by Kelly McKnight
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

I always feel stupid going in to Asian restaurants mainly because I really am clueless about the cuisine.  When I spotted the Mikato’s bright red signage on the Watterson, I decided to give it a tumble.

The evening began on a happy note when we pulled in I recognized the Mikato as the old location of Mama Grisanti’s and Napa River Grill — both places I’ve enjoyed many fine meals.

Plenty of parking and the lot was free of weeds and debris, also signs of a well-run restaurant. Inside the door, we were welcomed by a delightful hostess named Suni (Sunny?) whose disposition more than matched her name.

Nice interior and there was a koi pond. (I suddenly wondered what kind of fish was on the menu and I counted the koi just in case—never can be too sure, I say.)

There was a short wait so we stopped by the bar.  My wife’s sake was served at the correct temperature (I learned this from a James Bond movie). We were quickly delivered to our table.

Since my Japanese Cuisine IQ is so low, I’m like Stella’s sister in the Glass Menagerie — I must depend on the “kindness of others” and in this case, it was our server.  She helped me order and I ended up selecting the Hibachi-grilled salmon and was I glad I did!

But first things first.  My wife and I shared a calamari appetizer and it was very good—crisp without being oily.  (It was so good, next time I’m tempted to try so some of Mikato’s tempura dishes.)

The main course was preceded by a nice salad and a small bowl of mizo soup.  I really like the ginger-flavored dressing on the salad. To me, mizo soup is mizo soup.

Did I say the salmon was good? Like “budda” it melted in my mouth!  I grill a lot of salmon so I rarely order it when at a restaurant but this time, on a recommendation from our server, I’m glad I did.  Really-really good grilled salmon and it was accompanied by a nice mixed-medley of vegetables and the fried rice had a very nice sauce with it.

My wife loves sushi but my knowledge is limited to “California Roll” and “Spring Roll” so I generally I wait to see what she orders and steal morsels off her plate.  Unfortunately, my wife’s sushi was so good I risked getting a chopstick through my hand so I didn’t get to steal any of it. She thinks she ordered something call a “Volcano” but don’t bet the ranch on it because the sake was kicking in and my wife’s a short-hitter. (She even ate all the green stuff which is probably why she nailed the sake).

My take on the Mikato is it’s really a great place.  Good service, pleasing interior, fair to even low prices, and very, very good food.  If you are hesitant to go to a Japanese-style restaurant because of a lack of familiarity, the Mikato will make you comfortable and help you order.

On my way out, I grabbed a lunch menu and was immediately grabbed by the Mikato Box Lunch — what a great idea.  Choices included chicken-pork-beef and range from $7.95 to $9.95.  Orders over $50 and they deliver.  I’m going to check them out for my next business meeting.

I will definitely visit the Mikato again and soon.  It’s located across from the Village 8 Movie Theatres on Dupont Circle and is open for lunch and dinner.  Hey, cheap movies and a  good Japanese dinner — sound like a deal.

by Jessica Elliott
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

The reopening of Browning’s at Louisville Slugger Field has been somewhat of a local success story – after closing in March 2008 because of the recessing economy, it was reopened by partners Anoosh Shariat and Paula Barmore.

I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Shariat and Barmore at Browning’s and sampling a few menu offerings. The partners rushed to open the restaurant within a month of their decision to purchase the space and are still trying to get everything perfect, having already changed the menu once. However, you wouldn’t know that walking into the restaurant – from the fresh flowers surrounding the outdoor patio to the menu that seems to cater to all tastes, Browning’s seems as though Shariat and Barmore have been running it for decades.

According to Barmore, the most popular menu items have been the Browning’s Burger, Hot Brown, and Helles Battered Grouper. While some of the menu is a reflection of the offerings from the restaurant’s first life, there are some new additions such as the Fried Macaroni and Cheese and Grilled Portobello Wrap.

In addition to their regular operations, Shariat and Barmore hope to cater to the business crowd downtown by offering meeting space in both Browning’s and Park Place, the former upscale restaurant space next door.

