BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: A casual soft opening for Pints&union on a frenetic Friday evening in downtown New Albany.

Pints&union cleared its first hurdle on Friday evening. It was a very soft opening, with beers and drinks and nibbles.

The handles looked nice, although the learning curve was/is strenuous. There's an inevitable process of dialing in keg boxes, and making draft beer work right is like breaking a horse, with each system a bit different from the next. As attractive as these handles might appear, we're all in agreement that we should retrofit with something shorter, like basic black knobs. I'll be getting started on this in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

The upstairs, captured by Ed Needham. We need a name for this space. Steve Resch just might have been overheard suggesting "better times."

Ground floor, from the stairs.

Tasty red lentil hummus with naan bread. Joe and Aaron will be broadening the menu range once the kitchen hood installation is complete, hopefully Monday.

The scene earlier in the afternoon, with Joe, Calvin and Bryan. We didn't want to do a conventional invitation-only type of soft opening and resolved to unlock the doors and see what happened.

It happened, all right.

The grand opening is next Wednesday, August 1. Don't hold me to this, but I believe the opening time will be around 5 or 6 p.m., with the music at 8. There'll be primarily evening hours at first, with exceptions for Saturday and Sunday; closed on Monday. Once a routine is established, anything might happen.

In closing, my back hurts and the draft delivery system still needs work. The draft beers tasted great and were depleting fairly evenly. Staff was sharp and the overall mood jovial. Resch Construction's work exceeded expectations, as they've always somehow managed to do.

Congratulations to Joe, Regina, their kids and families; it's the start of something good, and the legacies begin now.