foodperson.com

Love Lawrence (Kansas). Like a few Lawrence restaurants. Two new restaurant additions give me hope for increased affection.

Although I don’t intend for this blog to be about restaurants, I nevertheless wanted to comment a little on these new entries.

The food situation here is probably not atypical of college towns, having a plethora of fast food restaurants (almost all chains) plus pizza and burger joints that have forgettable food and marginal service. The few restaurants that don’t meet that description often have other irritating drawbacks, such as impossible-to-talk noise levels and inadequate kitchen ventilation that sends customers into the world smelling like the grill or worse, and only slightly better service despite higher prices.

Enter Ingredient and Genovese. I’ve eaten at Ingredient only once (today) and Genovese twice, so I can’t give definitive reviews. I can say they are on the right path, the one lined with freshly prepared, high-quality ingredients.

Genovese is easily the best Italian restaurant in town, even in its short life, but the competition isn’t tough. Some dishes I tried have been quite heavy on the salt, and the owners would be well-advised to make some minor facility adjustments to attenuate sound and to create a little intimacy in the large upstairs dining room.

Still, the food clearly was fresh and made with high-quality ingredients. I especially liked my beet, orange and fennel salad. (Told you I like beets.) The service has been pretty good, which means great by Lawrence standards.

Meanwhile, two doors down, my sole meal (so far) at the more casual Ingredient was great. The food was well-conceived, seasoned wonderfully and delivered promptly. My friend and I split a main-dish salad, which was quite enough for us-and left room for a sweet for me. The hot food (grilled chicken) was hot, and the cold was cold.

Ingredient uses the order-at-the-front-and-we’ll-bring-you-the-food mode of service. It isn’t my favorite style of food service, but it’s OK, and if the food is consistent, as a couple of friends indicated it’s been for them, I’m more than happy to order at the counter. I’m looking forward to eating there again.

One other thing these neighbors have in common: They both serve pizza. I’m going to have to try both. Their other food makes me optimistic I’ll like them.