Park Place will be the more upscale, white-tablecloth location for meetings and other special events, but Browning’s also has private dining areas for more friendly, low-key gatherings. The partners also hope to host beer-tastings and other interesting events for individuals looking for a private space for a get-together.

Everything I sampled at Browning’s was interesting and delicious, and the prices were definitely recession-friendly. Plus, the portions are huge, so two light eaters could share an entrée and appetizer for a meal costing less than $20. The beer is incredibly affordable as well – glasses of Browning’s brew run at $4 a piece, about what you would pay for a bottle of Bud down at Fourth Street.

The food at Browning’s is worth the money, and eating there goes to support two individuals who refuse to give up on the locally-owned dining scene even when times look bleak. And right now, we could use a few more success stories.

Read more from Jessica at her About Louisville blog

by Leslie Stewart
Ville Voice Correspondent

The English Speaking Union’s annual Queen’s Birthday and Garden Party was held at the lovely Midlands estate of John and Janet Conti Sunday, June 7.  Louise Cecil chaired the event, which annually awards summer scholarships to college students and high school teachers to study abroad at some of Great Britain’s finest academies, including Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of Edinburgh.

Table talk was a veritable, spontaneous game of English Trivial Pursuit, revolving around lineage, peerages, dukes and duchesses, and the recent and unexpectedly well-behaved visit of Prince Harry to the colonies.

The tea was presented by the all-student Sullivan University catering crew, under the direction of April Gregory, assistant to catering chair Chef Kimberley Jones.  Gregory had but five days to assemble and produce the menu for one hundred and fifty distinguished guests.

A lavishly festooned tent and creatively presented buffet tables presented savouries consisting of finger sandwiches of several varieties – cucumber, an apple-bleu cheese spread, potted shrimp, and salmon mousse.  Naturally, there was also an assortment of scones with the traditional Devonshire cream (oddly, no crumpets, but those do seem to be more of a breakfast item).  Other sweets came in the form of chocolate mousse, lemon curd, and panna cotta tartlets with fresh berries.  Of course, there was the requisite tea – Earl Grey, to be precise, with all the proper accompaniments, plus just enough champagne to toast the Queen’s birthday with the appropriate amount of pomp and circumstance.

Alas, the Queen was otherwise occupied and not in attendance, but other appropriately costumed dignitaries were, including a robust-looking King Henry VIII and all six of his wives (two heads miraculously restored for the occasion), along with an authentically costumed early music ensemble from the University of Louisville.

For more information on the ESU, visit their website.

by Tim Girton
Ville Voice Eats Corresondent

How do you remember the cheeseburger? Is it as one of those mama burgers filled with onions, bell peppers and all the other ingredients that mothers loved and you couldn’t stand? I remember telling my mother point-blank that the restaurants don’t serve them that way. Mom always insisted that hers were better but my regurgitive reflex seemed to disagree every time.

Or would it be from the voices of John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray? Chee-boiga, chee-boiga, chee-boiga. That skit became firmly ingrained in the American consciousness in the 70s and early 80s.

Or would it be the purported “Birthplace of the Cheeseburger?” Kaelin’s Restaurant, 1801 Newburg Road, at the corner of Newburg Road and Speed Avenue? It lays claim to that title and has a complete history on how it was created.

At least two other restaurants say they were first, including Pasadena’s Rite Spot, where a 16-year-old Lionel Sternburger was said to have put cheese on a regular hamburger and called it a cheese hamburger, and Denver’s Humpty Dumpty Barrrel Drive-In, which trademarked the name “cheeseburger” a year after Kaelin’s introduced it by name on its menu. Both of those other “creators” have since gone belly up.

Back in March, Kaelin’s closed for renovations. A few days later the awful truth started to creep in. Now it’s June and Kaelin’s website no longer exists. The phone is disconnected. It seems that we’ve lost an historic Louisville institution.

My own personal experiences with Kaelin’s revolved around the cheeseburger. Sure they served other food, including fried green tomatoes, biscuit pudding and the like, but nothing matched the cheeseburger platter with fries and cole slaw. My wife and I frequented the restaurant in recent years because we were tired of waving (the famed sign, “If you Can’t Stop, Please Wave, is still there) so we stopped often. She would try various items on the menu, but for me it was cheeseburgers or nothing. It felt like consuming manna from the source.

