“Yeah, I’m opening a new restaurant,” Allan Rosenberg laughs.
“You say that like it’s nothing!” I note.
“Well, you know, I’ve done it a few times.” Rosenberg says. “This is a little different. It’s not high-end, which I’ve done, and it’s not quick service, which I’ve done – but it’s still chef-driven, with a very big focus on trying to use as many local artisan producers as we can.”
Rosenberg’s new restaurant, Fontleroys, will be located at 2011 Grinstead Drive. Rosenberg was most recently chef de cuisine at Cena, Fernando Martinez’s Italian place, downstairs from Mussel & Burger Bar [4]. Before that, Rosenberg was chef-owner at Papalinos. Fontleroys will be a gastropub – not quite as upscale as Cena, not quite as casual as Papalinos. According to Rosenberg, “the idea fit with the neighborhood.”
The menu at Fontleroys is mostly American food, and the entrees “will be focused on dishes people are familiar with, but escalated, with my twist on them,” says Rosenberg. “One of the dishes I’m excited about is our take on fried chicken and waffles, with bourbon-maple syrup and foie gras butter.”
Other items of note on the Fontleroys menu are the burgers, and specifically, the meat used to make them. The Roy-Al Burger will feature a dry-aged beef blend, “using a meat nobody else in Louisville that I know of is really using right now - Pat LaFrieda [6] [meat purveyors] out of New Jersey.” The Dolly Burger will use ground in-house lamb, and the Thurmanberger will use KY Bison. Fontleroys will have a curing program, and a separate bar menu where items like house-made pork rinds will be served.
The tentative opening date for Fontleroys is the third week in July.
Cover image courtesy of Chris Witzke for Louisville Magazine. [4]