Discussion of Robin Garr's Bardstown dining review

[Robin Garr]

Bardstown: epicenter of bourbon and good eats
LEO's Eats with Robin Garr



If you’re sitting in a friendly diner working on a stack of blueberry pancakes, and you suddenly realize the bar at the back of the room offers selected tastings of small-batch and single-barrel bourbons with tasting sheets to record your impressions, you have almost certainly found your way to Bardstown, Ky. And chances are you’re dining in Mammy’s Kitchen.

Ah, Bardstown! If you have ever made the short trek out Bardstown Road to this charming little city to check in at the annual Bourbon Festival in September, you probably think of the place as a deep well of Kentucky nectar filled with tourists and traffic.

Of course, these are not bad things. “Deep well of Kentucky nectar” makes its own case; and Bardstown’s location in the epicenter of the Kentucky bourbon belt assures it a steady stream of tourists and the prosperity they provide.

And that’s without even considering such attractions as the Old Kentucky Home, the nearby Kentucky Railway Museum, and historic Roman Catholic landmarks including Gethsemani, the monastery where Thomas Merton once dwelt.

But Bardstown is worth getting to know even when there’s nothing special going on. Kentucky’s second-oldest city (after Harrodsburg), this leafy town of 12,000 boasts impressive streetscapes deeply rooted in the 1800s. Visualize an avenue lined with sturdy red-brick 19th century commercial buildings with cast-iron storefronts. Fill those spaces with shops, boutiques and eateries well-stocked with bourbon, and you’ve got, nope, not Frankfort Avenue, but the blocks of Bardstown’s North Third Street that frame the Nelson County Courthouse.

Here’s a quick look at three of my favorites: Mammy’s Kitchen, Kreso’s and Rincon Mexicano. Since they are outside the Louisville Metro and my repeated visits have been more social than analytical, I won’t award ratings. But I can highly recommend all three.

Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/bards ... -good-eats

And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/bardstown-e ... -good-eats

Mammy’s Kitchen
114 N. Third St. (Bardstown)
502-350-1097
http://on.fb.me/mammyskitchen

Rincon Mexicano
204 N. Third St. (Bardstown)
502-349-0049
http://www.rinconmexicanorestaurantky.com

Kreso’s Restaurant
218 N. Third St. (Bardstown)
502-348-9594
http://www.kresosrestaurant.com

We lunched at Kreso's 2 weeks ago on a Saturday. On balance I found the food to be decent to good and the service friendly but awkward. The goulash was a bit of a let down - poorly seasoned, lacking flavor, the egg noodles were a packaged noodle. I was expecting real eastern Europeans to make fresh noodles for the price. On the other hand the reuben was pretty good - the corned beef tasted home made. I ordered a beer when I first sat down and they were out of the first 2 selections I made. I would eat there again with diminished expectations.

My wife has been doing some lectures down that way and had dinner at Circa which is in an old home right on the square. She enjoyed it very much. Robin have you been there? If so we need a report.

http://www.restaurant-circa.com/

[Robin Garr]

My wife has been doing some lectures down that way and had dinner at Circa which is in an old home right on the square. She enjoyed it very much. Robin have you been there? If so we need a report.

http://www.restaurant-circa.com/

Thanks for the link, Mark. Looks very interesting! I haven't been there, but I'll be going down a couple or three more times before my project there ends. I'll see if I can work it out.

Acknowledging they don't get much love from Urbanspoon, I tried out the (historic) Old Talbott Tavern for lunch last summer and loved the place. The Burgoo was unbelievably good...absolutely the best I've ever had.

DEFINITELY a cool little town with a lot to offer in terms of dining, etc. Hell just walking around the neighborhoods looking at the cool old houses is a trip.