|
news and notes
[ comings ]
&
[ goings ]
Blame the national economy and the price of gasoline or just blame winter, but for whatever reason, recent months have seen an unhappy uptick in the rate of restaurant closings in the Louisville area. A total of 22 familiar spots have gone dark since the first of the year, while 17 new eateries opened for business, making the winter of 2005 the first calendar quarter in recent years that saw more restaurants close than open.
Somewhat easing the pain, four of the closed restaurants were quickly replaced by new incarnations, eight more existing restaurants opened additional properties in new locations, and three of the closings involved single properties of restaurants with multiple locations that remained in business elsewhere.
Our advice? Support your local eateries! If you haven't been out to dinner recently, choose a favorite local restaurant and enjoy an evening out sometime soon.
Here's the quarterly summary of business activity on the local restaurant scene.
[ OPENINGS ]
Leading the activity was the opening of the posh new Louisville Marriott Downtown at 280 W. Jefferson Street, with the stylish, upscale Blu Italian Mediterranean Grille as its signature restaurant, with The Bar at Blu. Also at the Marriott, Champions Sports Bar, with its Cards-and-Wildcats theme, saw heavy inaugural activity during the NCAA Final Four.
Tiny and very casual but generating a loud buzz on the southern side of downtown for its exceptional Arabian fare is Safier Mediterranean Deli, between Broadway and Chestnut at 641 S. Fourth Street.
In the casual-upscale category, welcome 316 Ormsby, whose name gives away its location, a stylish spot in the attractive Old Louisville red-brick building that had housed Central Park Café. Another welcome new arrival, The Monkey Wrench, persevered through months of regulatory red tape before opening its doors in the attractively renovated former home of Pita Delights at 1025 Barret Avenue.
Out in St. Matthews, Diamond Pub & Billiards offers fun and games and good things to eat at 3814 Frankfort Avenue, the newish building that had housed Rick's and J. Harrod's. If you've got room for dessert, you'll find very fine homemade ones, plus coffee and tea, just a few blocks toward town at The Sweet Tooth, 3110 Frankfort Avenue.
And way out east, fanciers of Asian fare will find Jasmine well worth the drive out past Middletown to 13823 English Villa Drive. Not just another fast-food Chinese, it offers familiar Chinese-American dishes and seriously authentic Chinese dishes in a stylish shopping-center space.
Other new arrivals on the Kentucky side include; A Taste of China, 1167 S. Fourth Street, and Tequila Mexican Restaurant, 7803 Old 3rd Street Road.
In Southern Indiana, New York Capri Pizza, which used to attract Louisvillians all the way up to Borden, Indiana, for its fine NYC-style pies, has moved much closer to the city at 1503 Lynch Lane in Clarksville. Also on the Sunny Side, welcome California's Coffee House, 1515 E. Market Street, and DBL Shotz, 1315 Spring Street, in Jeffersonville; Smokin' BBQ, 1611 Charlestown-New Albany Pike, and El Restaurante Chiquito, 624 Cherry Street in New Albany; and Petterson's Bar-B-Q Barn, 7705 Hwy 311 in Sellersburg.
Additional locations for existing restaurants popped up in eight locations: In Clarksville, Cheddar's, 1385 Veterans Parkway, and Famous Dave's, 1351 Veterans Parkway. In addition to its own restaurants, the Marriott spawned another Starbucks; and not to be outdone, so did the Seelbach Hotel. Adding new branches in Louisville were Firehouse Bar B Q, 808 Lyndon Lane, Java Brewing Co., 2309 Frankfort Avenue (former Allo Spiedo), Papa Murphy's, 6756 Bardstown Road, and Qdoba, 8602 Citadel Way.
Four departures were replaced by virtually immediate successors: Coy's takes over from Longino's Grill at 4041 Preston Highway; Duke's Grille & Bar succeeds Red Horse Grill & Bar in the Holiday Inn Airport East at 4004 Gardiner Point. Bus Parsons's old River Creek Inn closed its doors at 6301 Upper River Road after last winter's Ohio River flooding, but Pearly's Seafood takes its place in a much-renovated building that adds a Key West flavor. Finally, popular restaurateur Rick Dissell is back, converting the short-lived Indigo Bistro And Bar, 3930 Chenoweth Square, to Rick's Ferrari Grille.
[ CLOSINGS ]
Perhaps the highest-profile closing of the period was Jicama Grill, 1538 Bardstown Road, where longtime partners Jun Eugenio and Chef Anthony Lamas severed their relationship in a noisy dispute. Lamas says he plans to reopen after renovations as Seviche A Latin Grill.
Beset by neighborhood controversy, @mosphere apparently gave up the liquor-license fight at 917 Baxter Avenue. Baja Fresh Mexican Grill shuttered its modern fast-food operation at 1255 Bardstown Road, and Olmecas became the latest restaurant failure in the long string of short-lived ventures at 1582 Bardstown Road, long home of the old and still fondly remembered Parisian Pantry.
Highlands pizza enthusiasts are still bereft after the sudden closing of Impellizzeri's Pizza, 2306 Bardstown Road, although it should be noted that restaurateur Benny Impellizzeri's brother, Tony, continues to fashion virtually identical pies in the eastern suburbs at Tony Impellizzeri's Pizza, 108 Vieux Carre Drive.
Other closings during the period: BB's Chicken & Ribs, 318 Wallace Avenue; Binky's Of Chicago, 528 S. 5th Street; Caspian Grille, 4218 Bishop Lane; Garrett's Hickory Grille, 9601 Shelbyville Road; Huttster's Burger, 2900 Brownsboro Road; Two Bucks, 4113 Murphy Lane, Greek Paradise, 2113 Frankfort Avenue; Luchessi's Ravioli & Pasta Co., 2225 Holiday Manor, and, in Southern Indiana, Cafe Chardeau, 359 Spring Street in Jeffersonville.
Finally, these restaurants closed specific properties while other outlets remained open: Java Brewing Company in Middletown, Lemongrass Café near Springhurst, and Jumbo Buffet in Clarksville.
Do you have information on something we missed?
Send it to: editor@foodanddiningmagazine.com
|
