Ivor's Harvest to open April 23

All,

Went to Harvest this weekend and it was great! I'll post my full review under a separate thread-, but Ryan's right, both the burger and hog jowl muffins were really standouts,

Deb

Had an interesting meal at Harvest. I was REALLY hungry because I knew I was going to have dinner out, so did not eat all day.
So we started with the "bread board", four mini scones with hog jowl bacon bits, and sourghum butter. Yummy.
Had a crafted cocktail, "Georgia on my mind",
Organic Rain Vodka, Lillet Blanc, honey suckle, Korbel, Ragans' Orange bitters
$8 It was bitter alright, not a drop of sweetness to this drink. I did enjoy the refreshing difference of the drink though.
Next came my Entree, I had the ricotta-herb gnocchi, bolognese, lavash
$16 Ok, so, Bolognese sauce is supposed to be a thick hearty stew like sauce, I was curious how they were going to pair it with what I thought would be a delicate Gnocchi because of the "herb" aspect of the dish.
Lavash? what was that intended for, "to soak up the sauce" I was told. Well you should not be able to Soak up a bolognese sauce first of all, and the lavash was fried in oil, so you could not soak up anything with it.
There were six regular size gnocchi in this dish, and the rest was what seemed like browned ground beef with carrots in a beefy broth. The Gnocchi had been boiled but the chef took it one step further and pan seared them. I say seared because the bottom of the gnocchi was very very brown, on the verge of burned.
The most aggressive ingredient in this dish was the diced calves liver.. Yes, calves liver. I detected it, and asked the server about it, and she was not sure and came back and told me that I was correct that there was indeed calves liver in the dish. This ingredient was not disclosed on the menu. I think it should be.
Needless to say I ate all of the dish, like I said in the beginning I was hungry. It's not that the dish wasn't tasty it was, it was just not a traditional bolognese, and you could not taste the "herbs" in the gnocchi because of the other bold flavors in the dish.
Still hungry, I asked the server if I could have a 1/2 order of the fried chicken on the menu ($19), she went and asked the chef, and returned with a resounding "NO."
I asked the owned Ivor if I could have 1/2 and order of the fried chicken, and Pizza was suggested instead.
I did tell the owner (one of them) Ivor about the dish I had just finished and he proceeded to tell me that a 90 year old patron had told him it was the best bolognese he ever had. I took that as my comments about the dish were not valid, and I was wrong.
We ordered the bread pudding for dessert, and it was tasty but again portion sizes were small for what you pay for. To travel to Market street Downtown from Prospect in the East End of Louisville for Harvest is not on my short list.

We had a lovely dinner at Harvest tonight - the place exceeded my expectations on all levels given some of the feedback I've seen.

They had bacon scones with sorghum butter. These reminded me of biscuits I had as a kid in Eastern Kentucky. They clearly used a soft biscuit flour that made the scones crumble in your mouth.

My son and I had the pulled pork and my wife had the skirt steak. We ordered extra sides of greens and hot potato salad. The pork is not BBQ nor is it advertised as such, but is more like a roasted pork with a BBQ-like sauce. There was a savory bread pudding and slaw as sides. My wife enjoyed her skirt steak which came sliced with a horse radish sauce.

Desert was a chocolate cake and a bread pudding that was more like a soft cinnamon roll. Both were tasty and well executed.

Let me say that the food here is well thought out and well executed. The tastes are reminiscent of the rural Kentucky of my youth. A nice beer selection although I was less than impressed with the wines available - on the other hand I drank beer with my meal and felt it worked better that wine would have anyway. The concept and execution are sound - I expect this place to do very well.

I had lunch there last Sunday and had the cold asparagus soup with crema, crouton, and chervil (if I remember right?). SO refreshing. I've been googling around for cold soup recipes since then but can't find anything thin and herby like this one, just a lot of fruit soups, chunky vegetable soups, and thick soups made with a heavy cream base. I'll keep trying. And then I had the burger. Thanks for pressing us on that one, Deb. You were right on all points and the hog jowl jam was incredible. As Doogy would say, "yummo".