Discussion of Robin Garr's La Coop review

We still give the nod to Le Relais but this is a fine alternative.

Do you feel they're directly competitive, though, Mark? I love Le Relais, but except that both are French, it seems to me that they're in different niches: Fine restaurant vs bistro. For me, calling that race would be more of a mood thing than anything I could do qualitatively.

Not arguing here, just ruminating ...

No argument from me but from a price point Le Relais does call themselves a "bistro" for whatever it's worth as they did scale back prices 2 or 3 years ago. Maybe I'm just getting old and see more of my peers at the old haunts.

We went to La Coop last night (Friday). Wow!

We don't often get to have a "date night", and tend to go the full course. I started with a black currant Kir. He ordered a Stella. To begin with, we ordered the 2 of each type of oysters availabe for the night. They were freshly shucked right behind our table, and were served with three sauces (cocktail, horseradish, and a great mignonette). My bf has for years said he HATES raw oysters, but slurped his two down. Great start!

For our appetizers, I had esgargot. Snails have been a favorite of mine since I first visited a French restaurant years ago. These came out in a proper snail dish covered in butter, herbs, and a thin layer of cheese. They were wonderful. Our server stopped back by with a few more pieces of bread and encouraged me to get all of the "good stuff" out of the dish. RIck had the onion soup. It came out topped with a marrow bone and TONS of cheese. He was a happy, happy boy!

For our main courses, I had the travers de boeuf. It was a large rib that had been braised in a rich sauce, layed ontop of some amazingly rich grits that had plenty of both butter and gruyere cheese mixed in. The short rib was not at all fatty. Rick ordered the mussels and frites. The mussels were huge and flavorful. The broth was wonderful to dip the fries into. The fries were perfectly cooked.
Our server, Eric, recommended a wonderful red wine to go with my dinner, but I can't remember the name of it to save my life. It was deep, rich, and a bit peppery.

Now.....the only thing I was disappointed in......Dessert. When I think of French food I always think of decadent desserts.
I ordered the apple tart. What came out was not a tart. It was apples cooked (undercooked) in a butter and cinnamon sauce, topped with a puff pastry. It was topped with some AMAZING sea salt caramel ice cream. Our observant server, Eric, noticed I wasn't eating/enjoying it and asked if he could bring me something else. He recommended the chocolate tart. The choclate tart was on the small size (a half dollar sized tart, possibly store bought shell) for $7. It was artfully arranged on a piece of slate. It was tasty. Rick ordered, and loved, the creme brulee. It came with a pistachio tuille.

Overall, we had a WONDERFUL dinner. We WILL go back. The dining room is extremely small, but not loud. The place has a beautiful bar, and a great bar staff.

BTW.........our bill was only $106 before tip.

I believe they have hit a home run with this one......they have assembled an amazing team from top all the way to the bottom.....well played Ton (squared) and Brett....

Now.....the only thing I was disappointed in......Dessert. When I think of French food I always think of decadent desserts.
I ordered the apple tart. What came out was not a tart. It was apples cooked (undercooked) in a butter and cinnamon sauce, topped with a puff pastry. It was topped with some AMAZING sea salt caramel ice cream. Our observant server, Eric, noticed I wasn't eating/enjoying it and asked if he could bring me something else. He recommended the chocolate tart. The choclate tart was on the small size (a half dollar sized tart, possibly store bought shell) for $7. It was artfully arranged on a piece of slate. It was tasty. Rick ordered, and loved, the creme brulee. It came with a pistachio tuille.

It sounds like the deserts were actually extremely authentic. Like you I had always thought of French desserts as being extremely decadent but after living there I found they really aren't. Many times they looked extremely pretty but really their flavor wasn't overwhelming! In addition most of them were not very sweet especially compared to your image.

I have heard they are much more savory than sweet.

[Robin Garr]

I have heard they are much more savory than sweet.

I've traveled in France and Italy quite a bit, and during the era of the strong dollar/weak Euro we used to do annual French wine tours with a French tour company partner, which was a real blast, and got us into a lot of high-end, Michelin-starred restaurants that I probably would never have experienced otherwise.

Based on those experiences, I'd say French desserts can be sweet, all right, but they're rarely decadent. The La Coop apple dessert is a far cry from a traditional Tarte Tatin, which is artfully composed. But I wouldn't say it wasn't alien to the French ideal in spirit.

