Friday, June 03, 2005

Frankfort Avenue Corridor/Clifton: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.

Readers, this is the sixth of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?

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FRANKFORT AVENUE CORRIDOR/CLIFTON
Beginning in the early 1990’s, the stretch of Frankfort Avenue from Story Avenue to the intersection with Lexington Road became home to numerous restaurants, shops and pubs, with particular concentration in the Clifton neighborhood.

Bourbons Bistro
2255 Frankfort Ave.
894-8838
By most accounts, this newly opened establishment (spring, 2005) has the most extensive list of bourbons in the city. No word yet on beer.

Café Lou Lou
1800 Frankfort Ave.
893-7776
It may boast the bizarrely trendy Pabst Blue Ribbon on its web site, but owner/chef Clay Wallace tells us that there is good beer to be found within.

Caffè Classico Espresso Café
2144 Frankfort Ave.
894-0199
If you’re a fan of European coffee and espresso and prefer the gentler, more refined continental approach to caffeine absorption, you’ll love Tommie Mudd’s Caffe Classico.

A Europhile by way of Buenos Aires (his wife’s birthplace), Tommie’s Italian espresso roast is sleeker, smoother and less oily than the Seattle-style that most of us grew up enjoying, and which in fairness, continue to drink at other Frankfort Avenue coffee houses (Heine Brothers, Java Brewing) – of course, depending on the mood.

Caffe Classico goes beyond excellent coffee, and also has sandwiches, light meals and a short beer list, mostly lagers, but also featuring Duvel, still one of the must-stock Belgians.

Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Avenue
899-3544
The original Irish Rover on Frankfort Ave. (recently joined by the Irish Rover, Too in Lagrange) has been the yardstick for Irish pubs in Louisville since 1994.

Michael and Siobhan Reidy offer the standard Hibernian lineup of well-kept draft ales and lagers, along with a kitchen that integrates classic Irish recipes with new trends in the island’s cookery. Highly atmospheric, and much recommended.

Maido Essential Japanese
1758 Frankfort Ave.
894-8775
A critically praised Osaka-style “pub, sake bar and eatery,” with a very good beer list assembled by co-owner Jim Huie, formerly a bartender at BBC St. Matthews, described in this Potable Curmudgeon blog entry.

North End Cafe
1722 Frankfort Ave.
896-8770
We’re awaiting word on the beer list at this recently expanded restaurant.

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