Robin Garr's LOUISVILLE Restaurant Reviews

84	Bonefish Grill 657 S. Hurstbourne Parkway (502) 412-4666 Website: http://www.bonefishgrill.com/

OK, here we go again: Another national chain operation moves into Louisville's suburbs with another eatery that looks just like its siblings in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and elsewhere ... so we get another anti-corporate rant from the restaurant critic, right?

Well ... not exactly. Perhaps I'm mellowing, but after a bit of background reading and a visit for a seafood dinner that left me impressed, I'm inclined to place Bonefish Grill - like its corporate relative and Hurstbourne-area neighbor Carrabba's - into the category of chains that do the job right, avoiding the balance-sheet-driven impulse to cut corners in favor of earning a reputation the old-fashioned way, through quality product and service. (It is the newest concept of the Outback Steakhouse (OSI) chain. For a bit of corporate information, see below.)

I'm still not crazy about seeing our suburbs turn into a mirror image of every other medium-size city's suburbs with all the same logos and all the same shops - but it's foolish to whine too audibly when the food is good.

Bonefish Grill opened last month in a small shopping center building almost next door to Carrabba's on Hurstbourne (about midway between Shelbyville Road and I-64). The good-size dining room extends along the building, with large windows overlooking suburban traffic. The room has a Florida feeling in keeping with the chain's origins, with decor that's simple, almost stark, with a few prints and an intriguing backlighted metal wall sculpture that sketches the outlines of a Florida coastal cypress hammock. Booths and tables are draped in white oilcloth protected by heavy white paper, and the background music is pleasant and rather quiet, undemanding jazz.

Our server, a friendly fellow who might work as an actor in his spare time (or maybe an actor who works as a server in his spare time) said he was up from Florida to help train the new crew.

The menu features mostly seafood and fish, with a few meat and poultry options for landlubbers. About a dozen starters, soups and salads range from $4 (for a house salad or Caesar, which also come free with entrees) to $13.50 (for a full order of ahi tuna "sashimi," actually seared with a raw-to-rare interior). About a dozen seafood and fish main courses are subdivided into wood-grilled items (from $14 for Atlantic salmon to $18.50 for Chilean sea bass, market price for lobster tails) and "Sauté," $13 for diablo shrimp fettuccine to $17 for pistachio-Parmesan-crusted rainbow trout. A half-dozen non-acquatic grilled specialties are $13 (for chicken Marsala or an 11-ounce sirloin steak) to $17.50 (for an 8-ounce filet mignon).

There's full bar service including a 10-item martini list, for those who prefer an anesthetic before the meal. The wine list is short and pleasantly moderate in its pricing, with the usual double-retail (triple wholesale) markup, but mostly relatively low-end choices from mass-market producers like Ecco Domani (Gallo), Rosemount and Kendall-Jackson, with most bottles under $40 and many in the $20-$30 range (most available by the glass from $4.25 to $10).

A short "reserve list" offers a half-dozen more pricey wines, again from larger producers at prices like $46 for Swanson Merlot, $62 for Cakebread Chardonnay and $77 for Kendall-Jackson Great Estates Cabernet Sauvignon. The list is bereft of unusual wines, a challenge that corporate restaurants have a hard time surmounting - artisanal wines produced in small quantities aren't practical when you're buying wine for a chain of properties.

I chose Pepi 1999 Two Heart Canopy California Sauvignon Blanc ($26), a good value choice from Kendall-Jackson's stable, a crisp and tart white with pleasant citric aromas and flavors that lean in the direction of grapefruit. Bonefish's wine glasses are passable if more practical than elegant; smallish but on the heavy side, the better to stand up to frequent passes through the dishwasher.

Our appetizer, crab cakes ($9.50), was attractively presented, plated with an artful design of dark-green wasabi-based sauce with spots of red hot sauce cut into it with a neat little chef's trick to make them look like tiny hearts. A wedge of lemon was wrapped in cheesecloth to keep the seeds from coming out when it's squeezed. The cakes were fine, full of lump crab with little filler, lightly formed and delicate, sautéed grease-free.

In a service ritual akin to Carrabba's, olive oil is ceremoniously poured into a dish over a pile of fine-chopped basil, garlic, Parmesan and red-pepper flakes to make a dipping medium for simple sliced white-bread country loaves served warm.

Entrees are served with salad and your choice of one from a quartet of "awesome" sides: potato, rice or pasta sides. The house salad is a well-built presentation, featring romaine and a bit of red-leaf lettuce composed with hearts of palm, pine nuts, tomato wedges and olives, with a tart-sweet lemon vinaigrette served on the side as requested. A Caesar was straightforward: Crisp, fresh romaine with plenty of grated parmesan and an ample dressing, more oily than creamy. Toasted croutons were light and crunchy, and there wasn't an anchovy in sight.

Grouper piccata ($16.50), one of the "Sauté" entrees, featured a good-size fillet, lightly breaded and fried, coated with a thickened, sweet-tangy lemon-butter sauce that could have been more tangy and less sweet, with a sprinkle of capers. Garlic mashed potatoes made a comforting accompaniment, smooth and rich with butter and cream.

Grouper thermidor ($18.50), a special of the day, consisted of an excellent grilled fillet, delicate and flaky, its flavor heightened with a touch of spicy black-pepper on the edge. It was covered with a creamy "Thermidor" sauce, a pink-tinted bechamel loaded with sliced white mushrooms and a few pieces of somewhat overcooked lobster. My choice of side dish, angelhair pasta with marinara sauce, was very much like Carrabba's: The thin pasta was held to al dente, a kitchen trick that's not easy to accomplish in a busy restaurant setting, and the sauce was well-made, a good balance of tangy tomato and subtle herb flavors.

Both dinners came with a serviceable vegetable medley including carrots, green beans, zucchini and summer squash and white onion, all lightly cooked crisp-tender and sprinkled with dill. It was a decent vegetable ration, and if it didn't quite make me hear the angels sing, there was no chorus of demons chanting in the background either.

With food and setting putting us in a Florida mood, we couldn't resist a shared slice of key lime pie ($4.50) and were delighted to get an authentic rendition, as good as some we've had in the Keys themselves. A generous slice was creamy, tart and not too sweet, on a crunchy graham-cracker crust and topped with a dollop of real whipped cream. With cups of credible espresso ($3.75), dinner for two came to $87.45, demonstrating that chain restaurants aren't necessarily cheap restaurants. (It's fair to note, though, that the toll included appetizer, dessert and a decent bottle of wine along with entrees. You can certainly get out of there for less.) Competent and cordial service added a $17.55 tip. $$$

(October 2002)

About the chain
Outback Steakhouse Inc. (OSI) operates full-service restaurants under the brand names Outback Steakhouse (its flagship with 667 U.S. and 72 international properties); Carrabba's Italian Grill (103 properties), and smaller operations including Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Roy's and the new Bonefish Grill, which only recently emerged from its origins in Florida's Tampa Bay area with a target of 20 properties in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky in the coming year. OSI's revenues for the first six months of 2002 rose 11 percent to $1.18 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.