LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
Grilled pork-chop dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and muffin at Cottage Inn
Can a person - well, this person, anyway - ever get tired of international food, the vast smorgasbord of culinary delights from all the world's regions? I would say not. Give me Indian, Mexican, Thai, Argentine, African, Chinese, German, Korean, Yugoslavian, French or German cuisine, and I'll bounce right back in pursuit of the next fascinating thing.
But that being said, after my friend Ashley Day and I got through sampling the varied multi-cultural delights of Louisville's "International Restaurant Row" on Old Bardstown Road in Buechel this week (see this week's LEO Winter Dining Guide for more), I was just about ready to take a break with some good, old-fashioned American comfort food like Mom used to make.
I know! Let's go to the Cottage Inn! Serving "Southern Comfort Food" since 1929, they've been filling Louisville's hunger hole with Southern-fried goodies and homemade cakes and pies for 80-some years.
With the sad closing of Mazzoni's and Kaelin's in recent years, Cottage Inn may hold bragging rights as Louisville's oldest eatery still in operation. It has endured at the same address, in the same building, and what appears to be very much the same menu.
But here's the twist: Just like a few of the eateries along Old Bardstown Road that you'll read about in the Dining Guide today, Cottage Inn's owners hail from Bosnia, that war-torn nation in the former Yugoslavia that has sent Louiville thousands of welcome new neighbors.
Yep, Zuki and Zlatko Kreso, who came to Louisville in 1998 and, for a time, operated Mr. Z's Kitchen downtown, purchased Cottage Inn from its former owners in 2008. (Zlatko's brother, by the way, owns Kreso's Bosnian restaurant in Bardstown, Ky.)
During their seven years at the helm, the Kresos haven't changed much. I think the decor looks a bit more European now, with beige walls and dark wood and a gallery of old framed neighborhood photos replacing the old country-style floral wallpaper. Tables are still draped with oilcloth, and they're still set with lightweight flatware rolled in paper napkins, with beverages served in tall plastic tumblers. Think diner-style, if you're from north of here, or meat-and-three if you're from further south, and you'll get the idea.
...
We came ready to eat and left full, but, even when it makes me sad, it's a critic's duty to tell it as I tasted it. Our meal was indeed like Mom used to make: Variable. To be honest, Mom kept us well fed, but she wasn't all that great a cook, at least not until later on in life when she got into the gourmet thing. ...
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/?p=5419
See this column also in LEO Weekly:
http://www.leoweekly.com/2015/11/home-s ... ttage-inn/
Cottage Inn
570 Eastern Parkway
637-4325
Robin Garr's rating: 76 points
