Restaurant Review | Main Street Cafe

Breakfast anytime. I’m in favor of it. It’s deliciously transgressive to tuck into eggs, biscuits and waffles in the middle of the afternoon — while around you more conventional folks are eating soups, salads and sandwiches.
 
Breakfast anytime is even more satisfying when the menu includes a slew of creative dishes and reflects a serious commitment to sourcing local ingredients — like the breakfast menu at Main Street Cafe.
 
Actually, both menus at Main Street Cafe — breakfast and lunch — are pretty impressive. The menu indicates that all the restaurant’s bacon, corned beef, pastrami and sausages are smoked and cured in house.
 
If your lunch cravings revolve around corned beef sandwiches — whether a simple example, with mustard on rye ($8) or a more elaborate example, dressed up with smears of braunschweiger, Swiss, slaw and Russian dressing ($8) — you’re in for a treat. And if you like having good corned beef and pastrami in your refrigerator, both can be purchased by the pound (corned beef, $8.50; pastrami, $9.)
 
There are plenty of other goodies on chef Laurence Agnew’s menus — reflecting the fact that he’s been something of a globetrotter over the years, with postings at luxury hotels and resorts in places like Baton Rouge, the American Southwest, Ireland and more. In Louisville, he’s probably best known for a stint at Avalon.
 
At Main Street Cafe, Agnew seems to have assembled a very strong team, including sous chef Tim Haller, lead junior sous chef Casey Nader and baker Zoe Benway.
 
Out front, owners Mike Schnell and Dave Steinbrecher and manager Drucilla Deans are running an efficient, friendly operation in an attractive space that juxtaposes the clean, crisp lines of a modern cafe with a very attractive soft seating area that seems perfectly suited to a leisurely cup of robust Sunergos coffee and the daily news — whether in print or on a tablet.
 
Agnew’s lunch menu includes things like a great gourmet grilled cheese sandwich made with country ham, Fontina, Provolone, tomato jam and a basil pesto that packs a brilliant, fresh wallop ($7.75). If you like exploring interesting vegetarian twists, there’s an E.B.L.&T. — with eggplant bacon as the main ingredient, Bibb lettuce and garlic aioli on sourdough bread ($7.75).
 
The sandwiches are all very nicely conceived and executed, and salads — whether a glistening Caesar ($4) or a daily seasonal preparation ($7) are fine. The soup selection will please some, and leave others less impressed. A red rice and chicken soup ($3/$4) that plays on a comforting theme from the Carolinas was more like a stew than a soup — lots of shredded chicken, soft bits of rice and flecks of carrot. I’d have preferred a more brothy approach, but there was nothing wrong with the flavor. A smoky carrot, tomato and chipotle soup ($2.75/$3.50) was thick and moderately spiced.
 
But as good as those sandwiches are — and they’re very good — it’s breakfast (a recent addition to the menu) that will lure a lot of folks to Main Street Cafe.
 
As far as I’m concerned, chef Agnew’s bruleed grapefruit ($3) is the height of civilized luxury. The torched surface looks like red gold, and for some folks that, an order of toast and a cup of coffee would be a grand way to start the day.
 
But there’s more, of course. Agnew whips up a play on Colombian cuisine with arepas and eggs ($9.50), featuring a griddled corn cake, spicy house-made chorizo and scrambled eggs along with a scoop of black beans, a drizzle of Mexican crema and some smashed avocado.
 
If you want something with decided Kentucky roots, there are a couple of platters that will suit your purpose. One features eggs, hash browns (actually, big chunky home fries), your choice of house-made bacon, sausage (patty or andouille, if you like) or country ham with red-eye gravy ($9.75). Another features eggs, country ham, red-eye gravy, grits and a scratch-made biscuit (yes, the kitchen uses lard in those biscuits) with sorghum butter.
 
Light, sweet snacks like fresh crisp beignets are on offer ($3.25), as are an assortment of omelets ($6-$9.50), fried chicken biscuits (flavored with spicy sorghum, $4.25).
 
And if you’re in the mood for waffles or pancakes, well, you’ll find blueberry sour cream pancakes with lemon curd and choice of meat ($9) or guilty pleasure in the form of a brownie waffle with toasted hazelnuts and espresso Nutella butter ($9.25).
 
And if you want pie for breakfast, well, it’s on the menu — though it’s often in short supply.
 

You can email freelance restaurant critic Marty Rosen at cjdining@gmail.com.