Discussion of Robin Garr's Silver Dollar brunch review

[Robin Garr]

Fine diner brunch and honky-tonk at The Silver Dollar
Voice-Tribune review by Robin Garr



Yum, I love me some fine diner fare. That’s fine “diner,” now, not fine “dining,” which I like, too, but which might be a little out of place in the noisy and very casual environs of The Silver Dollar, whose retro-style sign out front blares “Whiskey By The Drink.”

Now that I think about it, Chef Jonathan Schwartz and sous chef Dave Hawkins do an estimable job of fine cooking, too, but they keep it in the blue-collar style of Bakersfield, Calif., a dusty Central Valley town where agriculture and oil, the Dust Bowl diaspora and the Chicano diaspora meet and blend in an environment that gave birth to the Bakersfield Sound in country music and, it goes without saying, honky-tonk saloons.

The Silver Dollar resembles a honky-tonk, all right, complete with authentic Bakersfield Sound music played on vinyl records. But it’s a tongue-in-cheek vibe, an upscale, affectionate emulation of a down-and-dirty honky-tonk cleaned up sufficiently to be a hit in hip Clifton. ...

Recently The Silver Dollar added a Sunday brunch, and it didn’t take me long to find my way in to check it out. Brunch is served from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays, but bear Kentucky’s rather puritanical Sunday drinks laws in mind if you want an adult libation: Alcohol isn’t served until 1 p.m.

Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes.com:
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/fine- ... ver-dollar

And in the Voice-Tribune:
http://www.voice-tribune.com/life-style ... er-dollar/

The Silver Dollar
1761 Frankfort Ave.
259-9540
http://www.whiskeybythedrink.com

Was the music as loud at brunch as it is at dinner?

[Robin Garr]

Was the music as loud at brunch as it is at dinner?

I couldn't tell. The crowd was so loud that you could just barely hear the music. This makes me think the sound may have been turned down. I kind of missed it. But seriously, this is not a quiet venue, a point that I tried to make clear.

Oddly, I'm among the first to rant about the Loud-Is-Fun mentality of the modern restaurant scene, yet it somehow fits Silver Dollar's style. I've actually gone with friends for some non-review visits just because I wanted to, but I don't go if I want to have an intellectual conversation with someone.

I love that i get updates from them telling me not only the dinner specials, but what records they will be playing that evening. this is a great idea and the first i've ever heard of someone doing it. I have grown to love this place and find myself craving it all the time. chili and chicken livers with a tito's and tonic. it's as if all these things were created to be served together.

I think they have turned down just a touch since my first visit. it's still loud and you can definately hear the music, but it's not st shouting level. normally i dislike loud dining, but here it seems to work.

We went to brunch yesterday and it was wonderful. We started with braised beef empanadas, the most delightfully crispy-fluffy version I've ever had. So good, in fact, that we had to turn right around and order the vegetable version, which were even better. They offer three sauces at the table: a hot pepper sauce, a mild tomatillo sauce, and a super-tasty mole sauce.

It was seriously difficult to decide what to order for mains. Our group ended up with three entrees that, believe me, made their way around the table more than once. The deceptively humbly-named "Texas Toast Stack" included thick-cut bacon, a slab of fried green tomato, and had egg yolk running right out of the middle of it when we cut it in half to share. The "Chili Cheese Hash Browns" were so good I was wishing for a whole line-up of grandmothers to slap. John ordered some crazy black-bean soft taco thingamajig which allowed for more mole ingestion, hooray!

Although the temperature outside was in the upper 80's, and the garage door was wide open to the street, there were lots of fans and it was breezy and comfortable inside. The music was not loud, and although the place was nearly full when we arrived we were able to talk normally.

Go. Now. Don't wait. I can't wait to go back and murder some fried chicken livers.