steve, Author at Steve Coomes

Weekend sips: Angels Envy Cask Strength bourbon and ATG BierePoix are on our list

January 21, 2013 by steve Leave a Comment

If you’re celebrating New Year’s Eve at home with friends or out on the town this year, we’ve got some adult beverage suggestions we’re betting you’ve not had.

First up, Angels Envy Cask Strength: This is a big-budget item worth the mention if you’ve had a good year financially—which means post-fiscal cliff, you’ll have a tough one next year—and have the extra coin to splurge.

And given that Pappy Van Winkle “Any Year” is harder to get than a straight answer from a politician, this is a good suggestion, if you can find it.

Bar the stars from restaurant reviews

December 28, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

A publisher friend liked my recent criticism of The Courier-Journal’s restaurant grading star system, yet he added, “So what’s your solution? Don’t knock it unless you’ve got a better idea.”

He’s right.

So here’s how I’d craft the correct restaurant review.

1. No stars. Ever.

No handful of stars can express what several hundred words are required to explain. Even experienced critics who’ve mastered that discipline (and writing reviews is neither fun nor easy) find it impossible to squeeze all they want to say about a restaurant into their word count limits.

New York Times reviews range from 1,000-1,100 words, The Courier-Journal allots 800-900 and Louisville magazine gives about the same. Any Louisville mag or C-J reviewer who’s written within those parameters will tell you it’s extremely challenging based on all the info accumulated in two to three visits to the same restaurant. It’s positively nightmarish for the NYT critic who typically visits a restaurant five to six times!

Stars and Gripes: C-J’s star ratings are an offense to serious restaurants

December 28, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

The first time I read a one-star restaurant review in the New York Times 20 years ago, I thought surely then-critic Ruth Reichl (the best there ever was) was teeing it up for a long-ball lashing.

I was wrong.

Reichl raved about the food as some of the best Chinese chow she’d ever had and that it was also nicely priced. In several ways she said readers must come there if they liked great Chinese food …

… but know ahead of time that the Chinatown spot was a dump and that the service was terrible.

For the uninitiated who only glanced at that lone star, the verdict was, “I won’t go there. It got one out of four stars.”

But those who read the piece caught a different message: Come here expecting great food, but little else. If that’s OK with you, you’re going to love this place.

Weekend sips: Angels Envy Cask Strength bourbon and ATG BierePoix are on our list

December 28, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

If you’re celebrating New Year’s Eve at home with friends or out on the town this year, we’ve got some adult beverage suggestions we’re betting you’ve not had.

And given that Pappy Van Winkle “Any Year” is harder to get than a straight answer from a politician, this is a good suggestion, if you can find it.

Several weeks ago I got a press sample of Angels Envy Cask Strength, a 123-proof bourbon blended by master distiller Lincoln Henderson and aged in port barrels.

At these manly gatherings, the game is plated

December 26, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Several times each summer, when temperatures are favorable, anywhere from a few guys to as many as 20 will gather at a rustic Spencer County farm for Man Camp. Named thusly by one of the men’s wives because only dudes are invited, the gettogethers are outdoor feasts — pot lucks — cooked by veteran fishermen and hunters sharing the prior year’s quarry, the bulk of which is taken from Bluegrass lands and waters.

These are leisurely picnics where conversations rarely get serious, unless talk drifts toward gathering game and cooking it. “Oh, we’ll talk about politics now and then — family, too,” says Steve Taxes, an investment banker who, in a past career, spent two decades on the hog killing floor at Fischer Packing Co. “But mostly we like to talk about hunting. And maybe we’ll give each other a hard time.”

Looming burrito brawl between Chipotle and Qdoba will prove tasty

December 20, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Louisvillians will soon get tableside seats for the long-awaited burrito battle between Qdoba Mexican Grill and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

According to Business First, the restaurant will open sometime mid-2013 at 315 S. Fourth St.—a mere stroll across the ring from a Qdoba store at 300 S. Fourth St.

Calling this heavyweight title Mexican food fight would be a bit much since Taco Bell throws away more food than Qdoba and Chipotle purposely make any given day.

If You Haven’t Been: Main Street Café serving clever breakfast and lunch

December 20, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

If you’ve already glanced at the photos and thought Main Street Café(217 E. Main) looks a lot like Main Street Coffee & Deli, you’re right.

After opening as a lunch destination in March, the concept got a rebranding when it added a more extensive breakfast menu in October. And according to executive chef Larry Agnew, he and his partners wanted to do more to boost dine-in sales alongside its carryout sales.

“We wanted to expand breakfast more to go beyond being another Highlands coffee shop,” said Agnew, who also believed the Main Street location needed something a bit similar to Toast on Market. “In the changeover to the Café name, we’ve added servers and really changed the food. So far we’ve gotten a lot of great feedback.”

English Grill featuring Col. Bill Newsom’s Kentucky Country Ham at Jan. 11 dinner

December 20, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Arguably some of the world’s finest dry-cured hams made by Col. Bill Newsom’s Aged Kentucky Country Ham, will be on the menu Jan. 11 when the English Grill presents a one-of-a-kind, five-course dinner with cocktail pairings.

According to a news release, Brown Hotel executive chef Laurent Geroli will highlight smokehouse aged country ham, bacon, sausage and prosciutto in a gourmet meal infused with Kentucky bourbon.

Nancy Newsom Mahaffey, known to many as “the Ham Lady,” and the lovely, lively owner-operator of Col. Bill Newsom’s Aged Kentucky Country Ham in Princeton, Ky. (that’s west for locals who never venture beyond I-65), will share the story of her grandfather’s 95-year-old, family operated ham business at the dinner.

Steve Coomes: ‘Best of’ lists are great for cities, but not reflective of the truth

December 17, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

When it comes to “best of” lists, I’m not sure there’s been a year like 2012.

At least for Louisville.

My beloved hometown has been called one of the world’s top eight foodie destinations by Zagat and the top U.S. travel destination for 2012 by Lonely Planet.

By itself, Harvest has racked up bushels of recognition this year, including a James Beard best new restaurant, southeast, nomination, a slot on Bon Appetit’s 50 best new restaurants lists, and a best cities for southern food in the U.S. nod from Food & Wine.

Scrubbed, spiffed up and transformed, Bistro 1860 opens to the public

December 17, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Life’s fun when you’re not really a VIP, yet you get invited to VIP restaurant functions, like the pre-opening party at Bistro 1860 Tuesday night.

You’d have to be jaded to not enjoy being among the first to touch, taste, smell and see what’s turned out to be a very impressive place since the extreme overhaul of the Mellwood Ave. spot began several months ago.

Two snaps up for Dennis Tapp (Designs by Dennis Tapp), who renovated the bedraggled building (formerly known as L&N Bistro) by installing a color palette of gold, black, brown and cream that’s accented with modern and dramatic lighting.

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