort of confused where to put us, but we were eventually seated at a four-seater table next to the front windows of the restaurant.  (It turned out that he had a large party that came in about a half-hour after we were seated and he needed to figure out who to put where as to accommodate the large group.)  The large windows looking out onto the corner of Jackson and Market afforded us a prime view of the people across the street doing their "thing".  It was a shame that they were doing it so close to a nice restaurant.  

The restaurant dining area was large and open, and it got considerably louder in there when the large group showed up not long after we were seated.  There was a small counter area behind the dining area that looked like it may have been used for cooking demonstrations or small groups.   

There was also a small, but very nice bar area with a full selection of tequilas.  We were definitely up for tequila that evening.  Our server for the evening, Johnathon, came over to greet us and took our drink order.  

Of course, we had to have one of their signature margaritas made with Don Julio Resposado tequila and Grand Marnier with squeezed lime juice, just like I like to make them at home.  They were small, delicious and somewhat expensive.   

The artwork throughout Wild Rita's was sort of a wild bit of contemporary and traditional Mexican artwork.  Many items were evidently picked up by the group of owners during their culinary trips to Mexico.  But the wildest things on display were chihuly light fixtures that were handblown at the Flame Run glassworks in downtown Louisville.  They had a number of these interesting fixtures hanging throughout the place.

I was kind of confused about these figures on the shelf in the picture above to the right.  I knew these were some sort of Mexican-designed artwork, but I didn't know if they were Incan, Mayan or something completely different from both of those.  I never closely followed along in art class in junior high when the teacher would talk about the different styles of artwork.  

We started out getting a basket of chips and salsa, along with a small bowl of their guacamole in which they put some chopped jalapeños to give it a spicy kick.  We also got three of their housemade salsa - a salsa verde that was mild with a small spicy kick at the end, a salsa rojo that had a bit of a bite along with a taste of fresh cilantro and garlic, and a pico de gallo that featured very fresh chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and cilantro.  The chips were crisp and fresh -  everything we started out with had that just made taste quality. 

Looking through the menu, we found a number of items that piqued our interest.  The fried pork shoulder caught my eye, as did the enchiladas that you could get with beef, chicken, chorizo or shrimp inside.  The Cochinita Pibil is a Yucatan-style barbecued pork rubbed with achiote spice to give it a peppery taste.  They also had a skirt steak that they would flame table side with tequila.  

They also had street tacos on the menu and my wife ended up getting some of those.  She got a chicken taco, a braised short rib taco and a blackened cod taco.  Also on the taco menu was a carne asada (steak) taco, a crispy pork belly taco, a tempura-fried cod taco, and an achiote rubbed braised pork al pastor taco.  For her side, she got some kale that was braised with chopped jalapeños, onions and tomatoes.  My wife declared that everything was very good and offered me bites of the blackened fish taco, as well as the short rib taco.  And I had to agree with her.  They both were very good in their flavor.  

I was torn in different directions about what to get, but I ended up gettin Wild Rita's version of their chile relleno - a cream and cheddar-jack cheese-stuffed poblano pepper topped with ground beef and a salsa verde (my choice for both).  It came with Mexican rice and black beans - I'm digging the fact that many contemporary Mexican restaurants are serving black beans more than refried beans.  And the chile relleno was very good.  It was large and plump with a fried egg-batter coating around the outer shell of the pepper.  The cheese was oozing out with each cut and the seasoned ground beef with the salsa verde tied the flavors all together.  We still has some of the salsa verde left from the "tres salsas" we ordered and I just put more of that great salsa on top of the chile relleno along as mixing it in the rice.   

We liked pretty much about everything about our visit to Wild Rita's.  It was a nice place with interesting decor in a section of Louisville that borders on the "not-so-nice".  Still, it was safe enough that we didn't worry much about the neighborhood.  The food we had at Wild Rita's was fresh, flavorful and interesting.  And it was tough to beat the wonderful top-shelf margaritas they had to offer.  Along with some very prompt and professional service from Johnathon, our overall experience at Wild Rita's was top-notch.

Mark's Feed Store - Louisville, KY

My wife and I spent some time in Louisville in the late summer going around to different places that I don't usually get to see when I travel there for business.   We were up exploring the Highlands neighborhood in the middle part of the day and found a barbecue place that we wanted to try.  Except that it didn't really look like a barbecue place, and the name wasn't really indicative of it having barbecue - Mark's Feed Store.  Still we wanted to give it a try.

Mark Erwin had been working in the service industry and had been on management teams that opened new restaurants.  One thing that he noticed that Louisville didn't really have was a good barbecue joint.  Erwin had gone around to visit barbecue masters across Kentucky to learn the tricks of the trade.  But while smoking meats was one thing, he also realized that if he didn't have the sauces to go along with the barbecued meats his restaurant wouldn't survive.

For months, Erwin worked in his kitchen to come up with the right combination of ingredients for his signature sauce.  One concoction - which consisted of 26 ingredients including 13 secret spices - was the one he deemed as the sauce that he would like to pair with his smoked meats.

Finding a spot for his barbecue joint turned out to be somewhat easier.  He found a historical building that once housed a feed store in the Middletown neighborhood in Louisville and decided to incorporate the concept into his barbecue joint.  He put in an old style barbecue pit in the place and opened the first Mark's Feed Store in 1988.  

Erwin grew the business by opening up more locations around Louisville, as well as in Lexington and Elizabethtown, KY.  But after 25 years of running Mark's Feed Store, he was looking for a change in life.  That's when Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman came into the picture.  

Junior Bridgeman was a basketball star at the University of Louisville and enjoyed a 12 season career in the NBA, primarily with the Milwaukee Bucks.  After Bridgeman retired from the NBA at the age of 33, he bought five Wendy's locations in the greater Milwaukee area.   Milwaukee fans grew accustomed to seeing the former basketball star working behind the counter at one of his Wendy's restaurants.  

Bridgeman's Wendy's franchise stores in Milwaukee were doing anywhere between $400,000 and $800,000 in annual sales - not too good for comparable stores in similar markets.  Bridgeman instilled a team concept in his stores empowering his workers to take pride in their jobs and offering bonuses if certain goals were met.  Within a short while, Bridgeman's Wendy's locations were taking in a minimum of $1.5 million in annual sales.

Pictured right - Junior Bridgeman.  Photo courtesy Fortune Magazine.

As business grew for Bridgeman, so did the number of locations he owned.  At one point, Bridgeman Restaurants (now called Manna, Inc.) owned 160 Wendy's franchises - many of those in Wisconsin where he played professional basketball - the second most by any single franchisee in the U.S. for Wendy's - and nearly 125 Chili's locations.  He also held franchises in Fazoli's, Perkins, Fanny May Chocolates, and Blaze Pizza.  At its height, Bridgeman's company - with offices in Milwaukee and Louisville - owned around 450 different restaurant locations and employed 9000 people.

Bridgeman also owned the Napa River Grill - an upscale steak and wine place in the Westport Village shopping area on Louisville's east side - when he found that Erwin was looking to sell Mark's Seed Store.  Bridgeman's company took over ownership of Mark's Seed Store in October of 2013 from Erwin who is now in commercial real estate specializing in restaurant properties.  In 2016, Bridgeman divested many of his holdings in Wendy's and Chili's to become an independent bottler for Coca-Cola owning the rights to distribute Coke products in southern Illinois, Missouri, eastern Kansas and Nebraska.  However, he still owns Mark's Seed Stores with 8 locations in Kentucky and southern Indiana, as well as a number of franchised restaurants.  

It had just started to rain pretty heavily when we pulled up to the Highlands location of Mark's Feed Store along Bardstown Road at Sherwood Ave.  (see map)  We went around the block and found a parking spot on Sherwood next to Mark's Feed Store.  

The Highlands location of Mark's Feed Store is in an older building with a long and narrow dining area.  There was a set stairs that went to a dining room upstairs that we didn't visit.  Booths were along the walls with tables in the center of dining area, all of which had vinyl checkerboard table coverings.  

Our server that afternoon, Dylan, came over with a couple lunch menus for us.  I ordered up a pint can of the West 6th IPA from the West 6th Brewery over in Lexington, KY.  My wife just stayed with water, but I like to have a beer when I have barbecue.  