And now, we are mourning the Holy Grail of Louisville food creativity. I mean, the hamburger didn’t NEED cheese, but Kaelin’s created a culinary masterpiece as well as an American icon. No, we didn’t need it, but boy, did we sure want it.

Here’s hoping that it comes back.

In a world lousy with wine dinners, Lillyís and Gemelli Wine+Spirits go niche with a vegetarian meal featuring organic wines. OK, it’s a big niche. Organic wine sales are rising at three times the rate of wine sales overall. Still, in a world where wine dinners almost by definition build toward a Big Red Wine/Big Red Meat climax, they deserve credit for trying something new.

The first course is feta cheese and parsley strudel, served with Paul Dolan Sauvignon Blanc. Dolan is a 4th generation winemaker and the former president of Brown-Foreman-owned Fetzer Vineyards. He left Fetzer — itself a pioneer of large-scale sustainable winemaking — amicably a few years ago to open his own winery. This Sauvignon Blanc is one of the results.

The second course is fried eggplant caponata with cream sauce and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The wine is Yalumba Viognier. Viognier, too long exclusively the grape of small and expensive French appellations, has really taken off in Australia. Yalumba, in the Barossa Valley, makes a vibrant, Technicolor expression of the grape.

Next comes a garlic and potato cake with mushroom ProvenÁal (featuring mushrooms from Sheltowee Farm in Lexington), served with Kunde Chardonnay. I never know exactly what to say about Chardonnay. It’s Chardonna, for heaven’s sake, the white wine 90% of Americans think of when they think of white wine. Kunde’s Sonoma interpretation is aged 60% in French oak and 40% in steel, and retains more character than generic, death-by-oak California Chardonnays. But still.

The next course is a black bean tostada with red pepper cheese, tomato, avocado, poblano pepper and basil verde sauce. I hear all that, Iím thinking margarita. Gemelli offers instead The Crossings Pinot Noir. This leads me to believe that the tostada isn’t as spicy in real life as it is in my imagination — though in my imagination I still eat two. The Crossings is a winery in Marlborough, New Zealand, a region that’s in the process of redefining Pinot Noir the same way it has already redefined Sauvignon Blanc. That is: big and fresh and subtle and refined all at the same time. This ought to be a really interesting match.

Finally, there’s dessert: dark chocolate cake with Bing cherry sauce. The wine is Carol Shelton Zinfandel. Shelton has been named California’s Winemaker of the Year four times. She dabbles in other grapes, but Zin is where her heart — and most of her winery’s production — lies.

The wine dinner will be held at Lilly’s on June 23 at 7 P.M. The price is $45.

Tom Johnson does not understand his friends who drink only Chardonnay. As a type of therapy, he operates the local wineblog LouisvilleJuice.com.

by Tim Girton
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

Even as I type the words halo acetic acids, I wonder if I spelled it correctly. My spell check is just staring at me as if to say, “yeah, right.”

But those words became important as a story from Oldham County pointed out the water district there violated standards because last spring it didn’t report some lab results to the Kentucky Division of Water. Seems important. When a governing body needs something so that you can keep operating, you would think you’d get right on that.

The Division of Water sent a violation notice in August 2008 which stated that the Oldham County Water District needed to notify the public of the issue within a year. That’s some kind of leeway. My boss is normally asking for same-day service. Perhaps those of us in a non-government related industry have spoiled our supervisors by doing the unthinkable: being efficient. If jobs weren’t so hard to come by, I’d test the theory, but  I’d probably just look like Wally in the Dilbert comic strip. There’s precedent. He and I share the same affection for coffee.

Be that as it may, take a guess at how long it took Oldham County to alert the public. How about last month? I did the math. Spring to spring is about 12 months, give or take a little time if one event occurred at the beginning of season and the other at the end. Even from the time of the violation notice, that’s nine months. If you serve the public, something a little more responsive should be in order, wouldn’t you think?

And then there’s the question of whether people read the water bill, or any other bill for that matter. Or do people look for the bottom line amount to pay and write the check. In last month’s bill, Oldham County’s estimated 8,000 customers may have seen the words “cannot be sure of the quality of our drinking water during that time.”

