Holy GrAle

http://consuminglouisville.com/2010/12/holy-grale-now-open.php

It’s an honor to be guest posting as a fellow around-the-world eater (although I mainly just eat around Louisville and write short reviews on Yelp). Several of us from the office have been meeting out after work once or twice a month and yesterday’s expedition was to the brand new Holy Grale beer bar (behind the KFC at the Bardstown/Baxter split). While Claire had helped organize the event, she herself had conflicting plans and couldn’t join us.

Before walking into the bar, I had already glanced at [Consuming Louisville’s photos and overview] on their blog—the two photos of the bar and entrance basically cover the entire seating area. The photos, and of course the name of the establishment itself, suggest the atmosphere of a medieval place of worship. Sure enough, even as you approach the entrance, the shell of a former church embodies this ancient character. It wasn’t dark enough yet when we were there, but I can even imagine faux candelabras lighting the interior. I did notice one votive candle. The music was also very quiet—they may have been playing organ music for all I could tell.

I was expecting a larger seating area when I walked in, but at a glance, it looked like they had room for less than 50 people to sit. By 5:15, when most of us had arrived, the seats were almost full already. We lucked out when four bar seats opened up all at once. There are no waiters there, so it worked out perfectly as we could sit, drink and order our meals right at the bar. I should use “meals” in the lighter sense of the word as they technically only serve appetizers (Consuming Louisville also lists their menu). Most Americans wouldn’t be satisfied with the portion size if they wanted something substantial to eat on its own, but this birdlike eater was extremely pleased with the locally-made brat on pretzel bread. As Michael (one of the members of our motley crew who tried a taco dish) mentioned, they made up in flavor what they lacked in quantity.

The beer itself also made up for the lack in quantity of food. I don’t think they offer anything by the bottle, but they keep their rotating list of 20 generally-rare selections on a prominent board behind the bar. I like that they sort it by AVB. Most were served in 12-oz glasses around $5 to $8. There were pint glasses on the top shelf, but one of the bartenders did mention that many of the glasses were only for display. They don’t offer a flight, but I did try a third beer in a $3 sample glass (I picked it mainly because it had a long and interesting name that I forget now). I’m sure I’ve already demonstrated that I’m not an aficionado, but I always enjoy trying darker beers, like the barley wine they offered and my local favorite KY Bourbon Barrel Ale—I even got Jacob to try the latter and he declared that it was the best beer he’d ever tasted.

The bartenders there are very friendly, although I failed to get their names. Our main help came from the man I’ll refer to as Beard (his wasn’t out-of-control Grizzly, but he was definitely a Louisville Beard cardholder). He was constantly busy, but we never had to wait more than a minute or two to get our orders in. Michael got shafted a couple times, though—Beard didn’t seem to realize that Michael existed most of the evening. Hannah seems to think maybe it was because Beard thought Michael was her date and was a little jealous and bitter about it. She’s quite a catch.

The Holy Grale is a great place to meet up with a couple of friends and try new beers. It’s like Nach Bar transplanted to the Highlands (minus the band, jukebox, and patio) but with food and a better ambiance.

- J.J. (of http://zepfanman.com/) 

Ramsi’s Café on the World

http://www.ramsiscafe.com/

This is a stellar restaurant nestled in the heart of the highlands supporting a range of clientele (from late night goers drinking the P.B.R. on tap and eating dessert to after-church brunchers enjoying a decadent buffet on Sunday mornings). The mowhawk-haired walk by as the mowhawk-hatted sit inside enjoying seviche, fish tacos, or lamb shanks.

The menu is endless and offers many items from all over the world. There are several asian dishes that include both Thai and Indian fare. There is traditional American continental cuisine that is outstanding (think the biggest ribs you’ve ever seen and excellent salads that are cheap and fresh and unique).

This past Sunday I went there to get their Sunday brunch, which I’ve had twice. For 14 dollars you get a breakfast bar of croissants, Indian naan, pita, French toast made on sourdough with cinnamon, pancakes, fresh fruit galore, grits and oatmeal. The dinner buffet includes the vegan queso and regular queso that scrumptiously accompanies the CuBean burrito from the dinner menu. The homemade tortilla chips are to die for as well. The tortellini from the evening as well as the gorgonzola chicken round out the buffet offerings as well. The bbq ribs and jerk chicken is present too. The spinach salad and mixed greek salad is also there. It’s tough to pass up the queso, for me at least, on my many rounds through the buffet.

