Cause we all need a lil' controversy

Ok, it feels the board has been lacking spirited debate lately, and has settled more for simple restaurant news and reviews (usually only glowing). This translates into information, but is getting a bit boring.

So, want to start introducing some topics that might provoke, anger and even hack some people off, but done in light of getting people engaging again in argument, which like in sports or political forums, generally makes things more interesting.

Today's first topics will be sacred lambs (that should be slaughtered). Here goes:

1. Wicks - Why does everyone love this place? Mediocre, overpriced pizza if you ask me with big-time inconsistency between places (the one at Goose Creek is atrocious). Papalinos or even Boombozz kills it at local level, and I would probably go Domino's artisan pizza over it. What say you in its defense besides a good place to start your night drinking on Bardstown Road?

2. Joe's Crab Shack - For a place that advertises fun, nothing kills fun for me like overpriced, lousy seafood. Worse, it helps ruin the entire view of the riverfront (which I think we have done an overall crappy job as a city with - see Lacledes Landing in St. Louis on how to build a cool district on old waterfrony site) with a totally '70s looking structure right next to Waterfront Park.

3. Molly Malones - Good place to drink, lousy food. Know it is de facto original Irish bar in city, but has a total corporate feel to me about it. This one likely to hit biggest nerve, but it needs to be said.

So, let the counterattacks begin, but would love to hear some others call out places that seem to have undue reverence.

[Robin Garr]

1. Wicks - Why does everyone love this place? Mediocre, overpriced pizza if you ask me with big-time inconsistency between places (the one at Goose Creek is atrocious). Papalinos or even Boombozz kills it at local level, and I would probably go Domino's artisan pizza over it. What say you in its defense besides a good place to start your night drinking on Bardstown Road?

2. Joe's Crab Shack - For a place that advertises fun, nothing kills fun for me like overpriced, lousy seafood. Worse, it helps ruin the entire view of the riverfront (which I think we have done an overall crappy job as a city with - see Lacledes Landing in St. Louis on how to build a cool district on old waterfrony site) with a totally '70s looking structure right next to Waterfront Park.

3. Molly Malones - Good place to drink, lousy food. Know it is de facto original Irish bar in city, but has a total corporate feel to me about it. This one likely to hit biggest nerve, but it needs to be said.

Thanks, Ron! Good topic. I can't fight with you over any of those, though.

1. I've always rated Wicks as "well-made pizza tuned to teen-age taste buds."

2. Joe's was controversial from the start because the city reached out to a bland franchise when it first began the Riverfront development.

3. Initially Molly's was splendid and gave the Rover some real competition, but it seems that Molly's somewhere along the way decided to put its emphasis more on drink than on food.

1. Wicks does a fine job (and business) at what they do best, which is building extremely large pizzas. Split one between 6 or so guys in New Albany a few weeks ago and we all ate our fill for a bit under $6 apiece.

2. I do not know a single Louisvillian that has been to that Joe's Crab Shack. All of their business must be from tourists and conventions. Great location for them though.

3. Their money is in the bar business ie I expect mediocre food ie I have never eaten there or at any of the other pseudo irish pubs in Louisville. To be quite honest I have absolutely zero interest in any of those establishments so I'm probably not the person that they're trying to reach with their food.

Not what you are looking for but I agree with you Ron. I cant wait to see if there is any outrage.

So sorry, Ron, but I don't see anything controversial about any of the topics that you suggested. I'm in total agreement with your viewpoint.

Meh

So, let the counterattacks begin, but would love to hear some others call out places that seem to have undue reverence.

I'll "byte"... though I don't usually like to pan the local businesses. I must say two of your three mentions, Molly's and Joe's, I wouldn't consider to have undue reverence on the food front.

Papalinos--Seems like people either love or hate this place. The pizza is a little too sugary and/or acidic for me.

Seviche--Worst restaurant experience I have had in Louisville. Perhaps the service quality on the day we went was a fluke, but they were grossly understaffed. We ordered all of the seviche on the menu and found it good but unremarkable. For the $$ I expected more, especially on the service side.

Cumberland--I like the cask beers, but a high % of the everyday drafts seem to have a metallic taste to them.


...to end on a positive note: None of these places seem to be hurting for business!

