Ready to head for Buechel with a hungry tummy and an open mind? Here’s a quick north-to-south tour of all the international food businesses that we could find.
Golden Key International Grocery Grandpappy of all the international businesses along the Buechel strip, Alik Gold’s shop offers smoked fish, caviar, sausages and salami and specialty groceries from all over Europe. 3821 Bardstown Road, 485-9009; find them on Facebook.
Jasmin Bakery This bright, busy bakery features delicious Eastern European breads, soft, puffy loaves and hero buns; four photos of Bosnian-style gyros and burgers on the wall form the “menu,” and they’re first-rate. 2205 Steier Lane, 458-0013; find them on Facebook.
Borsalino Coffee & European Pastry Deli This colorful, inviting coffee shop would fit right in with your Heine’s, Vint or Highland Coffee in style, but the friendly hosts and tasty pastries reveal its Bosnian heritage. 3825 Bardstown Road, 807-5325, facebook.com/BorsalinoLLC
Namaste Grocery As the name implies — it’s an Indian and Nepali greeting that’s hard to translate but connotes “I bow to the divine in you” — this little grocery store specializes in specialty foods of India and South Asia. 3825 Bardstown Road, 451-0829; find them on Facebook.
Dixie Oriental Food & Gifts Market Another relatively early arrival on the strip, this crowded little store’s focus is Korean, but you can find foods from all over East Asia here. 3900 Bardstown Road, 473-1922; find them on Facebook.
Pasha’s Mediterranean Cafe and Hookah Bar Petra, Louisville’s only Jordanian restaurant, is no more, alas; but its feeling remains in an amiable, affordable eatery that’s more typical of Louisville’s many gyros-to-falafel “Mediterranean” restaurants that blend the fare of Southwest Asia and Greece. 3904 Bardstown Road, 409-4532, pashasmediterrranen.com
Mashallah Restaurant & Grocery A delightful little grocery and quick food take-out shop specializes in groceries and a simple, two-daily-specials menu of African fare, particularly from Senegal and Sierra Leone. It’s one of the few places in town where you can find fufu, the West African flour made from plantain or cassava. 3927 Bardstown Road, 491-3152.
Mahala Cafe & Bar Perhaps more bar than restaurant, it’s a popular hangout — with frequent concerts by South Slav musical groups — for the metro’s Bosnian community. 3952 Bardstown Road, 991-0007, facebook.com/CafeBarMahalaBardstown
Alisha’s Food Mart This small shop offers basic staples plus familiar packaged foods and vegetables aimed at the Nepali and Indian markets but open, of course, to all. 4010 Bardstown Road, 337-5589; find them on Facebook.
Dasha Barbour’s Southern Bistro Buechel’s food of the people isn’t just from overseas. Barbour’s offers filling soul food in a friendly environment. 3825 Bardstown Road, 882-2081, dbsbistro.com
Mt. Everest View Reviewed in the Sept. 9, 2015 LEO Weekly, Hasta and Harka Rai’s small, welcoming restaurant offers the city a tasty introduction to Bhutanese/Nepalese cuisine, along with some well-prepared Indian dishes. You really should make the trek to Buechel to give this Himalayan cuisine a try. Think of Indian-style fare leavened with a touch of Chinese and you’ll get the general idea, but Bhutan and Nepal bring their own heritage to the unique mix. We loved the crunchy-snacky chatpate appetizer, spicy thukpa soup and Nepali-spiced pork ribs; the Rais also suggest chicken-and-rice masu ra bhat. Try it all. You’ll like it! 4109 Bardstown Road, 384-7760, bit.ly/MtEverestView
Everest Nepali Store A bit larger than many small international groceries, this shop next door to Mt. Everest View carries a broad range of Asian and international foods and produce in addition to Bhutanese and Nepalese specialties. 4109 Bardstown Road, Suite No: 102, 387-1497, facebook.com/nepalistorelouisville