The lunch menu is more condensed than the dinner menu at Mark's Feed Store.  They feature a sandwich lunch special daily with a choice of either pulled pork, brisket or chicken with one side for $6.99.  (Add .50 cents for brisket.)  All in all, the lunch menu was pretty basic with no combo plates, no burgers, and no dinner entrees available.  But one thing they did have was burgoo as an appetizer.

For those who don't know, burgoo is a stew that is more of a social event than anything.  It's similar to booyah, a stew that is found in northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota.  Burgoo has its roots in Kentucky where people long ago would combine the bounty from wild game hunts - usually deer meat, squirrel meat and game bird meat - then added vegetables such as corn, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and okra to the mix.  The concoction was simmered low and slow - sometimes as long as two days - in a large vat that had to be stirred on a regular basis.  The burgoo was generally served to large groups during harvest season.  

Today, burgoo is still found throughout Kentucky, but you will also find it in parts of central and southern Illinois, and southern Indiana.  Game meat burgoo from long ago has been replaced by a modern day recipe featuring a combination of chicken, pork, lamb, and sometimes beef, with a myriad of vegetables.  And depending upon the recipes used it can be made with a little bit of a spicy bite.  Most of the time these days, burgoo is made as part of a fund-raiser or a local celebration.  My sister-in-law comes from the town of Winchester, IL and they have an annual burgoo festival that draws hundreds and hundreds of people.  And the highlight is the making of the burgoo a couple days in advance.  I understand that getting a two to three hour shift manning the vats of burgoo during the overnight is usually an excuse to drink heavily during that time.  

The burgoo at Mark's Feed Store was very good.  I ordered a cup of it and it was more like a small bowl of burgoo than a cup.  Like good burgoo, it was thick - so thick that the spoon could literally stand up in the center of the stew.  It featured smoked pieces of pork, chicken and brisket with corn, peas and other veggies mixed in.  It did have a bit of a spicy kick to it, but it didn't overpowering the overall taste of the burgoo.  I would have had no problem coming back to Mark's to enjoy just a bowl of burgoo.  It's a great comfort food, for sure.  

For lunch, they had a "Bar-b-que Lite" platter that featured a choice between smoked brisket, smoked pork or smoked chicken with a choice of one or two sides.  I got the brisket along with a side of baked beans and spicy fries.  The brisket was served in a small paper food boat and was cut thick.  But it was tender and had a good smoky flavor to it.  The fries, however, didn't seem to have much - if any - spicy flavor to them.  And the baked beans were simply dreadful.  They didn't appear to be anything more than Van Camps pork and beans from a can warmed up and served.  Even adding barbecue sauce didn't help those out.  

My wife ended up getting the 4 Bone Baby Back Ribs lunch platter.  The ribs had a lot of meat on them, but they were covered with what appeared to be a glaze.  They didn't appeared to be smoked, but I tried a bite of one of the ribs and they had a good smoky flavor to them.  The meat pulled apart from the bone rather easily and were very tender to the bite.  For her side, she got the mac and cheese, but she wasn't too enamored with it.  "It tastes like it's been warmed up in a microwave," she told me.  "It's all rubbery."  

Since Mark Erwin felt that good barbecue also had to have good sauces, there were three different types of sauces on the table.  There was a tangy sweet that I liked quite a bit; a hot sauce that really snuck up at the end of the flavor; and a honey mustard that I didn't try because, well, I don't like a honey mustard sauce.  I usually like to combine the spicy and sweet sauces together, but they didn't seem to go well together.  I ended up sticking primarily with the tangy sweet sauce as I finished up the brisket.  

The highlight of the lunch was - I felt - the excellent burgoo they had at Mark's Feed Store.  While the brisket and baby back ribs were good, the sides were simply abysmal.  It tasted like the baked beans were nothing more than canned pork and beans, the "spicy" fries didn't have hardly any spicy taste to them, and my wife's side of mac and cheese was overcooked and rubbery.  But the service and the atmosphere was fine at Mark's Feed Store, as was the barbecue we had.  I just wish they would have offered a combo plate during lunch as I would have liked to have tried some of the pulled pork barbecue, as well. 

Gasthaus - Louisville, KY

In Louisville to see a couple of dealers earlier this year, I was needing some kind of a "stick-to-your-bones" type of meal.  Indian food has sort of become my "go-to" for comfort food over the past year or so, but this time I was looking for something different.  German food sounded kind of good and I looked on-line to see if there was anything in the immediate area of my hotel on the east side of the city. Well, it turned out that there was only one German restaurant - in the whole city of Louisville.  I sort of shrugged my shoulders and looked for it on the map.  It turned out that it was about a 10 minute drive from my hotel and in moments I was on my way to the Gasthaus for some German food.  (Photo courtesy Trip Advisor.)

Louisville has a deep German heritage, similar to a lot of Middle America cities that saw an influx of German settlers in the mid-to-late 1800's.  Just before the start of the Civil War, 35% of Louisville's population were German immigrants and the German language was taught along side English in grade schools.  After the Civil War, Germans were in integral part of the meat packing industry in the city as the population of Louisville rose to over 100,000 people.  By the turn of 20th century, nearly 30% of the population were direct descendants of German settlers.   

During World War I, anti-German sentiment was high and there had begun a de-emphasis of German culture around the city.  German churches turned into English churches, German books were removed from the shelves of public libraries, German newspapers quit publishing and by World War II, the German population in Louisville were more identified as Americans than of German heritage.  

Today, one-third of Louisville's population has some German ancestry in their lineage and one would think that there would be more than just one German restaurant in the city, especially with the Germantown neighborhood being one of the oldest in the city.  Over 20 years ago there were over a half-dozen restaurants that served German cuisine.  However, when Erika's closed in December of 2013 it left only the Gasthaus serving German food in Louisville.

It turned out that the owners of the Gasthaus, Michael and Annemarie Griepel moved to Louisville about 25 years ago with the expressed intent of opening a German restaurant.  They found a space in the Brownsboro Center shopping complex and opened the doors to the Gasthaus in December of 1993.  The family - the Griepel's five children were involved in the business, as well - was on a shoestring budget and many of the items they used in decorating the restaurant came from their home.  

Initially, the Gasthaus sold only sandwiches and sausages, but the Griepel's eventually started to include German foods made from family recipes.  Michael Griepel was the head chef of the restaurant and was soon joined in the kitchen by Jason Malone as the restaurant's executive chef.  The Griepel's sons Nico and Robert helped in the kitchen while daughters Simon, Viki and Nina worked the front of the house with their mother.  

The Gasthaus is located just off the Henry Watterson Expressway on Brownsboro Road on Louisville's east side.  (See map)   During the warmer months, they brings some tables out front for outside dining.  And even though it was an unseasonably warm evening for that time of year in Louisville, the tables weren't out front.  

I went in to the restaurant and found a place that was highly decorated with pictures, plaques, old world German knick-knacks and antique light fixtures.  An older lady with pink streaks in her stylish hair - it turned out to be Annemarie Griepel - jumped up from behind the counter to greet me.  Telling her that it was just me for dinner, in a thick German accent she told a young girl to take me to a table in the dining area of the restaurant.   

Just past the front counter, there was a back bar area that was used for staging the desserts the Gasthaus is somewhat famous for.  Desserts such as chocolate eclairs, Black Forest chocolate cake, lemon rolls and an Irish creme torte were on display on a table along the walkway going back to the dining room.  It was a great way to tempt people before they ordered their dinner.

I was taken to a small table in the back corner of the restaurant complete with a red and white checked table cloth on top and given a menu.  I immediately ordered a Warsteiner pilsner beer from the young lady who sat me.  The lighting in the dining area was subdued, but somewhat eerie in the shadows that it projected.  I needed the flashlight application on my phone to read the menu.  

The dining room featured paintings, German state flags, and old-time pictures on the walls.  Two small rooms - they call them the chalet rooms at the Gasthaus - featured tables for larger parties or overflow dining.  One of the chalet rooms had a number of teddy bears in the windows on either side of the door that entered the open room.  

My very pleasant waitress came back with a half loaf of fresh baked bread.  It came with a small tub of herbed whipped butter.  And I thought I could tell there was a bit of cream cheese that was blended in with the butter.  The bread was delicious.