One other non-restaurant one that had a big effect in my opinion on restaurant scene:

Jerry Abramson - Speaking non-politically, never could understand why people loved this guy. Seemed all hype and many of his initiatives sold out the city itself in name of development, mostly Fourth Street Live, which to me is a joke of ever evolving nightclubs and chains chosen by Cordish, all of which is done without any transparency. Believe this retarded otherwise positive developments of Market Street and Main (which is going slower). Anyhow, really believe he tried to push business away from Highlands area to downtown and thankfully failed in that effort.

On flip side, I like Greg Fisher a lot. Makes no excuses, attacks real problems regardless of political fallout (excessive overtime was killing city budget), and does not hide when issues occur or blame others.

Just trying to raise the stakes as no one really bit on my first post!!!

One other non-restaurant one that had a big effect in my opinion on restaurant scene:

Jerry Abramson - Speaking non-politically, never could understand why people loved this guy. Seemed all hype and many of his initiatives sold out the city itself in name of development, mostly Fourth Street Live, which to me is a joke of ever evolving nightclubs and chains chosen by Cordish, all of which is done without any transparency. Believe this retarded otherwise positive developments of Market Street and Main (which is going slower). Anyhow, really believe he tried to push business away from Highlands area to downtown and thankfully failed in that effort.

On flip side, I like Greg Fisher a lot. Makes no excuses, attacks real problems regardless of political fallout (excessive overtime was killing city budget), and does not hide when issues occur or blame others.

Just trying to raise the stakes as no one really bit on my first post!!!

OK, I'll bite....Yes Jerry and Dave Armstrong really screwed the pooch with 4th St. I worked one block over for 5 years and can say I ate lunch there maybe a handfull of times and then it was usually at J. Gumbos.

IMHO Mayor Fischer is all photo op and very little substance. Guess what? The OT is STILL THERE!! They just hide it better now. He has done very little other than holding press conferences, appointing Directors of This and That and "studying this". Yes, a few things have changed, but most of Metro is still living with the legacy of the Abramson years of patronage, buddy hiring, excess and waste, covered with a shiny topcoat to distract us. The big difference is they are now blaming the employees for what the management did. Controversial enough for ya?

Wicks: most overrated pizza in the city. Especially when we all know the Clifton Special at Clifton's is the best pizza in the city...

Joe's Crab Shack: Never been there, don't know anyone who has. Have less than no interest.

Molly Malone's. I thought the Rover was the go-to Irish pub in town and the food there is dyno-mite. Molly Malone's seems more geared toward the college drinking crowd so grumpy old folks like me tend to stay away.

No controversy over here.

Sidebar: I have had the pleasure to meet both mayors in question and found them both to be likable people. I don't trust any politician who draws a paycheck, though, so their political behavior is pretty much a wash.

This translates into information, but is getting a bit boring.

Right off the top of my head, I can give you any number of reasons for this phenomenon beginning with...Doogy, Annemarie, Heather, Bill P, Brian Curl, Marsha L, Matt-what's-his-name, Justin Hammond, Steve P (for the most part), etc, etc. The Food Fellow wants peace-love-and-harmony....The Food Fellow gets peace love and harmony...and <yawn> boredom. Some-a-ya'll get all pissed off, lathered up and frothing at the mouth and start calling people names ("asshole" comes to mind) when someone doesn't say something in the right "tone" or in a politically correct manner...but when ya run those people off it gets pretty effing boring. Doesn't it ? I mean it's pretty obvious to me that you can only talk -SO- long about the "Next-Big-Thing" and their To-Die-For-Lilac-wood-smoked-Norwegion-Pacific-King-Salmon-with-dill-weed- Aioli-and-Pork-Belly-Foam....

To coin an analogy...it's like this...You can have all the geeky-DECCA-straight-A-student-council-member-senior-prom-planning-cheerleaders in the world...but until you've got a few people smoking in the bathrooms, screwing in the locker rooms and fist fighting at the football games, you've got a boring-lame-school with a bunch of candy asses wandering the halls..

All of the above and besides...how many times can you retread the old cheap-ass-no-tipping-kids-staying-too-long-in-restaurants-eating-my-pizza-and-drinking-my-craft-beer-in-a-Whiskey-wharehouse-on-Fourth-St thread...Stop we when I'm lyin.

This translates into information, but is getting a bit boring.

