Red Barn Kitchen is newer than dirt, and it’s good.
LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
Bourbon glazed pork rib at Red Barn Kitchen.
Now and then I crack that the Martinez family’s Olé Restaurant Group is “The Energizer Bunny of Louisville dining.” All together now, let’s say that again: I’ve just returned from my third review of an Olé Group eatery, and I’m delighted to award Red Barn Kitchen my “Recommended” gold star.
But something about this restaurant is different from all the rest.
Most of Olé’sproperties spring fully formed from the creative family’s fecund imagination: Who ever thought of putting mussels and burgers together until Mussel & Burger Bar came along?
Red Barn, though, can fairly be described as Son of Joe’s Older Than Dirt. It’s a cleaned-up offspring, of course, sporting an MBA and Armani. But even under Olé’s sharp ownership and management, the bones of the 80-year-old beer-and-barbecue joint remain.
I am not calling this a bad thing.
For that matter, just about all the family’s restaurants landed where prior eateries had stood. At Red Barn Kitchen, though - perhaps thinking of Joe’s multigenerational fan base - they refined the prior concept but left it very much in place. Why tamper with success, after all, other than via a made-over image that is, well, newer than dirt? ...
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/5766-2
You'll also find this review in LEO Weekly’s Food & Drink section today.
http://www.leoweekly.com/category/food-drink/
Red Barn Kitchen
8131 New Lagrange Road
434-7470
http://redbarnkitchenbbq.com
https://facebook.com/redbarnkitchenbbq
Robin Garr’s rating: 85 points