The Waffle Project wants to refresh a neighborhood icon, and the community around it. The Waffle & Crepe Co. has big plans, and they need you! After setting up at the St. Matthews Farmers Market last year, and particpating in events, like Buy Local First, we’re ready to expand. Our localcentric, seasonal menu showcases KY Proud products, bringing the taste of European street food to Louisville. Along with crepes and waffles, we will feature real smoothies, coffee from Red Hot Roasters, and gelato. Eventually, we would like to be open late for you night owls!

Donations will go toward repainting the exterior of the Moby Dick, including the roof and an Alice Water’s inspired mural on the side. The landscaping will be changed, adding color with new indigenous plants and flowers. Also, a garden will be established to inspire everyone’s inner gardener with the bounty of Kentucky. New signage will be needed, as well as more usable patio space.

I’m in, I’ve already made my pledge to back the project and I really hope you do too. Here’s a video that highlights some of their deliciousness that I think will inspire you to support the project because dude, we need access to food like this on a regular basis, not just a Saturday morning farmers market.

I have wanted a co-working space in Louisville since…well forever. Particularly one that is pretty much the absolutely office of my dreams.

IceBox Co-Labs features a 3000-square-foot shared office space, a 3500-square-foot mixed use room, and a separate 1500-square-foot space housing the FLD recording studio. The office space will support up to 22 coworkers with access to the mixed use room for private meetings. In addition, coworkers will have access to business-class Wi-Fi and a full-featured photo studio. The lounge area features a 60” HDTV, MAME Arcade Cabinet, and a Star Wars pinball machine. There is also the obligatory ping-pong table in the mixed use room.

Photo studio? Yes please.
Private meeting space? Yes please?
Star Wars pinball? Heck yea!

In all seriousness I love working from home but I’ve long wanted and needed the option of a different work environment. Shaking up your surroundings is often essential to creative thinking and problem solving. Of course I’ve done more than my fair share of work at Highland Coffee and Heine Brothers but sometimes even I don’t want the coffee shop vibe. More than that though sometimes I really wish I had a place to go where other independent workers are doing their thing. We can talk or not, we can bounce ideas off each other, we can get opinions and have a little bit of social interaction when we want to. Now, that place exists in Louisville.

I can’t afford a membership right now but if I could I would have already signed up. For the moment they are only taking on full time members but I’m pretty sure they’re working on a plan for part time members and drop-in visitors.

You know what I really wish would happen? I wish GLI or some really forward thinking wealthy business person sees what a great asset this can be for our community and specifically for independent creative workers. And when they see what a great asset this can be I hope they then “sponsor” 5 or 10 Ice Box Co-Labs memberships for some geeks, writers, artists, independent consultants, what have you. I’ma call you GLI to talk about this, don’t send my call to voicemail.

Anyway. Here are some photos courtesy of the Ice Box Co-Labs folks of the awesomeness they’ve built.

Ice Box Co-Labs
217 E. Main
Louisville, KY

A little before the holiday season I had a conversation with the fine folks at Heaven Hill (ok fine, one folk) about their new-to-me product Bernheim Original. Bernheim Original is described as a “wheat whiskey” and that description intrigued me. I know about bourbon and the legally required percentage of corn and I know about rye, well, with rye, but wheat whiskey? That was a new one on me.

It’s new to me (and maybe you) because it’s the first wheat whiskey available in the United States since Prohibition. It’s not brand new, it’s been around a few years now I think, but it’s new enough that I’d not tried it or even seen it many places.

I love the idea that there’s a new kind of whiskey coming out of Louisville. Don’t get me wrong, you know I love bourbon, I just think it’s kind of awesome that Heaven Hill is innovating in other areas of the whiskey market as well.

I’m not an educated enough drinker to really describe the differences in taste between say Bernheim Original and Maker’s Mark or other bourbons but I can tell you that I served it, at a couple of get togethers in December and it was very well received, particularly as a sipping whiskey. If you enjoy bourbon or other whiskeys I’d advice trying Bernheim Original for yourself. I know Old Town Liquors stocks it as I’m sure just about every other liquor store in town does.

Green business (and “green washing” businesses) is a pretty hot topic these days and I for one am glad. I’m glad that more people are talking about green issues and building businesses around ideas of sustainability and environmentally friendly practices. And I’m glad that someone in Louisville is leading the charge to bring green business practices to the food service industry.

Ecosteward’s products are made from things like sugar cane, reed grass, and corn starch. I’ve seen these products in lots of my favorite restaurants and he only downside, and really it’s not that much of a downside, that I’ve come across is that the corn starch straws are a bit more fragile than regular plastic ones. That’s a-ok with me because I don’t like it when people chew on their straws. Does that make me judgmental? Something to ponder.

I am not enough of a science nerd to break it out all down for you about why you should care about compostable take out containers, besides, I trust your intelligence. I trust that you already know that creating less Styrofoam waste that will sit and sit and sit in landfills is a good thing. That being said I personally want to thank restaurants who are choosing to use biodegradable and compostable materials for their take out containers and encourage ones that aren’t already doing it to investigate doing so.

I think it’d be awesome if when you’re investigating going to environmentally friendly containers you check out Ecosteward because Michael was a very nice guy who is seriously passionate about greening the foodservice industry in Louisville. I really dig people who are passionate about their work.