Louisville Rising

01.11.08

I don't get it. Why isn't Louisville, Kentucky, touted as one of our best food and drink towns? Way too often, when talk turns to America's citadels of edible and drinkable achievement, Louisville gets elbowed aside. This river town is not comparable to Chicago.

Or San Francisco. But New Orleans and Nashville and Charleston, three southern sorta-neighbors who get pimped endlessly by the food press, had best keep their eyes on the rearview mirror.

I'm just home from a trip to Louisville. Among the highlights:

Dinner at the Oakroom in the Seelbach Hotel, where Todd Richards and Dwayne Nutter do their damnedest to explode what it means to be African-American chefs cooking in the American South. As in a fat scallop heaped with a "deli salad" of pineapples and carrots and Lord knows what all else, the tumble of goodness held together by a dill aioli.

A colder-than-cold buck-fifty can of PBR at Flabby's in Schnitzelburg, a working-class German enclave set just south of downtown. I want to come back in the summer when the old men of the neighborhood guzzle in the streets while playing Dainty, a local version of stickball.

Two fried eggs, scattered with shredded mozzarella, dribbled with harissa, served on top of brioche toast, from Toast On Market Set in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood full of hipster boutiques and junk stores, the restaurant also serves a riff on a Monte Cristo: brioche, filled with slices of ham and Swiss, served with a bullet of orange and rosemary syrup.

Comments

Post a Comment

Please be advised that Gourmet magazine will cease publication after the November issue.

Subscribers can look forward to receiving Bon Appetit magazine for the remainder of their subscription. The Gourmet.com website will remain available during a transitional period, and access to Gourmet recipes will also remain available via sister site Epicurious.com and the Epi iPhone application.

We regret any inconvenience, and look forward to your continued readership. For questions about your Gourmet magazine subscription, please follow this link to subscription services.

The Oct. 23-25 Gourmet Institute events will not take place. Additional information is available at gourmetinstitute.com.

If you purchased the GOURMET TODAY cookbook and would like to take advantage of the offer on the back flap, click here for more information.
Subscribe to Gourmet

Conde Nast Store
Give the Gift of Gourmet

Subscribe

Subscribe to Gourmet
Diary of a Foodie

From Vermont to Vietnam, take a global culinary tour with season three of our award-winning public television show, Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie.