Harvest

Brian and I went to the soft opening of Harvest last week. Love the place and the vibe! They’ve done a wonderful job with the space- very clean lines, simple, warm and open. Staff was very warm and inviting- really on their toes. Excellent service for a place that just opened.

We had a very good wine recommendation from Cassandra. All of their wines are from farmer/producers and their list is intentionally very reasonable. We started with the additive sweet potato chips with smoked paprika crème fraiche. Our app was outstanding: ravioli with smoked goat cheese in mushroom broth, with bruschetta with rapini pesto. The flavors were amazing and a perfect combination. Loved it!

Entrees are very reasonable for the quality - none were over $20. Brian's fried chicken entrée was huge and well-prepared with incredibly crispy skin, but little plain for our tastes. My smoked ( Fiedler Farms) pork shoulder was very good and tender with a perfect accompaniment of rapini. Friends ordered the burger and said was one of the best they’d had. It was served on a pretzel bun (visually beautiful and tasty) with a schmear of goat cheese and the delicious hog jowl bacon jam (!!!). (I am definitely going back to try this one myself).

We ordered two desserts: the sweet potato with szechuan marshmellows, and the ginger cookie ice cream sandwich with candied bacon. Our favorite was the ice cream sandwich - just the right amount of sweet, spicy and salty. (I finished it even though I was very full- yum ).

Overall, Harvest was very good and a great new addition to NuLu. Haven’t tried lunch yet , but I bet their sandwiches are really good. We'll be back for lunch (and to try their hog jowl muffins with sorghum butter!) sometime soon.

Deb

My husband and 5yo ate there tonight. He ordered the bread board (hog jowl muffins, sorghum butter), which he said was very good. He ate all of them up.

My daughter and I split a vegetable crudite with some kind of yummy sauce (not on the menu that was previously posted here on hotbytes and I can't remember what the sauce was). There were asparagus spears, broccolini, and radish slices. She stole all the radishes and I ate the rest.

For dinner, my husband ordered the buttermilk fried chicken with hoecake. It looked like a nice portion and he said it was pretty good. The kids' menu was heavy on the meat. The only veggie kids offering had hummus (containing tahini, which my daughter is highly allergic to). So they basically made up a veggie sandwich for her with carrots, lettuce and cheese on some kind of pretzel bread. She loved it and ate as much as she could hold.

I ordered the roasted vegetable pot pie. It was really really delicious. I could've licked my plate. But. Here's the deal. It was minuscule. Like really really tiny. Like the size of my palm and I think I'm being generous. I am NOT a Super Size Me kind of person. I'm average height and smack dab in the middle of the healthy BMI. I was still hungry. If I hadn't eaten an appetizer I'd've been starving.

And - I read a facebook update from a friend who said he ordered the vegetarian lunch entree (some kind of ravioli). He had to go elsewhere and order a salad because he was still so hungry.

So. What does one do? I wasn't about to complain. I don't want anything free. I'll probably go back, but only for lunch when I can get a sandwich. It appears to only be the vegetarian offering that has this size issue. I think it might really help them to know, you know?

For the record, my husband did call and give them some feedback this morning. Apparently the ravioli by buddy ordered for lunch actually *was* an appetizer, but it wasn't clearly marked on the menu. She said she'd definitely check into that. So anywho. I think we did our civic duty. We really do want them to succeed. It's a good concept. The food was good and the decor was really lovely.

We went last night as part of a birthday celebration for a friend, comprising 2 long tables and 20 people. In short, Harvest executed almost flawlessly and made it a great night for everyone.

To eat, we had the ravioli (ravioli, smoked goat cheese, roasted mushroom broth, garlic crouton, rapini pesto), house salad (greens, house cured bacon, scallions, warm sherry vinaigrette, poached local egg), and fried chicken (buttermilk fried chicken, arugula biscuit hoecake, smoked peppercorn gravy). I was also lucky enough to get a large bit of a friend's burger (burger, chevre, bibb lettuce, hog jowl bacon jam, pretzel bun).

I honestly cannot think of one negative about any of these dishes, other than to echo that the ravioli could have been a bit of a larger portion. It was basically 2 medium bites/4 small bites, which does not lend itself to sharing, though it was delicious. The fried chicken rivals the Village Anchor as my favorite in the city, perhaps creeping just ahead with the addition of the creamy gravy. The burger was just outstanding, with the best pretzel bun I've ever had.

To drink, I had one of the craft bourbon cocktails (bourbon, house-made sour mix, egg whites) and my wife had the Killer Queen (Farmers Organic Gin, St. Germain, Chervil, lemon, egg white). Both were good, and I loved the use of egg white (four or five of the cocktails incoprorate it). The sour mix had a cinnamon/nutmeg-ish quality to it that was very smooth.

For dessert, Harvest made a whole chocolate cake with rasperry and local strawberries, topped with ganache. They kindly brought it out, awaited the singing and blowing out of the candles, then whisked the cake back to the kitchen, portioned and plated, and returned it to the guests. This was a nice touch, and the cake was very good.

The service was very good, especially considering the size of our group and the fact that every other table in the place was full. The only real issue I had was that the wine markup seemed extremely high (as much as 4 times retail cost for many bottles), but the cocktails and beer were fairly priced. Harvest is an excellent addition to the city, and is doing great work so far. We'll certainly return.

[Robin Garr]

We went last night as part of a birthday celebration for a friend, comprising 2 long tables and 20 people. In short, Harvest executed almost flawlessly and made it a great night for everyone.

Whoa! We were there last night ... were you guys up in the front part by the window? I'll go along 100 percent with "flawless execution" and "a great night" for our party of three.

We went last night as part of a birthday celebration for a friend, comprising 2 long tables and 20 people. In short, Harvest executed almost flawlessly and made it a great night for everyone.

Whoa! We were there last night ... were you guys up in the front part by the window? I'll go along 100 percent with "flawless execution" and "a great night" for our party of three.

Yes, we were the large party on the raised part in the front by the window. We spotted you and Mary and your guest, but didn't want to intrude. You did look to be having a nice evening, though.

I happened to stop in last night as well with Nate from Eiderdown (after our trip to Red Hog Tapas) to peruse the menu and scene and I firmly believe they are positioning themselves as one of the best restaurants in the city. They are really firing on all cylinders.

The menu is well done and the execution flawless. I'm a wine drinker but ended up drinking beer when we ate there - I thought the beer might pair better with the food we had anyway.

The menu is well done and the execution flawless. I'm a wine drinker but ended up drinking beer when we ate there - I thought the beer might pair better with the food we had anyway.

Go beer!

A friend of mine said that he liked the pizza at Harvest better than he does @ Coals. I was in a state of disbelief.........until lunch yesterday. Even though I absolutely love the pizza at Coals, Harvest just upped the pizza ante in Louisville. It was quite da bomb!

[Robin Garr]

A friend of mine said that he liked the pizza at Harvest better than he does @ Coals. I was in a state of disbelief.........until lunch yesterday. Even though I absolutely love the pizza at Coals, Harvest just upped the pizza ante in Louisville. It was quite da bomb!

Whoa! I thought Caffe Classico was the winner in the realm of hidden-but-awesome-pizza-at-places-you-don't-expect-to-have-pizza.

Can you give us a little detail, Ray? What made it so great? Topped with locavore veggies?

A friend of mine said that he liked the pizza at Harvest better than he does @ Coals. I was in a state of disbelief.........until lunch yesterday. Even though I absolutely love the pizza at Coals, Harvest just upped the pizza ante in Louisville. It was quite da bomb!

Whoa! I thought Caffe Classico was the winner in the realm of hidden-but-awesome-pizza-at-places-you-don't-expect-to-have-pizza.

Can you give us a little detail, Ray? What made it so great? Topped with locavore veggies?

Squash, zucchini, light pesto (don't remember the name of the delicious cheese) and the crust's texture was perfect......more perfect than the perfect crust at Coals. The multiple flavors of the pie were nicely balanced.

Haven't tried Classico's, but it's now on my list!

We think that Coal's pizza is perfect and that Garage Bar's pizza is equally perfect. We've been to Harvest but have not yet tried their pizza. That will be next on our list.