Each night, the Gasthaus features a dinner special and a special salad.  That night the dinner special was a chicken breast schnitzel dish and the special salad was, if I remember correctly, a beet salad.  I decided to look deeper into the menu to see if there was anything else that I could find to eat.  

The Gasthaus featured a number of different types of German fare consisting of chicken, beef, pork and veal dishes.  But the first thing that I noticed were the prices.  The Gasthaus wasn't cheap.  I think the lowest priced entree was around $17.50 for a chicken breast dish.  Two bratwurst sausages with sauerkraut and pan-fried potatoes were $18.00.  Whoa!  This food had better be of the knock-your-socks-off quality, I thought to myself.  

It was between a couple dishes - the Zigeuner Schnitzel which featured breaded pork cutlets that were topped with a sweet and sour mushroom, onion, pepper and bacon sauce; and the Stroganoff - tender beef filet tips cooked in a creamy sauce consisting of mushrooms, beets, onions and pickles.  I ended up with the Stroganoff.   

The Stroganoff came with spaetzle noodles and it featured a half plate of the beef with the heavy brown sauce with mushrooms prominently displayed with the beef.  The meat was tender, but not tender enough to be fully cut by a fork. The overall meal had a good taste quality, but I thought it was somewhat overpriced for what it was.  This was a $25.00 plate of food in front of me.  I guess I didn't realize that German food was that expensive and I didn't think it was that good of a value.  

But it was filling and I passed on getting any of the Gasthaus' delectable desserts that evening.  With the beers I had that evening with my dinner, my bill was already approaching $40 bucks before tax and tip.  

The stroganoff dish that I had at the Gasthaus was fine enough, but I thought it was on the low side of value for what I got.  The bread and herb-blended butter was very good, the taste of the stroganoff was good, but not outstanding, and the service I received that evening was very good with a very pleasant young lady waiting on me.   Tastes are changing and its getting tougher to find good German restaurants in the middle part of the U.S.  The Gasthaus - to me - was fine for what it was, but not the most outstanding German meal I've had.  

Mussel & Burger Bar - Louisville, KY

On a recent trip to Louisville, I found myself out on the east side of the city looking for a dealer at an address near the corner of Taylorsville Road and Hurstbourne Parkway.  It turned out the dealer not only wasn't there any longer, but they had completely gone out of business.  I went around the back side of the shopping complex trying to find my way out of the place and I happened to take a right turn that took me past a canopy awning that said Mussel & Burger Bar.  Hey, I like mussels and I like burgers!  It looked like a classy place.  It was just before noon and I thought I'd go in and check the place out.  

I'm glad I did because it turns out the Mussel & Burger Bar is a popular place in the Louisville area.  And the people behind the place is a former Cuban refugee, his wife and his cousin.  

Fernando Martinez grew up in Cuba learning how to prepare and cook traditional Cuban foods - pork, chicken, plantains, black beans and rice - from his mother and his grandmother.  His grandmother was originally from Spain and she taught him the art of tapas - small plates of various foods.  

Martinez found that he loved to cook.  He would make pizzas and sandwiches and go to the airport in Havana and sell them to people coming and going on flights.  Since private enterprise was illegal in Cuba, Martinez found himself in trouble with the law on more than one occasion. 

But Martinez's food garnered him a following of people, many of whom would end up coming to his house to have him make food for them.  He started to buy pigs in the country - because they were cheaper to buy there than from a city butcher - and he would cure ham and make pork dishes from the pigs he'd buy.  He would make his own bread and many of the meals he made for people were made from scratch.  

Fernando Martinez and his mother, Yolanda, decided to start their own restaurant located in their house.  Word got out among tourists that this teenaged boy and his mother made some of the best food on the island.  However, Cuban authorities found out about the restaurant and without the proper licensing they shut down the Martinez's little business.  

Determined to be able to live their own lives, Martinez and his mother made a raft out of inner tubes, wood and rope and set out across the Straits of Florida to the United States in 1995.  They were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard short of their goal and were sent to a detention camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba.  In 1996, Fernando and Yolanda Martinez legally made their way to San Diego and eventually ended up in Louisville meeting up with his cousin Yaniel Martinez.  

Fernando's first job was working in a Mexican restaurant where he met another Cuban refugee, Marcos Lorenzo.  One evening Fernando went to a salsa nightclub and met a young Venezuelan woman by the name of Christina.  It was love at first sight and the two quickly married.  Christina shared Fernando's dream of opening a restaurant of their own at some point.  

After years of saving, in 1994 Fernando, Marcos and Christina opened Havana Rumba, a small Cuban restaurant using many of the recipes that Fernando, his mother and grandmother used at their home in Cuba.  Three years later, the group opened Mojitos Tapas restaurant using many of the Spanish tapas recipes he learned from his grandmother.  Wanting to learn more about cuisine than what he'd learned from his mother and grandmother, Fernando Martinez took 10 weeks off from the restaurants over a three year period to study in France at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary academy.  

Even with his mother helping out in the restaurants and with the Martinez's young children at home, Fernando and Christina were working up to 90 hours a week at the restaurants.  They were getting burnt out and needed to step away from the restaurants.  The Martinez's sold their stake in the two restaurants and took their family to live on an island off the Venezuelan coast.  However, after two months of living a laid-back lifestyle Fernando Martinez became annoyed with not having anything to.  During school breaks, the family would travel and Fernando would find work in various kitchens in Venezuela, Mexico and Peru - many times work for no pay - to experiment with the art of balancing foods and tastes that he learned while attending Le Cordon Bleu.  Even if he was just peeling potatoes or making a broth, he was observing what was going on in those kitchens.  

The Martinez family eventually made it back to the U.S. - this time to Miami where Fernando was a sous chef under the acclaimed "Godfather of Nuevo Latino Cuisine", Douglas Rodriguez, where he learned more about the combination of flavors and textures.  It was also working under Rodriguez where Fernando learned about the true meaning of balance in the restaurant industry - both in balancing the tastes of the various foods and in balancing his life as a chef with passion.  

Feeling now that they were ready to make the plunge back into restaurant ownership, Fernando and Christina moved back to Louisville meeting up once again with his cousin, Yaniel.  They started up Guaca Mole, an upscale contemporary Mexican restaurant.  But Fernando wasn't going to stop with just one restaurant.  Not long after opening Guaca Mole, he came up with the concept of the Mussel & Burger Bar.  

The group opened the Mussel & Burger Bar in January of 2013 in the Jeffersontown area of Louisville.  Many people thought they were crazy for opening a privately owned restaurant as the area seemed to be a graveyard for small restaurants over the years.  

Pictured right - Fernando and Christina Martinez along with Yaniel Martinez.  Photo courtesy Louisville Magazine.  

There was a space under the Mussel & Burger Bar that sat empty.  Fernando turned that into The Place Downstairs - an upscale Cuban/Spanish restaurant.  It wasn't long before he turned the space into an upscale Italian restaurant - Cena.  However, he closed Cena in the fall of 2015 because of the need for overflow for the highly successful Mussel & Burger Bar upstairs.  Fernando showed the skeptics that a non-chain restaurant in "J-town" could actually make it.  

Along the way, the Martinez's have been busy.  Under their OLE' (which stands for "Oh! Let's Eat!") Restaurant Group banner, they also own and operate El Taco Luchador - an upscale taqueria in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville; as well as Artesano Vino Tapas y Mas in the Westport Village boutique shopping area in Louisville.  And in the fall of last year, the group opened a second Mussel & Burger Bar location in downtown Louisville.  

As I said, I was sort of driving around a building in a strip mall trying to find my way out onto Taylorsville Road and I saw the awning in front of the place.  (see map)  Walking into the place, there's a nice bar area.  I was asked by the hostess if I wanted to have a seat in the dining room.  I looked at the difference between the two and opted for the dining room.  

The dining room was sort of neat.  It kind of reminded me of an old South dining room with columns and arched alcoves with booths.  I took a seat at one of the booths and was given a menu.  I was soon greeted by Anthony, my server for the day.  Anthony was a raging urban hipster - nice guy, but a little thick on the laid back hip talk.  I thought it was kind of funny and he made me smile.  He got me a locally brewed IPA while I looked through the menu.  

