LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
Decca's pan-seared walleye. LEO photo by Frankie Steele
Stop me if I’ve told you this before, but I have to say it again: One of the best parts about being a dining critic is that I get to try out all the great new eateries (and a lot of the old ones) around town. But one of the worst things about being a dining critic is that I can’t get back to my favorites as often as I would like.
I’m looking at you, Decca! Chef Annie Pettry’s new landmark in NuLu has been a favorite since it landed before Derby 2012. NuLu was just beginning to erupt as one of the city’s most hip dining districts when Pettry arrived from San Francisco to open Decca’s doors.
I loved Decca from the start. It’s a magical place that captures all that’s best about the NuLu renaissance: creative, chef-driven fare focused on locally sourced, quality meats and produce, with, thanks to Pettry’s West Coast roots, a hint of the Pacific Rim; well chosen adult beverages, and a sophisticated feel. I’d eat there monthly if I could. Maybe more often.
So, I put on a happy smile the other night when, thinking about where to go this week, I realized that I hadn’t been back for a review since soon after it opened. Good choice. It was just as good as I remembered.
Is it perfect? Well, it’s loud, and that’s a problem for some, but many hot new places are. And it was dim: dark enough that it wasn’t easy to make out the menu. Happily, we only had to ask to get the lights turned up a bit, without making the room bright enough to harsh everyone else’s mellow.
Decca, you’ll recall, occupies a beautifully renovated 1870s brick building in the heart of NuLu. Originally a commercial building, for many years it housed a homeless population under the guidance of the caring folks at Wayside Christian Mission, which moved to two locations closer to downtown when the NuLu gentrifiers moved in.
The building isn’t overly large, but it offers a variety of settings: the bar where we were seated, with its long banquette; more dining rooms upstairs; a cozy dark space for relaxing with music downstairs; and, in season, an upstairs balcony that looks a lot like New Orleans, and one of the city’s most beautiful — and strictly non-smoking — al fresco spaces. ...
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/?p=5448
See this column also in LEO Weekly:
http://www.leoweekly.com/2015/12/critic ... much-ever/
Decca
812 E. Market St.
749-8128
http://DeccaRestaurant.com
https://facebook.com/DeccaRestaurant
Robin Garr's rating: 91 points