Louisville, Not Kentucky at Flea Off Market

One of my favorite monthly events in the city is the Flea Off Market-- an open air market in NULU that runs from 10am til 6pm almost all year 'round.

Last Flea, I bumped into Linda, my podcasting partner, and we both decided that Louisville, Not Kentucky ought to do something at the next market.

So this Saturday (10/13), you can visit the Louisville, Not Kentucky booth at the Flea Off Market. There we'll be:

• Doing live interviews with Flea-goers for future podcasts.
• Interviewing some of the booth owners for an upcoming podcast.
• Accepting pitches for future podcast segments.
• Collecting adult-beverage drink recipes.
• Signing people up for our new mailing list.
• Taking pre-orders for Louisville, Not Kentucky t-shirts ($15).

So come visit us! Bring us your favorite drink recipe-- you can drop it off, or fill out a recipe card at the booth. We might mix up your drink for one of our "What are we drinking tonight?" segments-- and of course, we'll credit you. 

Bring us your pitches for story ideas-- what would you like us to cover in future podcasts? We might be able to interview you right on the spot! 

Sign up for our mailing list, so you'll never miss the latest Louisville, Not Kentucky podcast news. 

Thank you so much to Flea Off Market for providing us with the booth space. Thanks in advance to Christine (of the Cyclocross) for loaning us a shade tent and to Bobbi (Kyle's mum) for loaning us a table.  

And thanks once again to Kyle Ware for providing us with our gorgeous logo art and all of our design needs. If you're looking for an artist or designer, you can't go wrong with Kyle. And you'll definitely want a tshirt with his awesome logo design! Linda & I will be wearing sample shirts at the Flea, but if you're interested in pre-ordering one, sight-unseen, email me at Lou (at) loueyville.com.

We're so excited to meet you! Drop on by! 

Episode 6 is now available. All episodes are available for download on iTunes. 

Louisville Grind's Loueyville Lobstah Roll

Photo by Louisville Grind

This is Possibility City, indeed!

Never in a blue million years did I imagine that someday I would have a sandwich named after me (or my blog). I feel like a New Yorker who has just discovered that she's been immortalized on the menu at Carnegie Deli.

This weekend at the Douglass Loop Farmers' Market (8/25 from 10a-2p), the Louisville Grind Food Truck will be serving a limited number of  Loueyville Lobstah Rolls. A "limited number" minus one, that is. They're saving one for me.

The story:

Last March, the Louisville Grind Gourmet Burger Food Truck launched a successful Kickstarter campaign promising gourmet burgers, seasonal specials, and vegetarian items. I didn't know Liz & Jesse Huot, but I gladly backed it because... gourmet burgers, of course.

I've since met Liz & Jesse a number of times, and it turns out they're just lovely people. And the business seems to be doing great, serving delicious food out of a stylish truck. I smile every time I see them, whether I get to talk to Liz & Jesse or not.

Last week, @LouisvilleGrind posted on Twitter that at this Saturday's (August 25) Douglass Loop Farmers Market, they would be debuting a fabulous Maine lobster roll on a brioche. And my little New Englander heart just soared. I've been home twice this summer, but only when my grandmother was dying. Lobster rolls are such joyful food for me; I didn't feel like eating a lobster roll when I was so, so sad (although... in retrospect, it might have been a good idea to be good to myself like that). Anyway, this was looking to be the first summer of my thirty-mumble-mumble years that passed without me having at least one (or usually a dozen or more) lobster rolls.

But, purist that I am, I did tweet back to Grind that a true New England Lobster roll was served on a cheapo hot dog bun. Not the kind of buns you see around here. A true New England hot dog bun looks more like a folded piece of Wonder bread than a roll.

And a little while later, they tweeted back:

The rest is history. 

Thanks Liz & Jesse! I'm going to take lots of pictures of your menu and send them back to my New Englander family. I don't think any honor I've ever earned will impress them as much as getting my name on a lobster roll! 

Summer To-Do List: Lunch!

By the time I get from my digs in the Meatspace Workplace to the cafeteria, I have maybe twenty-five minutes to eat, if I hustle my buns down there. Now, one of the big benefits of my job is we have one of the best cafeterias in the city. Not only that but the lunch ladies and dudes are pretty much the nicest, friendliest, most fun people in the establishment. AND my lunch is free (or, it's part of my "yearly contract," I suppose. I get paid in lunch!). So this is not me bemoaning my workaday lunch situation, at all.

