Bourbons Bistro: Reviewed June 2, 2007

Bourbons Bistro goes all out - and occasionally goes too far

By Marty Rosen
Special to The Courier-Journal

The other night at Bourbons Bistro, I came upon the finest piece of fish I've seen in many months. It was a thick, deftly carved piece of grouper ($27). From surface to center it was a pan-seared tribute to technical mastery. Its flesh glowed like marble.

The duck confit strudel appetizer could easily stand as the centerpiece of a meal. Photo By Pam Spaulding, The Courier-Journal

Many chefs would have been content to stop right there, and allow that grouper to speak for itself. But at Bourbons, where Michael Crouch serves as chef, they gild the grouper with a mandarin orange jalapeno cream sauce — and serve it atop a pilaf studded with apricots and whole toasted almonds.

In the end, all those added elements — especially the pallid sauce — added up to less than their parts, and eating that fish was as frustrating as meeting a beautiful woman at a masked ball.

They have a knack for baroque preparations at Bourbons, where the burger ($10) is dressed with jalapeno mayonnaise and apricot bourbon mustard, and a pork chop ($21) is stuffed with chorizo and mozzarella, then topped with bacon and a wine sauce.

Some of those dishes are more effective than the grouper. My pal Joel and I started with a duck confit strudel ($10). It's billed as an appetizer — though such a richly exuberant dish could easily stand as the centerpiece of a meal.

Packed into a boat-shaped wall of flaky pastry were tender chunks of meat, gushing pools of goat cheese, mushrooms, arugula, candied chilies (!) and then, a roasted shallot sherry cream sauce. The result was lush, crisp, sweet and spicy.

Even a devout vegetarian might feel some guilt after putting away a rich, ravishing, over-the-top, potato-asparagus tart ($17) topped with melted slices of brie, a ring of grilled red onion, and a zingy lemon crème fraîche.

As much as I respect the chef's craft — and rare are the dishes that aren't technically flawless — the convoluted baubles don't win me over. And some dishes I just don't understand.

Spilling across a broad bowl, the immaculate leaves of an arugula salad ($8) were as alluring as a cool spring meadow. Dappled with a pearly vinaigrette, spiked up with shards of Gruyère and topped with a voluptuous poached egg, it might have been a perfect salad but for the unattractive cold chunks of fatty smoked bacon scattered hither and yon.

I've eaten enough cold, non-crispy bacon recently to make me wonder whether I've missed out on some culinary trend or other. If so, just for the record, I'm against it.

I am not, however, against dessert, and it will come as no surprise that the house-made desserts at Bourbons (crème brulée, $6, and chocolate pecan bourbon bread pudding with dried Bing cherries and crème anglaise, $7) easily live up to the rich promise of the other dishes.

Nor am I against bourbon — though I wish Bourbons would replace its uninformative alphabetical bourbon list with an annotated guide that includes tasting notes, place of origin, etc.

In the meantime, there's no quibbling with the scope of the bourbon list or the presentation of the bourbon flights, which come to the table on an attractive wooden plank.

As to the whole experience, service is well-paced and very well-informed. The dining area is comfortable and casual, from the distillery photos to the painted brick to the massive, attractive bar and the outdoor patio.

Freelance restaurant critic Marty Rosen's review appears on Saturdays. You can e-mail him at cjdining@gmail.com.

Bourbons Bistro

2255 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, KY

502-894-8838

www.bourbonsbistro.com

Rating: 3 stars

Captain's Quarters Riverside Grille: Reviewed May 26, 2007

New Chef Steers Captain's Quarters into luxury dining

By Marty Rosen
Special to The Courier-Journal

Billowing sails at twilight. The Belle of Louisville churning its way upstream, as cheery as a floating carnival. The businesslike surge of freight-laden barges. Bright red canoes skimming under soaring shorebirds.

For years, it was the Ohio River — not the food — that lured diners to Captain's Quarters Riverside Grille.

Captain's Quarters' lightly breaded calamari is dusted with bright red spices that lend heat and color. Try the chili sauce for dipping. By Arza Barnett, The Courier-Journal

It was a place where the most reliable option was a fried fish sandwich and a bottle of beer. To be sure, in recent seasons, the more upscale portions of the menu had grown more interesting, but execution was hit-and-miss.

Not this season. Earlier this spring, a new chef came aboard, and based on a couple of recent visits, Rick Adams (formerly of the L&N Wine Bar and Bistro) has raised the standard so much that diners will have a hard time tearing their attention away from the table.

Visual flourishes abound on the new menu. One night, a plate of flawless pan-seared tuna ($22, with a salad and accompaniments) was surrounded by whimsical squiggles in the shape of Chinese characters.

On that early visit, we encountered stale croutons in a Caesar salad ($4.50/$7.50), some side dishes that didn't work (noodles decked out with mangos) and what seemed like relics of an old menu.

But in recent weeks a newer menu has been deployed, and the fare has quickly advanced to a very high level. One night, pan-seared scallops ($19.50) looked like clouds at sunset, settled calmly amidst a glittering pool of crimson and gold pureed peppers.

