CJ finds faint praise for CarlyRae's

[Robin Garr]

Marty makes CarlyRae's sound like an attractive, appealing place with decent food, but his praise is on the faint side as his comments culminate in a two-star rating (oh, yeah, that means "good" in the CJ's hierarchy of ratings.

I think I've been in the spot he appears to be in, leaving a place with a good attitude about the overall experience, yet finding specific items only modestly praiseworthy. These two paragraphs seem to sum up his overall judgment: "<i>the menu leans heavily in the direction of straightforward sandwiches and pub food: chicken wings, burgers, pizza wraps, pasta, meatball sandwiches and the like.

Based on recent meals, the kitchen is focused on simple, straightforward execution, and though it often shows little or no concern for the finer points of presentation, it manages those simple things fairly well.</i>"

A reference to french fries as "tedious" is a little hard to interpret - I don't think I've ever met a tedious fry myself, although I've had plenty of limp, flavorless, chewy and/or boring ones - although a "flaccid" pickle spear is a nice turn of phrase.

Bottom line, though, CarlyRae's seems to be beating the curse at a formerly troubled location with an approach that's winning fans, and I don't get a feel for that from this review.

[url=http://cityguide.courier-journal.com/fe/RestaurantReviews/Profile.asp?businessid=47431]Straightforward execution
Charming CarlyRae's does fairly well with pub fare[/url]

<B>CarlyRae's</B>
103 W. Oak St.
(502) 379-4320

Actually, the two stars only denotes 'fair', it takes two and a 1/2 to get to 'good'.
I've never eaten there, but the posts I've seen on this board certainly make it seem much better than Marty's review does. I'd still like to give them a try and judge for myself.

[Robin Garr]

Actually, the two stars only denotes 'fair', it takes two and a 1/2 to get to 'good'.

Oops ... we're on the road, so I didn't have the print edition available to look at. So much for my memory!

I've never eaten there, but the posts I've seen on this board certainly make it seem much better than Marty's review does. I'd still like to give them a try and judge for myself.

We had Greg Gapsis review it for LEO, and he liked it very much. I haven't done a review visit, but based on informal drop-ins, I thought Marty's praise was surprisingly faint. He is correct that it's more casual than upscale in nature, and in fairness, I haven't been in for a while. But I certainly left with a more positive impression than the CJ review communicates to me, even though its language is generally kind. And of course, as Marty correctly notes, the beer program and special events are exceptional. I'd be tempted to nudge my rating up just a frog hair on that basis alone.

Here's Greg's review in LEO (page down past my report on the Bistro New Albany Belgian dinner):
Beer us again, and much more, at CarlyRae’s

We also republished this very positive CarlyRae's review from G3:

G3 - A Great Bite at CarlyRae’s