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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.15 67 THE SPREAD By Mary Chellis Austin Photos by Chris Witzke Southern Global Like Louisville, Fontleroy's is debatably Southern. Take the collard greens, for example. Chef/owner Allan Rosen- berg makes them with kimchi and coconut milk. Italian mascarpone and Fontina cheeses melt into the grits. "You'll see a little bit of Asian and Latin fare in my cooking — pickled chiles, pickled red onions. French and Italian infuences, too. Mediterra- nean — grilled carrots, octopus with smoked paprika and pimento aïoli, Spanish chorizo, sundried olives…" — it's hard to stop the 38-year-old from talking about food. When I meet Rosenberg on a Tuesday afternoon in October, he's peeling McIntosh, Gala and Granny Smith apples for an Italian chutney called mostarda that will favor a pork chop. "In my opinion, Southern cooking is America's cuisine," Rosenberg says. Fontleroy's is his take. Since opening in August, he has already changed the menu three times. "We have some staples that we have to keep now," he says. "Lamb ribs, cornbread, fried green tomatoes, the catfsh — we sell a shit-ton of catfsh. Te short rib is a big one. Te collard greens are huge." As Rosenberg is telling me this, a guy walks by with a steaming cylindrical vat of macaroni and cheese, made with cheddar and goat cheeses. "I wanted to change our mac and cheese and make it with blue cheese, but I was advised not to by my staf and wife," he says. Rosenberg dips a pinky in, tastes it and nods an approval. Te menu refreshingly veers from Southern staples, too. Te clams and smoked pork belly wade in a sweet and spicy pork jus that buttery croutons absorb. Sweet-and-sour agrodolce sauce glazes the halibut. Te roasted carrots and beets are for sharing and come on a wooden plank with goat cheese and Marcona almonds. On the corner of Bardstown Road and Grinstead Drive, Fontle- roy's is appropriately named after James Fontleroy Grinstead, who was mayor in the early 1900s. Te space formerly housed an Uncle Fontleroy's 2011 Grinstead Drive, #104 882-2507 Opposite page, clockwise from top left: clams and smoked pork belly ($12); glazed carrots and roasted beets ($9); duck-fat fngerling potatoes ($8); mac- aroni and cheese ($9); collard greens ($7); "Riley's Combustion" tequila cocktail ($9); "Old Thomas Merton" gin-and-IPA cocktail ($9); hanger steak with pickled chile salad ($23).