CJ returns mixed review on Son of a Sailor

[Robin Garr]

Marty visits the new Son of a Sailor restaurant in LaGrange this week, talks about its North Carolina calabash-style fried fish, and seems to find some things to like a lot and some things not to like as much, yielding a 2 1/2 star rating in a 522-word review.

Carolina fish story
Calabash style lets true flavor shine

Son of a Sailor
617 W. Jefferson St.
La Grange, Ky.
265-2202

Mixed results or not, I am SOOOOOO there. Luvs me some good seafood. And I'll get Andrea to bring me over some delish desserts. Also, I'll go visit Norma at the trackside. Is it just me or has LaGrange become a mini foodieville? Nothing against Marty, but unless it's a white table cloth type place, it can't get more than 3 stars anyhow. I think it's a CJ thing.

Thanks for the praise, Doogy! As a foodie, I'm very happy to live and work in La Grange. We have much to love about our little part of the world and I am glad to provide a tasty piece of it. I visited Son of a Sailor in its first week and decided not to post as we had a laughably bad visit (due to a very poor server who has since been let go). However, I am definitely going to give it another go...although it is hard to pass by Norma Jean's fried cod sandwich when I am in the mood for fish. Have you had it? OMG, so good!

Hey Andrea, my mom and I really want to meet you. We had such an enjoyable time at Norma's for her Easter buffet and mom really loved your cookies. I'll let you know the next time we're gonna be in LaGrange.

Please do, perhaps we could all meet for dinner! I'd love to show you my cookie shop (wholesale & special orders only right now).

Please do, perhaps we could all meet for dinner! I'd love to show you my cookie shop (wholesale & special orders only right now).

We're just gonna have to do that. Mom's in Nashville right now but when she gets back I'll tell her we need to have dinner at Norma's and meet up with you there. I think I'll venture out to Son of a Sailor for lunch on my own. Maybe I can meet you there.

I am the owner of Son of a Sailor Seafood Restaurant. I am not from This area. I’m from Myrtle Beach, S.C.. I was the owner of 4 restaurants down there. I married a Lady from LaGrange, Ky, sold my businesses and moved here thinking I would retire from the restaurant business. When I got here, I couldn’t find any Calabash Style Seafood so I realized if I was going to get any, I would have to open another restaurant. So I did. We opened on June the 10th and on that same day a man from The Courier Journal called me asking a lot of questions about my restaurant. I asked him why he was asking me all this stuff and he said he was going to do a same story on us. I asked him to please not do it. I told him that this was our first day and I wanted to start slow so I could work all of the kinks out before we got slammed. He told me not to worry, that it was going to be something very small and it shouldn’t effect us that much. I still insisted that he not do it yet. I was new to the area and didn’t even know who The Courier was. The following Thursday I started getting phone calls from people from Louisville wanting to know how to get to my restaurant. I asked them how they knew about us and they said that I was in the paper. Then on Saturday it came out in The Scene. We were slammed for the next month. We could hardly keep up. The first weekend was a nightmare. I didn’t have enough product and all of my employees were new. We were bumping into one another. During that time was when Marty R. from The Courier came in and I never knew he was here. That visit is what he based his review on. I felt like his review was not a bad one under the conditions but it would have been nice if the people from The Courier would have let us get our sea legs before doing this. We managed to get through it and our operation is much smoother. Business is good now and at a manageable level. I’m really happy with the way things have turned out. Starting to get to know some folks around here and have found LaGrange to be a nice place to live.

Steve,

First off, welcome to the Forum. Have we met before? Your name sounds familiar. I used to own Fast Break Pizza in Crestwood. I can't say that I miss WORKING in the pizza shop, but I sure do miss seeing all my customers.

Scott I miss your restaurant too! And your very nice crew.

Hey Scott,
Thanks for the welcome. We may have met but it would have had to be from January of this year to now. I've lived in the Myrtle Beach, S.C. area for about 30 years. I don't know many folks up here yet except for our customers here at Son of a Sailor. I'm still trying to learn all of the Kentucky ways. My new wife is from up here and she is helping me with that. The first few months up here were pretty tough and then it got beautiful. Folks are really nice and it looks like this is going to be a great place to live.

I made it out to Son of a Sailor yesterday for a late lunch. Beautiful sunny day, nice drive out there. I wasn't familiar with Calabash style seafood; just thought Calabash was someone Jimmy Durante always said "goodnight" to!
What a treat! My fish sandwich was great. I love corn anything so the light corn flour breading was very good. Fish was flavorful and flakey and not overwhelmed with a lot of seasoning or pepper. I'm a hushpuppy nut and theirs' were very good. Cole slaw tasted home made with maybe a bit of horseradish sauce (maybe?)I prefer the oldtimey sliced cabbage instead of chopped but I guess that doesn't cup up as easy as the chopped cabbage. Minor point and it certainly didn't stop me from eating every bit of my slaw! I wish I could have gotten out there when the weather was warmer. I can see sitting outside and enjoying a fish sandwich on the deck. I'm told there'll be other specials added to the menu so it will have enough variance to be just a fish place. I'll be back.

I made it out to Son of a Sailor yesterday for a late lunch. Beautiful sunny day, nice drive out there. I wasn't familiar with Calabash style seafood; just thought Calabash was someone Jimmy Durante always said "goodnight" to!
What a treat! My fish sandwich was great. I love corn anything so the light corn flour breading was very good. Fish was flavorful and flakey and not overwhelmed with a lot of seasoning or pepper. I'm a hushpuppy nut and theirs' were very good. Cole slaw tasted home made with maybe a bit of horseradish sauce (maybe?)I prefer the oldtimey sliced cabbage instead of chopped but I guess that doesn't cup up as easy as the chopped cabbage. Minor point and it certainly didn't stop me from eating every bit of my slaw! I wish I could have gotten out there when the weather was warmer. I can see sitting outside and enjoying a fish sandwich on the deck. I'm told there'll be other specials added to the menu so it will have enough variance to be just a fish place. I'll be back.

Thanks for stealing my joke, Carla: "Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!"

I haven't visited "Son of a Salior" yet, but your comment about the hushpuppies reminded me during a recent summer trip to South Carolina, all of the seafood restaurants I visited offered a basket of hushpuppies instead of the traditional bread or rolls...