Every element of the dish was framed in contrast. Crisp brown circles were etched into the creamy white flesh of the scallops; the pepper coulis was fringed in a deep, umber silhouette.

Although Captain's Quarters offers indoor dining (behind soaring glass, under lofty ceilings) and an expansive, noisy bar area, I can't resist the outdoor patio, a terraced hill where every seat offers a view of the river and Harrods Creek.

The expansive nature of the space means that servers trot up and down like mountain goats — and the carry from kitchen to diner can be long.

But on our visits, food seemed to fly quickly to the table. One night, my pal Pat ordered De Mer Fettucini ($18). It arrived piping hot, its lithe lemon alfredo sauce — light, tart, and creamy — still beautifully intact. A few plump, pink, meaty mussels garnished the plate, but the pasta itself was packed with tender shrimp, chunks of crab and baby scallops that lurked like secrets in a treasure chest.

The menu still includes casual fare: fried cod sandwich ($10), burger ($8), pizzas ($9-$10), hot brown ($12) and the like, but with cooking of this caliber, options such as steamed Maine lobster ($24 a pound), Kentucky bison ribeye ($25) and chipotle shrimp and grits ($19) have an even greater pull.

There are thoughtful signs everywhere.

Instead of the old, baroque Greek salad, brimming with the usual clichés, the new version ($9) is reduced to classic simplicity — just immaculate lettuce; creamy, crumbled feta; a few rounds of Roma tomatoes; and light, lemony vinaigrette.

Ringlets of lightly breaded calamari ($9) are dusted with bright red spices that lend heat and color; and though the marinara served alongside is as dull as tomato paste, a sweet-hot chili sauce had us dipping happily away.

And there could be no better way to while away a mellow evening than peeling steamed shrimp ($9.95 for a half pound; $15.95 for a full pound) and sipping a bottle of beer or a glass of wine.

Freelance restaurant critic Marty Rosen's review appears on Saturdays. You can e-mail him at cjdining@gmail.com.

Captain's Quarters Riverside Grille

5700 Captain's Quarters Road, Harrods Creek, KY www.cqriverside.com

502-228-1651

Rating: 3.5 stars

Pig City BBQ: reviewed May 12, 2007

Pig City BBQ: Sauces spice up mildly spiced barbecue

By Marty Rosen
Special to the Courier-Journal

When it comes to barbecue fanaticism, I take a back seat to nobody.

Last winter when I heard that one of my favorite spots was shutting down, I grabbed my pal Pat and lit out on a whirlwind one-day, 500-mile roundtrip to Urbana-Champaign just so I could grab one last pulled pork sandwich at a little tin roof barbecue shack named Po' Boy's. (Wow, that meal had one heckuva carbon footprint, I'll betcha.)

Pig City serves up its barbecue with six different sauces and a tasty assortment of side dishes. By Bill Luster, The Courier-Journal

Still, despite my love of Q, in the never-ending factional strife over geographic styles I'm utterly non-partisan. Memphis? South Carolina? Texas? Kansas City? Owensboro? I don't care. Just give me a fork.

But here's the thing: The folks who make great barbecue do care. They care about everything: meat, wood, smoke, dry rubs, wet sauces and the ineffable interaction among all those elements that makes barbecue great. The folks who make great barbecue tend to be an uncompromising lot. They cut no corners. They hedge no bets.

For a small operator looking to cast a big net, that's a problem — since lots of barbecue fans tend to be more persnickety than I am.

Pig City BBQ, a promising independent spot that opened last fall, skirts the issue with an opinionated approach to wood and smoke, coupled with an eclectic approach to sauces.

The restaurant Web site claims an affinity with Memphis barbecue, and the smoker is filled with cherry, which allegedly imparts a slight sweetness to meat.

But the table is set with six different sauces that cover several important regional variations, including a very fine Texas-style hot sauce, an attractive mustard-based sauce that evokes South Carolina, and a dark, sweet sauce tempered for folks addicted to Western Kentucky barbecue.

They serve those sauces in convenient squeeze bottles, and an indecisive person could spend plenty of time deciding which is best.

That big assortment of sauces suggests that Pig City is hedging its bets — and maybe that's a winning formula.

On recent visits, we tasted chicken, beef brisket and baby back ribs, and found all of them so mildly smoked — virtually neutral in flavor — that any of the sauces would work just fine, leaving plenty of latitude for everyone in a group to have their Q the way they want it.

If the barbecue lacks the idiosyncratic uniqueness that makes for greatness, the meats were nevertheless very good. Chicken ($6.99 for a half chicken; $8.99 for a whole chicken; all dinners come with two sides) had a ruddy complexion and moist flesh, but slightly soft skin.

Baby back ribs (a half-slab is $11.99 with sides; a full slab, $18.49) were crisp and meaty, a tad dry, but quite palatable nonetheless, thanks to a mellow dry spice rub.

Beef brisket ($10.99) fell apart at the touch of a fork and had a lovely deep brown color after smoking for some 24 hours (no pink smoke ring here), but even 24 hours in the smoker didn't lend it a very pronounced smoky flavor.

