G3 - A Great Bite: One person's opinion

[Robin Garr]

<table border="0" align="right" width="260"><tr><td><img src="http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/cjusat.jpg" border="1" align="right"></td></tr></table>G3 - A Great Bite: One person's opinion
<i>(By Jim Murphy. Republished with permission from G3 Illustrated)</i>

Taste and palate are extremely personal and subjective. A restaurant review is simply one person's opinion - their view, attitude or appraisal of a particular dining experience. It is not, nor should it ever be, a definitive statement of superlative or the death knell of any restaurant.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case in our little burg. Citizens apparently take heed of our locally published restaurant reviews. As a result, <b>La Rouge</b>, which had the possibility of being one of Louisville's shining dining destinations, was unable to survive in light of one man's assessment of his meal (which I am given to understand he consumed completely during yet his third dining venture to La Rouge).

Full essay on LouisvilleHotBytes.

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Could a new restaurant that is doing well would close that quickly after a bad review? I would think that the restaurant would already have to have been struggling to some extent for a review to kill it.

[Robin Garr]

Could a new restaurant that is doing well would close that quickly after a bad review? I would think that the restaurant would already have to have been struggling to some extent for a review to kill it.

I felt the same way, Charles, along with the general impression that the CJ - even with Marty in the critic's pulpit - no longer really has that kind of influence, whether we're talking about the restaurant column or the editorial page.

Certainly his stern review didn't help, although I would defend his right to write it and have no doubt that he accurately reported what he observed.

(Note that this article is from G3, a LouisvilleHotBytes media partner ... I wouldn't presume to edit Jim Murphy's comments.)

The review had nothing do to with the closure of the restaurant. Mr. Rosen gave a very accurate review. Let it die. Good luck to Bobby J. It's a nice location and venue and I'm sure He will do well.

I'm sure the author is hurting by the closing of what was obviously a big fave of his, but the tone isn't fair to Marty Rosen. To assert he was doing a deliberate hatchet job is over the top. The author even noted it was Rosen's third trip there (not sure how he knew that). I've never written a review of a restaurant but I'd expect a reviewer may go multiple times to get a balanced view in case a place had an off day. So, far from negative bias, multiple trips suggest to me an effort to be fair.
Anyway, sorry to see it go. I eat downtown infrequently and only made it in once but I enjoyed it.
Great C-J cover, but I didn't think they were debuting the new look till after Derby...