Gospel Bird scores praise in the CJ, then reveals a new restaurant/distillery idea for Main Street.

Formerly the WE Studio, soon to become Concrete Jungle. 

New Albany is Southern Indiana's Food District, and the week before Derby has been filled with positive media, some of it generated entirely unexpectedly.

Bernie Sanders dines in New Albany as local Democrats join Hillary at an Applebee's somewhere.

Bernie Sanders at The Exchange pub + kitchen, Tuesday, May 3.

Meanwhile, it's all Gospel Bird. The patio is open, and will be served by the restaurant's refashioned Airstream bar once health department approval is obtained. Until then, servers will find a way to put a drink in your hand.

The Courier-Journal's praise for Gospel Bird is effusive.

Gospel Bird is a don’t miss, by Nancy Miller (Special to the Courier-Journal)

Unlike a sponge that soaks up every trend, (Eric) Morris and (Ethan) Ray do their own thing, marrying a casual sensibility with revved up inventiveness. Don’t take my word for it, although I speak only the truth. The eating is believing. I’m a Gospel Bird believer. Hallelujah.

Rating: 3 ½ of 4 stars

Then there's this bombshell. Who knew that Steve Resch had designs on being a distilling magnate?

As Gospel Bird soars, Eric Morris eyes opening of Concrete Jungle restaurant and distillery, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville)

... And as the future of New Albany’s downtown unfolds, Morris envisions even greater traffic. He says an unnamed developer from Nashville wants to erect a seven-story building (either a hotel or condo complex) across the street from his restaurant, and developer Steve Resch wants to build a restaurant and distillery a literal stone’s throw from Gospel Bird.

And he wants Morris to run it.

“I have no plan to open a bunch of restaurants, but Steve came to us with this idea and we wanted to do it,” Morris says. The building is located at 324 E. Main St. “We came back to him with our ideas, and he said he loved it.”

The business will be called Concrete Jungle, Morris says, adding it has literal and symbolic applications.

Just think how much better all these positive developments would come together if they were connected by complete, calmed, two-way streets.