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Robin Garr

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Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Robin Garr » Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:05 pm

If you've been meaning to check out Red Herring, the classy new spot in the old Hilltop theater on Frankfort Avenue in Clifton, here's a good reason. Just mention the Facebook post! (And you can tell 'em HotBytes sent you, too ... :) )

Red Herring on Facebook wrote:July 29th, tomorrow morning, we will be giving away coffee to the public from 8am-10am. Simply order the type of coffee you want and mention this post. BOOM!
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Jeff Cavanaugh

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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Jeff Cavanaugh » Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:36 pm

Any idea who's supplying their coffee?
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Robin Garr » Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:53 pm

Google says they're doing a "custom coffee roast," but not the source. Given their focus on quality sourcing, I expect it'll be good. Can't answer the specific question, though.
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JustinHammond

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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by JustinHammond » Fri Jul 28, 2017 2:50 pm

The sourcing/selection of their liquors is lacking. Seems like all of the cocktails we ordered were made with some off the wall or bottom shelf spirit (maybe heaven hill products). Yes, the prices of the cocktails are cheaper than most cocktail bars in town, but the quality of the spirits in the drinks is lacking.
"The idea is to eat well and not die from it-for the simple reason that that would be the end of your eating." - Jim Harrison

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Robin Garr

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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Robin Garr » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:18 pm

JustinHammond wrote:The sourcing/selection of their liquors is lacking. Seems like all of the cocktails we ordered were made with some off the wall or bottom shelf spirit (maybe heaven hill products). Yes, the prices of the cocktails are cheaper than most cocktail bars in town, but the quality of the spirits in the drinks is lacking.

Well, hell. I hate to hear that.
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by JustinHammond » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:31 pm

Robin Garr wrote:
JustinHammond wrote:The sourcing/selection of their liquors is lacking. Seems like all of the cocktails we ordered were made with some off the wall or bottom shelf spirit (maybe heaven hill products). Yes, the prices of the cocktails are cheaper than most cocktail bars in town, but the quality of the spirits in the drinks is lacking.

Well, hell. I hate to hear that.


We went a couple of weeks after they opened, so maybe it has changed, but online reviews say otherwise.
"The idea is to eat well and not die from it-for the simple reason that that would be the end of your eating." - Jim Harrison

https://www.facebook.com/Louisville-Eat ... 129849554/
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Robin Garr » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:41 pm

JustinHammond wrote:We went a couple of weeks after they opened, so maybe it has changed, but online reviews say otherwise.

I feel bad about even thinking this, but now I'm feeling vibes of Doc's Cantina.
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by RonnieD » Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:29 pm

You know, the name of the place is trying to warn you...
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Robin Garr » Sun Jul 30, 2017 8:32 pm

RonnieD wrote:You know, the name of the place is trying to warn you...

:lol:
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Brett Davis » Mon Jul 31, 2017 1:46 pm

First off, outside of the pit of despair (AKA Yelp), our reviews have been rock solid in both Google and FB. We seem to be polarizing in Yelp running at 3.5*s. Many of the complaints have been about the 20% service charge we add and some are about not understanding we are a bar without the traditional host and server system. Some just don't like the decor, food, service...etc. My attitude towards Yelpers has become cynical at best. I look for reviews that are constructive and don't dwell on the rest. All this being said, our loyal customer base is growing every week and we are quite happy where we are.

Before this thread blows up about us adding a 20% service charge, we only do this so we can legally pool tips amongst the entire staff. Also, that service charge can be adjusted to any amount the customer deems fit at the end which is stated on every page of our menu. We wish the KY law was written differently so we wouldn't have to add it but that's the reality we have to deal with. Some say we should add it to the cost of our products but we feel that takes away our customers' freedom to adjust it. This is the choice we made knowing it would be controversial and a choice we are sticking to until the laws change and allow us to remove it and still pool tips. This is the future of the restaurant industry so those law changes are coming.

