kudos to louisville restaurants

I rencently moved to paris, france almost 4 months ago from louisville, ky. We have been to lots of restaurants in paris, london, brussels, and all over the south of france but louisville still has some of the best service and consistently quality food I've had in my life. There is amazing food here at most restaurants and if you like to cook then the materials are easily availible to make delicous food. We've had some of the worst service of our lives here so in turn you settle with delicous food and a waiter from hell. Rocket salad is fading away finally... I can't wait to get back to louisville and go to jack frys for a huge steak or a delicious pork chop, a sound burger at proof, lonnies hotdogs, a pancake breakfast at toast or northend cafe, a huge dinner at 732 with mussels and the works, late night spinellis, and desert at Cake flower any day of the week.

Awesome!

Why don't you bring us back some decent baguettes and some couscous which is almost non-existant here!

Not being critical but it sounds like you want to France expecting to eat what you eat here. When you go to a different culture you need to live in that culture instead of trying to continue to live in America. Yes, you'll miss certain American Foods and restaurants but in order to experience the local culture you need to try to adopt it. French desserts are nowhere near as sweet as what Americans are used to. Serving sizes in general are much smaller and that preparations are obviously different even for common foods like a steak. International dishes, pizza for example have their own local interpretations at am not going to live up to what you are expecting if you're expecting what there is in Louisville.

When I lived in France I start out with the same impression that you did but when I finally realized I wasn't living in America anymore and accepted their culture the food so they became much better! Sure I still missed the food we had here but I just missed it because it was something different, not something better.

As for service, the only country I felt I really received bad service in was England because of the many eastern Europeans now living there. In France I found that once my French language skills became better and they realized I wasn't an arrogant American that wanted my way the service got much better!

I'll second the motion about bringing back some good baguettes! However, since the Concord is no longer flying I'm afraid they would be stale before you get them back!

[Robin Garr]

Okay, I love Louisville and its dining scene, and yeah, we're way above the median for cities our size.

But better than Paris? Really?

As for the service thing, I can't recall ever having mean or surly service in a restaurant in France or Italy, other than maybe fast-food stops on the Autoroute (which are a heck of a lot better than Interstate rest stops here). There are ways to get on the wrong side of a server everywhere, but it doesn't really matter what country you're in ...

As a fluent French speaker, I have always found the French to be quite friendly, generous people--in fact I could go on and on about wonderful friendships and experiences I've had in the francophone world (of course I must confess that they LOVE French speaking americans!). Granted, in the height of a Parisian summer, with tourists crawling everywhere, one may not find the friendliest waiters who are more focused on just getting people served--to be expected. I'm pretty burnt out on hearing negative impressions of the French, and francophones in general, by monolinguistic anglophones who don't even bother learning how to say "bonjour" or "merci" when they travel abroad. I'm not insinuating that the person who posted this is of that type, but rather am making a general statement.

Okay, I love Louisville and its dining scene, and yeah, we're way above the median for cities our size.

But better than Paris? Really?

As for the service thing, I can't recall ever having mean or surly service in a restaurant in France or Italy, other than maybe fast-food stops on the Autoroute (which are a heck of a lot better than Interstate rest stops here). There are ways to get on the wrong side of a server everywhere, but it doesn't really matter what country you're in ...

We were at a very nice place on the Ille St. Louis and our dinner was going fine. We were with another couple and about half way through the meal a waiter started hitting on my friend's wife. When she excused herself to powder her nose the waiter approached her and started hitting on her again. Needless to say I thought there was going to be a fist fight as some loud words were exchanged. After that the service went down hill but it was an unusual and entertaining evening.

[Robin Garr]

My French ranges from poor to atrocious, but I always try to use it when I'm in France. It's much more effective than starting out in loud English, and I've found that either a rough communication will be achieved, or if the server speaks English, he'll take pity on me and start using it. It's not a problem as long as the server goes first.

As a fluent French speaker, I have always found the French to be quite friendly, generous people--in fact I could go on and on about wonderful friendships and experiences I've had in the francophone world (of course I must confess that they LOVE French speaking americans!). Granted, in the height of a Parisian summer, with tourists crawling everywhere, one may not find the friendliest waiters who are more focused on just getting people served--to be expected. I'm pretty burnt out on hearing negative impressions of the French, and francophones in general, by monolinguistic anglophones who don't even bother learning how to say "bonjour" or "merci" when they travel abroad. I'm not insinuating that the person who posted this is of that type, but rather am making a general statement.

As for service, the only country I felt I really received bad service in was England because of the many eastern Europeans now living there.

Care to elaborate? That statement might strike some as a bit offensive. . .

If you want to brush up on your French, come on down to the new location of Alliance Francaise de Louisville. We have moved to St. Matthews, near the old Sears building (you all know about that, right?).
We have classes starting 9/14 and are talking about having a travelers' French course that would be just the tune-up someone might want before their trip. After reading this thread, I will definitely promote the idea.
All the info you need is on our web site - find it by clicking on our ad on LHB home page and forum directory page. Or just go direct to http://www.aflouisville.org.
Ward Wilson

My French ranges from poor to atrocious, but I always try to use it when I'm in France. It's much more effective than starting out in loud English, and I've found that either a rough communication will be achieved, or if the server speaks English, he'll take pity on me and start using it. It's not a problem as long as the server goes first.

As a fluent French speaker, I have always found the French to be quite friendly, generous people--in fact I could go on and on about wonderful friendships and experiences I've had in the francophone world (of course I must confess that they LOVE French speaking americans!). Granted, in the height of a Parisian summer, with tourists crawling everywhere, one may not find the friendliest waiters who are more focused on just getting people served--to be expected. I'm pretty burnt out on hearing negative impressions of the French, and francophones in general, by monolinguistic anglophones who don't even bother learning how to say "bonjour" or "merci" when they travel abroad. I'm not insinuating that the person who posted this is of that type, but rather am making a general statement.

There you go, Robin. Just a bit of common courtesy. You know the words to the song--"When you're smiling, the whole world smiles at you." Well, with a few "Bonjours" and "Buon giornos" and "Hola, buenas dias" it at least shows some respect for the host culture. In fact, in your case, Robin, you gain even more respect by struggling to hammer out a few words and phrases!

As for service, the only country I felt I really received bad service in was England because of the many eastern Europeans now living there.

Care to elaborate? That statement might strike some as a bit offensive. . .

It was meant in very much the same way about the arrogant Americans not trying to speak French. Several times we went to restaurants and had eastern European Waiters we did not speak English nor would they try, they expected to be able to serve us by gestures and pointing at the menu items. This may be OK for a quick service restaurant but I don't expect it to happen when I am spending over $100 per person for a meal in an English speaking country. When I'm in a non English speaking country I expect language problems but what I'm in an English speaking country I expect the Waiters to be able to understand English!

My statement was not meant to be derogatory to any nationality and I probably should have stated the entire reasoning originally.

The original post was a bit hard for me to believe also. Louisville has some fine restaurants, but Paris...........

It's always helpful to remember "when in Rome..." in situations such as this. I ADORE French food, in all forms. Baguettes...cheese...the open air markets....snails...the pasteries. Certainly they are different from here, but they are lovely in their own way. I would NEVER go to Paris and expect to find fried chicken on par with the South.