Grilled Cheese and Avocado Sandwiches at Ray's

[Robin Garr]

Fresh Market coming soon to Rudy Lane at Brownsboro Road.

Along with lots of new traffic and increased time waiting at traffic lights for your enjoyment!

No kidding, this addition will make me a great deal more likely to go out Westport Road and up Herr Lane when I'm heading for Holiday Manor and environs.

Along with lots of new traffic and increased time waiting at traffic lights for your enjoyment!

No kidding, this addition will make me a great deal more likely to go out Westport Road and up Herr Lane when I'm heading for Holiday Manor and environs.

I agree. that intersection is already a traffic nightmare. While I'd love another Fresh Market, I 'm surprised they approved it due to traffic. Personally I'll keeping going to the Shelbyville Road location, even though this may be a little closer ...

Deb

[Robin Garr]

While I'd love another Fresh Market, I 'm surprised they approved it due to traffic. Personally I'll keeping going to the Shelbyville Road location, even though this may be a little closer ...

I like Fresh Market okay, but have never really found it superior to the closer-at-hand combination of Doll's, Lotsa Pasta, Rainbow Blossom and Burger's, and it's on a stretch of US 60 where I just plain never go.

Their meat department gets a lot of praise, Deb, but do you happen to know if their meats are natural, hormone-free, free-range, etc.? I find Green River, Dreamcatcher, Stonecross, Fiedler and Preferred Meats offer such a great selection of meats that are local, healthful and humane that I'm hard pressed to shop elsewhere for meat. Even Whole Foods, which generally vet the meats for natural, doesn't seem to do local.

Haven’t been out to see you, but I’ll definitely be by for coffee and some of that grilled cheese.

My taste runs for veg over meat any day, and ideas are running through my head - just not sure what’s appropriate for your equipment or space. Would pan-frying or oven roasting ingredients be do-able?

Gabrielle,
We're looking for as easy to prep as possible. We have extremely limited space and cooking equipment behind the counter. We're hoping to pre-prep as much as possible, and then do little or no assembly after the order. Kind of lame, and may change someday if we put a proper kitchen with staff in back, but not yet.

Thanks............

I have to ask. What is vegan cheese? I thought that a cow had to be in the mix somewhere to make cheese.

Well, I say vegan cheese because most soy cheese has cassein (a milk protein). It is added to improve the melting ability. Yeah, no cow involved, but it tastes pretty similar.

It is for people who are vegan - but I won't get into the health, ethical or environmental reasons here (I'm pretty close to vegan for all three of those reasons, and I do admit that cheese is my weakest link).

I'm guessing that 15% plus of my customers are vegetarian, probably a few percent vegan.

Some sort of hummus sandwich would be good and easy to prepare. Perhaps topped with spinach?

Good idea. On pita bread, even!

Are ya'll talking cold, I assume. Just hummmus, spinich , in pita? I suppose tomato too???

I haven't been to Ray's in a while so I don't know you already do this or not, but it would be awesome if there were some bagels available, especially some sort of bagel sandwiches. Of course, most of the bagels I've had in the Louisville area are pretty terrible and not anything like real bagels, so maybe you'd have to make your own? Dunno, but that could be a possibility.

Thanks!
We do have bagels, but not yet the sandwiches. Yes, it'd make a lot of sense to offer them.

I guess our big question is do we pre-prep them or not? It really affects things like staffing, and freshness, and product options ( it is nice to be able to custom order exactly what you want on your sandwich, but then it slows us down, we need extra people, etc. Sort of obvious, I guess...and a tradeoff decision we need to make).

Bagel sandwiches are a pretty good lunch option, plenty of places in my old Brooklyn stomping grounds had vegetarian and non-veg options. This one coffeeshop, the Read (on Bedford Ave.), had a great bagel and hummus plate that I kinda miss.

Nimbus, where do you source your bagels from? Just curious, my standards are kinda high.

I'm an everything bagel person myself. I'd love to make my own, but I already have my hands full.

We've been getting them from both Nancy's Bagels on Frankfort, and Dooleys, just off Breckenridge. They can both make some great bagels, but I've noticed a lot of variability from both. I grew up in Chicago, and lived in Evanston for high school. The bagels in Skokie are AMAZING. A lot of great Jewish delis and bakeries there. Very much like Brooklyn in some respects.

If only I had room for a big hobart mixer and boiling kettle.

Some sort of hummus sandwich would be good and easy to prepare. Perhaps topped with spinach?

Good idea. On pita bread, even!

Are ya'll talking cold, I assume. Just hummmus, spinich , in pita? I suppose tomato too???

Yeah, I'm thinking cold. Tomato would be good. Maybe a balsamic dressing of some sort as well?

And roasted red peppers! I think pita would hold up well to having the sandwich pre-made - as long as they don't hang around for more than a day.

Their meat department gets a lot of praise, Deb, but do you happen to know if their meats are natural, hormone-free, free-range, etc.? I find Green River, Dreamcatcher, Stonecross, Fiedler and Preferred Meats offer such a great selection of meats that are local, healthful and humane that I'm hard pressed to shop elsewhere for meat. Even Whole Foods, which generally vet the meats for natural, doesn't seem to do local.
[quote="Deb Hall"]

Robin,

I don't know about their meats- I've never purchased them. We buy as much as we can locally, but for our meats we are very skewed- we buy Farmer's Market meats/ poultry , and from local butchers ( aka Preferred Meats and Butchers Best) as much as we can- we get the rest from Costco ( buying mostly free-range/no hormone/organic). I rarely go to Fresh Market, then only for a few specialty things I know they carry and/or bulk items.

Deb

Richard M. will know - he works there!

a little Dejavu going on with the whole grilled cheese, pita, small kitchen thing! I have chills.

And roasted red peppers! I think pita would hold up well to having the sandwich pre-made - as long as they don't hang around for more than a day.

Marsha,
on the roasted red pepper front, what do people do? We do currently make our own homemade hummus, and I get roasted red peppers from a local middle eastern shop (in a jar) to add to our hummus. But in a sandwich, you'd want them roasted on a grill yourself I'm thinking? Sorry. Kind of clueless on the roasted red pepper situation. Slice 'em and slap 'em on the George Foreman? Heehee...(I'm a beverage guy - beer brewer and coffee roaster - not a food specialist). But I'm learning....

thanks,

-Nimbus

NC: Grill 'em first (or if you have a gas stove, set them straight in the fire on the burner). Either way, keep turning them until they are black and have a nice even char. Trap them in a bowl under plastic wrap as they cool, then slip the charred skin off, pull the stem off and clean the seeds out. It's really easy, and tons cheaper than buying them in a jar!