Review: ZaZoo's

(Credit: Joseph Lord)

Don’t dismiss St. Matthews’ bar scene. The first nice thing about it is its mere existence. This Bar Hopper is a product of Louisville’s suburbs, and I can say with authority that they’re not the city’s epicenters for hipness and good times.

At the same time, the Baxter Avenue scene can be so crowded and feral while Fourth Street Live can be so plastic. St. Matthews is less packed — a good thing and a bad thing — but the handful of bars are diverse. There are music venues, brewpubs, Irish bars and pool halls. Apart from these cluster of bars is Zazoo’s Bar & Grill, which fits into many of the bar categories: Music venue, eatery and cool, secluded hangout.

Zazoo’s is a pretty picture from Bauer, just off Frankfort Avenue and about a mile from St. Matthews’ busy brew hubs. There’s a patio with a half-dozen metal lawn tables out front, which sits off the street and is much nicer than the ramshackle designated-smoking areas that popped up in the wake of the smoking ban.

Inside, you’ll find a shotgun-style barroom, much cleaner and classier than the neighborhood dives sprinkled throughout Louisville’s less hip suburbs. Zazoo’s has a nice selection of beers on tap: Smithwick’s, Newcastle, Guinness, plus the usual domestics. I laid down $3 for a Smithwick’s and observed the scene: A few young guys drinking beers at the bar and young women in nice dresses sipping wine.

Zazoo’s offers decent specials — $1.50 for PBR pints on Monday, 25-cent chicken wings on Tuesday and a $2 bring-your-own-mug special on Wednesday. You’ll get PBR, non-hipsters should know, and the mugs are limited to 32 ounces. But, 32 ounces! Thursday is a nice deal, too: $12 for unlimited pizza and wine from 9 p.m. to midnight. The grill offers the standard brew pup fare — pizza, burgers and wings — but it’s quite tasty.

Zazoo’s has live music on weekends, ranging from psychedelic pop band Broadfield Marchers to wannabe rock stars Rocktimus Prime.