Meta Goes Meta, Expands Menu

Jeremy Johnson says Meta's first month has "gone very well," despite "unexpected plumbing things we had to deal with." Johnson says he's happy with Meta's house-made syrups, developed while waiting for the bar's French syrups that are "still hung up in port," and plans to keep making cola and ginger in-house even after the imports arrive. As of Monday, they are also "adding fourteen classic cocktails" to their current menu—which is also expanding its food offerings.

Along with a weekly-rotating menu of flavored popcorn, Johnson said Meta has established a "food truck residency" featuring mobile kitchens such as Holy Molé offering "lamb corndogs, duck sausage cassoulet, foie gras macarons, crab/kimchi sliders and more." "We have a system where our server goes to the truck and brings it to the table, you order just like anywhere else," Johnson said. He and partner Hanna Kandle are considering the possibility of a Meta food truck instead of an on-site kitchen, because Johnson believes "one of the biggest problems that you can have in Louisville when you open a cocktail bar is you end up having a restaurant with a bar attached. We really, sincerely have no interest of doing that."

At one month in, Johnson says "we're going to continue with our house cocktails, but we're going to trace the genealogy of each one," adding fourteen cocktails to the current list. "Meta is a term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential," Johnson said. He hopes patrons will "trace the roots" of Meta cocktails such as the Show'n'Tell, now available alongside its forebear the Champs Élysées, itself spawn of the Sidecar.
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