ROC rocks Italian food and drink LEO's Eats with Robin Garr ROC’s branzino al cartoccio, Mediterranean ocean fish cooked and served in a foil packet. Some of Louisville’s favorite restaurants have their roots in other cities. Consider Selena’s, for instance, which came up from Tampa almost a decade ago. Or Jeff Ruby’s, which added Louisville to its thriving Cincinnati metro operation; or even Vincenzo’s, which can trace its roots to the Hill in St. Louis.
Now let’s put our hands together for ROC, an elegant eatery that owners Rocco and Stacy Cadolini pretty much loaded on a moving truck in Manhattan’s Tribeca and unpacked in Louisville’s Highlands last month.
ROC didn’t leave Gotham without some weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Tribeca Citizen bid the Cadolinis a fond farewell at the end of February, saying, “Roc is one of those restaurants that has always seemed ingrained in this neighborhood.” Until it wasn’t.
Zagat’s crowd-sourcing scribes fancied it, too, with 4.1 out of 5 points for its food: “Year after year, this warm TriBeCa standby remains roc-solid for fancy Italian classics courtesy of delightful owners who make you feel at home; a comfortable atmosphere with fantastic outdoor seating distracts from prices that slant expensive.”
That description fits ROC in Louisville well, too. Located in the Highlands Victorian that once housed Butterfly Garden, it has been considerably renovated. Its attractive, spacious off-white rooms are trimmed in blue-gray. A long bar abuts the crowded main floor, which is set with undraped wooden tables and wood-and-metal chairs. A more upscale room is upstairs; we chose the small, glassed-in front porch, which offers a great view of Bardstown Road.
Rocco Cadolini hails from Sorrento - surely you’ve heard the song - and you’ll find a few regional dishes on the menu ... By and large, though, most dishes reflect the standard Italian canon ...
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/roc-r ... food-drinkYou'll also find this review in LEO Weekly’s Food & Drink section today.
http://www.leoweekly.com/category/food-drink/ROC Restaurant1327 Bardstown Road
459-7878
http://facebook.com/RocRestaurantRobin Garr’s rating: 85 points