Right off the top of my head, I can give you any number of reasons for this phenomenon beginning with...Doogy, Annemarie, Heather, Bill P, Brian Curl, Marsha L, Matt-what's-his-name, Justin Hammond, Steve P (for the most part), etc, etc. The Food Fellow wants peace-love-and-harmony....The Food Fellow gets peace love and harmony...and <yawn> boredom. Some-a-ya'll get all pissed off, lathered up and frothing at the mouth and start calling people names ("asshole" comes to mind) when someone doesn't say something in the right "tone" or in a politically correct manner...but when ya run those people off it gets pretty effing boring. Doesn't it ? I mean it's pretty obvious to me that you can only talk -SO- long about the "Next-Big-Thing" and their To-Die-For-Lilac-wood-smoked-Norwegion-Pacific-King-Salmon-with-dill-weed- Aioli-and-Pork-Belly-Foam....

To coin an analogy...it's like this...You can have all the geeky-DECCA-straight-A-student-council-member-senior-prom-planning-cheerleaders in the world...but until you've got a few people smoking in the bathrooms, screwing in the locker rooms and fist fighting at the football games, you've got a boring-lame-school with a bunch of candy asses wandering the halls..

All of the above and besides...how many times can you retread the old cheap-ass-no-tipping-kids-staying-too-long-in-restaurants-eating-my-pizza-and-drinking-my-craft-beer-in-a-Whiskey-wharehouse-on-Fourth-St thread...Stop we when I'm lyin.

This translates into information, but is getting a bit boring.

Right off the top of my head, I can give you any number of reasons for this phenomenon beginning with...Doogy, Annemarie, Heather, Bill P, Brian Curl, Marsha L, Matt-what's-his-name, Justin Hammond, Steve P (for the most part), etc, etc. The Food Fellow wants peace-love-and-harmony....The Food Fellow gets peace love and harmony...and <yawn> boredom. Some-a-ya'll get all pissed off, lathered up and frothing at the mouth and start calling people names ("asshole" comes to mind) when someone doesn't say something in the right "tone" or in a politically correct manner...but when ya run those people off it gets pretty effing boring. Doesn't it ? I mean it's pretty obvious to me that you can only talk -SO- long about the "Next-Big-Thing" and their To-Die-For-Lilac-wood-smoked-Norwegion-Pacific-King-Salmon-with-dill-weed- Aioli-and-Pork-Belly-Foam....

To coin an analogy...it's like this...You can have all the geeky-DECCA-straight-A-student-council-member-senior-prom-planning-cheerleaders in the world...but until you've got a few people smoking in the bathrooms, screwing in the locker rooms and fist fighting at the football games, you've got a boring-lame-school with a bunch of candy asses wandering the halls..

All of the above and besides...how many times can you retread the old cheap-ass-no-tipping-kids-staying-too-long-in-restaurants-eating-my-pizza-and-drinking-my-craft-beer-in-a-Whiskey-wharehouse-on-Fourth-St thread...Stop we when I'm lyin.

I'm still around, just mostly lurking these days due to extreme workload. I suspect I'll come here for a "taste" of home once I get settled in Syracuse later this summer.

There have been some great arguments on here and some great discussions and some really stupid arguments as well.

As for the mayors, King Jerry really blew it with 4SL. Won't be missing that hell-hole at all when I'm gone. And Fischer is all hot air. He's one of those new-fangled politicians who thinks he should get points for posting positive PR on Facebook. Just get to work already, Mayor!

And, the Waterfront - it's an amazingly-well done park with two really stupid restaurants. With Market and Main really developing, I wish they could just take out those two places and make it "just" a park.

Wicks: There certainly are much better pizzas in this city. Theirs are certainly very filling it OK if you want to feed a huge crowd but otherwise.....

Joe's Crab Shack: like the others I certainly don't understand the fascination with this place. The only thing it has going for it is location. Food, service and prices all our negatives. Besides it seems like there's one in every city.

Molly Malone's. We've been one time and that was enough! The Irish Rover it's so much better in so many ways. Molly's is just an Irish bar that isn't really Irish.

I'll throw in another restaurant that I think it's very overrated, its Corbett's! Yes, the food and service are good but extremely overpriced. In addition while the building itself is beautiful it doesn't have any warmth or atmosphere that makes the dining experience special.

I don't even want to start discussing by feelings about past and present mayors in Louisville in this forum. That would take pages.

This translates into information, but is getting a bit boring.

Stop we when I'm lyin.

Nah, I wouldn't think of it. Meanwhile, here's a link to some truth-telling.

http://louisvillebeer.com/blog/2012/06/01/domestic-yes-and-no/