Wow, that’s not scary at all.

Especially considering that the issue involved the aforementioned halo acetic acids, a disinfection by-product that may be a related cause of spontaneous abortion or cancer, according the the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation.

As an explanation, Superintendent Phillip Ward of the Oldham County Water District passed the buck to the lab, Bekmar Environmental Lab in Louisville. According to the district, they got the samples to the lab, but the lab didn’t get the results to the state in time. The lab then fell on its sword and, in effect, took the blame. Without trying to sound too snarky, like I usually do, doesn’t that seem to be the kind of thing you’d say if you wanted to keep a paying client?

And the timing is troubling. If spring is in April, when the analysis took place, they couldn’t get the results to the state by August? Wouldn’t the state have asked for the results before then? No, we don’t have the most responsive government in Kentucky, but it seems rather glaring considering that, hopefully, we test water more than once a year. Superintendent Ward told the Courier-Journal, “It looks bad upon us. That’s not what we want, of course.”

And the “No Sh**, Sherlock” award goes to…

by Jessica Elliott
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

Mark Your Calendar: The Louisville Original second-quarter discount gift certificate sale will begin at 10 a.m. on July 16. [Originals]

Contemporary Piano Bar: Dress up like F. Scott Fitzgerald and bring your date to the Brown Hotel lobby bar on Thursdays and Fridays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. to enjoy half-price signature cocktails and tapas while listening to Broadway and jazz-era hits by professional pianist Sue Ann Stone.

More Music and Deals: On Thursdays evenings this month from 6 to 9 p.m., you can enjoy live music and half-price wine at the Prospect Bristol Bar and Grille.

Better than a Date at Olive Garden: Be at the old Ferd Grisanti Restaurant on June 14 to experience Taste of Italy, an Italian buffet feast featuring dishes from several local Italian Restaurants. Proceeds of this event will benefit victims of the April 6 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. [Courier]

More Tastes: The 2009 Taste of Frankfort Avenue is set for June 28 in the Clifton Center. The event features tasty fare from 28 local restaurants. [Clifton]

What More Could You Ask For: Anything that combines books and food sounds like a good time to me. On the second Wednesday of every month, The White Oak (at the old Artemesia location) is hosting a dinner and book club discussion featuring books with a food theme. [Courier]

Read more from Jessica at her About Louisville blog. 

by Tim Girton
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

Methinks there is a conspiracy afoot. And when a conspiracy gets into the head of someone who believes in conspiracies, you understand that there are no coincidences.

As evidence, I give you the Strawberry Gambit. What other fruit has managed to put itself in the news, and in the public consciousness, in the same city on the same date in different publications? Coincidence? Reread the first sentence.

So here’s where I first noticed the Strawberry Gambit and began to try to unravel the threads of its plot so that you will have the information necessary to decide whether you wish to buy into the scheme and buy a pint or two. On Wednesday, May 27, the published an article by Marty Rosen with the headline “Strawberries’ day in the sun is now.” On the exact same May 27, Courier-JournalLEO Weekly publishes “Locavore Love: Springtime’s star revealed - behold the strawberry” by Holly Clark.

Apparently both publications have been led to believe that late May/early June is the perfect time to consume strawberries. Mr. Rosen spoke to a couple who grows the fruit in Madison, Ind. where they handpick them from their 3,000 strawberry plants. The couple sells their harvest at the Norton Commons farmers market for 4 bucks a pint. Did Mr. Rosen like the fruit? Put it this way: the article quotes Horace, a Roman poet, at some point in the text. Hmm.

Meanwhile Ms. Clark’s LEO Weekly article touts the health benefits of the antioxidants found in strawberries as well as the vitamin C, riboflavin, vitamin B5 and so on. She even gives an interesting recipe that involves dandelions. But guess where she says you should buy your strawberries? The Smoketown/Shelby Park farmers market at Meyzeek Middle School.

Is this the common thread that links the conspiracy together?

