LEO's 2007 Dining Guide is out ...

[Robin Garr]

LEO's annual Dining Guide hits the streets today, and while it's online, this is one you'll want to pick up and keep (right next to your current issue of <i>Food & Dining</i>, which hits next week) for ready reference when you go out to eat. Lots of restaurant listings and capsule reviews (many from my dining reports and those of LHB bloggers), along with the usual wacky stories. I had a lot of fun with mine ... here's the intro, with a link to the gory details in LEO online ...

LEO Cover Story for November 6, 2007
LEO Dining Guide: How big is your dinner's carbon footprint?

"Food miles" is a major buzz term in culinary circles these days: How far does your food travel to reach your table?

There are a lot of sound reasons to choose local meats and produce, and "food miles" advocates argue that this matter of distance is one important issue. It takes less gas and oil to transport mushrooms to Louisville from Bath County, Ky., than it does to fly them in from Japan, so dining locally literally helps save the Earth.

Others, though, argue that this argument is bogus. Local produce may be splendid, but food transportation and distribution issues are so much more complex that the impact of distance can't be measured in any realistic way. New Zealand's lamb producers, for instance, argue that their climate is so much more efficient for lamb raising that it's less of an insult to the environment to fly their meat to the UK than it is for Brit producers to undertake the energy-intensive processes needed to raise their own lamb in chilly Blighty.

We'll leave these inconvenient truths to the environmentalists to wrangle about. What we want to know, though, is whether food miles matter on your dinner plate.

As an intriguing experiment in food miles and flavor, we invited two local chefs to turn their imagination loose and come up with indulgent banquets.

Chef Jim Gerhardt of Limestone (10001 Forest Green Blvd., 426-7477), who has been a long-time advocate of supporting local farmers and producers, came up with a five-course banquet in which every major ingredient was sourced right here in Kentucky or Southern Indiana. His meal tallies up only a few hundred food miles from soup to nuts to dessert.

Meanwhile, placing tongue firmly in cheek as advocate for the "what, me worry about global warming" brigade, Chef David Clancy of the late, lamented, Bistro New Albany plates up a hypothetical banquet of similar scale, this one fashioned with intriguing ingredients sourced from all around the world. Clancy's undeniably delicious dinner requires so many food miles that it stomps down with a carbon footprint the size of Montana.

Full report in LEO, with a sidebar listing "A field guide to local producers"

Robin, the carbon footprint article was excellent. My wife is reading Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemnia" presently and, being new to the area, it was a good primer for area food producers. Glad to see Capriole included, as we've been hooked on Mont. St. Francis for months.

Unfortunately aged Kentucky ham was preceded by ham-fisted humor with "Ask a Mexican"! When the alternative weekly reads like Rush Limbaugh, there's a problem. Who possibly thought it was a good idea to carry that, syndicated column or not. Perhaps in the future LEO will build up more stereotypes about fun targets like homosexuals, the poor, Arabs, etc.

[Robin Garr]

Unfortunately aged Kentucky ham was preceded by ham-fisted humor with "Ask a Mexican"! When the alternative weekly reads like Rush Limbaugh, there's a problem. Who possibly thought it was a good idea to carry that, syndicated column or not. Perhaps in the future LEO will build up more stereotypes about fun targets like homosexuals, the poor, Arabs, etc.

Michael, I haven't seen the print edition yet - the LEO delivery guy missed Frankfort Avenue this afternoon, and I'm not aware of this column.

However, it appears to be the incredibly popular "Ask A Mexican" by Gustavo Arellano, which is run in the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times and appears to be popular with both the Latino and Anglo communities in California, counter-intuitive though that may be. A Chicano "Borat," maybe?

In any case, I'm not sure that Limbaugh is an apt analogy, and such certainly wouldn't fit LEO's demographic, but I'll try to find out more about this.

Meanwhile, here's one Web link from a California Latino blog in English that seems to give an even-handed analysis:
<b>La Bloga: INTERVIEW WITH GUSTAVO ARELLANO</b>

Are you referring to Velocity as conservative? Velocity has twice this year labeled Mitch McConnell a "loser" when McConnell successfully stopped Democrat initiatives, which would seem to indicate that he's the most powerful senator. Velocity is also published by the Pravda on the Ohio, the Curious-Urinal. LEO may discuss politics more, but both are equally left-leaning.

ANd worrying about carbon-footprinting of foods is simply nuts, IMO.

[Robin Garr]

Are you referring to Velocity as conservative? Velocity has twice this year labeled Mitch McConnell a "loser" when McConnell successfully stopped Democrat initiatives, which would seem to indicate that he's the most powerful senator. Velocity is also published by the Pravda on the Ohio, the Curious-Urinal. LEO may discuss politics more, but both are equally left-leaning.

