LEO's Eats with Louisville HotBytes.comThis week let's make quick visits to a couple of St. Matthews-area eateries where you can fill the tank for a reasonable price and go away satisfied.
Shady Lane Café, a homey storefront nook in Brownsboro Center, qualifies as "old," sort of, by local restaurant standards: Owners and cooks William and Susi Smith have been doing business in this location going on two years now, and they've built a following the old-fashioned way, earning loyalty through a savvy combination of high-quality, down-home fare at a price that's right, even when there's not a recession going on.
Sage Indian makes the grade as "new," sort of: It arrived last month in the quarters vacated by the amiable but short-lived Royal India, which put up the shutters well under a year after it opened last winter.
Sage Indian: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Not much has changed at Sage Indian except, apparently, the management and the sign. Even the telephone number remained.
A few Southern Indian delicacies like dosas and iddlies have disappeared from the menu. That's a distinct disappointment for me, as I love the less familiar flavors of India's Deep South. But the rest of the menu - with its standard Northern Indian dishes - doesn't seem to have changed much at all.
The front room has been equipped with a large, well-stocked bar, giving weight to the subsidiary clause in Sage's title, "restaurant & bar." The once-bright lighting has gone dusky, but it's not so much a romantic dim as an apparent effort to save a few dimes by plugging in 40-watt bulbs. And, although service is certainly correct and formal, we miss the lovable, amiable nature of the former proprietors.
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Sage Indian Restaurant & Bar
4123 Oechsli Ave.
896-0025
Robin Garr's rating: 72 points