But one of the things I most look forward to each summer is the freedom to lunch at will!

A few places on my lunch list:

Speaking of "the nicest people," I just love the folks at Joe Davola's.  Yeah, I can't really stand Seinfeld, but I'll forgive them that.  Their prices are good.  Their portions are generous.  And their cream of mushroom soup is my favorite soup in the city.

My second favorite soup is a recent find.  The tomato dill soup at The Cafe is so good I went there every Saturday for a month just to have it (they're only open for lunch, and they're not open on Sundays).  What a funny and quirky place (and it's hard to find! Worst case scenario: park by Louisville Stoneware and just wander around by foot til you find it!).  It's eclectic flea-market decor reflects its past location in the old Louisville Antiques Mall on Broadway (RIP). They have a lovely patio where you can watch the trains going by overhead.  Definitely a place to stop on a cool afternoon.  And the cookies... yum!

Over at Consuming Louisville, Michelle recently blogged a couple of times about Please and Thank You on Market. I haven't checked it out yet, but it might be my first lunch stop this summer (hoping Michelle will join me and maybe treat me to a tour of ParkVu, HQ of Music WithMe). The reason I'm so hot to try this place is that they have very "me" lunch options, like grapes and cheese.

Believe it or not, even though I've blogged about Lil Cheezer's grilled cheese truck a couple of times and even hosted an awesome guest blog from the owner, Matt, I still haven't tried them out.  One night I did swing by to say hi, and Roommate had a great grilled cheese, but this summer I plan on making friends with Matt & crew.

Last time I went out with my lunching ladies, we went to the (at the time) newly-opened Ghyslain (another link to Consuming Louisville).  We were a big party, but the folks were super attentive and eager to answer questions.  The food was very good (next time, I'm going to have the Mediterranean plate, which looked phenomenal), and although I'm not a sweet-eater, I loved ogling their amazing desserts and chocolates selections. But mostly, I can't wait to return because I just want to move in there. It's gorgeous! There's something about the particular blue that their walls are painted that makes me want to bring a book and a blanket and order some coffee and just cuddle up for an afternoon (yes, I know that would be frowned upon). But you know what I will bring next time I go? My paint chip fan. So I can figure out just what the blue is... my living room needs painting.

Now I'm all excited and can't wait to get through the next week of being pretty much tied to the Meatspace Workplace cafeteria (although I will miss my lunch ladies and dudes over the summer!).  Lunch!  What a luxury! Want to lunch with me? Hit me up (or HMU, as the kids say)!

Guest Post: Matt from Li'l Cheezers Explains!

Update: When this was originally posted, I titled it "Mike from Li'l Cheezers..." The man's name is Matt.  Geez Louise, Lou.  It was right there in the email.  My apologies to Matt.  Matt says this happens all the time, for some reason... 


A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about Li'l Cheezers, the new grilled cheese truck making the rounds in the city.  I'd watched the business develop via their Facebook & Twitter posts, and I was-- as many people were-- dismayed when I saw that they'd hit a red-tape wall regarding city ordinances.  I emailed the folks at Li'l Cheezers and asked them for the skinny.  But they were, understandably, too busy to be able to respond at the time.  Since then, Li'l Cheezers has pushed through the frustrating blocks and the truck is up and running and routinely selling out!  Fabulous news!  Now that the bureaucratic nightmare is mostly over, Matt Davis was nice enough to drop me a lengthy email with the Li'l Cheezers story.  With his permission, I reproduce the story here:

Basically (if basic is even possible) what happened was that 3 years ago an ordinance was passed to regulate pop up vendors on the side of the road selling swap meet Nikes and fake Persian rugs. They were also selling food and anything else they could to make money. By the addition of the word "food" in that vendor ordinance the regulating agencies took it upon themselves to police up all mobile food vendors that weren't compliant with the local vendor ordinances. Unknowingly infringing upon liberties given these mobile food vendors by the Health Department which is a state entity. Local trumped state for about 3 years and that was clearly not the way its supposed to work. Once that was realized by the Mayor's Policy Analyst he called the IPL and basically got the problem solved. The Inspections, Permits and Licenses division and more specifically the division of Alcohol and Beverage control are still charged with making sure we are permitted properly by the health department and we are doing everything we are supposed to be doing but we are no longer required to meet the requirements of the local ordinance regulating Stationary and Mobile Vendors and Peddlers as long as we are legal with the health department.

