In the old Lentini’s property on Bardstown Road.

Photo courtesy David Harpe.

Next Tuesday, October 13, Buckhead Mountain Grill will donate 20% of your bill to Metro United Way. At all Louisville locations. All day long!

All you have to do is print this flyer:

CLICK FOR FLYER – PDF LINK

And give it to your server by the end of the meal and 20% of the entire table’s total goes back to MUW.

So, planning on eating out that day? Do it in support of MUW. Don’t forget to pass these out to friends and family.

Does the “small” in “small business loan” refer to the size of the business, the size of the loan, or does it really mean nothing at all?

This question has to be raised in the case of a Metropolitan Business Development Corp. (METCO) small business loan, announced on Friday, that will allow a Louisville-based Qdoba franchisee to open a new store at 4th and Jefferson.

The $50,000 forgiveable retail loan was awarded to ZT of Louisville and will pay for plumbing and hood vents in the Marion E. Taylor Building.  METCO says the loan is designed to encourage businesses to locate in areas that “lack a strong retail presence.”  The new Qdoba in the Taylor Building will be located a block from 4th Street Live, perhaps the strongest (and best financed) retail presence in Louisville.

When commenting on the loan, Mayor/Lt. Gov. Candidate Jerry Abramson apparently quoted from the METCO website, saying, “Small businesses are the backbone of our city economy.”

But how small is small?  If you don’t know, ZT of Louisville is a partnership between two Louisville restaurateurs and businessmen, Michael Grisanti and Don Doyle.  Grisanti was an early investor in, and eventual director of, the company that became Qdoba.  Doyle is a former president of KFC.  Their company, as the region’s dominant Qdoba franchisee, has developed every Qdoba location in Louisville, Lexington, Nashville, and Birmingham.

At what point does a franchisee that is wildly successful—and a trip by the Bardstown Road Qdoba on any Friday or Saturday night, or the Breckinridge Lane Qdoba around lunchtime, will make it pretty clear that the local locations are that—cease to be categorized as a small business?  Does a company whose annual revenues are estimated at $8.5 million need 50 grand to build a venting hood?  Would that sum make a difference to any other local entrepreneurs in any other areas?

The corporate-fixture-to-franchise-magnate racket is one that is time-tested, well-known, and totally honorable.  Qdoba may have the best burritos in town.  But is it in the interest of Possibility City’s weakest economic sectors to help an established franchisee open a new restaurant next door to Louisville’s hottest of hot spots?

John LaFollette is a Louisville-based writer.

It is with profound happiness that I’ve convinced my wife to let me break my diet in celebration of the culinary achievement of W. W. Cousins. In the upcoming June/July issue of Food Network magazine, W. W. Cousins is the choice as the home of Kentucky’s best burger. This article mentions the best hamburgers in all 50 states, preferring the wacky, the interesting and the fabulous.

Does a burger at Cousins qualify as fab? Absolutely. Wacky? Take a trip to the toppings bar and judge for yourself. You’ll find ketchup and mustard, but there are nearly 40 other ways to top your burger, so wacky is a distinct possibility. Just follow the map to your favorites, be it sour cream, Parmesan or tartar sauce. The price point in today’s economy isn’t a deal breaker, as you can get your Bluegrass best for $4.40 to $5.30.

In doing some research, a number of sources mentioned that Cousins is a copy of Texas-based Fuddruckers. Not having been to Fuddruckers, I can’t speak with authority on that topic other than to say my mother would have thought it was close enough to cursing that she would have slapped the burger (with toppings) out of my mouth. And perhaps that’s part of the allure of using that as your restaurant name, but I like the friendlier imagery of W. W. Cousins. Taking the family there wouldn’t give me a heart attack when my young children go to tell Nanna where we had lunch.

Not to rain on the parade, but would we have gotten a different result if Kaelin’s was still open, considering their claim to the invention of the cheeseburger? A check of the Kaelin’s website says that they are still remodeling. They’ve been closed since March.

