Café Beignet: Crescent City meets the River City
Tourists returning from New Orleans and its French Quarter may pine for the taste of the the French Market's beignets — rectangular pillows of dough fried to an airy perfection and then dusted with powdered sugar.
But in Louisville, the sweet taste is more than a vacation memory. Café Beignet in the Highlands neighborhood serves up beignets, potato pancakes and chicory coffee and — on the weekends — much more.
Beignets cost $1.25 each, or three for $2.95, for the traditional powder-sugared variety, a cinnamon kind or a third Special Beignet, the flavor of which changes weekly — based on "the chef's whim," according to owner Adam Hilsenrad. Past flavors include cinnamon-caramel, Bananas Foster, white chocolate raspberry and candied apple.
Café Beignet, which shares space with the Fish House restaurant, also serves up a complete breakfast menu, including omelets — ham and cheese ($6.95), bacon and cheese ($6.95) and an ever-changing omelet du jour ($7.95) — accompanied by a long line of tiny disk-shaped potato pancakes fried golden brown. Many of the dishes are Kentucky Proud — that is, made from Kentucky ingredients.
A side order of the potato pancakes, served with sour cream and applesauce, or hand-cut home fries costs $1.95. There's also spicy Andouille sausage and some other breakfast items from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
If you like breakfast or lunch in luxury, then Café Beignet 's not for you. You order at the counter directly from Adam Hilsenrad and you serve yourself coffee — regular, decaf or chicory — iced tea or water. However, you do get what passes for a luxury these days: You can pour your coffee into a Louisville Stonewear mug or a real porcelain coffeecup.
Seating is at one of six tables with checked plastic tablecloths or two round cast-concrete patio tables in an enclosed porch or, in fine weather, at two umbrella-shaded patio tables just outside.
Only on Sundays and only from 1 to 5 p.m., Hilsenrad serves up his Great Uncle Sam's fried chicken, priced at $10.95 for a half-chicken and three of the Fish House's home-made sides.
- by Ivonne Rovira, Louisville Reporter for HelloMetro
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