The menu featured a number of burgers, sandwiches, appetizers, and - of course - mussels.  The burgers weren't cheap - most of them were $15.50  The appetizer mussels rang in at $11.50 and I thought that may be too much to go along with a burger for just myself.  

There were a couple three burgers that caught my eye - the Bacon Breakfast Burger, also known as the B.B.B. featured a burger patty topped with white cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, maple syrup glazed pork belly bacon, a fried fresh egg, and finished with a maple syrup aioli.  The local burger featured an 8 ounce ground beef patty from Sherwood Acres Farm located about 35 miles east of Louisville, gouda cheese from Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese located in Southern Kentucky, and fresh veggies from a local farm.  

I ended up getting the CEO - a gourmet burger patty topped with gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, a truffle aioli, baby arugula, and oven-roasted tomatoes.  It came with huge steak truffle fries that were more like quarter wedges of a full potato.  If I wanted to get foie gras on the burger I could have for an additional $7.25.  

The burger was very thick and placed on a fresh baked bun.  From the first bite, I could tell this was an excellent burger.  It was flat grilled, cooked to a medium with a hint of pink, and tasted like it had some sort of seasoning on it.  It was difficult to distinguish the difference between the cheese, arugula, caramelized onions and oven-roasted tomatoes.  But it all went so well together - the balance of flavors and the textures involved are a signature of Fernando Martinez.  This was a very, very good gourmet burger.

I think I had - maybe - two bites of the steak truffle fries.  They were very good, but it was a lot of starch on the plate.  Had I been more hungry I may have had one of the full steak fry spears.  

What a great find!  I had no idea that Mussel & Burger Bar even existed until I just happened to drive past it.  It's sort of tough to find, even if you're looking for the J-town location.  But it's worth looking for it.  The place is not cheap, but the Martinez family is not apologizing for that.  The balance of tastes in the CEO burger that I had was interesting and everything on the burger went well with each bite.  Anthony's service - while a little over the top with the urban hipster persona - was friendly, efficient and fun.  With now two Mussel & Burger Bars in the Louisville area - and the closing of Cena in the lower portion of the J-town location - more people in the Louisville area can enjoy the great gourmet burgers they serve.     

Lynn's Paradise Cafe - Louisville, KY

I recently had a meeting in Louisville with a prospective dealer. I ended up spending the night in Louisville and had a number of options for food, but didn't exactly know where I wanted to go. My sister and brother-in-law had lived in Louisville for a number of years and my bro-in-law suggested a place they loved to go to called the Chick Inn for what he described as the best fried chicken in the world (my sister, however, said it wasn't as good as it was before they'd had a fire there a few years ago). The decision became moot, however, when I found out the Chick Inn had closed over a year ago. Another place that I'd heard about and wanted to give it a try was Lynn's Paradise Cafe. My sister, who now lives in Phoenix, told me, "Oh, you'll like Lynn's. It has good food and its sort of kitschy."

I don't quite remember where I first heard about Lynn's Paradise Cafe. All I know is that I had it bookmarked on my computer as a "Restaurant to Visit" in my travels. It could be that I saw it on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network, or it could have been a Man Vs. Food segment on Lynn's on The Travel Channel where Adam Richman tried to eat their Quadruple "B" French Toast that features black walnuts with a blackberry glaze and a bourbon meringue. Lynn's has also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show (I probably didn't see that segment) and also on the Today Show (I possibly may have seen that). The restaurant has also been featured in articles in USA Today, the New York Times, Bon Appetit, Travel and Leisure, and Southern Living - all of which I will read from time to time. In any event, I knew I wanted to get to Lynn's at some point. And even though it was a 30 minute drive from hotel, I decided to make the trek to The Highlands neighborhood of Louisville, home of many very good restaurants and shops in the area (see map).

Lynn's Paradise Cafe began in the early 90's when Lynn Winter opened the doors of the restaurant. Lynn's original vocation was as a woodworker who custom built cabinets, bookshelves and armoires in Northern California and in Kentucky. When business got slow for her, she began to wait on tables in a restaurant. She loved the interaction with the customers, the fast pace and the different types of food. In 1991, she got rid of her woodworking tools and opened Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

From the start, Lynn Winter set out to have a fun place for visit, not only for the great comfort food with a twist, but also for the visual aura her restaurant strives to achieve. Lynn's Paradise Cafe is known for their breakfasts, served anytime during the day, as well as their Sunday brunch's where lines stretch out the door waiting for a table. But one thing that I was looking for was Lynn's version of the Louisville staple - the Hot Brown.

The Hot Brown is sort of tough to describe without pictures and actually eating it. It's an open faced turkey sandwich served on sourdough bread, then topped with bacon, tomatoes and a mornay sauce and cheese, then broiled in an oven. The origins of the Hot Brown go all the way back to 1926 when one of the chefs at the then new Brown Hotel, Fred K. Schmidt, came up with the concoction of food as a late night alternative to ham and egg dinners. Styled after Welsh rarebit, the Hot Brown quickly became the No. 1 item on the menu at the hotel's cafe with over 90% of the orders for the open-faced sandwich. One of the reasons was at that time, turkey was considered only for special occassions - such as holidays or anniversaries - and people loved the fact that they could get a hot turkey sandwich at any time at the Brown Hotel.

The Brown Hotel had its ups and downs for a number of years, finally closing in 1971. (They reopened in 1986 as a Hilton property, but the Brown is now owned by the upscale 1859 Historic Hotels corporation and is a 4-star boutique hotel.) However, by that time, Hot Brown's had become the signature dish at a number of Louisville restaurants. Like Kansas City and barbecue, or Chicago and deep dish pizza, the Hot Brown is synonomous with Louisville in terms of culinary delights.

Lynn Winter was actually featured on The Today Show with Hoda Kotb and Kathy Lee Gifford showing how to make a Hot Brown. Click here to see that video (there's a short commercial at the start.

I got into Lynn's Paradise Cafe around 7:30 p.m. that particular evening. The building is back from the street a bit and there's a parking lot out front. Actually, it's rather tough to miss as along the sidewalk by the street is a large coffee pot that doubles as a water fall pouring water into a cup. That pretty much tells you what kind of place it is before you even go in.

There's an outdoor seating area just beside the main entrance to Lynn's Paradise Cafe (above right). It features a long row bench in an aquamarine color with brightly colored floral vinyl tablecloths and red metal chairs. It was a nice night, but no one was sitting outside.

As you enter, you find yourself in the "World of Swirl" gift shop, a throwback type of place that offers a lot of kitschy items and toys from the 50's. More on this place a little later on.

I was worried that the place would be somewhat small and popular enough that I may have trouble getting a seat right away. After entering the restaurant, I was surprised that it was even bigger than it looked in pictures I saw in the past. There was a host just outside the main dining room in the kitschy gift shop (more on that later), and he took me to a booth along the wall and dropped off a menu.

The dining room at Lynn's is, well, interesting. The room, itself, is a slight A-frame with a high wooden ceiling supported by steel beams. Kitschy lights are hanging from the ceiling, as well as light ropes wrapped around support poles in the center of the room. It looks like some sort of a 1950's designer's experiment gone terribly wrong. But it's also tastefully humorous.

Speaking of kitschy lights, each of the booths sport a hideous looking lamp on the table. It turns out that Lynn Winter has been sponsoring and judging an "Ugly Lamp" contest at the Kentucky State Fair each year since 1999. She had been asked previous to the beginning of the Ugly Lamp contest to judge Poultry Dressing (whatever that is) and she decided that wasn't an exciting thing to judge. She came up with the concept for the Ugly Lamp contest and put the judging into two categories - Born Ugly, for the lamps that were manufactured that way; and Made Ugly, by people who took a lamp and purposely made it ugly.

Many of the winners are on display on the table tops of the booths, including the one in the picture above right which was sitting on my booth table. Yes, that's really a lamp with the shade covered in tacky men's ties. And quite honestly, we may have a couple lamps sitting in our basement back home that we could enter in the contest .