The menu is filled out with sandwiches (in the $6-$9 range for chicken, pulled pork, brisket, burgers, etc.; there are a few salad options, as well as soups and burgoo.

Side dishes — deviled eggs sprinkled with paprika, a colorful summery coleslaw made of red and green cabbage, green bell pepper and carrots dressed in a tangy vinegar-based dressing, and creamy macaroni and cheese — showed a nice attention to detail.

So did the dining room, an attractive space trimmed with bright wood and rustic gestures in the form of an exposed stone wall near the kitchen.

Even better was the outdoor dining area; a comfortable deck of brick and concrete sits on piers overlooking a pond with a pleasant little fountain — a great place to sip Sam Adams and while away a summer afternoon.

And service seems all that one could want: brisk, knowledgeable and friendly.

Freelance restaurant critic Marty Rosen's review appears on Saturdays. You can e-mail him at cjdining@gmail.com.

Pig City BBQ
12003 Shelbyville Rd. Louisville, KY
502-244-3535

2.5 Stars

Yaching's East-West Cuisine: Reviewed May 19, 2007

Yaching's East West Cuisine
Yaching's offers an eclectic mix, but the tofu stands out

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By Marty Rosen
Special to The Courier-Journal

People who like to classify restaurants will have a hard time pigeonholing Yaching's East-West Cuisine.

The darkly burnished atmosphere and much of the menu are steeped in Asia: impressionist geisha art, dark cabinetry, dim sum-style steamed buns ($10), five-spice pork chops ($17), appetizers like pan-fried dumplings ($6), a steamy, tongue-tingling Sichuan beef stew infused with cilantro and brightened by green and white pieces of bok choy ($12).

Delicate lettuce wraps are filled with chicken and finely shredded vegetables at Yaching's East-West Cuisine. By Bill Luster, The Courier-Journal

And then there are explicitly Western touches like seafood capellini (shrimp, mussels, spinach and tomatoes, sauced with lemon, capers and olive oil; $15); seared duck breast glazed with a cranberry-bourbon sauce, served with truffled, mashed sweet potatoes ($22); or grilled salmon with a white wine basil cream sauce ($19).

The net effect is not so much a fusion of Eastern and Western cuisines as an artful juxtaposition that straddles both worlds — just as the operatic arias pumping softly from the sound system float gently past the little gas lanterns on the tables and the red ribbons rising overhead.

Because of that very eclecticism — coupled with a downtown location that's at once convenient and obscure — I've never had trouble getting a table at Yaching's, despite the fact that it's a very affordable option for downtown diners.

For my money, the signature dish at Yaching's is the Buddha Steak ($16). That moniker is apparently a source of confusion to some diners — so much so that when I ordered it recently, two servers made special trips to the table to let me know that it's not a true steak, but a vegetarian dish made of tofu.

Of course it is. In fact, it may be the best tofu entrée in the city. Thin slabs of tofu are stacked in Napoleon-style layers that alternate with slices of mushrooms and tomatoes.

Served atop a gratuitous bed of rice, accompanied by deftly steamed cauliflower, zucchini and broccoli, the dish was attractively cloaked in a piquant brown sauce that amounts to a kinder, gentler version of the true mapo tofu sauce. And there's the rub: As much as I adore that dish, I wish it were as bold and powerful as it could be.

That said, you could make an entire meal of tofu at Yaching's. Those folks are tofu masters: Witness the crispy bean curd appetizer ($5), crisp little cubes of soy-glazed tofu that burst in the mouth like custard grenades. Other appetizers worthy of attention include delicate lettuce wraps filled with chicken and finely shredded vegetables ($7) or sturdy steamed dumplings in rust-red chili sauce with a delightful, oily burn ($7).

Over the three years since Yaching's opened, service has run the gamut from elegant grace to warm confusion.

On a recent visit, we encountered the latter, but even the confusion seemed to err on the side of service: Multiple servers tried to take our order; multiple servers warned us about the vegetarian nature of the Buddha steak. It can be a bit unsettling, but only a true curmudgeon would complain about the fact that everyone in the place seemed focused on taking care of us.

And even the most persnickety diner would have a hard time finding fault with Thai-style rice noodles with tiger shrimp ($13).

This is not a case of tossing a few shrimp onto a plate with some noodles; rather it's a fully integrated dish. A deep shrimp flavor infuses the tender noodles, suggesting they've been simmered in the shrimp stock. Pristine shrimp are generously arrayed around the perimeter of the dish, which derives a pleasant crunch from carrots and bean sprouts. And lurking in one corner we found a purple dab of pungent sweet and sour cabbage.

A full bar, a short selection of wines (Fat Bastard Chardonnay, $6/$25; Bogle Petite Sirah, $6/$24), and a handful of beers, including a few Asian bottles, are on hand. And the selection of house-made desserts ($5) includes an impressive sticky rice pudding topped with cream.

Freelance restaurant critic Marty Rosen's review appears on Saturdays. You can e-mail him at cjdining@gmail.com.

Yaching's East West Cuisine
105 S. Fourth St.
Louisville, KY
(502) 585-4005

Rating: 3 stars