06-09_Come & Go_sum15_Road Trip_Cinci.qxd 5/2/15 10:19 AM Page 6
| starters
comings&goings BY RON MIKULAK
It has been a vibrant and verdant spring around the area, and a fertile season for restaurants as well. This past quarter saw the emergence of 29 new restaurants, and the closing of only 16, almost twice as many openings as closings. For the restaurants biz, that certainly is a good start to the year. Last issue we reported on the opening of several new high-end restaurants — Ward 426, 8UP, Mesh. Of those two dozen-plus new businesses, we have to list here only Brendon’s Catch 23 (opening just as this issue goes to press) in the Upscale Dining category. But that fact does not undercut the anticipation and latent excitement of the other new restaurants, which suggest the continuing appeal of local craft brewing, ethnic influences on the dining scene and the energy of familiar players who continue to spin out intriguing variations on their established themes. NEW TABLES The elegant lobby of the recently opened Embassy Suites Hotel (in what will undoubtedly always be referred to as the old Stewart’s building) at 505 S. Fourth St. will startle the old-timers who remember the old department store. If the independent Brendon’s Catch 23, adjacent to the hotel just to the south, matches the classy modern elegance of the hotel lobby, the downtown dining scene is in for another jolt upward. The focus of Catch 23 will be steaks and seafood and Low Country cuisine — a southern regional focus that has been missing in the local mix. It is always encouraging to see established restaurateurs getting enough of a foothold to expand with additional locations of their initial idea, or new concepts that bring different choices to the dining scene. In the last quarter, veteran pizza entrepreneur Tony Palombino has been the one kicking up a storm of new ideas. Palombino currently has six Boombozz Pizza & Taphouses in the area, a number that will remain the same even when he opens another in the former 60 West Bistro location at 3939 Shelbyville Rd. That’s because his Boombozz store at 3400 Frankfort Ave. will be converted into his latest concept, Joella’s Hot Chicken. There he’ll serve Nashville-style spicy chicken and side fixin’s, dishes he has been experimenting with and perfecting at his downtown honky-tonk Manny and Merle (122 E. Main St.). He’s also expanding that operation by taking over a former barbershop next door. All this energy comes hot on the heels of the collapse of a recent idea, Barrel House Social, which was to be at 6201 Dutchmans Ln. Lose some, win some seems to be Palombino’s philosophy as he plunges onward to develop his growing empire. While two stores don’t constitute an empire, Eggs Over Frankfort owners Jackson and Cortney Nave are growing their concept with the addition of a second location dubbed Eggs Over Baxter. Their new Highlands spot at 962 Baxter Ave. has a liquor 6
Summer 2015 www.foodanddine.com
license, which will allow it to serve mimosas and Bloody Marys with brunch. We found it interesting that 13 of the 29 new restaurants are ethnic eateries, and eight of those serve Mexican or other Latin American cuisine. The perception that Louisville, compared to some other cities, has been ethnic-food deprived is perhaps in need of re-evaluation. Let’s start with those Latin restaurants. Me Gusta Latin Kitchen and Bar, 129 W. Main St., replaces the Los Aztecas that was there, and adds Peruvian and Argentinean dishes to the more usual Mexican fare. Con Huevos at 2339 Frankfort Ave. (Sari-Sari’s former location) serves Mexican-style breakfasts that go beyond the familiar huevos rancheros. Across the river in New Albany, Israel Landon, who experienced a typically American entrepreneurial rapid rise and fall with La Rosita, is returning to his roots, both figuratively and physically. His new restaurant, Israel’s Delices de Mexico Gourmet, is at 1515 E. Market St., the site of his instantly popular first incarnation of La Rosita. He will be serving things like street tacos and Mayan quesadillas. Weekly specials highlight various regional Mexican cuisines, including seafood dishes and new desserts. Also in New Albany is Leo Lopez, who is re-opening Habana Blues Tapas Restaurant in a new location, 320 Pearl St. His new location will have valet parking, nightly Latin music (tango, flamenco, salsa), and a wide array of Caribbean-inspired small plates. Other new restaurants serving the foods of Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean include TropiCuba in Clifton, Don Juan Birria y Carnitas in Fairdale, El Micheladas and Yoli’s Cafeteria in the South End and La Cocina de Mama downtown. TropiCuba, 2206 Frankfor t Ave., in a space that has seen several restaurant iterations in the last several years, has earned