My waiter for the evening came over and asked me if I wanted something to drink. I had read somewhere that Lynn's bloody mary was one of the finest you'd have anywhere - so good that they called it the "World Famous Bloody Mary". It had better be - they were charging $9.75 for it. I usually don't have a bloody mary after noon, but these sounded pretty good from it's description - a homemade mix made from scratch, vodka (Absolute Peppar for a more spicy bloody mary), then on a skewer they put cherry peppers, pepperocinis, green olives and black olives and dip it in the glass. I found out that they also had Bell's Pale Ale on hand at Lynn's. So for a starter, I ordered an Absolute Peppar bloody mary with a Bell's Pale Ale chaser. I don't know where I got on the kick of having a beer chaser with a bloody mary, but it's sort of a staple now when I get one.

The drinks were brought out and the Bell's Pale Ale came with a frosted boot glass. It was kind of a fun little touch to go along with the beer.

The bloody mary, I'm sorry to say, was over-hyped. It was actually pretty dull in taste and sort of watery, even with the Absolute Peppar. I just didn't think it was all that it was cracked up to be, considering what I'd read about it. I like my bloody mary's with a little more of a thick consistency and have some zip to the taste. I didn't find either in the bloody mary at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

Figuring that I was going to order a Hot Brown at Lynn's, I was thrown a curve ball by all the other things on the menu they had to offer. The jambalaya pasta jumped off the menu when I saw it - it had grilled chicken, andouille sausage and sautéed shrimp mixed with fresh thyme, peppers, onions, tomatoes, celery, Cajun seasonings and a cream sauce. Yow! That sounded great. Almost on the other end of the scale in terms of description was Lynn's meat loaf - called Mom's Meatloaf - that was made from grass-fed Kentucky beef and topped with a spicy marinara sauce.

My wife would have liked the place as they featured fried green tomatoes as an appetizer. Green tomato slices, hand-breaded and fried, served with a spicy remoulade sauce. And another thing that I really wanted to try was the Kentucky Reuben Quesadilla. They take corned beef, Swiss cheese and fried cabbage and place it all between two tortillas. They serve the quesadilla with a side of a homemade bourbon, cayenne Thousand Island dressing. I just about came unglued when I saw that.

And, as I said earlier, you could get breakfast at any time at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. They had omelets, French toast, stone-ground cornmeal pancakes, biscuits and gravy - it was a Southerner's breakfast paradise.

But I decided to go with what I came for - the Hot Brown. I ordered that up from my waiter. When he brought it, I knew right off the bat that I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing. First of all, the bowl it was in was huge. Two slices of hickory smoked bacon crossed the top and chunks of chopped tomatoes were sprinkled over the caramelized cheese topping. My arteries were hardening as I looked at this thing.

And the taste - oh man! First of all, the bacon was excellent - and who doesn't like bacon. Then digging into the Hot Brown, there was a pile of sliced turkey breast laying just underneath the cheese. I found the sourdough bread under that and the combination of the bread, turkey, cheese and the mornay sauce (it's actually more like an alfredo sauce, only using pecorino romano cheese instead of guyere and parmesan cheese) was like money in the bank for my taste buds. I kept telling myself that there was no way I could eat all this, but I found that I kept going and going and going until I very ashamedly stopped with nearly the whole bowl empty. I wanted to cry because A) I was so guilty that I nearly ate the whole damn thing, and B) it tasted SO great! I knew I couldn't eat for three days after this.

After paying for the meal (sort of expensive at $43+ with tip, but the bloody mary and 2 Bell's Pale Ales added up for most of the bill), I spent some time back out in the World of Swirl gift shop just looking around and the fun and weird items they had to offer. In addition to the wacky hats they on for sale, there was just about anything and everything imaginable as far as retro toys, games, and doo-dads. And I'm sure they do sell a lot of things out of the gift shop. It was actually sort of fun to go through and see what they had.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe is not only a place to go for the good food, but for the visual stimulation, as well. It's a fun place, the atmosphere is laid-back and the service I received was very good. I'm not certain I'd order another bloody mary if I went back. To me, it certainly wasn't worth the price. But for my first experience for a Hot Brown, I'm afraid to get one any place else in Louisville because I'm sure it won't be as good as the one at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

(Update - I was saddened to hear that Lynn Winter shut down Lynn's Paradise Cafe in early 2013.  It wasn't initially known why she closed down, but it was revealed a few months later that she was suffering from shingles and had to close down.)

 

Joe's O.K. Bayou - Louisville

It's a treat to find authentic Cajun food when I travel and while I was in Louisville recently I came across Joe's OK Bayou.  I truly love Cajun food and I wanted the whole Cajun experience, so I decided to try a little bit of everything at Joe's when I was in there recently. 

Joe's OK Bayou was started 14 years ago by Joe Wheatley, a native of Morganfield, KY.  Wheatley attended the University of Kentucky and worked for a small Cajun food restaurant in Lexington.  When his parents would visit, they would always go to the Cajun restaurant to eat.  Wheatley's parents, Malcolm and Leslie, became well acquainted with the owners of the Cajun restaurant, learning some of the recipes the owners brought with them from Louisiana years before.  In 1993, the Wheatley's opened their own Cajun/Seafood restaurant in Henderson, KY, on the Ohio River just south of Evansville, IN. 

In 1995, Joe Wheatley opened his first Joe's OK Bayou in Louisville.  He featured a full Cajun menu and decorated his small restaurant like an authentic Cajun shrimp shack.  As things were getting going for Joe in Louisville, his parents sold their restaurant in Henderson and opened a new restaurant - the Feed Mill Restaurant - in their hometown of Morganfield, KY, just south of where Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana all come together at the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers.  The Feed Mill featured a more diverse menu including steaks, chops and barbecue in addition to the Cajun specialties the Wheatleys were becoming famous for.

As Joe's OK Bayou grew in business, Joe Wheatley added on to the original location in Louisville.  In 2005, he added a Joe's OK Bayou in Lexington, KY; and a year later he opened a third location across the river from Louisville in New Albany, IN. 

The original location was not far from the hotel that I stayed at during my trip to Louisville.  In fact, Joe's OK Bayou is located in the same little shopping complex that Perfetto Pizza resides (see map).  I was rather surprised to realize that both places were so close together.   The Colonial-style exterior of Joe's gave way to an interior that resembled a restaurant that you'd find in the heart of the Louisiana bayou. 

There are two parts of Joe's OK Bayou - the front dining area that has a nice bar that was packed with people, and a rear seating area that was much larger than the front.  I'm guessing that was the expanded part of the restaurant.  I sat at a table in the front part of the restaurant and was given a menu by the waitress.  I also ordered up an Abita Amber, a wonderful beer from Louisiana they had on tap. 

As I said, I really wanted to try a little of everything.  And they had it all on the menu.  Shrimp, gumbo, crawfish, oysters on the half-shell, all types and different Cajun dishes.  My head was spinning trying to grasp what I could get.  They had softshell crabs, gator tail and crawfish etoufee on the menu.  I couldn't figure out what I really wanted to get.

One of the specials they had that evening at Joe's was oysters on the half-shell.  I ordered up six of those while I looked over the full menu.  When they were brought out to me, I was surprised to see six of the meatiest and fresh oysters this side of any seaside town where I've eaten oysters.  They were great.  I was in feverish anticipation of other items they had on the menu.

After I finished off the very good oysters, I got the waitress to come by and explain some items on the menu.  The portions looked huge, especially if you ordered a dinner which came with two sides.  The smallest size of crawfish they had to offer was two pounds.  I asked if they could just send out a pound of crawfish.  She was pretty set in that it had to be two pounds.  All right, I saw that she wasn't going to budge on the negotiations, so I ordered up two pounds of crawfish (there's really not a lot of meat on a crawfish, so two pounds of crawfish is like a quarter pound of meat - if that).  I also ordered up a bowl of gumbo - no cup size was available.  And I ordered up some jambalaya, a small order.  (Many of the items such as gumbo and jambalaya are offered in up to quart-sized "to-go" containers.)

The crawfish was the next to come out.  They were a little fishy tasting and were more than likely frozen crawfish from China, but they still had some meat to them.  The Cajun spices helped them out, but I'd had better crawfish before.  

