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7.30.2021, No. 64
⏱️ = 3-minute read (or so)
“Say your time is comin’ soon, but just like Oklahoma — mine is comin’ sooner” — Louisville rapper Jack Harlow, featured on Lil Nas X’s triumphant song of the (late) summer, “Industry Baby”
FIVE.
1. I’m excited for you to see the photography and illustrations (not ready to share yet, but all new voices to our pages!) that will accompany the story we’ve been finishing about workers in our food-and-drink service industry, to be published in print next month. One of the questions we asked interviewees:
What’s your go-to comfort food on the hard days?
“Soup and tuna salad. I am old-fashioned, and my mom always made tuna sandwiches and chicken-noodle soup on long, trying days.” — Lisa Thompson, Potbelly Sandwich Shop
“Steak and jellybeans.” — Patrick Roney, Ashbourne Farms
“It all depends on the day, but I’m a big believer that there aren’t many problems a well-made sandwich can’t fix.” — Matthew Clements, Hell or Highwater
“Anything from Toasty’s!!!” — Leah B-B, Naïve (OK, am I the only one who hasn’t been to Toasty’s Tavern on South Shelby Street? So many people who were interviewed mentioned Toasty’s, specifically the burgers. Then the other day at Gravely the bartender brought it up too. I’ll try to get there this weekend. Will report back. — Josh)
“Mashed potatoes.” — Bea, El Mundo
“My uncle’s Hawaiian Kailua pork.” — Jacob Collins, Captain’s Quarters
“Huevos con chorizo with flour tortillas, fresh sliced jalapeños and avocado. Reminds me of my childhood at Mom’s house in Lindsay, California, in the Central Valley.” — Anthony Lamas, Seviche
“Whatever I have in the fridge. Instant ramen, maybe pizza rolls.” — Alvin Lin, Joy Luck
“Donisi’s jackfruit pizza.” — Seth Robinson, Mag Bar
“Legacy Pizza, the sausage-onion rolls, the Man of War pizza (lots of meat) and, most recently, the tomato pie.” — Charles Benson, The Exchange and Brooklyn & the Butcher
“Lupo’s Sting Like a Bee pizza (pepperoni and spicy local honey).” — Anna Gray, Red Hog
“Half-chicken entrée from the Frankfort Avenue Beer Depot, with green beans and mac ’n’ cheese.” — Amy Clay, Jack Fry’s
“Obviously doughnuts, lol.” — Leslie Wilson, Hi-Five Doughnuts
“The Brick & Mortar food truck at Atrium has a vegan sloppy Joe that is pure comfort food. And I’m not even vegan.” — Don Mahoney, Atrium Brewing
“Arby’s Beef ’N Cheddar with a Jamocha Shake.” — Eric Morris, Faces Bar and Bistro
“Everything and anything having to do with potatoes.” — Katy Carey, Full Stop Station
“Embarrassingly, potato chips — assuming a classic old fashioned isn’t food.” — Matthew Huested, Sunergos Coffee
“Wine.” — Kara Hancock, Blue Dog Bakery
“Beer, lol.” — Allison Tipton, Safai Coffee
“During the pandemic I got really into making red sauce from scratch and letting it simmer all day. By dinnertime, the house would smell so good that it kind of melted all the tension away. And then we got to eat pasta.” — Calvin Philley, High Horse
And my answer? Can’t believe I’m admitting this: two sausage biscuits with egg and two hash browns from McDonald’s. Growing up, that’s what I’d eat Saturdays after early-morning basketball practice in middle and high school. Still tastes like childhood to me.
2. I have all the local news outlets bookmarked on my laptop, and I love sharing their work in this newsletter. I can’t remember if I’ve included anything from local Spectrum News before, but I’ve been meaning to share work from their newsroom (reporter Adam K. Raymond has contributed to our pages!). You should check out the story about a $42-million renovation at the Academy at Shawnee high school, including the third floor that had been closed for 40 YEARS. “Enrollment declined significantly during the late 1970s and in the early 1980s. Jefferson County Public School leaders at the time decided to cut their losses and board up the third floor.”
3. I again want to mention Perry Bacon Jr., the Louisville native who returned home from D.C. in 2018 and started as a Washington Post columnist a few months ago. (You should subscribe to his Bluegrass Beat newsletter.) In a WaPo column titled “I live in a Democratic bubble. Here’s why that’s okay,” he mentions moving to the capital-D Democratic Highlands, writing about how, initially, he worried because “one contributing factor to the corrosive polarization in the United States is how the two sides increasingly don’t interact, even casually.
“I now embrace being in a heavily Democratic area. My neighbors have taken Covid-19 super-seriously, just as my wife and I have, so we have a group of people we can hang out with safely and discuss the challenges of the pandemic without pointless debates about masks or social distancing. The killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd — and the resulting local and national conversation about race and policing — were particularly stressful for me as a Black person, so I am relieved I don’t have neighbors who blamed Floyd and Taylor for their deaths or criticized the protests.”
4. Hayes Gardner has a good explainer in the C-J about NIL, i.e. how college athletes, as of July 1, can now profit of their name, image and likeness. He writes, “University of Louisville sophomore basketball standout Hailey Van Lith has 714,000 Instagram followers and, although she has not yet announced any NIL deals, figures to be one of the most marketable athletes in the country.”
5. Bri and I are taking the kids to see The Sandlot at Slugger Field, with the movie showing on the 1,300-square-foot videoboard in the outfield. (Five bucks per adult ticket, with up to four free kids 12 or younger per adult.) In June, the movie was Field of Dreams, and on the last Friday in August, the 27th, Slugger Field is letting fans vote on this tough decision: 42, A League of Their Own, Angels in the Outfield or Little Big League.
Last weekend, at their grandparents’ house in Cincinnati, Emilia and Miles actually watched The Sandlot, and in the car yesterday, Emilia, who’s seven, said to me, “Daddy, at the end of the movie it says one of the boys got really into the ’60s and they never saw him again. What does that mean?”
Support for Louisville Magazine comes from the Coalition for the Homeless, which is holding an online raffle — $100 per ticket, capped at 2,000 tix — for ALL. SIX. BOTTLES. in the Pappy Van Winkle collection. All proceeds benefit the Coalition for the Homeless, which works to end homelessness for all Louisvillians. The drawing will be 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 21, during the eighth-annual Bourbon Mixer, at Blackacre Conservancy. Winner OF ALL SIX BOTTLES need not be present to win.
Support for Louisville Magazine also comes from the March of Dimes, whose premier fundraiser, the Signature Chefs Auction, will be Nov. 11 at the Louisville Marriott Downtown, with more than 30 local chefs featuring tastings of their creations.
OH!
A little something from the LouMag archive.
Summer! Smoked meat! A man who calls himself the BBQ Cowboy! What’s not to love?!?!
One reader found something: “His hand seems to have been caught in a meat grinder! Appalling and simply gross.”
TOO…
The other day, while looking beyond the red-painted paddlewheel on a Disney-soundtracked “Pirates and Princesses” Belle of Louisville cruise, Miles, who’s four, stared at the water and said, “Dada, why is it brown?”
Emilia yelled, “Because of all the animal poop! I would not swim in that. Would you, Daddy?”
Appalling and simply gross.
Josh Moss
editor, Louisville Magazine
josh@louisville.com
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