Restaurants revitalize New Albany; Downtown booster Mike Kopp credited along with streamlined liquor licenses, by Jenna Esarey (Special to the Courier-Journal)There's a deep discussion waiting, although I'm not entirely sure there's time for it today.
... Fueling the restaurant boom to an extent was the creation of the Riverfront District. The state allows New Albany to sell the normally difficult-to-acquire liquor licenses within the district for $1,000.
“We are not creating an area full of bars,” said Kopp.
“Toast has a liquor license so they can sell mimosas with breakfast. La Rosita is relocating downtown so they can sell margaritas.”
New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Since 2004, we’ve been observing the contemporary scene in this slowly awakening old river town. If it’s true that a pre-digital stopped clock is right twice a day, when will New Albany learn to tell time?
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Mike Kopp and downtown New Albany dining in the C-J.
A link I missed earlier in the week:
It just sounds a little strange to say you're not creating an area full of bars and then say these businesses are coming downtown so they can sell liquor. That doesn't really make sense.
ReplyDeleteIt's not illegal, restaurants can move downtown for whatever whim they choose. But there's no use sugar coating it. If their top priority for moving downtown is the availability of liquor, that's fine. But that's what it is, and thus it's basically a liquor district. Whether that's OK or not is up to the user...there's no absolute right or wrong there, at least not yet.
Daniel S.,
ReplyDeleteI believe the distinction is that unlike a "bar," Toast and La Rosita still earn that vast majority of their sales from food. Unlike a bar, most of the Toast and La Rosita patrons do not go there for the alcohol and do not leave having consumed any. Yes, a few of their customers will have a mimosa or a margarita, but in general people are there for food you can't get at a bar.
Very true, as explained by the award-winning Dan Chandler.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read much of the article, just what was recopied here, so I don't know if the comments by mike were in the exact sequence they were printed. It just seemed like a weird way of wording it.
The difference is, not everyone drinks to get drunk. Acquaintances ask me all the time, "How do afford to drink that imported & micro beer?" My answer is, "That's why they call me 2-beer Mark". I'll spend less(and enjoy it more)at the Public House than a lot of people at a "bar".
ReplyDeleteIt's quality and choice. A single malt scotch or a cognac after dinner. Or a nice porter.