Italian Restaurants in the 'ville

Are there too many? A quick scan of the various threads reveals that we've got more than our fair share:

Ferd Grisanti's
Lentini's
Primo
Volare
Blu Italian Grille
Vincenzo's
Come Back Inn
Mellilo's
Gallo Rosso
Ray Parella's
Pesto
Amerigo
Carraba's
Macaroni Grill
Olive Garden
Rocky's
Buca di Beppo
and I am sure I am missing many more . . .

No such thing as too many italian restaurants.

Now Starbucks, McDonald's and Jimmy John's, that's another story.

but how many of these like Olive? Garden are Italo-American restaurants?
As anyone who has traveled in Italy knows there is no single "Italian" style of food. Only regional cuisine and a list of core ingredients.
The food up in Turin is as different from that of Rome or Sicily as beer is different from Munich to Koln in Germany.
Sure there are some common threads but in the USA the regional differences are glossed over and a new style of Italo-American food was invented to meet the melting pot pallets of Americans.

On that note does anyone know of any good Putanesca sauces here in town?

but how many of these like Olive? Garden are Italo-American restaurants?

all of them except for Primo.

restaurants that truly recreate the authentic cuisine of a region of Italy are the latest trend in major cities, but really haven't taken off here yet.

The notable exception to that is Bim Dietrich who opened a real Tuscan eatery more than ten years ago called Allo Spiedo.

[Robin Garr]

Are there too many?

Seems to me that "Italian," as a local category, is sort of like "Mexican." You really need to break it out into sub-categories. We've got the chains producing <i>faux</i> Americanized Italian (Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill), we've got chains serving more upscale Americanized "Northern Italian" (Carrabbas and Amerigo), we've got the family-owned Italian-American immigrant style spots, which is certainly a legitimate category, based on the Southern Italian cookery of Sicily and Calabria but more than a century away from the old country (Melillo's, Ray Parella's). We've got independent "Northern Italian," which as you point out is really more of an idealized all-over-Italy style (Ferd Grisanti, Vincenzo's), and then we've got a couple of excellent spots - curiously both with excellent who don't come from a direct Italian heritage but who love the cuisine, study it, and are capable of producing dishes that wouldn't be out of place in Italy (Primo, Volare). And a few offbeat crossover spots like Gallo Rosso (somewhere between immigrant-style and "Northern Italian") and Buca di Beppo (pricey <i>faux</i> immigrant-style).

I don't know that we've got too many in any single category, although some might argue that one in the Olive Garden/Macaroni Grill/Fazoli's department is more than enough.

Don't forget all the pizzerias!

And yet, only one French restaurant! It doesn't seen fair. I know I've complained about this on another thread, but this seemed a good place to do it again.

[Robin Garr]

And yet, only one French restaurant! It doesn't seen fair. I know I've complained about this on another thread, but this seemed a good place to do it again.

Well, there's Le Relais, and then there's Mimi's on Hurstbourne. {snort}

C'mon Robin, no way in the world can Mimi's be called French! Even calling it French in fun is a disgrace to French Restaurants. Other than architecture (which is questionable) nothing about Mimi's is French. It's nothing more than an overpriced Bob Evans restaurant in a fancy building.

[Robin Garr]

C'mon Robin, no way in the world can Mimi's be called French! Even calling it French in fun is a disgrace to French Restaurants. Other than architecture (which is questionable) nothing about Mimi's is French. It's nothing more than an overpriced Bob Evans restaurant in a fancy building.

It was a joke, all right!?

And yet, only one French restaurant! It doesn't seen fair. I know I've complained about this on another thread, but this seemed a good place to do it again.

This was where I was going with this . . .

what is the definition of french cuisine?

Matt,

Are you looking for a restaurant menu item/ sauce or a prepared sauce you can pick up and heat at home?

Deb

what is the definition of french cuisine?

There isn't "one". There are many different types of french cuisine, the overwhelming majority of which are not available in Louisville.

what is the definition of french cuisine?

There isn't "one". There are many different types of french cuisine, the overwhelming majority of which are not available in Louisville.

Ron, I believe that we have run full circle here. The French basically stoled everything from the Italians anyway (I.E. imported Medici Chefs for Louis XIV Etc.) The French like to think that they invented the wheel (Escoffier comes to mind) but the wheel rolled through Italy first.......

what is the definition of french cuisine?

There isn't "one". There are many different types of french cuisine, the overwhelming majority of which are not available in Louisville.

Ron, I believe that we have run full circle here. The French basically stoled everything from the Italians anyway (I.E. imported Medici Chefs for Louis XIV Etc.) The French like to think that they invented the wheel (Escoffier comes to mind) but the wheel rolled through Italy first.......

'tis true that the French aristocracy hired the chefs from the wealthy Italian ruling class, but that's going a little farther back in time than I need to for my purposes here.

Just saying, we got a lot of Italian restaurants in this town.