Next, came the gumbo and the jambalaya.  Both were generous portions of food.  I tried the gumbo and thought it to be OK, nothing special.  I've made better gumbo at home.   Although there were ample amounts of andoullie sausage and chicken in the gumbo, it still didn't have that "pizazz" that I look for - even when I doctored it up with some Tabasco sauce. 

Then I tried the jambalaya.  Ugh!  I'm sorry, but the jambalaya at Joe's tasted like it had been on the stove top for three days, simmering.  It was dry and flavorless, hopelessly overcooked.  Even Tabasco couldn't help the taste of the jambalaya at Joe's.  I was highly disappointed.  

While the meal started out very promising, as it went on it went downhill - and fast.  I was very happy with the service, the waitress was overly attentive and kept checking on me at the appropriate times.  But other than the oysters, the boiled crawfish were average, the gumbo below average and the jambalaya was almost inedible.  I was hoping to get a great meal at Joe's OK Bayou and from all indications they must do some pretty good business.  But if my meal is an indication of the day-to-day food they have at Joe's, the people of Louisville are still not being served very good Cajun food.  

I'm going to have to adopt a new policy in that restaurants that I didn't care for, I may have to give them a try again.  It's obvious from the amount of people that were in the place that evening, along with the longevity of the place, plus they've opened two other locations, that Joe's OK Bayou must be pretty good.  Maybe I did get a bad batch of jambalaya or not the best gumbo they've ever made.  I know some food critics will give a restaurant two or three chances before they declare it to be good or bad.  I just don't have the time to do that since I don't get to Louisville all that often.  But I will try Joe's again just to make sure and I'll let you know. 

(Update - I have been back to Joe's OK Bayou and once again the food was just... OK.  As far as Cajun goes, it's pretty pedestrian.  I'd look for another Cajun place in Louisville - if there is one - before I'd go back to Joe's.) 

Perfetto Pizzeria - Louisville

I've been giving myself a treat once a week during my weight loss and subsequent "holding" of weight during this past summer.  Those treats usually involve a pizza.  Not a deep dish or thick crust pizza, but one where the crust is thin, light and crispy.  While in Louisville, I'd done a little investigative work and found a new place called Perfetto Pizzeria just off of I-64 at S. Hurstbourne in what appeared to be a sort of upscale strip mall. (see map)

Pizza in Louisville is an art form.  Aside from the two Impellizeri's places I've visited (read about Tony's place here, and Benny's place here), there's a number of other places that offer a "Louisville-style" which is basically "New York-style thin crust pizza and pile on the toppings".   Some of the better pizzas during my travels have come from Louisville.  Perfetto's doesn't really do anything different from the "Louisville-style" that I've had.  They just add to a growing list of pretty good pizza places already in the area.

Dan Heride was an automaker in Wisconsin - first working in an assembly plant in Racine.  When that plant was shut down, Dan and his wife, Cyndi, moved to Mineral Point for Dan to work in a factory that made auto parts.  That plant eventually shut down, as well.  The Heride's were without work and in their early 50's when they decided to move to Louisville to be closer to their daughter and her family.   They toyed with the idea of opening their own restaurant, but they had never worked at a restaurant before, let alone owned a restaurant.

 It turns out the Heride's had a connection in the food and restaurant community in Louisville.  Their daughter is Danni Waldridge who is the owner and chef of Divinity Fine Catering, one of the premier catering outfits in the region.  The opportunity arose for them to take over a small pizza parlor that had housed a couple of defunct pizza restaurants.  All the equipment was there - the oven, roller, prep tables.  It was nearly a turnkey operation for them.  The Heride's opened in the Spring of this year hoping that the third time for a pizza joint in the space would be the charm. 

The Heride's are basically the only people who work through the week at Perfetto Pizzeria (which gets it's name from the Italian word for "perfect").  Dan Heride told me that they're usually there at 9:00 to 9:30 in the morning Tuesday thru Friday (they open at 4 p.m. on Saturday - closed Sunday and Monday) to accept the shipment of fresh ingredients from the food purveyor.  They then turn on the ovens around 10:30 and begin to cook pizzas soon thereafter.  They sell pizza by the slice during the noon hours through the week and I understand it's a growing business.  

It was about 8:15 when I walked into Perfetto.  Two couples were seated at tables and I didn't know if I could seat myself or I needed to be seated.  Only Dan Heride was behind the counter - his wife nowhere to be seen.  I went to the counter and Dan asked if I needed anything.  I took a look at the menu and immediately ordered a 12" (which they call a "medium") sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza - my reference toppings for pizza.  I asked if it was too late to eat in and Dan said, "Oh, no.  Not at all.  We don't close for another 45 minutes."

I got a bottle of Bud Light from him and took a seat in the dining room.  Perfetto's Pizza is not a big place - it holds, maybe, about 35 to 40 people.  But it has sort of a "pizza parlor" feel to it with the checkered table cloths and the comfortable seating. 

While Dan makes the pizzas, sandwiches and other nightly specials, Cyndi wears the many hats of waitress, table busser, dishwasher, etc.  Dan told me that many nights they don't get out of there until 10:30 p.m. through the week and closer to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights when they close at 10:00.  He told me, "My daughter and grandchildren help out on the weekends.  We can get pretty busy." 

I immediately got the sense that I had breached protocol at Perfetto's by by-passing Dan's wife and ordering directly from Dan behind the counter.  She never once acknowledged my presence in the dining room.  I thought it to be rather odd considering that she was rushing past me every so often and she never did ask how I was doing or if I wanted another bottle of beer when my Bud Light was empty as I was waiting for the pizza.  I just figured that she was busy as all get out and Dan, on the other hand, would poke his head over the counter and ask if I needed anything.  He brought me out another bottle of Bud Light just before my pizza was ready.

When it was ready, Dan brought it out and set it on the table.  Already, I liked the looks of the pizza - big chunks of sausage, lots of pepperoni and mushroom and a ton of cheese that had caramelized magnificently in the oven.  There was going to be no way that I could finish this whole thing in one sitting. 

While the hand-tossed crust was a little thicker than what I'd refer to as "New York-style", it wasn't all that thick either.  Actually, the crust was about the only disappointment as it was sort of chewy.  But the toppings were fresh, flavorful and plentiful.  The sausage used at Perfetto had a nice taste to it and the chunks were good-sized, just as I like.  As I thought, there was no way I could eat the whole thing, so I had Dan box up the remainder as I had a refrigerator and a micro-wave back in my room.  Perfetto pizza could be a late night snack or breakfast during my stay in Louisville.

As I paid for dinner at the cash register - Cyndi Heride still never acknowledged my presence during my visit - we got to talking about how Dan had ended up in Louisville.  He said, "Well, the car industry had gone to shit.  I had about 30 years into it when the rug was pulled out.  We decided to do something different with our lives and control our own destiny."  

He said they'd been open about 3 1/2 months and that business was steadily improving.  He said, "We don't have a web site, yet.  We're not really doing a lot of advertising, so we're just sort of relying upon word of mouth to get people in."

Dan asked how I liked the pizza and I said, "Well, I'm from the Quad Cities and I wish you guys would have moved down from Mineral Point to Davenport because I'm telling you - this would be the best pizza in the Quad Cities." 

By this time, Cyndi Heride - who was putting chairs on the tables and sweeping up the tiled floor - came over to where we were talking.  She enthusiastically asked, "You really liked our pizza?"  

I said, "I'm not kidding, this would be the best in the Quad's." 

Cyndi said, "We considered moving to the Quad Cities, but we wanted to be closer to our grandchildren.  Be sure to stop back in the next time you're in town." 

While I don't know if Perfetto Pizzeria has the best pizza in Louisville, they do a fine job.  I'm hoping they'll work some of the kinks out of the process and eventually get to the point where they do have one of the best pizzas in the area.  I'll have to give them a few more months and try them again when I get down to Louisville next spring.  

At least, I'm hoping that the Heride's make a go of the place so they'll still be there for me to try next spring...

Impellizzeri's Pizza - Louisville

For over 17 years, Benny Impellizzeri served some of the best pizza - if not THE best pizza - in Louisville.  Suddenly, Benny closed up shop in early 2005 and was inactive on the restaurant scene for over two years.  In 2007, Benny and a partner, Wes Phelps, re-opened Impellizzeri's in The Highlands region on Bardstown Road (see map).  The small restaurant was almost immediately overrun with people who had massive withdrawals from one of Benny's pizzas.  Impellizzeri's pizzas are literally works of art - huge pizzas with tons of fresh toppings.  It is almost impossible to eat even a small Impellizzeri's pizza in one sitting. 

