When I think of Italy, I think of a few things: the morning espresso and pretending to know how to read La Gazzetta dello Sport, cycling through the rolling hillsides, arguing with people riding Vespas, being seduced by women way out of my league, and never ending pasta bowls.  Nope, sorry, that last one was Olive Garden.  The unfortunate thing about living in Kentucky is that the average person has never been to Italy, so the closest they get is watching Eat Pray Love (because they won’t READ Eat Pray Love) and dining at the Olive Garden.  But if you want a slightly classier experience, you can try Bella Notte, another chain Italian restaurant from the company that brought you Fazoli’s: Italian food fast!

I have said this approximately 124 times, the yardstick of any casual dining restaurant is the free stuff they give you before the meal.  For Bella Notte, they have probably the best bread you can get in an Italian restaurant in Lexington.  It is the kind of breat that you might find under a Tuscan sun, and is served with extra virgin olive oil scented with a herbal mix of rosemary, basil, oregano, red pepper and parmesan cheese.  Previous trips were marred by the herbal mix being overladen with rosemary, spoiling the entire experience.  However, they seem to have fixed this error, and have created a free appetizer that is so tasty that you don’t feel like eating anything else.  Coincidently, this is the same problem with Fazoli’s, where the free breadsticks are so good, my friends and I in high school would just go there and wait for the free breadsticks without ordering food.

I was dining with my mother, and she didn’t subscribe to the “let’s just eat bread” theory, likely due to her Franco-Austrian aristocratic tendencies.  Instead, she ordered the spinach dip, which in this picture appears to be a reasonable size, but in reality it approximated a meal unto itself.  One things that people don’t realize appetizers are in America is food to whet the appetite, not satisfy.  Nevertheless, the spinach artichoke dip was (as expected) heavy on the spinach, cream and cheese, and light on the artichoke.  But it was still pretty tasty dipped with the parmesan coated pita slices served with it.

There is something curiously unappetizing about the bruschetta at Bella Notte.  While I am a bruschetta fan normally, I was put off by the combination of pesto spread, tomato and basil topping on the flanking bruschettas (the gorgonzola bruschetta was fine).  I’m not sure if it was the bizarre taste of the tomato, basil, or pesto, but something (or all three) was awry.  I still engorged myself on this “appetizer”, while I waited for the main dish.

My entrée was penne alla vodka with asparagus and tomatoes (you know, how Italians usually make it).  It wasn’t too vodka-y, as we live in Kentucky, and a truly vodka flavored dish would simply not fly with the family having lunch post Sunday morning sermon at the Megachurch.  I did like the asparagus and tomatoes with the lightly flavored vodka cream sauce, as it was a good summery dish (even though it is late fall).

My mom apparently decided to create an abomination by ordering the cheese ravioli in a cream sauce.  You know what doesn’t work?  Cheese and cream!  This tasted like it looks - a plate of glue.  I dumped some of the awkward tasting tomatoes on her plate, which pepped it up a little bit.

After eating all that food, I could barely move, let alone drive my mom back home.  Somehow it happened (gustative stupor?), and we made it back to spend the afternoon sleeping off this meal.  If giant portions of moderately edible food is what you want, then you should go to Olive Garden.  If you want all of that with a more authentic feel, try Bella Notte.  There are quite a few vegetarian options, including pizza and manicotti, though you won’t get anything that is bottomless, or neverending, like you will at the Olive Garden.  Thus, I’ll give it three and a half cheese sandwiches.

Bella Notte
3715 Nicholasville Rd
Lexington, KY 40503-4441 
(859) 245-1789

The catch-22 of Mexican restaurants is that authentic Mexican restaurants usually have staff that don’t speak a word of English.  Unfortunately, ordering from staff that don’t speak English is tricky, especially if you’re vegetarian.  Ok, I know that’s not a technical catch-22 situation, but it’s pretty close (does anybody really know what a catch-22 is anyway?).  Arguably the best Mexican restaurant in Lexington, KY is Jalapeno’s Mexican Restaurant, which is my favorite primarily because a long and storied history of my frequenting said establishment.

The reason I love Jalapeno’s so much is their chips and salsa.  I have iterated this before several hundred times, but you can immediately get a sense of a restaurant by what food they serve you free.  And the bar by which all Mexican restaurants are judged is the chips and salsa.  The salsa is served in a faux stone mortar supporting the motif of it being freshly crushed, and is accompanied with chips that are also typically fresh and hot.  Very rarely have I ever been disappointed with this combo.  And if you don’t find the salsa spicy enough for you (it’s pretty mild), definitely ask for the hot sauce, which is a tomatillo and habanero sauce that is ludicrously spicy.

