LEO's Eats with Louisville HotBytes.com(Burger Boy, A.J.'s Coffee 'n' Cream, Polly's Freeze, Mike Linnig's)
"Road trip!"
With the possible exception of "smog alert," no two words say summer better.
For the inveterate foodie, no road trip would be complete without stopping to sample roadfood, a concept that the writers Jane and Michael Stern made famous, defining it as "memorable local eateries along the highways and back roads of America."
With summer finally blazing at its peak, we've done some road time lately, visiting a few old friends on the highways around Louisville, and discovering a bright new face on a roadfood-style inner-city eatery that has lifted itself from a dive into an inviting diner. Let's start there.
Burger Boy loses Juanita, washes its face
For 50 years or so, one of the city's most noteworthy dives has been housed in this little brick building at the corner of Burnett and Brook streets, where Old Louisville meets the edge of gentrification near the University of Louisville.
Built as Orthober's Market back in the 1930s and converted to a diner as Greg's Place in the 1960s, it was taken over by the eponymous Juanita in 1980 and quickly developed a reputation as a place where late-studying U of L students and late-partying revelers could drop in at any hour for a cheap, greasy burger. Emphasis on the "greasy."
About this time last year, Juanita retired, and new owners Dan and R.J. Borsch took over the operation. Bit by bit, operating on a limited budget, they've steam-cleaned the place, scrubbed most of the grime out of the grout in the terra-cotta tile floors, ripped down plywood that had covered some of the windows, and repainted the interior in bright colors of cafe au lait and tomato soup.
The menu hasn't changed much, offering a modestly priced selection of burgers, sandwiches and plate-lunch dinners, as well as breakfast all day. It's still open 24 hours daily, and it's still cash only ... don't even ask about credit cards.
But the food is much, much better, and service is friendly, courteous and quick. That's quite an improvement.
Read the complete report in LEO, and on LouisvilleHotBytes.com.
LOCATION INFO:
Burger Boy
1450 S. Brook St.
635-7410
Robin Garr's rating: 84 points
A.J.'s Coffee 'n' Cream
9280 Ind. 64
Georgetown, Ind.
(812) 951-1715
http://www.ajsgyros.com
Robin Garr's rating: 86 points
Polly's Freeze
5242 State Road 62
Georgetown, Ind.
(812) 945-6911
Robin Garr's rating: 80 points
Mike Linnig's Place
9308 Cane Run Road
937-9888
http://www.mikelinnigsrestaurant.com
Robin Garr's rating: 75 points