I was traveling to Louisville one evening earlier this fall and I had the On-Star Turn-by-Turn Navigation programmed to take me to the Bardstown Road location.  Along the way, I was talking to my sister, Nan, who lives in the Louisville area.  She told me, "Hey, I wanted to let you know, they've opened an Impellizzeri's not far from our house."  Nan told me it was on Old Brownsboro Road, which was also not far from the hotel I would be staying at for a couple nights.  I had On-Star re-program my turn-by-turn navigation for the new location (see map) and headed down the road. 

It was around 9 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot at Impellizzeri's in a stand alone building in the southwest corner of a strip mall between Brownsboro Road and Old Brownsboro Road.  The building looks like it may have been an old Pizza Hut or some other type of pizza restaurant in the past.  I took a seat in the restaurant and looked through the menu.

Now, I have to say that this would not be the first time I had an Impellizzeri's pizza.  But it would be one that would be made under Benny's watch.  I had already visited Tony Impellizzeri's pizza restaurant a couple years ago (see my entry here).  Tony is Benny's brother and both got their start with their father, Tony, Sr., in the original Impellizzeri's back in 1978.  About 14 years ago, for whatever reason, Tony broke off from the family and opened his own pizza place on the southeast side of Louisville (see map). 

From what I understood, Tony Impellizzeri's pizza and Benny Impellizzeri's pizza were about the same.  But in doing some research for this entry, there seems to be more of an affinity for Benny's pizza than Tony's.  It may have something to do with Tony's surly attitude, such as what I encountered during my visit there.  Benny, from many accounts I've come across, is a pretty popular guy who used to sing in a local rock band back in the 60's.  Pizza from a surly guy definitely doesn't taste as good as one from a nice guy.  Or so it seems from what I've been reading.  

Impellizzeri's also serves traditional Italian food, but I was there for the pizza.  I pretty much knew what I was going to get - the standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza that I always get when I want to compare pizzas.  The waitress said it would be about 20 to 25 minutes, so she asked me if I would like to get an order of their garlic bread sticks to tide me over.  I understand Impellizzeri's is somewhat famous for their bread sticks.  I declined, knowing full well that I would have enough trouble eating a small Impellizzeri's pizza. I passed the time waiting on the pizza drinking a couple beers and reading my Chicago Tribune.

About 25 minutes later, here came my pizza.  It was loaded with big chunk sausage, spicy pepperoni slices and tons of fresh mushrooms.  The sauce was sweet and tangy, and the crust was thin, but not crispy.  The dough used in the pizza is made fresh everyday and it's made with a recipe Benny got from his grandmother years ago.   The pizza was everything I remember from Tony Impellizzeri's pizza.  Honestly, since it had been a couple years since I'd been to Tony's place, I couldn't readily say which pizza was better.  Both were just damn good. 

I was able to eat four of the six slices, cheating on the fourth slice by eating most of the toppings off of it.  I had them box up the remaining two pieces as I knew the hotel I was staying at would have a refrigerator in the room.  I ended up heating two of the pieces up for a late night snack after having dinner with my sister and brother-in-law at their house the next evening. 

I have a buddy, Randy Adams, whose step-dad used to make these homemade pizzas back when we were in high school.  He would start with a thin crust and then just slam on tons of meat, peppers, onions and tons of cheese on until the pizza was groaning from the weight of the toppings.  I've never encountered a pizza like that until I've had both Tony and Benny Impellizzeri's pizzas.  And the Impellizzeri's may go even more overboard with their toppings than Randy's step-dad did.  Impellizzeri's Pizza is nothing like anything else I've ever encountered in my travels.  It's wonderful and it's worth the price of admission. 

Jack Fry's (Revisited) - Louisville

I promised that I'd give my nieces, Amy and Sara Geiger, a shout out at some point in Road Tips.  And since Jack Fry's in Louisville is one their favorite all-time restaurants when they go back home to visit their parents, this is as good a time as any.

I first wrote about Jack Fry's here when I went out to eat there with my sister, Nan, when I was in Louisville last year.  She told me that Jack Fry's is somewhat famous around Louisville for having a great gourmet hamburger.  I made a note on that and promised myself that I'd give it a shot at some point.

After having dinner with my sister and brother-in-law, Vic, at their house the night before, I decided to give Jack Fry's burger a try before I left to head down to Bowling Green.  The Highlands area on Bardstown Road where Jack Fry's is located (see map) is always hustling and bustling.  Finding a parking spot in the small lot on the side of the restaurant is usually done by pure luck.  It just so happened that as soon as I was pulling into the lot to see if anything was available, a car was pulling out of a space. 

I walked in the side door and was greeted by a hostess.  I asked if I could sit at the bar for lunch and she gave me sort of a surprised look.  "Why, of course," she semi-exclaimed.  She took me to the bar and handed me the lunch menu as I sat down on a stool.

Actually, Jack Fry's is almost too nice of a place to have a bar.  But the place was established back in the 1930's just after the repealing of Prohibition.  Jack Fry was a reputed bootlegger and bookie who ran the place as a beer and shot kind of place.  In the 1970's, and under new management, Jack Fry's went through a metamorphosis into an upscale dining establishment.  It has been hailed as one of the finest places to eat in Louisville for a number of years.

The lunch menu isn't too deep in choices.  And quite honestly, I really thought about getting the pork tenderloin sandwich, roasted in spices and topped with a red peppers, onions and Havarti cheese on a toasted roll.  But I came for the burger and that's what I got.  I got it topped with swiss cheese and caramelized onions.  A side of hand cut fries came with the burger.  

As more people filtered through the restaurant during the lunch hour, I patiently waited for my burger.  I kind of got the notion from the bartenders that sitting at the bar was sort of gauche. The two guys behind the bar were efficient, but not very friendly.  When I was served my burger and fries, it was given to me with not much of a word from the server.

Getting over the rather chilly service, the Jack Fry's burger was everything my sister told me it would be.  The meat was fresh, moist and flavorful.  The bun - what I think makes a good burger - was light, flaky and wasn't chewy.  It was very, very good. 

But it should have been good given the level of cuisine served at Jack Fry's.  I probably would have given it five stars had I eaten it in a greasy burger joint with the smell of stale beer in the air.  But Jack Fry's food is top notch and no matter what you get on the menu it's going to be very, very good.  I don't know if I'll go back to Jack Fry's specifically for a burger, but any meal at Jack Fry's is a big treat. 

John E's - Louisville

During my recent trip to Louisville, I took a couple guys from the ADI branch in Louisville and a dealer from Lexington to lunch at a place not far from the branch called b.  Actually, one of the guys from ADI suggested the place and I told him that as long as it wasn't a chain, it was fine with me.

The main part of John E's restaurant is a two story log cabin built in 1850.  Over one hundred years later, the building became a restaurant - Bill Bolan's.  Bolan's restaurant was a classic American supper club/steakhouse and was considered one of the finest restaurants in Louisville. 

In 1983, an employee of Bolan's, John Shanchuk (right), and a silent partner, Ben Edelen, bought Bill Bolan's and renamed it John E's.  Shanchuk has since bought out Edelen's share of the restaurant and is the sole owner today.  His daughter, Jenny, runs the day to day operation of the restaurant. 

Over the years, they've added onto the original log cabin - made with hewn logs 14 to 18 inches thick.  With a new enclosed seating area that was formerly a patio, John E's seats about 300 people. 

And it can get packed rather quickly - especially the week up to and just past the Kentucky Derby.  In fact, the restaurant pays homage to the Derby with pictures and race tickets of each Kentucky Derby from the past 25 plus years.  John E's steaks are what bring 'em in.      

Since we went for lunch, I knew I wasn't going to be trying a steak.  In fact, I really didn't know what I was going to get.  The lunch menu is pretty extensive and they also have a southern-style buffet with chicken, sausages, pasta, vegetables and salads.  The buffet is what brings a lot of people in for lunch. 

