Flabby's

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I asked about Sierra Nevada for a reason. In effect, it's the people's default, and still excellent for what it is. Better can be achieved, but as a bare minimum, what not have Sierra? Abundant, available, and inexpensive.

When it comes to beer, both Flabby's and Check's (and to an extent, Zeppelin Cafe) are examples of a phenomenon that I often find in Louisville that makes no sense: having bottles and taps of the same crappy, typical beers. Okay, some people like Bud and Miller and whatnot (and I do drink High Life if there's nothing really that good available, as at Flabby's), but it makes no sense to me why some Louisville bars offer both bottles and drafts of what are essentially uninteresting beers that anyone can get anywhere. Why give up the real estate?

As far as Flabby's inconsistencies, all I can say is I've lived on the same block for a year now, have eaten there multiple times, and haven't experienced anything approaching what's described. Which is not to say that it isn't possible, but I'm not a big soup guy, and haven't ordered their tenderloin. But I've never had a problem with the fried chicken (even when taken to go -- we often pick it up on a summer Friday then head over to the Georgetown Drive-In), the schnitzel sandwich, the pretzels, the burger or the wings. And that doesn't include their sides, which are also great.

I do agree that Schnitzelburg will get a "fancier" establishment sooner rather than later, it will be interesting to see how the neighborhood responds. There's a number of great locations in the area that, if I had the time and (more importantly) the money, would love to turn into something more upscale than Flabby's (but not out of the character of the neighborhood; maybe a gastropub-style place?).

Maybe it's just because I'm in a stubborn mood tonight, but to Joel's good points I'll add that one no longer is being upscale by having a couple of three good beers. having Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is default, not upscale (and I'm not even arguing the local beer angle here).

Maybe it's just because I'm in a stubborn mood tonight, but to Joel's good points I'll add that one no longer is being upscale by having a couple of three good beers. having Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is default, not upscale (and I'm not even arguing the local beer angle here).

I was going to point out in my post that even Mo's, the former 7-11 at the corner of Goss and Hickory, has Sierra Nevada. So I'll point it out here.

To be fair Check's has a couple locals, I think BBC titles. And Zeppelin has had Brownings and BBC beers. But both for some reason have, like, Bud Light both in bottles and on tap. Seems completely pointless to me, even if they are "popular."

Several people have mentioned having an offline at Flabby's, so I went ahead and created a thread for it in the offline forum. If anyone's interested, just chime in there.

Lol and there he goes again Well I'm all for it (and WILL make it this time!), it's just down the street from where I live. Anybody can say what they want but I love the old (and new) smaller places my neighborhood has to offer, it's one of the area's great charms!

I have had only positive food experiences at Flabby's, it is what it is - basic food with some interesting tweaks. Try the Familie Haner platter, the rolled oyster, the oyster shooter, the fried chicken (heaven on a plate). If you saw the size of the kitchen (I have bigger closets), you would be amazed at what comes out of it. I don't drink beer (sorry Roger!), so I cannot speak to their brews.

Edited for stupid spelling errors....

I really don't have a dog in this hunt. Just using the Flabby's thread as a pretext to make a point about what should now be considered one element of a default beer selection irrespective of highbrow, lowbrow, or anywhere in between.

The sad thing is that for every place like Flabby's that can't even be bothered to stock one or two interesting ales, there's a 4-star place that doesn't, either. Now, that's really sick.

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The sad thing is that for every place like Flabby's that can't even be bothered to stock one or two interesting ales, there's a 4-star place that doesn't, either. Now, that's really sick.

And even sicker than that is upscale places that pride themselves on using local ingredients yet don't have a full roster of local and regional beers.

Back in college (too long ago), if you wanted to show you really knew beer you drank Moosehead. My roommate loved Moosehead, but always stocked our fridge with Old Milwaukee--that way he knew folks on the hall wouldn't come by and drink up all his beer.

And even sicker than that is upscale places that pride themselves on using local ingredients yet don't have a full roster of local and regional beers.

I wholeheartedly agree. I imagine the carbon footprint on cooling and shipping beer is quite large.

How long before a place in the vein of a Maido (thanks to all on hotbytes for the Maido talk...our new favorite restaurant), a Gerstle's (Germantown without a real German restaurant much less a Germanfest?), or a Sunergos opens up in the neighborhood.

I'm guessing you mean Gasthaus, not Gerstles? And isn't Sunergos already considered a part of Germantown?

As far as "fancier" goes, I wouldn't consider any of the examples I named (Maido, Gerstles, Sunergos) as being fancy. They're no more than good quality/nice atmosphere/reasonable prices establishments. Some of my neighbors would consider them as being fancy, sure (they'd think that anything but a can of Campbell's soup and a Bud Light is), but some of my other neighbors go out to eat at Bardstown Rd. or Frankfort Ave. restaurants. Germantown is well-represented by greasy spoon neighborhood places that have long been the place to go for the blue collar factory-type guy. I don't consider myself as being better than that guy, but...I don't want to drink or eat that kind of thing. Maybe our lousy Flabby's meals were anomalies, but I wonder if enough of this is also faux-praise (the quality is overlooked because of it being down the street, etc.) of an esteemed neighborhood place. The additional praise of Check's makes me think it is, at least to some degree.

Another comment in light of Roger's most recent: Of course, there will always be low-brow restaurants/bars everywhere. It's when the low-brow isn't just accepted for what it is or trumpeted as being more than that, that's why the comments didn't ring true and I chimed in. Nothing makes me happier than simple food made well and some of my favorite dishes are or have been considered peasant food, but there's a difference between that and simple food made poorly.

To compare Maido to Flabbys is basically stupid. Sunergos is a coffee shop. Gerstles is a nice place, but surely not a restaurant.

Both Checks and Flabbys cater to much broader customer base than blue collar. The fried chicken, schnitzels, hot plate at Flabbys is good food. See Robins review showing 91 points (A listing) for Flabbys. As Suzi says, it is what it is and that must be mean according to you a low brow place.

How far up in the air is your nose.