Brunch Menu

Varanese also wants to add more boat slips so he can serve more water traffic. Varanese admits that he sometimes feels as if he is juggling too many balls in the air at once. For the moment, he is merely overseeing the management at his namesake restaurant. Most of his staff there have been with him for years, and he’s depending on them to get him through this rough period.

OZ. GRILLED CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF® NY STRIP STEAK

Grouper cheeks, house-made French fries and creamy toasted mustard seed slaw served with spicy remoulade sauce. Topped with melted house-made boursin cheese, onion straws and roasted garlic aioli served on a brioche bun. Lobster, jumbo shrimp, oysters on the half shell, colossal lump crab and mussels. Hands down better then EMC restaurant if you have ever been, both look similar along with the menu but COD's food quality tasted much better. The staff was excellent and made it fun for us while we were dining on the Balcony 2nd level.

Smoking Good: River House Smoked Chicken Chowder and Schlenkerla Rauchbier - Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO Weekly)

Smoking Good: River House Smoked Chicken Chowder and Schlenkerla Rauchbier.

Posted: Wed, 10 Jun 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]

KING CRAB LEGS

Topped with a creamy toasted mustard seed slaw, shredded lettuce, and house-made pickles. With lemon, capers and dill served with baby greens and cherry tomatoes. With goat cheese, crispy country ham and buttermilk dressing.

tasso ham and cheddar grits

The designers used reclaimed wood from the Germantown Lofts to build the frame of a house, roof included, in the center of the dining area. There is a 20-foot tall by 40-foot wide water wall, and a floor-to-ceiling glass wall overlooking the back courtyard and river. The restaurant also has retractable windows to open the dining space to the river.

Varanese turned to local architect Doug Karnes, who designed Anoosh Bistro, and Ann L. Swope of Swope Design Group to help him realize his vision. They made the River House look and feel like a true river house. Guests will find a charming “home-like” atmosphere as they enter the space from the front porch garden area.

Steak, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and muenster cheese. C.O.D stands for “Catch of the Day” and describes our restaurant’s dedication to serving only the freshest and highest quality ingredients available on the market. Seafood is the focus at C.O.D, but everything else―from the microgreens to pork belly―is also presented at the peak of freshness. The desserts include a peach and sweet potato biscuit cobbler with blackberry Bourbon sauce. There is also a chocolate-peanut butter lava cake that comes with vanilla bean ice cream and a tasty pecan praline pie with chocolate and caramel sauce. For guests who like their desserts a little simpler there is ice cream and sorbet, though with some unusual flavors like sweet corn, caramel sea salt, brown sugar and banana.

Varanese and River House are wisely keeping all their service options open

With bleu cheese, toasted pumpkin seeds, grapes and zesty greens tossed with pecan-vanilla bean vinaigrette. With avocado pure, tomato, aioli and pickled red onion. Owner and executive chef Marcus Kwan’s journey to the kitchen began at a young age. While his father and mother toiled as rice farmers in their small Cantonese village, a 7-year-old Marcus cooked simple meals for himself out of necessity. A favorite of his at that tender age was pan-fried fish (much like C.O.D’s pan-fried sea bream).

ROASTED CORN SUCCOTASH

Another highlight is the oysters on the half shell served with a choice of cucumber mignonette, chipotle cocktail or champagne ice. Filled with gulf shrimp, bay scallops, and lump crab tossed in house-made aioli with lemon, capers and dill atop a bed of baby mixed greens. Served with smoked bourbon mustard, herb-toasted brioche, shaved manchego cheese and a roasted garlic aioli. With octopus, shrimp and mussels served over fingerling potatoes and spicy greens with fresh squeezed lemon and extra virgin olive oil. With gulf shrimp, bay scallops and lump crab tossed in lemon, capers and dill.

Many of his original ideas went into his Frankfort Avenue location and he didn’t want to duplicate what he already had. The River Road building had 16,000 square feet on the first floor and an additional 11,000 square feet upstairs. Initially, Varanese had considered opening his seafood restaurant and leasing out the other parts of the building to help cover his mortgage payments. However, he found that he couldn’t bring himself to share his beloved riverfront property.

He got his start in the culinary business at a little mom-and-pop restaurant in his native Cleveland. By the time he was 16 he felt he could run the kitchen better than the adults around him. His next stop was Johnson & Wales University, when it was in Charleston, South Carolina, where he obtained a BA in food service management and AS in culinary arts. During his tenure in culinary school, Varanese worked as kitchen manager for Magnolias, an upscale Southern restaurant in Charleston. Future plans include an upstairs banquet area, accessible perhaps with an elevator, that will seat up to 350 guests.

River House offers to-go grocery options for locals amid Covid-19 crisis - WHAS11.com

River House offers to-go grocery options for locals amid Covid-19 crisis.

Posted: Tue, 24 Mar 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The whole ordeal would take four and a half more years before he found the right partners and financing. With house-made pastrami, Muenster cheese, sauerkraut, and River House dressing on rye bread. Thus far, the River House has exceeded Varanese’s expectations in terms of revenue and guest attendance. But running two restaurants and supervising the opening of another one leaves him little time to do much else.

Salads include a crispy fried avocado filled with a chilled shrimp, lump crab and bay scallop salad. There is also a chilled half-pound lobster stuffed with shrimp, bay scallops, and lump crab served with lemons, capers, and dill on a bed of baby greens and cherry tomatoes. Varanese’s Kentucky and South Carolina roots are apparent in the menu at the River House. The chef sought to keep the menu balanced, but it is really the seafood that is the star of this establishment. The Raw Bar offers the River Tower with king crab legs (pictured on the cover). The dish includes a pound of chilled lobster, jumbo shrimp, oysters on a half shell, and colossal lumps of crab and mussels.