I came to Jalapeno’s with my mom continuing the trend of us going there to discuss important life issues.  The important talk of what I was going to do with my future in high school, college, and grad school occurred at Jalapeno’s.  Now the tables were turned, my mother was retiring, and she was discussing what she was going to do with her future.  And I was awkwardly waiting for my enchiladas to come.

Most Mexican restaurants put lard in their beans, and Jalapeno’s is no exception, unfortunately.  To compound the issue, they have three different types of beans, all of which have lard in them.  The worst part is that for the first time we had a waiter who understood English, and informed me of the lard in a believable manner.  Previous waiters would always shrug their shoulders and shake their head if I asked if the beans had lard.  So, I was left to enjoy the enchiladas with about half a pound of rice.  Though the enchiladas were very tasty, they are overly cheesy, so I often dollop on some of the hot sauce.

My mom ordered the spinach quesadillas, which came from the vegetarian menu.  It is ironic that a place that would set aside a portion of its menu for vegetarians would still have lard in all its bean products. The quesadillas were very tasty, though I would like to mention that the guacamole is pretty average.  Kentucky is not a great font of avocados, so it is not too surprising to find subpar guacamole.

While the chips and salsa from Jalapeno’s are one of the finest I’ve had north of the Mason-Dixon line, it’s disappointing that Jalapeno’s can’t match this quality of food with vegetarian-friendly options.  At the very least, their rice doesn’t have chicken stock or any other animal stock (although I did only get a shrug of shoulders and shake of head, so I can’t say this with great certainty).  As such, I’ll give Jalapeno’s two and a half cheese sandwiches.

Jalapeno’s Mexican Restaurant
1030 S Broadway # 1050 
Lexington, KY 40504-2681 
(859) 281-5171

Growing up as a kid, there was nothing finer than going to local bookseller Joseph Beth and spending the better part of the afternoon sifting through the various science fiction and fantasy tomes waiting for some cute college staff girl to come up and ask me if I needed help.  Of course, when she did, I just sputtered “No,” and sulked back into a corner.

When I wasn’t golluming it among the books, I would go with my family to the Joseph Beth Cafe, where I would get a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream (because I used fatty food to compensate for a lonely childhood) and a slice of the tiramasu.  I remember in 1992 when I first tasted that wonderful Italian delicacy and my mouth has sill yet to fully recover from that taste explosion.

Joseph has since expanded to fill the entire Lexington Green Mall atrium, making it one of the largest independent bookstores in the world, and its cafe now fills the space of a former Mexican restaurant called Mesa.  The great part of the cafe is that it is well integrated with the bookstore, and the menu rotates regularly depending on what new cookbooks are on sale.  Unfortunately the selections are often rotated around Food Network chefs, but I fault the cookbook industry more than the Cafe for that.  I mean who really thinks Rachel Ray makes interesting dishes?

Starting with the bread, which has been a staple at Joseph Beth since its inception, the recipe seems to have changed somewhat since I first used to come here, and it is less sweet than it used to be.

The staple for me, has to be the vegetarian chili which is basically a heartier version of Alfalfa’s red beans and rice.  Though I must say that I prefer Alfalfa’s red beans and rice.

My mother ordered the special which was mixed summer vegetables (zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes with feta) over rice.  It was pretty underwhelming, but admittedly most vegetarian options outside of the chili are here.  There are a few good quiches, and Paula Dean made a great tomato tart, but I think that was only good because it was 90% butter.

The highlight, of course, is the tiramasu.  I highly recommend this dish, because it is fantastic, and almost everybody that has tried this has enjoyed it (except Hakeem because I don’t think he has any appreciation for good things).

Overall, Joseph Beth is pretty vegetarian friendly, and they have many vegetarian as well as vegan options.  However, I really don’t think that anything is worth eating here outside of the tiramasu (and their peanut butter pie from Missy’s).  But their drinks are great, including coffees, hot chocolates and italian sodas.  And that’s about as much as you can ask for from a cafe.  So, I’ll give it three and a half cheese sandwiches.

Cafe at Joseph Beth
# 1, 161 Lexington Green Cir
Lexington, KY 40503 
(859) 422-1429

One of the nice perks about being back in Lexington is the opportunity to hit the old favorite spots that I didn’t have time to get to last time I was here.  One of my favorite bakeries in Lexington is a French pastry shop that has been in the Chevy Chase area for over 26 years, called Le Matin.