Just have to add more positives . . .

We love bistro's, frequenting places from the Les Halles in Montreal to the Les Halles NYC (before Bourdain became famous!) and many in between. We just like the casual, neighborhood feeling, where we know we can get a wonderful meal without having to dress up or pay through the nose (maybe one nostril, but at least not the whole nose!).

We thought La Coop virtually perfect, easily the equal of any of our former favorites around the country.

We both started with the onion soup - not just a perfect version, but with the addition of the marrow bone the soup was raised to a new level. I had the steak/fries, cooked rare as requested, not only flavorful but unexpectedly tender, with a slight "crunch" from the seared crust of the steak. The fries were wonderful, and I didn't use much of the bearnaise as the flavor of the fries didn't need augmenting. My wife had the fish, a red trout perfectly cooked (tender, flavorful, and not overcooked as seems to be more the norm in Louisville) and topped with a pepper medley. A bourbon bananas foster bread pudding was plenty big enough to share for dessert.

The above, plus two glasses of wine and a pressed coffee, came to $79.50 before tip. While not a cheap meal by any means, we definitely feel that we got value received.

One other thing I liked: we arrived at 10:15pm with a reservation, and could enjoy a nice meal without being rushed and without signs that the wait or kitchen staff were wanting to close down soon. This may not sound like much, but 30 years ago when we came to Louisville, eating out after 10pm meant Hasenours or the Bristol, and now even just in the three block stretch of NuLu on Market and Main there are a dozen places that fit the bill! We've tried many (not all), and thus far La Coop is our #1.

One comment on the noise: the room is LOUD. For us, this gives a feeling of excitement, that people are alive in town! I would hesitate, however, in going with a group where quiet conversation would be the main focus of the evening.

Loud, indeed, but worth the noise level.

My only negative after a visit this weekend is relatively minor: don't accept the table in the middle of the room. While it's a great place to watch people, you get beat to death from servers trying to manouever around you. It's not their fault. But trying to cram that extra table in may be a "good" business decision, but it lowers the customer experience to constantly be hit by passers-by.

Other than that, perfectly lovely evening.

with the load of (justly deserved) praise pouring in for this place, it hardly needs any more from me.

however, building on my (justly deserved) curmudgeon reputation, thought I'd mention that this evening's dinner for two - our first visit - was 5 outta 5....cuisine & service....don't really see how they could've done it any better. a *wonderful* - and sorely needed - addition to the L'ville food scene.

Thinking about this for lunch. Open table says it's open for lunch. Their website is still not functioning. How vegetarian friendly is it?

Thinking about this for lunch. Open table says it's open for lunch. Their website is still not functioning. How vegetarian friendly is it?

You can pick up a quick French lesson from the menus, “Dejeuner” for lunch and “Dîner” for the evening meal; take care to avoid confusion when you encounter “Entrées” in its proper French use as “entries” or “appetizers.” The main dishes are “Plats,” merci beaucoup. Those starterish Entrées, Fruits de Mer (seafood) and Charcuterie (sausages and such), are priced from $5 (for the Salade Maison, er, house salad) to $13 (for Crabe au Four). “Plats” prices run from $12 (for aubergine farcie — stuffed eggplant, the only vegetarian option) to $20 (for that classic bistro dish, steak frites, steak ’n’ fries).

Well, we went for lunch and I still haven't formed a solid opinion yet. The restaurant was freezing cold, and they only had green tea which I don't like one little bit. The house salad was so fresh you'd think they were growing greens in the backyard and had just sent someone out to harvest them. Will have to think on the rest.

Leah, try the stuffed eggplant!

Will somebody please start serving "la poutine" in Louisville. I'm currently in Quebec City and already had it three times to make up for the rest of the year when I can't get it in the Ville.

Note: Please don't refer to some faux poutine as we discuused last year in this forum. I'm talking about straightforward, 3-ingrediants poutine. If Burger King can pull it off in Ontario, I'm sure somebody can crack the code in Louisville, or at least figure how to import the cheese.

Jim- Although it isn't remotely like your Qubecoise "la poutine", Equus/Jack's has an incredibly yummy KY Poutine. It is parmesan fries with chicken gravy and mozzarella shreds. No brown gravy or curds here, but really good nonetheless.

Thanks for the tip, Gary.