The buffet also includes a dessert bar, omelet bar and coffee and orange juice in its price. These items are all difficult to consume alongside the gorging that you would have just endured from the rest of the place. I approached the dessert table on my “round two” to the buffet this weekend, saying that I don’t think I could stomach any dessert. A larger woman serving herself cheesecake said, “oh trust me, honey. You will.” And I did find room for mousse and cheesecake in the hours that we spent chatting and indulging at Ramsi’s.

The décor is interesting. There are four dining areas. An outside only area that isn’t open in the winter, a plastic enclosed heated outdoor area that is offered in the winter, a large secondary room that is a lightly lit, and then a smaller main room that I am used to eating in from my childhood. We used to go there for the burrito, which is only a mass of black beans and queso and their goat-cheese dip. This room has a wonderful bar to the right and is decorated to be somewhat like the inside of a 17^th century sugar cane plantation in the West Indies.

I would not hesitate to dine at this underpriced invitation to the world’s table-of-a-restaurant any day.

Dejlah Bistro

Well it seems like I should review it… now that it’s burned down. Dejlah Bistro was located on Oeschli road at a locale that could never stay afloat. It hosted a mediteranean restaurant with horrible seafood for about the past year and before that an Indian restaurant that was not too bad. Restaurants in that locale simply cannot bring in the customers – none waft over from Havana rumba, at least.

So finally something moved in worthwhile, at least to Robin Garr’s palate. He reviewed the café, that was Persian in cuisine, in the leo and gave it a rating as good as Saffron’s (he stated that it was the Iraqi counterpart to the local Iranian restaurant). The ironic thing about the place is that the restaurant’s chef apparently fixed food for Sadaam Hussein during his regime… and some none-too-shabby potatoes, too!

I dined there one time with a coupon with my family and we had an excellent meal. We ate potatoes in two forms: chunked new potatoes that were out of this world and French fries that were extremely well seasoned and cooked as well. Our meat there was excellent - I believe we ordered some lamb and chicken, both of which were good, but the chicken was outstanding.

We were wanting to go back, had another coupon, but then someone burned the place down and grafitied something inside that was racist… some comment.

Anyway, here I am blogging about it. I guess I’m not too disappointed, seeing as other restaurants around town fill the same niche well, but man were those some good taters!

Kayrouz Café

When I was young I often entered the grand Kayrouz café located at the end of willis ave. in a huge, wooden dining room filed with ceiling fans, a secluded bar, deli, and lots of rooms for private parties. I remember well the crackers I’d eat as an appetizer before the meal, the corn pudding, the club sandwiches, the excellent creamy cole slaw, and the Shirley temples.

Today you can’t find the smells, ambience, or old cigarette machine sitting by the door of the establishment, but you can still find an establishment with the same, older crowd sitting around waiting for excellent sandwiches.

While I’ve only ever ventured to try the Nova Chicken Sandwich or caprese salad at the new location, a review entered the leo a few weeks ago of their pork sandwich, so I had to venture there to try it. It came with apples, seasoned mayo, bacon, a side, a pickle, and a large hunk of pork. There was some wonderful melted cheese on top as well. However good it was, I don’t think it competes with the Nova sandwich which beautiful melds the molten flavors of carmelized onions, bacon and chicken in your mouth with some avocado.

I recommend you indulge in a Kayrouz visit because the warmth and peace that can be found in the environment that pumps in wonderful Christmas tunes via a TV and sweet heat while you glance out the window at snow falling is priceless.

Their beers are cheap – about three dollars for a blue moon  - and wines cheap still – about five dollars a glass. They have happy hours for a dollar off drinks on Friday and Saturday nights, which means that they must really cater to their older crowd to be offering such specials those nights in particular. They offer desserts too, which I was told are good, but didn’t indulge in. They had a hot brown special and lots of seafood on the menu that I’d be intrigued to try.

This is the perfect neighborhood hangout. Replacing it these days would have to be the less personal Café Lou-lou down the block. They pack in the crowds like Kayrouz used to on a winter day!