Review: The Granville Inn

The Charlie Burger features grilled onions and mushrooms topping a huge hamburger patty. (Credit: Matt Stone)

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The Granville Inn is about as comfortable in its skin as a pub can be. Unkempt and casual, cheap and utterly functional, it’s the very essence of a neighborhood tavern. It’s also a few blocks from my Old Louisville home, which means it’s my neighborhood bar. It’s also just a couple of short blocks from the University of Louisville campus, which means that once school starts it becomes the closest thing to a true college bar you’ll find in the city.

During the summertime doldrums, when the campus is quiet and college sports are on hiatus, the Granville is a sleepy little place — but all that changes pretty quickly once fall (and the students) arrive. From then on, from football season’s opening kickoff to the last whistle of the NCAA tournament, the scene can get pretty frenetic.

Whether you take it as a neighborhood bar or as a place where every heart beats Cardinal red, it’s an old-fashioned bar in the best sense — there’s not a hint of creeping gentrification to be found. Just banks of televisions (nearly always tuned to some sort of sports show), a pool table, an electronic dart board, assorted video games and a long, comfortable bar. The room also contains enough tables and threadbare chairs to seat a goodly crowd during a game or one of those long collegiate study sessions examining the effect of American ales on the Hegelian dialectic — or the finer points of the wishbone offense.

The food is cheap, the portions plentiful, the quality generally good and the service quick.

The Granville is justly famous for its burgers, which have long been critically acclaimed as among the best in the city. Weighing in at 8 ounces each, they’re pretty much the definition of what a burger should be. The beef has the light, almost airy, texture of finely ground meat. And in my experience, when you order a medium rare burger, that’s what you get: a big patty that’s pink at the center, bursting with juice and plopped on a sesame seed bun that’s sturdy enough to support the burger and anything else you’d like on it — perhaps marinara and mozzarella, pepper cheese and jalapenos, sautéed mushrooms and onions, or the traditional lettuce, fresh onion and a slab of tomato.

Regardless of how gussied up the burger, it won’t set you back more than $6.50, and for that you also get a choice of fries, coarsely chopped coleslaw or onion rings. All those choices are fine, but the onion rings (also available as a generous Basket O’ Rings for $4.50) are outstanding. They’re big, hand-breaded loops with a crunchy, juicy pop — double-dipped in buttermilk, then dredged in a mildly spicy cornmeal batter (a technique that also works wonders for the fried cod and fried fish sandwiches (both $6.25).

Salads and other sandwiches are nicely done as well. A grilled chicken salad ($6.75) is a tumbled pile of bright greens and succulent chunks of chicken. A grilled tuna sandwich ($6.95) was attractive — if a tad overcooked — and lightly dusted with pepper and spices that gave it more of a spicy kick. Fried fish and chicken sandwiches Other options include bratwurst with a side of kraut ($3.50), grilled chicken sandwiches with an assortment of dressings and toppings ($6.25) and a few vegetarian and vegan options (vegan burger, $6.25; grilled PB&J, $4.25).

On the other hand, a simple cheese pizza (8 inches, $10) would have lost in a throw-down with a frozen supermarket slice; it suffered inexplicably from a bready, tasteless crust and a disappointing lack of sauce. And an order of hand-twisted breadsticks ($5.25) looked great on the plate — each knot showing an attractive dark char — but were lacking the requisite garlic flavor.

Still, when two people can eat a hearty meal for less than $15 (make that a bit over $20 if each drinks a pint of draft beer), it seems silly to quibble over a breadstick.

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