Moving on to the coffee house...we are roasting our coffee beans at Fantes. Leo has been kind enough to share his roaster and is teaching us how to roast while overseeing the process until we take it over ourselves. We decided not to concentrate on single source beans and concentrate on creating and evolving our house roasts instead. From there we plan on taking a bartender/chef approach to different beverages we can create with those three or four products. We will do one high roast, one city roast for our nitrogen cold brew (coming soon), one dark roast and an espresso roast. When we have a "specialty" roast, we are hoping to feature a bean from another local roaster to show our support.

I guess I need to address the criticism of our choice of liquors that go into our cocktails. Yes, we made the decision to run with Heaven Hill brands with our vodka, gin, white rum and the green label bourbon for our cocktails and are proud of that decision. We tasted every one of them blind against call brands in our cocktails and found them all above adequate for quality cocktail purposes. I welcome any one of you to take the blind challenge on our well liquors compared to ANY call brand we carry. Just let me know and I'll set it up. I think you will find it both educational and eye-opening. I'm actually considering an event based around this. I will try to remember to let you know when I do.

Everyone seems to forget (or perhaps just ignorant to the fact) that classic cocktails were created to make the low quality spirits of the past taste good. That being said, we feel our well brands are actually good quality and that the different nuances in flavor between them and higher priced brands are lost in the majority of cocktail recipes. We encourage our guests to choose a call brand for any of our cocktails which basically takes the price for that drink up to the other cocktail concepts in Louisville.

Thank you for your feedback and we look forward to serving you in the future.
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Robin Garr » Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:02 pm

Thanks for the details, Brett!
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Alexis Rich » Mon Jul 31, 2017 6:45 pm

I don't really use Yelp reviews but appreciate restauranteurs who care enough to explain them and defend their business.

However, when the boss uses phrases like "above adequate" to describe his own product and insults guests by parenthetically stating that we may be ignorant of cocktail history, I'm not necessarily putting it on my short list. Please! Who lives in this town and DOESN'T know that old fashioneds are a direct result of gnarly booze?
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Brett Davis » Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:45 pm

Good grief Alexis, cynical much?

I simply meant that the Heaven Hill products we use more than meet my standards for our cocktail program. If a product is not good enough for me to drink myself, there is no way I would ever consider using them for my guests. When I order a cocktail at any of my establishments, I order it the exact way it is made for our customers.

Using the word ignorant to refer to the general lack of knowledge or understanding of a particular subject is not an insult and I meant no insult with my statement. Please do not twist the intent of my words. I teach and train industry professionals around the world at the highest level and find most of them lack an understanding of the history and evolution of spirits and cocktails. So I can assure you as someone who has been doing this professionally in Louisville a very long time, neither do the large majority of locals.
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by neal.johnson » Tue Aug 01, 2017 9:11 am

Alexis Rich wrote:I don't really use Yelp reviews but appreciate restauranteurs who care enough to explain them and defend their business.

However, when the boss uses phrases like "above adequate" to describe his own product and insults guests by parenthetically stating that we may be ignorant of cocktail history, I'm not necessarily putting it on my short list. Please! Who lives in this town and DOESN'T know that old fashioneds are a direct result of gnarly booze?


I got the same feeling when I read Brett's comments to the bad reviews. Dude. Try to be less defensive. When folks said they didn't like the decor or food, you would reply that they are wrong because everyone else LOVES it. Get a grip and get off social media.

No one cares about your extensive training. Perception is everything and when a customer sees that you are using Heaven Hill (god bless you) to make cocktails how can you not expect a negative reaction. What successful establishment is using HH? And who puts shaved vegetables on frickin' hotdog? Were those beets I saw? Oi vey.
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Re: Free coffee at Red Herring tomorrow morning

by Stephen D » Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:46 pm

This is a foodie forum. If an operator comes here and decides to to vent a little bit, he should be given quarter.

This is exactly why we can't have nice things. Shame on you.

I'll say this- don't denigrate MS's. It's our equivalent of a PHD- actually, it's rarer. So rare, they have numbers (Brett is 102/ 103) Their duty to the next generation is to spend their time and money traveling the World to bring up the next generation.

It hurts spending all of your time treating people like family and then they stab you in the back on social media.

Remember? He was trying to give you free coffee.
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