Congratulations to our play-cousins at W. W. Cousins and look for the Food Network magazine on newsstands on May 5th.

The Beginning

Three Minutes Later

We tore it up! You have to go get some. Marsha may be the best baker in town.

In other news, two great stories from David to come tonight/tomorrow.

A TARC bus has parked across the street so firefighters can pop inside and warm up, and power is out in the area of the restaurants. Squad cars are blocking off the street and Bardstown Road is closed. Although the fire has been extinguished, random wisps of smoke could still be seen drifting up into the chill air when I visited the site about Noon.

According to one of the firefighters, the blaze was called in at 4:12 this morning. Originally, a company was sent to investigate a trash fire behind the building, but when it arrived, the entire structure had caught fire and additional companies and equipment were called in. In all, eight fire trucks were sent to the Egg Roll Machine and Cafe Mimosa restaurants. According to the Courier-Journal, the firefighters tried to battle the flames from inside but couldn’t make any headway, so they left the building and tried to keep the fire from spreading to the two adjacent structures. The entire building is a loss, and the roof has caved in. No one has heard if the owners have plans to rebuild one of Louisville’s most popular Asian restaurants.

All in all, it was an extremely busy night for the Louisville Fire Department. At 3:00 a.m. a fire was reported at the Portland Presbyterian Church at 32nd Street and Portland Avenue. Fifteen trucks were sent to battle that blaze, and there were about 75 firefighters at the scene. Every on-duty firefighter was at the scene of one of the early-morning blazes, and off-duty units were called in to man the stations.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant

One of the newest is a restaurant scheduled to open for dinner Feb. 9 at 8000 Bardstown Road, near Glenmary. Aspen Creek will have the look of a rustic mountain lodge and should conjure up images of the kinds of places you might find near the founder’s favorite ski resorts in Colorado or Utah.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Louisville native W. Kent Taylor, the 53-year-old founder of Texas Roadhouse and Buckhead Mountain Grill, and Aspen Creek is the first new restaurant concept since he started Texas Roadhouse in Clarksville, Ind. in 1993. The average dinner check at Aspen Creek will be about $12, putting it in the same category as casual-dining standards such as Olive Garden and Applebee’s, and the menu will feature items such as pasta, pizza, hamburgers and chicken.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant

Since it was Thursday, we missed out on the specials, so I ordered the grilled salmon salad. For $10.99 you get a huge bowl of mixed, fresh greens with diced tomatoes, purple onion and pecans topped off with a large filet of fresh salmon that has been dusted with lemon pepper and grilled.

For the amount of food you get, that’s not a bad deal, either. The salmon was grilled just right – i.e. I mean it wasn’t overcooked like so many places do their fish nowadays – and had an ever-so-slightly rare strip of moisture in the center that preserved the flavor. In addition, the salad greens were bright and crisp and made a good bed for a dose of ranch dressing. The only thing I didn’t care for was the “honey butter croissant” that came on the side.

Every time I go to KT’s, I just push that little culinary abomination as far away from me as I can. I know lots of people rave about them, but frankly, they scare me. I don’t trust any type of bakery item so fragile that it needs a protective coating of honey and butter to keep it from collapsing in on itself. You take one bite, and poof! it’s gone, leaving the eater to wonder if he almost had a bite of dessert or something else of a sugary-squishy nature. Only the sticky residue on your fingers attests to the fact that a pseudo bread item ever crossed your path.

Okay, okay, you get the picture: I don’t like the honey butter croissants. Everything else is great, though, so go and check out one of their money-saving deals.

KT’s, a Cherokee Triangle landmark since 1985, is located off Interstate 64 at the Grinstead Drive exit, at 2300 Lexington Road near the corner of Grinstead Drive and Lexington Road. Call 502-458-8888 for more information.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant

The owner, Shahram Pouranfar, is also the owner of Sharom’s Restaurant at 5627 Outer Loop, a popular south Louisville seafood spot that opened in 1997. To symbolize the Mediterranean cuisine on offer, Pouranfar – a native of Iran – chose the word for ‘olive’ (zaytún) as the name for the restaurant. Hardly surprising, Zaytún will offer a selection of specialty gourmet olives that will change frequently.

