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Smart cocktailing: Zykan, Doc Crow’s, La Coop’s bar director, earns CSS distinction

November 12, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Jacquelyn Zykan, bar director over the cocktail programs at Doc Crow’s Southern Smokehouse and Raw Bar and La Coop Bistro: à Vins, has earned the title of Certified Specialist of Spirits (CSS) from the Society of Wine Educators.

Why is this noteworthy? Because it shows how beverage pros continue to move beyond tap jerking and cocktail mis-making to become serious craftspeople elevating drinking and dining out.

Plus, just as chefs have become increasingly popular, bartenders have, too, and rightfully so.

Zykan (who prefers the term “craft bartending” over “mixology”—which makes me an instant fan) is known for her stylish approach to cocktail classics. She is the featured bartender at the Kentucky Derby Museum’s interactive Urban Bourbon Trail Exhibition, and she has contributed several recipes to the Four Roses company website. Zykan is also the St. Germain liqueur brand ambassador for Kentucky.

TRAVEL: Snorkeling Grenada’s Underwater Sculpture Park

November 7, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

ST. GEORGES, GRENADA—As I help my kayaking guide walk our craft into the waters of Grenada’s Grand Mal beach, the 85 F water enveloping my legs, especially when the air temperature is 3 degrees cooler, is luxurious. Eight years back on a trip to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, the water was a chilly 68 F. (If that doesn’t sound cold, try showering without using the hot water spigot.) This water is heavenly, a liquid promise that moving between water, kayak and land won’t include the usual chills.

Grand Mal beach is a fairly typical Caribbean shore: mostly rocky edges dotted with infrequent patches of coarse sand that, when wet, swallows you to ankle depth with every step. As my guide, Jean Paul, and I launch the red craft into the emerald waters, colorful fish are immediately visible through the kayak’s clear bottom: only little ones, though, mostly shad of an unknown species and just a handful at that.

Holly Hill Inn hosting fifth-annual Classic Cassoulet dinner Nov. 11

November 6, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Enjoy a much beloved dish from the French countryside during Holly Hill Inn’s fifth-annual Classic Cassoulet dinner in Midway, Ky., on Sunday, Nov. 11.

If you’ve ever had the rustic meat and bean dish done well, you know it’s a special treat, the perfect fall meal. And if you’ve ever had it at Holly Hill Inn, you know what a good time it is as the restaurant fills to capacity for the event. (Hint: Get your reservations quickly. It fills up fast.)

Chef Ouita Michel’s version of cassoulet is as traditional as possible, using white beans, confit of goose, fresh-cured local pork, local lamb and garlic sausage. Guest chef and former Holly Hill Inn sous chef Clay McClure of Lexington will again assist in preparing the dinner—a meal requiring more than two weeks of preparation.

Dining out on vacation proves Louisville’s value as a restaurant community

October 30, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

It didn’t take a trip out of town to remind me how good Louisville restaurants are, but 10 days in Siesta Key, Fla., really drove the point home.

(I’m spoiled. I admit it.)

And that’s surprising given the money that flows through this small resort area: There is no shortage of luxury cars and eight-figure homes.

Doubtless, the serious travelers who come here—many of whom are foreigners—know good food and desire great restaurant experiences. But by and large, the restaurateurs on this quaint, quiet and gorgeous key don’t deliver it.

Travel: Sand, surf and sitting sums up Siesta Key vacation

October 30, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

My family has joked for ages that Siesta Key, Fla., is for the nearly dead or the newly wed because it’s so quiet when we come here during Oldham County schools’ annual fall break.

The hotels are far from full, the already expansive beach is exceedingly roomy and traffic is a bother only when slipping in behind a seersucker-suited snowbird creeping home at 20 mph after happy hour at some posh club.

That’s as stressful as it gets here in October, when the water temp is nearly the same as the air temp — in the low 80s — and seats at restaurants are easy to snag.

Flights are affordable if you fly to Tampa or Orlando and drive the rest of the way (an hour and 15 minutes from Tampa, 2 hours from Orlando); they’re 50 to 75 percent more if your bird takes you all the way to Sarasota.

