Cover Story
A One Way Ticket to Flavortown: Thoughts on Guy Fieri’s new Louisville restaurant, Smokehouse
[Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts on Guy Fieri, his impact on food culture and his new restaurant. To read the second part, by LEO food critic Robin Garr, click here.] On a balmy early September evening, the last vestiges of summer clinging to the air, I found myself in a room…
Modern Louisville July/August Release Party
We celebrated the release of our July/August issue with a party on the patio at Chill Bar in the Highlands on July 13. DJ SYIMONE took care of the music as guests enjoyed drink specials, including Brown Forman’s new Coopers’ Craft bourbon, and perused the pages of our sixth issue, which featured social worker Alex…
Entertainer of the Year 2016
Dedicated to the betterment of diverse cultures, the SLS Pride Foundation, Inc. held its annual Entertainer of the Year contest at Horseshoe Southern Indiana Hotel and Casino on July 31. In its 27th year, EOY highlighted the immense talent of its contestants and celebrated Alexis Gabriela Sherrington as Entertainer of the Year 2016. Other winners…
Into the wild: A recap of Cropped Out
Friday The first Cropped Out Festival in 2010 featured tons of blood, via the guitarist of Animal City botching a trick with his axe, and, well, quite a few dildos. The Sunday night headliner of the second edition, David Yow of Scratch Acid, found himself under arrest by Louisville’s finest. The third one saw a…
10 Things to do under $5 this week in Louisville (9/26)
MONDAY BastardBastardBastard, Synapse, Sons of Medusa, Last Question Mag Bar $6 | 9 p.m. What better way to get out all your Monday aggression than a metal show! Bands include the New York thrash band BastardBastardBastard, Kentucky metal bands Synapse and Sons of Medusa as well as progressive metal band Last Question. (P.S. We know…
LEO Podcast #38: Food Writers Robin Garr and Michael Powell talk Guy Fieri
LEO Food Writers Robin Garr and Michael Powell talk about Guy Fieri, his new Louisville restaurant Smokehouse, how the food network has changed and where to find the best barbecue in town. And, in case you missed it, both writers reviewed Smokehouse in last week’s issue. Find Robin’s take here and Michael’s here. Suscribe to…
Defeating the Stigma
Written by Ben Gierhart // Photography by Antonio Pantoja HIV. There is a great power in naming something outright. It is the first step toward dispelling fear because with a name, something is known. If it is known, it can be contained. The HIV/AIDS epidemic began in this country in the early ’80s and mercilessly…
Chocolate Fest XVI
To support the Louisville AIDS Walk, Craig Scherman and his partner, Aaron Hutton, hosted Chocolate Fest XVI on August 20 at their home in Anchorage. Per usual, guests were treated to sumptuous food and drink by local purveyors, dazzling live entertainment, an enthralling silent auction and, of course, an astounding array of chocolate. The 2015…
Listen to two songs from Satellite Twin’s new project a week early
On Friday, Sept. 30, experimental punk band Satellite Twin will release an untitled “extended cassette single” that spans three songs and 18 minutes. Below, you can listen to the first two songs from the project — the third is a The Cure cover (“Push”), and streaming rights aren’t cheap, so you’ll have to buy the…
5 Things To Do This Weekend in Louisville (9/23)
FRIDAY Louisville BrewFest Louisville Slugger Field $5 | 4 p.m. BrewFest, a Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA) event, is a chance for everyone to taste the beers from nearly all of the local breweries and wineries, as well as a few specialty brews specifically for this event. There will also be food from local restaurants, and…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst & Best (9/21)
Norton all too commons [Thorn] Norton Commons residents, not all, are opposing construction of a 21-unit apartment building with affordable rents. One told WFPL, which broke the story, that lower-income residents would not like living there because the restaurants are expensive and it lacks enough mass transit. “This neighborhood is not the American Dream,” she…
Making the Mayor’s Ride safer, bigger and better
The Mayor’s Hike & Bike, now called the Subway Fresh Fit Hike Bike & Paddle, is a lot of fun. But it could be bigger, better, more fun — and safer. We show up to ride our bicycles every year, no matter whether it’s dangerous, perfect, slow, fast, crowded or raining, because we have embraced…
GLI’s trip to Austin, scam or investment?…and Gov. Blevins as diet Trump
Cor blimey guv’nah. Jobs for the boys, ain’t it? Stop the excruciating Dick Van Dyke shtick immediately, or I’ll see to it that you spend the rest of your life stuck up a chimney. You aren’t fooling me. But you know what is? That phrase could apply to just about every corporation and civic body…
White Noise: On Norton Commons and the importance of diversity