In order the test this theory, I visited several farmers markets on Saturday and time and again, I came to the same conclusion. First, there is no Strawberry Gambit. Several of the markets have them and they realized that I was just yanking their chain, just like I was just doing to you. The real conspiracy depends on us. If more of us support farmers markets, we will continue to help our own local economy by partaking in locally grown food. And we’ll reduce the carbon footprint it takes to get food to us because less of the fresh fruit and vegetables (and the occasional rabbit, as I found out) won’t have to be shipped to us from other states and countries.

So the publication of strawberry articles from rival news organizations was a fortunate “co-occurrence.”

Remember, there are no coincidences.

by Leslie Stewart
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

Here in the heart of bourbon country, even premium single malt scotch whisky can be a tough sell.  The natives – even those of us with Scots-Irish ancestry – have never really been brought up to fully appreciate the subtle nuances of heather and other such woodsy, grassy flavors that scotch embodies (the oak barrels in which the whisky is aged, of course, we understand pretty well).

Or maybe we just gave up on scotch with our first hideous taste of Usher’s Green Stripe, the absolute lowest common denominator blended version of scotch, which I remember upon first tasting surely being something akin to licking an ashtray.

Undaunted by such Bluegrass prejudice, Café Metro’s Gary Byler, Jr., welcomed the opportunity of creating a scotch themed dinner with help from The Glenlivet Corp. and its delightful, kilted, knowledgeable and entertaining representative, Winston Evans.  I was privileged to be in attendance May 28 for this exclusive presentation, which consisted of a thoughtfully concocted, four-course meal designed to pair exquisitely with a variety of aged Glenlivet vintages.

We were greeted at the bar with a Rob Roy cocktail, which I never even finished, mostly because each successive course was accompanied by an even older, more distinguished pour.  Our caramelized onion and mushroom soup with bacon was served with a Glenlivet 12-year old scotch, which was a perfect match for the sweetness of the onion and the meaty taste and texture of the mushrooms.

An artful pork paté with dried fruit and green olives was served with a 15-year old French Oak Reserve, and our salad of roasted leeks in honey Dijon vinaigrette came with a 16-year old Nàdurra, which is unique even among single malts for its process.  The end result is a slightly more cloudy spirit than its more refined cousins, but it’s the closest one can really come to drinking the stuff straight from the barrel.

If they wanted a marketing slogan for it, it could be “Mother’s Milk for Those in Kilts.”  (You’re welcome; I’ll be sending the invoice soon).

There were four entrée choices – mine was the pan seared duck breast with red chile pear sauce, blue cheese potato cakes and Asian pear relish.  One of my dining companions opted for the orange glazed salmon with parsnips and gingered carrots, and the other two available choices were a scotch and cherry glazed smoked pork chop with creamed leeks and applesauce, and a seared filet of beef with a scotch thyme pan sauce over rice pilaf with cranberries and almonds.  All were presented with a Glenlivet 18-year old, and all of the ingredients and flavors were carefully considered.

Chef Gary’s menu was a masterpiece, even without dessert, for which I wouldn’t have had room, anyway.  As an impoverished student, I don’t really get out much these days, so I ended up spending more time drinking and talking than I did eating, and ended up taking most of my duck home with me.  Fortunately, I just live around the corner, so I could stumble home safely with my to-go box.  It’d been a rather long time since I’d indulged in any scotch . . . and yes, I felt it the next morning.

We were entertained in between each course by the aforementioned Mr. Evans, who has apparently never met a question about scotch he couldn’t answer.  If you have questions about scotch that you’d like answered, The Glenlivet website is packed with information including tasting notes, history, and a “society” for those who are already aficionados.

Given the enthusiastic response from Thursday night’s diners, I think you can look for more such adventurous pairing dinners at Café Metro in the not too distant future.

By Jessica Elliott
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

Coming Soon: Fans of Zaytun Mediterranean Grill will be happy to know that its owners are opening a second location in the Highlands at the old Diamante Bar and Grill location. The new location will specialize in small seafood dishes and will have a bar.

Support Our Farmers: The Food Literacy Project is hosting a Family Farm Day Saturday, June 6, at Oxmoor Farm. Visitors to the event will learn about cooking with fresh produce and making ice cream and bread. There will also be face painting and other activities for children.

