HORSE CAVE — Melinda Hodge has always wanted to be a chef.
“I love to cook and I love to feed people,” she said.
She decided to go back to school to study culinary arts at Sullivan’s Culinary Institute in Louisville. Her husband, Jamie, a former truck driver, enrolled in classes with her.
The couple, who live in the Cub Run community of Hart County, recently opened MenD’s Bistro, a new restaurant in Horse Cave. It offers a gourmet menu in an intimate dining setting.
Melinda chose to open a bistro style restaurant, she said, because, “I believe the best conversations happen over the dinner table, whether it be at home or out.”
It took the couple about a month before they settled on their menu, which features dishes such as spaghetti and meatballs, pasta carbonara, hot browns, steak and fresh fish.
“We took some of my favorites that I make at home and we took some of his favorites from home and out and went from there,” she said.
She likes pasta carbonara and sweet and sassy pork on the menu.
The sweet and sassy pork is a dish from home, but the cabbage soup the couple serve belongs to Melinda’s mother. The caramel apple recipe she borrowed from her sister.
“The peanut butter blondie is something my family has made for years,” she said. “It’s our comfort food and we decided to share it with the world.”
Dishes that rank tops with Jamie include the black and blue burger, which features blue cheese crumbles, and the pulled pork barbecue.
“I’m more on the grill line,” he said.
The barbecue sauce for the pulled pork is a Jamie creation.
“I found a barbecue sauce that I liked and then we took a trip to Mexico and I thought, ‘Man, that barbecue sauce would be good with a Mexican flare,’” he said. “So, with a little tweaking here and a little tweaking there, I made it a better barbecue sauce.”
The couple change the type of fresh fish they serve weekly.
“Our opening week we did swordfish,” Melinda said. “We’re trying to do a little more exotic fish other than just catfish.”
They hope to begin offering weekly specials in November on Friday and Saturday nights, she said.
The Hodges also offer customers a Sunday brunch menu featuring baked country prosciutto and brie with apple butter, strawberry cream cheese stuffed French toast, buttermilk pancakes and scrambled egg, potato and bacon tostadas, among other dishes.
The couple chose to locate their restaurant in Horse Cave because it is the home of Kentucky Repertory Theatre.
“We talked to a lot of people from the theater. We felt Horse Cave needed this to draw in people. So many people want to have dinner and go to the theater, but there was nowhere to do that here,” she said.
The restaurant has been open for about a month and so far the couple have been pleased with the response.
“People have been great here,” Melinda said. “This community has just been wonderful.”
There is already talk of expanding the restaurant.
“We may move to another location here in Horse Cave. We’ve already looked at it,” Melinda said, adding the new location is larger than and will allow them to seat more than 30 customers. “Eventually, we may do that, but we will be here in Horse Cave.”
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MenD’s Bistro offers uniqueness
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