LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
My friend Anne and I wanted to catch a quick lunch close to the office the other day, so we wheeled down the way just a mile or two and cut into a gritty little strip center with a Mexican grocery and taqueria on one end and an Iranian grocery and shawarma shop on the other.
Downtown? Nope! This little center of international good eats sits on the south side of suburban Westport Road about halfway between Westport Village and Springhurst, but its culinary offerings differ mightily from the modern delights of the more traditional suburban centers.
Still, the idea of a multi-ethnic food strip on Westport Road makes a lot of people go "Whaaa?" Whether you're old enough to remember when this stretch between Lyndon and Prospect was all farms dotted by an occasional road-crossing settlement, or just old enough to remember when it was one of the Metro's benchmark examples of Baby Boom-fueled suburban sprawl, chances are you don't think of these neighborhoods in terms of ethnic or economic diversity.
But that was then, and this is now. In what some might call a karmic evolution, these '60s neighborhoods at least partially built by white flight have come to look a lot more like the city at large. It's an increasingly diverse area, and I particularly appreciate a mix of international treats on my plate as a result.
Anne and I couldn't make up our minds between La Rosita, the Mexican spot (which, by the way, is no kin to New Albany's popular but now closed Mexican restaurant), and Anar Foodmart, the Middle Eastern place, which is run by Iranians but offers a broader regional selection.
As it turns out, only La Rosita offers dining-in, with tightly spaced tables that could probably accommodate 25 or 30 people in a mob scene. So we settled in there for a hearty Mexican lunch of tacos and a burrito, then finished up with a shawarma, some baklava and a couple bags of pistachios at Anar, which is take-out only.
Both places appear to be groceries first, with food service squeezed in, and both are crammed floor to ceiling with tight, narrow aisles chockablock with Mexican and Iranian/Arabic goods, respectively — the kind of fascinating stuff foodies can linger over for a long time. Anne: "I'm gettin' this linden tea!" Me: "Look! What in the heck is Zarzaparrilla?"
Both places offer delicious, cheap goodies, and both have warm and friendly service, where English isn't anybody's first language but hospitality is, and a little patience goes a long way.
Read the full reviews on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/westp ... whitebread
And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/westport-ro ... whitebread
La Rosita
8730 Westport Road
807-7835
Anar Foodmart
8730 Westport Road
426-8180
Guess I'll have to give up my "Foodie" title.....