Remezo Greek Cuisine

Classic Mediterranean dishes 

served in a palatial grotto setting

     On a recent trip back from Columbus, we were trying to think of a new place to stop for a late Sunday afternoon meal.  Remezo's came to my mind and Eric agreed.

     Remezo's has transformed the space of a former Tumbleweed and Dueces Wild Saloon.  I'm always leery of "bad karma" spaces that have been unsuccessful so it was nice to see that nothing was recognizable, inside or out.  In fact, the interior would make any Mason/Deerfield McMansion

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Re-seeing three modern classics

     Yet again, TCM shows more good-to-great movies than any other channel.  The colors of the French flag represent liberty, equality, and fraternity.  Krysztok Kieslowski directed a trio of movies in the ‘90s that explored these ideals.  One of those will appear as ‘fraternity.’  

     François Truffaut’s The Four Hundred Blows (1959) still holds up decades after the French New Wave because of pre-teen character Antoine Doinel’s mercurial complexity.  When I saw this movie in college, I felt great empathy with that character and his situation.  However, in re-viewing it, Antoine more than assists in creating his situation.  His parents are strapped for cash, which is part of the reason for their random complacency, cheerfulness, and desertion.  He’s desperate to be free, whether from their boxed in lives or the

’71: Take a Dramamine and One or Two Aspirins

Scalding

     ’71, the film debut of French television director Yann Demange, moves at an electric pace like an update of Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947), in which James Mason played a wounded IRA bank robber struggling to remain alive with the police after him in a Belfast-like city.  In ’71, Jack O’Connell is an English soldier, who finds himself abandoned after a

Could The Lone Bellow be Americana’s first Superstars?

Then Came The Morning

The Lone Bellows Performing on
The Late Show with David Letterman

     Neil heard The Lone Bellow a couple of times on WNKU – yes, the region’s coolest radio station – and then checked them out singing “Then Came The Morning” on a YouTube clip from David Letterman’s show.   It’s a joyous sounding break-up song that’s tempered by the dialectic of Zach Williams’ nasal tenor, Kanene Donehey Pipkin’s enveloping soprano, and Brian Elmquist’s steadying baritone.  Both have

Fond: Lunch and Deli

Ready or not, I'm truly fond of this place

     I started to think about my lunch at Fond and I found myself wanting more.  More information and more of their food.  I REALLY wanted to like this place, but there were a couple of things that happened when we were there that had me on the fence.  So I decided to wait for a return visit to make my final call.

     Ethan Snider is the chef owner and a hummus aficionado.  He's been making the artisan dips locally for almost three years and selling at local farmers markets and Park + Vine.  Opening his own storefront in Montgomery created a whole new avenue for peddling his wares, as well as products from other local start-ups in the culinary field.  It all sounded intriguing for a lunch stop in that area of town.

Tuna Melt with Sausage Chili Bean Soup

     Karen and I first visited last week.  It was a hot day for May and the door was open to the strip center store with dining tables inside and out.  It took a while to get through the

Clouds of Sils Maria

A French update on the metaphysics of 

acting, aging, female friendship, and time

     I’ve wanted to see Clouds of Sils Maria, directed by Olivier Assayas, because it stars Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloë Grace Moretz, three of the more intriguing actresses working in film today. It also sounds like a re-take on other films about actresses (All About Eve) and power-play

Outside Mullingar at Ensemble

The charm of Irish blarney

     Ensemble Theatre’s production of Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Moonstruck) takes us back to the glory days of the Playhouse in the Park when Ed Stern ran it and, lo and behold, he directs this with verve and discretion.  It’s a charming play that will be a deserved big hit for Ensemble and a fine way to cap the season.  What makes it

Saturday Breakfast at the Greyhound Tavern

A special Southern breakfast menu 

appropriate for a casual weekend day

      Sunday brunches have been plentiful since the '70s, but a special Saturday breakfast is a bit of a challenge to find.  We had planned a celebration day for Lisa's birthday that included a day trip to Louisville.  To start off the day, we found a perfect Saturday breakfast menu filled with traditional Southern

Ruth Rendell 1930 - 2015

Farewell to a Great

Ruth Rendell

     Ruth Rendell, whom we’ve featured in the past, died Saturday after suffering a stroke in January.  She was extraordinarily prolific, publishing over 60 books in fifty years under both her name and her pseudonym Barbara Vine, and

Rachel Kushner: Telex from Cuba

Worth savoring for this historical novelist 
of grace, intelligence, and style

     I wanted to read Rachel Kushner’s Telex from Cuba (2008) after I’d liked her The Flamethrowers (2013) so much.  I thought it was one of the best novels I’d read in the past decade.  She writes big, taking on a subject, its era and locale, and then goes one step further to place it in an international