The other four guys decided to go with the buffet.  I saw something that just jumped out of me on the menu - the hot roast beef sandwich.  I'd been on the road for a few days and I needed comfort food. 

The hot beef sandwich at John E's is slow cooked beef brisket, cooked in an onion broth.  Then a heaping helping of beef is placed between the top and bottom of a homemade hard roll.  Then it's slathered with gravy and served with a side of homemade potatoes.  It was absolutely a spot-hitter. 

I'm glad I got the hot beef because, quite frankly, the chicken, sausages and pasta the guys brought back to the table didn't look all that great.  One of the guy from ADI even commented, "I always get the buffet when I come here because it's such a good deal ($8.95 - all you can eat).  But that hot beef sandwich looks damn good.  I'll have to try it next time."

I told him, "It IS damn good..."

Lunch with tip came to about $65 bucks.  Not too bad considering you got a lot of food with your meal.  I was stuffed after I finished lunch.

John E's has a long time reputation for their steaks, pork chops and seafood.  I paused to look at their dinner menu and thought I'd like to come back sometime to give their steaks a try.  The prices weren't outrageous, and the dinner items looked pretty cut and dried.  But just based upon their lunch, I'd have to say John E's is a mighty fine restaurant. 

Jack Fry's - Louisville

While I was in Louisville recently, I had an open evening.  So I met up with my sister, Nancy (whose birthday just happens to be today), and we went to Jack Fry's, a local favorite in Louisville. 

Jack Fry's is truly an institution in Louisville.  Jack Fry opened his doors just after Prohibition ended in 1933 and ran it until he sold it in the late 70's.  Given that the area around Jack Fry's was going upscale with shops and restaurants, Jack Fry's abandoned their old formula of beer and sandwiches and went to a gourmet menu with an extensive wine list.  Today, owner Susan Seiller and executive chef Shawn Ward have turned Jack Fry's into a four-star restaurant in the heart of the bohemian Bardstown Rd. area south and east of downtown Louisville (see map).

From the outside, Jack Fry's isn't much to look at.  Inside, it's cozy and warm with dark brown walls filled with pictures from Louisville's past.  There's a number of photos to do with the Kentucky Derby and other past events in Louisville's history. 

Jack Fry has a guy playing soft jazz on a piano.  It's not too loud and provides a wonderful audio backdrop to conversations going on in the restaurants.

Jack Fry's has two sections - the main room up front where the bar is located; and the back dining room that features booths and tables.  We were seated in the back dining room right by the hostess stand. 

The booths were roomy and comfortable.  Even though Jack Fry's is a small place, you don't get a claustrophobic feel when you're seated.  We were greeted by our waitress, Ashley, who was adorned in a tux minus the jacket.  I wanted to get a bottle of wine, but I'd had a long day and I needed a cold beer.  My sister ordered up a glass of chardonnay to start out. 

Jack Fry's menu is what I would call American-bistro style.  While not a huge menu, it's interesting enough that I had trouble trying to figure out what I wanted.  The appetizers looked great - shrimp in a red eye gravy with shittake mushrooms and tomatoes poured over grits was one that caught my eye.  And they did have foie gras on the menu at a time when many restaurants aren't serving that delicacy any longer.

For dinner, I went with the house specialty - a veal chop stuffed with Fontana cheese, wild mushrooms and sage.  My sister got the old stand-by - Jack Fry's filet mignon served with prosciutto.  And I ordered a bottle of the 2003 Franciscan Cabernet to go with our meal. 

After we both finished a house salad, Ashley brought our meals to us.  The presentation was wonderful, the portions were good sized and the taste was wonderful.  Actually, I didn't think I had a stuffed veal chop as it didn't appear that anything was stuffed into it.  However, my last few bites found the stuffing and it was very good. I also had a side of fingerling potatoes, asparagus and brussel sprouts (the brussel sprouts I didn't like).   

My sister's filet was cooked to perfection.  She also had a little herb potato cake on the side that she said was very good. 

For dessert, I was very stuffed but I was talked into sharing the creme caramel - vanilla custard with a caramel topping and a burnt glaze on top, sort of like a creme brulee.  It was sinfully great.  But, OH!  So rich! 

My sister told me that Jack Fry's was famous for their gourmet burgers.  In fact, they even feature them as a main entree on their dinner menu.  I told her that I had to be back over this way the next day so I'd try to stop in and get one.  Well, it turned out that I didn't have time to stop in, but I'm sure I'll be back in sometime in the next couple three months.

Jack Fry's is pricey - with tip the bill came to $180 bucks.  But the food is great, the service is impeccable, and the place has loads of history.  Before I left, I had to walk around the bar area up front to look at the pictures and memorabilia they had on the walls.  Jack Fry's is truly a neat place and one that I'll definitely go back to.   

(Click here to see my visit to Jack Fry's for one of their gourmet cheeseburgers.)

Tony Impellizzeri's Pizza - Louisville

I'm traveling to Indiana and Kentucky for my work now.  One of the places that I get to go to is Louisville.  My friend from near Cincinnati, Tony Jobe, once told me that there was a great pizza place in Louisville called Impellizzeri's.  The only problem is that the guy who had the place, Benny Impellizzeri, closed the doors of the establishment.  However, I found out that Benny's younger brother, Tony, had his own pizza place on the east side of Louisville - Tony Impellizzeri's Italian Restaurant  (see map).

I was told the Impellizzeri style of pizza was a cross between New York thin-crust style and Chicago deep-dish.  I love pizza where the crust is thin and the toppings are heavy.  I had to find this place and have one of their pizzas.

Tony Impellizeri's is in a non-descript strip mall off of Shelbyville Road.  It was a slow Wednesday evening when I was in there.  There was a family of four having pizza and me.  I was greeted by the waitress (who I found out later she was Tony's wife, girlfriend or significant other), and sat at a table near the counter.  I ordered a beer and got a menu from her. 

In addition to their pizza, Tony Impellizzeri's also serves sandwiches and pasta.  I was only interested in the pizza, so I got my standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  It said on the menu that a small (12") would serve 2 to 3 people.  This was a problem as I was traveling and I didn't have access to a refrigerator.   I knew I'd be wasting some pizza.

I saw Tony Impellizzeri back in the kitchen area making pizzas.  He was a small, skinny guy with long black hair and glasses.  I understand there was some sort of a family dust-up with Tony and Benny and Tony went out on his own a few years ago.  But it was still supposed to be the Impellizzeri family recipe for pizza and homemade sauce, something that had been passed down from Tony's great-great grandmother.

It took about 20 minutes for my pizza to show up and it was worth the wait.  Oh, man!  It was just unbelievable!  The toppings were three times the depth of the crust.  I LOVE pizzas like this!  The cheese was thick, the sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms were more than plentiful, and the sauce was tangy, sort of sweet, but a nice complement to the toppings.  There were a lot of Italian seasonings on the pizza, as well.  The crust was light and tender, not too chewy and not too crisp. 

It was cut into 8 traditional pieces and I was able to finish to finish exactly half of it.  The waitress asked me if I wanted a box to take the rest home.  I told her that I was traveling and I didn't have access to a refrigerator at the hotel.  She said, "Where are you staying?"

I said, "At a Hampton Inn on the northeast side."

She said, "Well, they should have a refrigerator that they use for breakfast items.  They'll probably put that into the refrigerator for you."

I said, "They might, but it also may not be there in the morning." 

She let out a knowing laugh when I said that.

The pizza and three beers weren't cheap - it was $35 bucks with the tip.  When I got up to leave I wandered back toward the open kitchen area behind the counter and I said to Tony, "Hey, great pizza!"

He never looked up from one of the pizzas he was making from a call in order.  His waitress said, "When he gets to working, you can't get his attention." 

I was very impressed with my Impellizzeri's pizza.  I wish I'd brought a cooler or something to be able to put the rest of the pizza into to keep for a day or two.  Oh, well.  I'm sure I'll be back sometime in the near future. 

(Update - I recently went to Louisville and went by Tony Impellizzeri's to have a pizza one evening.  The only problem is that it was closed.  And evidently for good.)

(Update March 2012 - I found that Tony Impellizzeri's has reopened in New Albany, IN, just across the river from Louisville.  Click on the Urbanspoon link below for the map and more information.)