Restaurant Impossible - Coach Lamp Update

Photo - Facebook

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Louisville, Kentucky to makeover the Coach Lamp Restaurant.  The Coach Lamp looks nice, has knowledgeable owners, and the food actually tastes good.  Robert has to sit down with them to try to figure out why the restaurant is failing and come up with unique plan to turn it around.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about the Coach Lamp restaurant to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant Impossible):




Positive Reviews:

• "The interior of the place is really nice and the patio is great....All in all a great first trip. I'm excited to have a new spot so close to my house that isn't near bardstown road and all the traffic and parking issues. I will definitely be going back."
• "The food was top notch! And the service was excellent! Six of us all tasted each others apps, salads, entrees, and desserts....too many wonderful things to mention them all...So, my Louisville friends, I encourage you to give this place a try (for the first time or try it again..it has improved)."
• "Since the recent revamp this place has really come into its own. Now its a great representation of the neighborhood where you can go get a solid dinner for a fair price....Sit on the patio if you can. Its brilliant."

Negative Reviews:

• "This place is a wreck even after the revamping by Restaurant Impossible. We went the week following the reopening and the food was a disaster, with items being substituted from what we ordered off the menu without checking with us first, raw fried chicken, and unflavored horrible wings."
• "My goodness! I expected so much more from this experience. What I received was 3 bloody chicken wings and deviled eggs that I know the devil made himself... Who can't fry a chicken wing thoroughly? Who can't make a deviled egg? If you value your stomach do not eat here!" (link to picture of the bloody chicken wing)

Reviews from Yelp, Tripadvisor

Other Links:

• The restaurant keeps an up to date Facebook page, and here is their website.
• An article said locals felt they were priced out by the owners of Coach Lamp in 2001 when they took over the restaurant and that the food was too upscale for the area.

Conclusion:

With the show description stating the food was good, and owners knowledgeable, it sounds like the prices and upscale type of dining may be the problem with the restaurant.  Also, the article above said locals felt this way, so the menu will change quite a bit and offer lower priced, more traditional items.  I think it is interesting that in previous shows, Robert always puts items and prices on menus that do not fit the local area, but this makeover's main focus will be on the local area/prices.

The Coach Lamp restaurant has actually stuck with the Restaurant Impossible changes such as the menu, which many restaurants normally do not do.  A lot of people were also excited about the new patio (Brooke and Billy's Back Patio) that was added during the makeover, so hopefully that can continue to draw customers (although the weather may be too cold to use it in the coming months).

They may want to get the issue of not properly cooking the chicken figured out as there were multiple complaints about raw chicken, with one review having a picture of a raw chicken wing.

UPDATE 10/2015 - In September 2015, Coach Lamp decided to reinvent itself by changing the name and theme of the restaurant.  They closed and now go by the name of Brooke and Billy's Bites, Bourbon & Brew (Link).

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