Le Matin means “the morning” in French (bien sur!), and if you want to get anything good here, you have to really time it well.  Their croissants and danishes are almost always gone by noon, but I came in early at 9 AM to get a chocolate croissant (top), almont croissant (bottom right), and pecan danish (bottom left).  The flaky pastry is what you would expect from one of the finest patisseries in Paris, and their fillings are delightful.  The chocolate croissant is gooey with chocolate filling, and the marzipan center of the almond croissant is sans pareil.  The pecan filling was the same gooey non-descript substance that you find in a pecan pie.  I know a lot of people who don’t care for that, but I love the stuff, so you’ll get no complaints from moi. 

Now for the cakes.  If you thought nailing the pastries was hard enough, Le Matin makes some of the finest cream cakes I have ever tasted in my life.  First, their chocolate eclair is one of my favorites because they actually use a vanilla custard instead of chocolate.  Most French pastry shops fill their chocolate eclairs with chocolate.  And I admire this racial harmonization (why can’t vanilla be mixed with chocolate my French friends?  Pourquoi?) that Le Matin espouses that few other traditionalists will accept.

Their Napoleon was a favorite of my grandmothers, and I timed my run to perfection, as a fresh batch had just come out of the oven.  The icing evanesces in your mouth as you bite through the deliciously flaky pastry and custard.  I have had several Napoleons in my life (anybody who’s actually seen me can tell), and Le Matin is not only my favorite, but I think this occasion was the best Napoleon I’ve ever had.

Unfortunately, they did not have the Amaretto Cake which I normally get, so I had to “settle” for the coffee cake.  The cake itself was so light and fluffy (I’m fairly sure it’s comparable to lady fingers) that it barely gets in the way of the frosting.  Just a hint of coffee is sufficient to give you a caffeine buzz but not smack you in the mouth with its flavor.

Fruit tarts.  I didn’t eat these, but these are almost pieces of art, and I am glad that I left them for my mom because A) I don’t like fruit and B) how can you eat something so beautiful?

Overall, I can’t help but give a glowing recommendation for Le Matin.  Abbas (the owner) and his wife have done an outstanding job of growing a small pastry shop into a cafe and wine cellar (across the street - the original location of Le Matin).  Lexington is quite fortunate to have such a perfect homage to French patisseries in it for 26 years, something that cities like New York and Boston struggle to maintain.  Just for the sake of balance, I feel I should complain about the fact that Le Matin encourages a very anti-modern cuisine, by selling many French cheeses and probably using imported ingredients (I’d be surprised if they actually use local butter or flour, as any dairy from the US is terrible).  So, if your ethos is buying local, Le Matin is probably not for you.  But it can’t hurt to treat yourself every once in a while, so I’m still going to give Le Matin five cheese sandwiches.

Le Matin
890 E High St
Lexington, KY 40502-2135 
(859) 269-1511

I decided to go to Kentucky to go visit my mother, since I didn’t really see her the last time I was there.  The night of my arrival, after 2 separate flight delays (thanks, Delta!), I arrived home to discover some food my mother ordered from Puccini’s Smiling Teeth.  Puccini’s is actually one of my favorite Italian casual dining restaurants in Kentucky, even though it is a chain from Indiana (and I despise all things Indianan). 

Puccini’s goes from strength to strength, starting with their Greek salad, which is comparable to their neighbor Oasis’ Greek salad, without actually boasting any ethnic homology in their origins (Oasis being a Lebanese restaurant, and there are many close ties between Greece and Lebanon, historically).

Their spinach and artichoke dip (partially eaten by my mother) is outstanding, and unlike most other spinach and artichoke dips, actually has artichokes!  In fact, there are almost more artichokes in the dip than spinach (possibly - I did not actually do a mass:mass or volume:volume measurement).  Served with their delicious garlic bread slices (basically toasted baguette slices drizzled in garlic oil), you can’t beat this dip!  Nor should you!

While I may be slightly over-enthusiastic about the spinach-artichoke dip or the Greek salad, I was soothed by the calming calzone.  Admittedly, Puccini’s does have great pizzas, but I sort of lost favor for their pizza when I discovered that their calzones are half the price and include more interesting ingredient combinations.  My two favorite calzones are: greek garden (spinach, red onion, black olives, tomato & feta cheese) and queen of hearts (marinated artichoke hearts, ricotta cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms & spices).  There are 3 vegetarian calzones out of their 10 available, a respectable ratio for a place in Kentucky.

I can’t emphasize how much I enjoy Puccini’s Smiling Teeth, and if you are in Indiana or Kentucky, you should try and make a trip out there.  Admittedly, there are no vegan options, which would always be nice, but considering we’re still fighting the vegetarian battle in middle America, this is a good start.  I’ll give it four and a half cheese sandwiches.

Puccini’s Smiling Teeth
833 Chevy Chase Pl
Lexington, KY 40502-2144 
(859) 269-0404