Food Fighting the Recession: According to the National Restaurant Association, the outlook for the restaurant industry is very positive after four consecutive months of growth in 2009.

Trading Spaces: If you’re looking for Mark Heil at 60 West Bistro & Martini Bar, you’re in the wrong place. Heil took his new position as head chef of Westport General Store on May 23.

Things To Do This Weekend: Visit the opening of the Beechmont Open Air Market. Drink beer at the Feast of Ale Brew Bash on Saturday at St. Anthony of Padua Church, and then cure your hangover with more beer at Flanagan’s Beer Fest on Sunday.

Expansions: The Wine Rack is moving a couple of blocks down the street to a new, larger location with a courtyard planned for wine tastings. Westport Village’s Wild Eggs has expanded to include an outdoor patio they’re calling the “Chicken Coop” with seating for 28.

Read more from Jessica at her Louisville blog.

by Tom Johnson
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

The most comprehensive wine list in town is the Seelbach’s, but almost no one under the age of 70 has ever seen it. Even with youth-intensive 4th Street Live just across the street, the Oak Roomís cellars are largely unknown in demographic groups that stay out past nine oíclock.

That’s about to change. With the economy slow and traffic among the Oak Room faithful charitably describable as “thin,” the hotel has decided to leverage its cellar to draw some fresh faces.

The first step will be building a wine bar in the large and largely empty lounge outside the Oak Room. The currently underutilized space has a bar built in what looks like a former coat-check closet. The 40 x 40 room is furnished with,well, with almost nothing, actually. It will be retrofitted with a tasting bar and seating designed for comfort, not for looking good on the cover of a 1953 edition of Better Homes & Gardens.

Then the real fun begins. Part Two of putting the Seelbach back on the wine map is offering deep discounts on some serious, serious wine. The Seelbach’s cellars - there are four of them - have bottles dating back more than a hundred years, including a couple of bottles of pre-Civil War Madeira that turned up in an inventory last year. The collection as a whole is strong, with depth in areas even good restaurants donít bother with: elderly Riojas and verticals of Sauternes, for example.

Seelbach management thinks it can get the wine bar off the ground by June 10. It will likely be something of a work in progress for a while, as they tweak and jigger in search of a winning formula. Certainly, events and half-priced-bottle nights will come fast and furious in an effort to alter Louisville’s center of (wine) gravity. They can tweak and jigger all they like; with a few hundred thousand dollars worth of old wine in the basement, they can take a lot of shots before they run short of bullets.

By Kelly McKnight
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

For a little place, La Gallo Rosso delivers big on food.

I love Italian cuisine and have a long-held belief:  if you can’t cook the simple stuff, leave the veal in the kitchen.  When I say simple stuff, I mean the staples like Spaghetti & Meatballs or Lasagna. I’m no novice, I cut my teeth on Italian cuisine in places from New York City to the Hill District in St. Louis.

So when me and three of my trusty friends visited La Gallo Rosso, we stuck with the staples….we all ordered Spaghetti & Meatballs.  You used to be able to bring your own libations into La Gallo Rosso and they would serve it to you with a small pouring charge.  Some asshole blew the whistle on them so now they have a wine and beer license so one of our group ordered an Italian beer and the other a glass of Pinot Grigio. I stuck with water as did my other compadre.

Our waiter, Joe, talked a mile a minute but was very enjoyable.  It seems he doubles as a DJ and has his own sound system.  He remembered me from an earlier visit and anyone who remembers me instantly wins points.

After a short wait, Joe brought out warm, fresh-baked bread and dipping plate with olive oil followed quickly by our salads.  The salad presentation is special.  They are shaped like a little crowns with the lettuce tied together with a paper-thin strip of cucumber.  So good, so far.  I went easy on the bread because I wanted to save room for the entree.

As soon as our salads were finished, the Spaghetti & Meatballs made their appearance and my dinner mates were blown away!  Two gigantic meatballs next to a pile of spaghetti noodles smothered in a piquant marinara topped melting shredded cheese. OMG, this is probably the first time in my life a meal intimidated me.