I grew up in the suburbs. As an adult, I lived as far from the ‘burbs as possible. The separatist saga over “affordable housing” in Norton Commons intrigues me primarily because it smacks of classism, but also because I cannot imagine the desire to live in a sanitized, faux Highlands. Ew. This coming from the…
GLI looks outside, but the answers are here
To the rest of the outside world, we talk about Louisville as though it’s the greatest city anywhere. But when we talk among ourselves, we lament that Louisville should be more like Portland, Nashville or Charlotte. We say we need to be younger, healthier and better educated and have better mass transit and roads. That’s…
A drinking game for the first presidential debate
Find a comfortable seat, a place where you will not hurt yourself if you were to fall over, because we at LEO believe we have picked out the choicest words, phrases, gestures and possibilities guaranteed to keep your first Presidential Debate viewing party (Monday, Sept. 26) spirited, if not full of spirits. The rules are…
Doctor Girlfriend’s debut album, ‘Silent Screen,’ is an exercise in genre hopping
Doctor Girlfriend’s debut album, the recently-released Silent Screen, is an exercise in genre hopping, a mash up of styles that moves between manic late-’70s New York City punk and no wave to the poppy tunefulness of modern indie. A four piece, comprised of bassist Cameron Murphy, guitarist/vocalist Connor Pierce, multi-instrumentalist Harris Minstein and recent addition…
Will Oldham talks about his latest record with the Bitchin’ Bajas
Will Oldham has made his name carving out his own brand of indie and alt-country, so it might seem like a weird fit to work with Chicago-based ambient electronic band Bitchin’ Bajas. Where Oldham typically gravitates towards guitar and voice, the Bajas prefers bubbling synth work and raga-like drones. The resulting work, Epic Jammers and…
Hablamos y comemos at La Guanaquita Restaurante
¡Buenos días, señoras y caballeros, hermanos y hermanas! ¡La Guanaquita Restaurante es muy bueno! Why, yes, I am speaking a little Spanish today, signing on from a sweet little new Central American eatery in The South End. I have my reasons for wanting to learn Spanish. If Donald Trump wins this wacky election, we’re thinking…
From pumpkin beer to worthy causes: Trends and events in the local beer scene
Leah Dienes, head brewer at Apocalypse Brew Works, probably won’t brew a pumpkin-flavored beer this autumn. “Evidently, it would need to already be out now, according to marketing trends,” she said. She is among the few who won’t, if these trends are indicative. It seems every year that pumpkin beers just get more and more…
The new IPA: The increasing popularity of sour beer
The Spring and Summer of 2016 brought about new trends in the world of beer, and as India Pale Ale has seemingly begun to shift from the brew-du-jour in popularity, it’s evident to bartenders and patrons alike that there’s a new kid in town. While IPAs will remain a classic and popular style of beer,…
The eight 10-minute plays of The Ten-Tucky Festival sparkle
We live in a golden age of brevity. An entire presidential campaign is being waged in bursts of 140 characters or fewer. An enormous percentage of our social discourse plays out as captions and witty (so we hope) epigrams addressing issues of the day. Some of our best fiction comes in short forms. Likewise, it’s…
A ‘South Park’ version of ‘Star Wars’: A Q&A with the comedian behind the one-man ‘Star Wars’ show
It’s no secret that you’ve been waiting with bated breath for a show that merges the crappy “Star Wars” movies (episodes I-III) with the epic, original trilogy (episodes IV-VI), gives them a bit of an R-rated twist and pares down the cast to just a single actor. You’re in luck — because that’s exactly what…
Clara Bingham recounts a more divisive America in her new book
In “Witness to the Revolution,” Clara Bingham weaves segments of interviews with 100 individuals — witnesses, whether prominent, or all-but-forgotten — to bring to life a vital period in U.S. history. Recent events suggest there are vital lessons in looking back at August 1969 through September 1970. People may associate the 1960s with Beatlemania, the…
The 21c Museum hotel at 10, ?‘how we live and die, work, play and dream’
More often than not, time speeds by. You run into an acquaintance who says his child is a freshman in college (you swore she couldn’t be more than 10, 12 max). Occasionally, it’s in the other direction, with our brains tricking us into thinking something has been part of our lives, well, forever. I feel…
Guy Fieri’s Smokehouse isn’t the worst, but is he having us on?
[Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts on Guy Fieri, his impact on food culture and his new restaurant. To read the first part, by food writer Michael C. Powell, click here.] Guy Fieri has brought his brand to town, and local foodies are all atwitter. The jokes just write themselves, and you can find…
