Tackling this enormous subject has been tried before by some local publications, but in my opinion, it wasn’t ever handled that well. (Full disclosure: I worked for the Grisanti company for nine years, so my perspective is wholly biased.) To his credit, Kaufman did the right thing in choosing one angle—a focus on Casa’s offspring—and sticking with it.

The story had a few minor shortcomings, however, and considering the challenge Kaufman faced juggling so many details, they’re forgivable. Still, they bear mentioning only out of fairness to those overlooked:

* The piece didn’t note that Michael Reidy, the gregarious and highly successful co-owner of Irish Rover and Irish Rover Too, was a busboy and assistant waiter at Sixth Avenue. (Yes, he was as crazy-funny then as he is now.)

* The story said Mark Stevens was the executive chef at Casa Grisanti, but he wasn’t. He was the enormously talented, workaholic executive chef at Sixth Avenue and my boss for four years there. He later co-founded (with his highly talented and woefully self-underrated culinarian wife, Susan) Stevens & Stevens Delicatessen in 1991.

* And though it correctly mentioned Tim Coury’s ownership of Porcini, it must be pointed out that Porcini’s only chef since day one, John Plymale (my old roommate and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet), was a Grisanti veteran.

A note to former Grisanti employees: In bumping into many of you over the past few years, some have discussed organizing a reunion. Feel free to send any ideas for following through on that idea to steve@villevoiceeats.com.

The space to be leased is 10,000 square feet, which is absolutely enormous compared to most restaurants. It’ll seat 350, which is a TON of seats, and it’ll need exceptional traffic to be profitable.

That prime slice of real estate will be leased for $100,000 a year, or $10 per square foot, which is astonishingly affordable—dare I say cheap?—even in Louisville. That low overhead should help keep the bills manageable in case Fusion’s seats aren’t full year round. The Kentucky State Fair Board, which manages the property either was highly motivated to get the space occupied, has immeasurable confidence in the new restaurant and its owners, or both.

Either way, it’s great for Louisville. We get to enjoy a high-caliber restaurant that’s not a steakhouse (nothing against those, we just have, as a source in the article said, too many of them), plus we get another great reason to head downtown.

Secondly, I’ve got to congratulate, Mehrzad Sharbaiani, yet another of many former coworkers of mine from Casa Grisanti, who’s enjoying incredible success as a local restaurant owner. He was one among many Iranians I worked with who immigrated here in the early 1980s. These guys didn’t set out to be waiters, they were trained engineers seeking work in their chosen profession. Certain America was a better place to be (the Iranian hostage crisis was still going on) and humble enough take jobs that had nothing to do with his training, Sharbaiani et al donned tuxedoes and placed themselves under the tutelage of Vincenzo Gabrielle, then master of the Casa.

Now look where Sharbaiani is: the majority owner of two Z’s Oyster Bars (one is in Indy) and the soon-to-be-operator of Z’s Fusion.

What’s most humbling for me in his story is how well so many non-Americans seem to work the American dream—often better than most Americans.