Stevie Ray's Blues Bar — Restaurant in Louisville

I don’t know if I had greater expectations than I should have, or if I was just really let down. I moved to Louisville and was told this was THE spot for local blues. I went Saturday night looking to see King Bee and The Stingers, a band I saw prior and was very impressed by.

The 7$ cover was cheap, so no big deal there. The crowd was mixed, but not in a good way. You had plenty people that were clearly there for the music, but you also had loud, drunk, and pushing each other around obnoxious frat crowd ruining it. I sat down and ordered a margarita, just had a cigar and wanted something citrus. What came out was really bad. Clearly using a mixer/canned stuff to make, it was overly sweat with sugar and no like citrus taste. There was also WAY too much mixer, and you couldn’t taste the tequila. They had all the ingredients to make a margarita from scratch, I don’t know why they wouldn’t. No beer on tap. Ordered a pour of Bookers, but was I was also most too sick from the margarita to finish it. Between the loud younger crowd and the bad drink, I left before the band I came to see started.

The music is great. They need to improve the atmosphere and cocktails to match. Can’t see...

If you are coming here to enjoy blues music, like the title of the bar would suggest they have, make sure you actually listen to some of the music by the band before you go. I went, and paid the $7 cover gladly, assuming I would hear blues music in a blues bar. Instead I got a cover band playing songs like "uptown funk" by Bruno Mars and "this is how we do it" by I don't even know or care. It was the opposite of blues. I really hated it. Don't call it a blues bar if you're not hosting blues musicians. I wouldn't have been as upset if I didn't spend the money for the cover. I stayed for one...

I complain to friends all the time about this place, however, sometimes the bands are awesome and super talented, and sometimes they hire bands that should be playing at wedding receptions ...and that's on weekends. I'd like to think Stevie Ray's is too cool to hire bands that play the song Brick House, but sadly, that's not true. It would be great if they would set one night a week aside for jazz, but they don't seem to have the balls to try anything like that. The thing is though, the place has a great vibe, and I would have given it another star rating, but my last two visits were...