by Andrew Mellman » Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:24 pm
We finally made it there - first time in around 10 years (for some reason, during the recent restaurant boom years we spent a lot of time trying new places). Even though "Rootie" (Marty Stein) sold out a few months ago for health reasons, the place is as good as ever!
Wings: we had to order the bbq wings. They seemed a tiny bit smaller than I remember, but then again everything seems to be smaller than I remember! Anyways, the wings were slightly sticky, covered with a perfect scattered char, and even with a smaller size and char were juicy and cooked to perfection. There's a reason you can find Rooties bbq sauce and blue cheese dressing in grocery stores!
Wrap: after splitting the wings, my wife had a grilled buffalo chicken wrap. Normally when getting that, it appears that the cook scoops out a handful of cooked chicken meat, mixes it with lettuce and fixin's, and pours in hot sauce. This obviously had chicken cooked to order, hot and juicy. It sounds like a tiny difference, but it means a lot in terms of texture and flavor.
Burger: The others we were with ordered medium-rare burgers. Rooties is still the only restaurant I've been to in Louisville in which a medium-rare burger is served medium-rare, rather than either raw or medium-well! (normally I now order burgers rare, as I'll still eat them in case they come out rare, but usually they come out medium from a rare order). The center was a quarter inch of red meat, surrounded by bright pink cool meat, and with a totally char-grilled exterior. It was cooked and seasoned perfectly.
The new owner (former manager) has introduced karaoke, which started while we were eating. It caught us by surprise, as a good rock/country mix suddenly changed to a high volume country stream, but looking over (we were at the far end of the place) we saw the singers and realized what was happening. The singers got better as time went on, and it ended up adding to the ambiance of the evening.
Finally, our waitress was spectacular! If you haven't been there, it's an enormous roadhouse (with a small patio for outdoor dining), and one waitress-bartender handled the entire (smallish) crowd with apparent ease and good humor throughout.
It was ten years since our last visit, but it will be closer to ten days till our next one!
Andrew Mellman