Listen, I did the best I could but I could only knock down one meatball and half my spaghetti.  This was agony!  My taste buds screamed: More!  My stomach said:  Stop!
I take pride in never using a “Doggy Bag” but this meal was more than I could handle and to my shame, I could only manage to eat half my meal.

There wasn’t even room for a cannoli or from what I hear is “The World’s Best Tiramisu”.

Now, back to the Spaghetti & Meatballs.  Like the bread, the pasta was made on premise and tasted like only fresh pasta can.  I would have preferred more kick to the marinara sauce but then again, I like a lot of heat.  Good, not great sauce and could been thicker.  The meatballs?  Absolutely the best I’ve ever had.  Big, perfectly cooked and a combination of pork and beef with a mozzarella center.  I’m guessing on the contents but I’m probably right. Teamed with the spaghetti and marinara sauce, it was better than great.

When the bill came, we all ate for around sixty bucks without the tip.  The meal was worth twice as much and I would have gladly paid it.

La Gallo Rosso is tucked away in the back at a building right next door to the Bristol on Bardstown Road.  The place is small so make sure you call for a reservation.  My wife and I stopped in a week after our initial visit and they were booked at 6:00 on a Thursday.

The address is 1325 Bardstown  Rd and the phone number is 473-0015.  La Gallo Rosso is open for breakfast and lunch and I can’t wait to try them both.

You can pay a lot more in Louisville but if you want the kind of meal your Italian Grandmother used to make you’ll find it at La Gallo Rosso.  Just bring a big appetite and not a whole lot of money.

by Jessica Elliott
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

Celebrate Healthy Living: This Saturday, May 30, the healthy-living businesses in Westport Village are hosting Healthy You Healthy Planet, a festival featuring speakers, health screenings, chair massages, healthy food, and live music, all to promote the adoption of healthier lifestyles. This event also kicks off the start of the Westport Village Farmer’s Market.[Westport Village]

Reviews: In the LEO this week, Kevin Gibson reviewed Browning’s while Robin Garr dined at the new Zaytún Mediterranean Grill and sampled the free Barbeque Pulled Pork Slider from White Castle. [LEO] Marty Rosen reviewed Coach Lamp in the C-J.

If You Can Cook Seafood: Jefferson Community and Technical College is hosting the fourth annual Seafood Cooking Contest on June 8. To compete, chefs must submit two recipes that use Kentucky farm-raised seafood to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture by June 1. [Biz First]

Other Food from the Water News: On Saturdays from May 30 through the end of crawfish season, Selena’s at Willow Lake Tavern will be boiling Live Louisiana Crawfish, serving buckets of beer, and holding corn hole tournaments. [HotBytes]

Specials: Bistro 301 is celebrating its 3rd anniversary by offering small plates of food and a daily wine glass and cocktail feature for $3.01 each starting June 15. [HotBytes]

Choose Your Pajamas Wisely: Proof on Main is throwing its fourth annual Pajama Party on June 12. This event features a cocktails and hors d’ouevre reception benefiting the International Contemporary Art Foundation. [C-J]

Beer Is the New Water: More than 30 breweries and wineries are participating in this year’s Feast of Ale festival happening on June 6 at St. Anthony of Padua Church. I can’t help but find the location of this event deliciously ironic. [C-J]

Read more from Jessica at About Louisville.

By Tim Griton
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

How are you at wine and cheese events?

For me, it’s mostly about the cheese because I’m a teetotaler, but I usually find a way to participate by ordering a Sprite or Sierra Mist and having a bit of cranberry juice poured into it. If I’m lucky and no one notices that soda bubbles are three times the size of wine bubbles, it looks like a blush and I can look like I’m the one guy at the party who never seems to get drunk. Is it the reputation I want? No, but it serves.

So how would I fare at a wine and cheese event held at one of the most prestigious addresses in Louisville, namely 1400 Willow? Perhaps I would have to step up my game and use ginger ale and pomegranate juice while enjoying a cube of Caciocavallo Podolico.