Alltech Brewing to sell Kentucky Coffee Bourbon Barrel Ale next month

October 17, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

While with a tour group admiring Lexington’s brand-spankin’-new Town Branch Distillerylast Saturday, in bounded a 60-ish man wearing running tights below running shorts, a jacket and a ball cap.

A laggard late to the tour? A runner thirsty for whiskey instead of water?

Nope. It was Dr. Pearse Lyons, the multimillionaire guy who owns that joint and Alltech Brewing next door (maker of Kentucky Ale). Both business are scions of his much larger animal health and feed company, Alltech, a half-billion-dollar firm he founded in 1980.

Louisville’s menu labeling law takes effect today, but will it really help anyone?

October 15, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Call me cynical—please, since it’s much nicer than some other things I’ve been called lately—but I struggle to see the significance of the menu labeling law that takes effect in Louisville today.

Why? Because the law, which says any foodservice establishment that has made nutritional information about its food available in the past, be it on a website or in some other form, now must have that information available on premise.

Here’s how those inspections will go: When a foodservice facility is up for a spot check by Public Health and Wellness food inspector, an Internet search first will be conducted to see if the restaurant posts its nutritional information there. If it does, the inspector will compare it to information available on premise—on menus or menu boards or other means of conveyance—to ensure compliance.

If said facility lacks that information on premise or that information doesn’t jibe with what’s online, the operation will be fined $25 a day until it is compliant with the regulation. (Click here to see which independent Louisville restaurants are participating and thus liable if inspected.)

Click here to read more …

Yum! Brands hits sales homerun in 2012’s third quarter

October 10, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Restaurant analysts predicted months ago that Yum! Brands would turn in a positive third quarter for 2012, but few expected that performance would be so spectacular.

Call it a homerun a home run for a company that, despite some struggles in the past two years, is figuring out how to wring more dollars from consumers’ wallets with new and better products.

At yesterday’s market close, Yum, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, reported earnings per share of 99 cents for the quarter. And while that may not sound like a lot, it’s 2 cents above the First Call consensus estimate — which, again, may not sound like a lot until you look at the sales numbers.

Its U.S. stores turned in an aggregate +6 percent comparable sales performance — huge in a day when +2 is the new +5 — and a full 4 percent above the prediction of the analysts at Janney Capital Markets, a team of restaurant data wonks I follow closely.

Books and bourbon are just part of the buzz behind new Jim Beam Stillhouse

October 9, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Call it ironic timing or a wake-up call to a gin drinker (me), but a good chunk of my freelance work lately has been devoted to writing about two of Kentucky’s most important bourbon towns, Bardstown and Lexington.

Just this month alone, Jim Beam officially opened its new American Stillhouse visitors’ center, and Alltech unveiled Town Branch Distillery, the first new distillery in Lexington in better than a century. (Wild Turkey broke ground in August on its new visitors’ center.)

Distillers, once viewed as booze barons, are getting their due as rock stars of the spirits set. People want to know not only what makes up great bourbon, they want to know the distillers behind the bourbon and why they make it the way they do. (Recently, when I interviewed Jim Beam master distiller, Fred Noe, fans shuffled to and fro as we chatted on the front porch of an old home on the distillery property. Why? They wanted pictures with Bardstown’s most famous face and the chance to ask him about his craft; serious groupies getting the chance to meet a grain mash guru.)

Life skills and knife skills: Seviche to host private butchery classes

October 8, 2012 by steve Leave a Comment

Some time ago, Seviche chef-owner Anthony Lamas mentioned in a Facebook posted how his kitchen staff loved to butcher whole animals such as pigs and fish.

Seviche chef-owner Anthony Lamas breaks down a tuna loin.

The remark caught the attention of a few Facebook friends who encouraged Lamas to “show us how to do that, too.”

Thus, the idea for a butchery class was born, and Lamas invited a few press hacks to have a sneak peak at what he’ll offer at future classes.

Before I mention that, it’s important to note that Lamas won’t be offering classes to the public and seeing who signs up. It would be costly to order a whole pig or multiple whole fish to butcher and have one person sign up. These are private tutorials where six to 10 people will gather for the experience of learning how to disassemble an entire animal—sans guts—watch how Lamas prepares it and/or possibly leave with a lovely parting gift (i.e. raw product) to prepare at home.

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