Fans of hummus will be happy to find two different varieties on the Zaytún menu: the Phoenecian ($4), which I tried, is spicy (but not overwhelmingly so) with its incorporation of roasted garlic and zippy red pepper sauce; the Egyptian ($4) is more like the traditional variety most Americans enjoy and uses lots of onion, garlic, and seasonings in the blend. All in all, the menu has close to 20 items to choose from, and many of them – baba ghanouj ($4), falafel ($6), kabobs (“coming soon!”), gyros ($7),  baklava ($1.50),  and Greek salad ($4.75) – are what you’d expect to find at a place such as this. However, some dishes don’t fit the mold of your typical Mediterranean kitchen. (By the way, the classic gyro was delicious.)

Read the rest after the jump…

Friday nights, for example, there is a fried fish special (“A mild white fish fillet, hand breaded by our sister restaurant Sharom’s Seafood and Gyros, and fried golden, served with rye bread and our own Homemade Tartar sauce”) for $8 with fries.

In addition to the “Euro-style chicken caesar wrap” ($7), “pita crunchers” (fried pita strips served with tzatziki for $3) and “cheesy flat bread” with pepper jack ($3), snackers out to further the corruption of decent Mediterranean cuisine can try something called “Zaytún’s Tribal Fries” for $4. Described as “Crispy fries topped with sautéed onions, tribal dressing, Pepper Jack cheese and Cajun seasoning,” it is definitely not your typical Mediterranean concoction. Not to be outdone, the “Taj Mahal Rings” ($4), a stack of home-style onion rings, comes with tzatziki and tribal dipping sauces. (The ‘secret recipe’ for the tribal sauce hasn’t been divined yet, however, it could best be described as a jacked-up version of Thousand Island dressing.)

Apart from a selection of beers and soft drinks, patrons at Zaytún can wash down their meals with a kettle of Persian hot tea ($3) or a yogurt-based beverage known as ‘doogh’ ($2). The interior of Zaytún is clean and casual – a wait person will take your order, though – and the rehabbed space borders on warm and cozy with its shades of ocher, rust and lavender on the walls. Charcoal tiles line the floor, and there are ten or so tables of assorted sizes with sleek, black chairs with shiny wooden seats that can accommodate around 40 people. Zaytún was offering free hummus as a grand-opening special, but they might be discontinuing that soon, so head over to Douglass Loop soon and see if there’s any left for you.

Zaytun Mediterranean Grill
2286 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40205
502-365-1788

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant

Bristol Bar & Grille opening in Jeff on Friday: Southern Indiana will get its first Bristol Bar & Grille on Friday, when the Jeffersonville location (700 W. Riverside Drive) opens for business. Executive chef Richard Doering, a veteran of Louisville Marriott East and 211 Clover Lane, will oversee the kitchen, and Scott Harper will manage the restaurant.

Additionally, a Business First report said Bristol also is launching a podcast at its Web site to teach customers more about wines. In the wake of its popular price slashing effort (the restaurant lowered prices to market rates this year), Harper, who also is the chain’s wine director, has added the podcast to help familiarize diners with the myriad vino options available. Even if you don’t own an iPod, you can watch all Harper’s videos on your computer.

Chef Robert Irvine canned by Food Network: It appears “Dinner Impossible” chef Robert Irvine was more challenged to tell the truth about his resume than he was cooking some of his outrageous—and at least partially staged, I always claimed—meals in strange environs. When the Food Network discovered he’d lied about making the wedding cake for the prince and princess of Wales, being knighted and cooking for a series of U.S. presidents, it canned the cocky Brit and pulled the plug on new production of his goofy, “surreality” show last month. (Reruns will continue.) Though a real prince compared to uber-tool Gordon “Hell’s Kitchen” Ramsay, I always thought he was a first rate jerk. Off to the rubbish heap with you, Robert.