Okay, so that’s mere speculation, but there is an event coming to 1400 Willow this Sunday, May 31 at 2 p.m.  Sponsored by the Cherokee Triangle Association, and is called “Wine and Cheese and Trees.” Along with the vino and fromage, there will be a discussion of the upcoming tree census being conducted by the Kentucky Division of Forestry.

As Louisville residents are painfully aware, given the tree debris cleanup project after the January ice storm, many shade trees have been lost in recent years. The Association will have an expert there to speak to the ginger ale and pomegranate crowd and long-term plans will be discussed, too. The CTA is pretty good at long-term, originating in 1962 and achieving Historic Preservation District status for the Triangle 10 years later. As you might imagine, they take their neighborhood pretty seriously.

If you’ve made plans to go, it can be inferred that you are into trees. Perhaps you’re into birds as well. If so, you could bid on a tree and bird painting by artist (and 1400 Willow resident) Fritz Hilton that will be auctioned off. The proceeds will go to the Cherokee Triangle Association tree committee. Wow. No neighborhood I’ve ever lived in had it’s own tree committee. Or its own wine and cheese events.

And I bet no one from any of my old neighborhoods has ever even tasted pomegranate.

by Leslie Stewart
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

One of the coolest things about being a culinary student at Sullivan is the opportunity to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with our fellow wizards.  Once per quarter, the school brings in a “Distinguished Visiting Chef” for a students-only demonstration and lecture.

So far my Sullivan experience has included a visit from Chef Lee Conway (AKA the “Camouflage Chef), who specializes in wild game and teaches hunters and fishermen how to make the most of their catch; famed TRU chef and cookbook author Rick Tramonto has also been a recent guest.  Both were interesting, of course, but by far the most rewarding, in my personal opinion, was yesterday’s visit from Chef Frank Brigtsen.

Brigtsen is chef and co-owner (with wife Marna) of Brigtsen’s, an uptown New Orleans restaurant on Dante Street that’s well worth the cab fare out of the French Quarter.  I first ate there back in my radio days when an industry pal took a bunch of us broadcast types to dinner at his good friend’s place.

At the time, Brigtsen, a protégé of legendary Cajun cuisine-meister Paul Prudhomme, had already been named by Food & Wine magazine as one of America’s Top Ten New Chefs and had garnered a prestigious James Beard Award, and has won numerous equally prestigious awards since.  All are well-deserved.  Brigtsen’s remains my hands-down favorite place to eat in New Orleans, one of my fave vacation destinations and undisputedly one of the best food towns in America.

Brigtsen’s menu is a delight, full of locally grown and raised foods, artfully prepared in the true Cajun tradition, albeit more upscale.  Brigtsen himself was an equal delight, very approachable, humble and genuine, with none of the unnecessary affectations you see on shows like Hell’s Kitchen, Top Chef, etc.

His presentation was engaging, informative, and entertaining; he was generous with tips, techniques and recipes.  His demonstration included a shrimp etouffée, a seafood jambalaya, and the fried rice cakes known as calas (his version included crawfish, along with a green onion mayonnaise for dipping).  I’ll never make brown roux the same way again, and can’t wait to try out a few of the recipes for the upcoming Father’s Day meal, as my history buff dad is suddenly fascinated with the origins and development of Cajun cuisine.
Chef Frank wasn’t the only one cooking during his visit to Sullivan, however.  Chef Dave Moeller and other Sullivan faculty and students presented a fabulous menu for him the evening prior to his day of demos.

The seven course menu included a trio of soups – roasted cauliflower, carrot, and shelled pea; an appetizer of roasted loin of rabbit au jus with wilted napa cabbage, spaetzle and foie gras; a fish course of sautéed skate wing with morel mushrooms, caramelized cipollini onions, sea beans, and a champagne vinegar beurre blanc; an intermezzo of verjus sorbet; an entrée of roasted lamb rib chop au jus with sweetbreads, corn and leek cream, and Parisienne vegetables; a salad of tomato and pink grapefruit with house-cured bacon and a frozen yellow tomato and grapefruit vinaigrette; and an absolutely killer goat cheese cake with figs in a port reduction (I know it was killer because I got to assist with that part).  Chef Frank was still raving about it the following morning.

And, obviously, I’m still raving about the whole experience today . . .