ANd worrying about carbon-footprinting of foods is simply nuts, IMO.

Nobody has said anything about Velocity in this thread at all.

Robin- who is the editor of the dining guide? I found two glaring errors, I say glaring only because these two establishments moved months ago. Gilberto Gelato is no longer at The Summit and Shiraz is no longer on lower Brownsboro. I saw some other misimformation- but that could easily have been a result of the fluid nature of the restaurant world.

[Robin Garr]

Robin- who is the editor of the dining guide? I found two glaring errors, I say glaring only because these two establishments moved months ago. Gilberto Gelato is no longer at The Summit and Shiraz is no longer on lower Brownsboro. I saw some other misimformation- but that could easily have been a result of the fluid nature of the restaurant world.

Gary, I know it's hellish difficult to keep those things up to date - Food & Dining has the same problem as a quarterly, and the CJ's listings are notoriously bad.

Sara Havens, managing editor, has the ultimate responsibility, and I know she worked her butt off trying to get it right. I might gently suggest you avoid using terminology like "glaring error" and "misinformation" if you get in touch with her. Seriously, it's a b***h of a job, and I know how hard she worked to get it right. Misteaks happen.

Thanks Robin- I didn't mean any disrespect at all- I've had occasion to edit pieces with almost as much content and I know what a thankless job it is. Misteaks will be made.

Robin, it's hard to dispute a pedigree of the Los Angeles Times, Colbert Report appearance, etc. but I still have to. I can gather the type of person that typically reads the LEO, and although these are likely not base coarse racist people...it just doesn't feel right to me or my lovely better half. Perhaps it's entirely subjective and not worth even bringing up. It does surprise that the paper that did a cover story on a gay man who mocks poor black women is running Ask a Mexican. They probably should be given the benefit of the doubt but again...it just doesn't feel right to me.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, it's hard to dispute a pedigree of the Los Angeles Times, Colbert Report appearance, etc. but I still have to.

Michael, I certainly respect your opinion and your right to it, but it would probably be best for you to communicate directly with the editors at LEO, either privately or in a publishable Letter to the Editor.

Because LouisvilleHotBytes handles LEO's food-and-dining content, we're certainly connected to the LEO, and I'm certainly friends with their editors. But this column isn't in my bailiwick, that kind of decision is well outside my realm, and in fact, I didn't know they were using it until I saw it in the paper.

Robin --

Great article on food miles! Thank you for all the kind words for the local producers and the restaurants who believe in all of us.

Great list, but one thing: they left out Plehn's!

It must be that Plehn's is such a standard that it just IS....you don't have to tell anyone it's there!

With respect to "Ask a Mexican," I wrote the following New Albany-centric piece in my blog this past June:

Apparently there is a difference of opinion as to whether Arellano’s witty and sometimes confrontational writing on the broad topic of Mexican vs. American culture truly serves a useful purpose, but to me, anytime pomposity is punctured, idiocy exposed and sacred cows deflated, it represents progress in human affairs. I’m aware of only one regularly published New Albany writer who is seeking to engage us in such a needed dialogue with respect to the Hispanic/Latino presence in the area: Lillian Rose, local columnist for the Tribune.

Given that we Americans are an enduringly hypocritical lot, and it would be amusing to consider the undisputedly racist underbelly of the current anti-immigration phobia if not for our collective fondness for large-scale amnesia when it comes to attractively priced veggie platters and chef’s salads, it still strikes me that the city of New Albany might find it beneficial to make an effort, however minimal, to recognize its Hispanic/Latino community, which of course leaves unanswered the question of when we’ll come to grips with the African-American community that's been here far longer.

After all, it’s the forever somnolent New Albany, where only one progressive act is permitted each century -- more than that, and you must answer to the Committee for Uncomprehended Activities, chaired by Dan Coffey, the luminous Councilman Crappuccino.[/i]

Ah yes, it is great to be listed... however, Meridian has not served beer in many years. I would say we have graduated to at least two Dollars signs as well. Thank you Leo Magazine we appreciate the Mention!

[Robin Garr]

Ah yes, it is great to be listed... however, Meridian has not served beer in many years. I would say we have graduated to at least two Dollars signs as well. Thank you Leo Magazine we appreciate the Mention!

Mentions are good!

Again, Heather, although we work closely with LEO, this list came from LEO, not LouisvilleHotBytes, and it would be good to contact LEO directly with corrections.

I'll be glad to make up a list from this thread and pass it on to Sara, but it still wouldn't hurt to contact them directly.