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Robin Garr

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Ikebana fills long-vacant Red Pepper space

by Robin Garr » Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:01 am

Ikebana fills long-vacant Red Pepper space

LEO's Eats with Robin Garr

Eel roll sushi at Ikebana.
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I still mourn the 2010 departure of Red Pepper, Louisville’s best Chinese restaurant ever. As good as it was, Red Pepper owner Yuan Hua told me when it closed, the combination of a $5,000 monthly lease payment and a respected Sichuan chef who required fair payment for his skills, sent it on to restaurant Nirvana after a short, bright two-year tenure.

Now, eight years later, the exotic-looking building on Lower Brownsboro is lighted up again: Ikebana Japanese Restaurant & Sushi has come to fill the space.


We dropped in for dinner with friends the other night to check it out. There been no change in the decor other than, presumably, some mopping and dusting after all those years. The menu offers Japanese-American restaurant standards; there’s no sushi bar but a list of maki sushi rolls. ...

Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/ikeba ... pper-space

You'll also find this review in LEO Weekly’s Food & Drink section today.
http://www.leoweekly.com/category/food-drink/

Ikebana Japanese Restaurant & Sushi
2901 Brownsboro Road
384-7284
http://bit.ly/IkebanaLouisville
https://facebook.com/ikebana.ky

Robin Garr's rating: 71 points

Noise level: Silence reigned in an almost empty dining room. (Average sound level 61-65 dB.)

Accessibility: The entrance is accessible via a long ramp from the side parking area, but the big front doors are heavy. The restrooms are spacious but lack grab bars and other accessibility modifications.
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RonnieD

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Re: Ikebana fills long-vacant Red Pepper space

by RonnieD » Sat Nov 17, 2018 11:51 am

Driving by today and there is a FOR RENT sign in the window, so I guess Ikebana is no more. That spot truly is cursed.
Ronnie Dingman
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The Farm
La Center, KY
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Robin Garr

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Re: Ikebana fills long-vacant Red Pepper space

by Robin Garr » Sat Nov 17, 2018 2:38 pm

Honestly, I don't think we can attribute this to a geographical curse. Ikebana was pretty bad. :(
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lawrence.pigman

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Re: Ikebana fills long-vacant Red Pepper space

by lawrence.pigman » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:30 pm

How long was Red Pepper there? That was the ONLY good Chinese restaurant in Louisville. I loved it and still miss it.
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Richard S.

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Re: Ikebana fills long-vacant Red Pepper space

by Richard S. » Thu Sep 19, 2019 12:06 am

Didn't realize it had been that long since Red Pepper left us. My wife and I ate there once a week for at least a year, and I was at the dinner Robin organized. I still miss Unique Chicken Smell. I travel to Champaign, Ill. A few times a year and there's a restaurant Lai Lai Wok that approaches RP in terms of authentic cooking. There's a lot of Asians attending U of I and the dining scene acknowledges that.
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Re: Ikebana fills long-vacant Red Pepper space

by Robin Garr » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:52 am

lawrence.pigman wrote:How long was Red Pepper there? That was the ONLY good Chinese restaurant in Louisville. I loved it and still miss it.

I agree, Lawrence! I loved it and miss it also. <sob> I'll try to look it up more accurately later, but I'd say it was around two years.

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