Top Round Roast Beef, a California-based purveyor of “chef-driven fast food,” will have its Grand Opening today, Wednesday, August 16, at 10:30 a.m. at its first Louisville location, 4214 Shelbyville Rd. Both the originator of the brand, Steven Fretz, and the Louisville franchise owner, Billy Rapaport, will be on hand, along with local invited dignitaries. The public is welcome, of course.
Chef Fretz is co-owner of the Top Round brand, dedicated to “capturing the nostalgia of what fast food used to be.” The restaurant makes everything is to order with all-natural ingredients, from the hand-cut fries to slow roasted beef sandwiches.
Top Round Roast Beef mightily impressed Billy Rapaport, who for many years has been a producer for NBC’s Kentucky Derby coverage. and for many years, Rapaport has hosted an after-Derby burger bash at Varanese, 2106 Frankfort Ave. Rapaport will be at the Grand Opening today, according to a press release, “alongside Chef and co-founder Steven Fretz to discuss why Louisville is a perfect fit for Top Round and how the restaurant is part of a new generation of fast food concepts where quick service and quality ingredients are not mutually exclusive.” The Louisville restaurant is the first Top Round to open outside of Los Angeles.
Chef and Co-Owner Steven Fretz had been executive chef at several California restaurants, including Michael Mina’s XIV in Los Angeles, where he won Angeleno magazine’s “Best New Chef” award. In 2013 Fretz and his partners founded Top Round Roast Beef to offer “all-natural, freshly prepared ingredients at an affordable price.”
The menu includes a half-dozen or so beef sandwich options (beef and cheese, bar-b-cue, black & blue) fried chicken, hot dogs, four kinds of fries, slaw and a few vegetarian choices. The dessert specialty is frozen custard, in a choice of styles (sundae, concrete, custard cone) and flavors (blueberry pie, pretzel PB crunch, Southern belle and the Elvis – with banana, fudge and salted peanuts).
Rapaport has plans for up to four outlets for Top Round Roast Beef in the coming years.