There were other concerns as well like the competition that we give to brick and mortar establishments but I will not apologize for having a different concept. Qdoba doesn't apologize to Taco Bell, and no one is crying about the unmanned Redbox movie rental cabinets across the street from the closed-down Blockbusters. I am sure they didn't have to have a meeting at the Mayor's office and they took jobs and industry from the community. And is that money local? It would seem to me that anything taking jobs away from the area ought to be pumping as much money back into the local community as possible.

Primarily I think food trucks got a bad rap because they are hard to regulate, they can move anywhere, and if you aren't paying attention they could potentially sell anything, and I recognize that as a problem. But ANY business can do that and the daily operational practices of a business are only as good as the owner and employees of said business. I am a 15 year EMS veteran both civilian and military, a homeowner, taxpayer, father, and husband. I bring an ethical standard to my business practices that are without question. I am not trying to sit in front of a restaurant and undercut your prices and steal business. I don't want to go where the food IS; I want to go where the food ISN'T like industrial parks, office parks, and construction sites. People might only get 30 minutes for lunch and that leaves 4 options: bring it from home, raid the vending machines, skip lunch or race to the closest fast food joint and slam your food on the way back to work. If an option is in the parking lot of an office or industrial park and it provides a quick and easy food option within walking distance, then it gives employees a chance to sit, converse, digest, and clock back in on time. Happy employees are much more productive employees and that's important especially in direct customer contact based services.

Beyond that, late night bar crowds are our bread and butter on the weekends. I am not hurting any local business by sitting near 3 or 4 bars with no 3am food options close by. If having a food truck there keeps one drunkard from making a run for the border then the contribution these trucks make are even more lucrative than sales tax revenue.

So it would seem that the problem is solved for now and we have been doing excellent. I am so thrilled with all the positive response from the concept, the food and the rally of support for our culinary contribution. Unlike EMS, now I see smiles on faces when we show up, I see people happy about our presence and I see people raving about the food. I couldn't ask for a better response with over 600 Facebook and Twitter followers in the first 2 weeks and the location offers rolling in. And the press.... I don't even know where it is all coming from. All over the internet, newspapers and word of mouth is amazing.

Thank you so much to Matt-- I don't know him personally, but I love his story, and his commitment to all things local and ethical.  Haven't tried Li'l Cheezers, but as soon as we get a spate of better weather, I will track down the truck-- cheese and bread are my two of my favorite food groups (if only he served bourbon... nirvana!).  You can find the Li'l Cheezers food truck by following them on Twitter (@lilcheezers).  Or just keep an eye out for the Spongebob-yellow truck!  Good luck, Mike!

Lil Cheezers: Street Food in Louisville

I've been watching the Lil Cheezers food truck story unfold on Facebook and Twitter for a while now.  Watched their excitement grow as the gourmet grilled cheese truck came together and watched their frustration mount when they hit a permitting wall.  I even contacted them to get more of the saga, but they wrote me back a polite "we're awfully busy, get back to you soon."

I'm not entirely sure how the permitting ordeal played out, but on Facebook they were very complimentary of the folks in Mayor Fischer's office.  And they've been out, slinging their grilled cheeses, the past couple of weekends.

Food trucks and street food are wicked hip these days, and folks in Louisville seem to be clamoring for a more vibrant local street food scene.  Tonight the NYT article about late night street food "raves" in San Francisco is burning up local Twitter.  And I know that there's a new "street food restaurant" opening up in the rebuilt old Mimosa building on Bardstown.  A while back, a local entrepreneur held a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to open Morels Food Truck, an all-vegan operation.  I know I've heard something about a Mexican food truck too...

I'm really not familiar with the idea of "street food."  I lived in NYC for five years, and the only things I ate out of vehicles were hot dogs, donuts, and ice cream.  But I'm more than willing to accept that there is a street food vacuum here in Louisville that's slowly being filled.  We wish Lil Cheezers all the best!

Lil Cheezers' menu looks delish and reasonable.  While all their specialty sandwiches are appealing, I'd be more than happy with a $5 grilled brie sandwich, straight up, no add-ins.

They'll be at Record Store Day (something not-Thunder) on Saturday the 16th at Ear X-tacy from 9am-10p.  Last gig they had, they sold out before their time was up, so I recommend going early!  Can't wait to try it out.