From 2005: "TRAVEL PRELUDES: Poperinge and a date with Westvleteren."

I'm sore because the pandemic postponed Poperinge's Beer and Hop Festival, and so this week I'll be flooding the blog pages with reruns of past visits, such as I can remember them. They never taught memory loss at beer pioneer school.

Three views from 2005. Diana and I rode into Poperinge from the coast; we stayed in Ieper and rode the train back and forth to the hop fest.

Guy, the co-owner (with his wife Bea) of the Palace Hotel, was serenaded on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

Hops on the cycling route into Poperinge.

One slice of color from the parade.

In 2005 Diana realized she liked beer after all. Certain kinds, that is. The revelation came in Brugge, when she absconded with my Trappist ale, a Rochefort 10, during our session at t' Brugs Beertje.

Hence this dispatch from Poperinge, where she closed the deal. It was dated September 22, 2005 and written following our return home for publication at The Potable Curmudgeon.

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In the grand tradition of beer advertising, we've chosen a beautiful woman to display the product being touted.



Trust me - it's really Westvleteren 12, the beer that “disappeared” from circulation when it was selected as the best beer in the world by readers of RateBeer.com.

Not that it was easy to find, even in Belgium ... even where it is brewed.

The Cafe de Vrede, across the lane from the Sint Sixtus Abbey, was closed for its annual autumn break, which seems usually to occur at the very same time that beer lovers gather in nearby Poperinge for the triennial hop festival. We biked past the venue, and as my old friend Barrie would say, paused to kiss the lock on the door before proceeding into town.

Arriving at the marvelous Hotel Palace in Poperinge, we found no Westvleteren at that estimable cafe; actually, it wasn't clear whether Guy had had any from the start, or whether his stock already was depleted by the time we checked on Saturday.

Cafe de la Paix? Fine food and a great beer selection, but no, not there, either.

Then on Sunday, in preparation for the parade, we dined at the Poussecafe, located just up Ieperstraat from the Palace, and the elusive Trappist elixir was right there, printed on the paper menu, in full view.

I asked the server, who proved to be the owner Kurt, "Do you really have this beer in stock?"

He shrugged and replied: "It wouldn't be listed if I didn't."

An incredible lunch followed, and the food was good, too, but I still prefer Rochefort 10, with Westvleteren a close second.

Later, comfortably seated along the parade route, I was introduced to a great new way to enjoy Poperings Hommelbier.



Pitch the lemons and limes, and go back to the basics.

THE BEER BEAT: What a beer guy like me can learn from Master Sommeliers like Brett Davis and Scott Harper.

The world of wine generally remains mysterious to me, and I aim to keep it that way. Hit or miss, wine remains fun; I know too much about beer to revert to amateur status, so grasping the basics about wine suits me just fine.

The educational opportunities are welcomed whenever they materialize, but I don't always seek them out.

For the past decade and a half, Brett Davis and Scott Harper have represented the other side of this wine appreciation spectrum. They're the Louisville area's Master Sommeliers, which is a very big deal, indeed. The Courier-Journal's Bailey Loosemore explains why.

Master Sommeliers boost city's wine culture

To those chasing it, the Master Sommelier title doesn’t just exemplify the epitome of wine knowledge and service — it’s embodies a way of life, accessible so far to only 250 people worldwide. Candidates who succeed are the chosen ones, skilled at helping their cities’ wine cultures thrive, while cities without Master Sommeliers like Nashville, New Orleans and Indianapolis, stay behind.

Louisville, in the heart of bourbon territory, is now home to two.

After receiving his now-wife’s permission and after six attempts at the master exam, Harper became one of them. The same year he passed, another master candidate who had studied with him, Falls City Hospitality Group partner Brett Davis, passed as well.

Scott worked for many years at the Bristol Bar & Grill, and earlier in 2017 he partnered with the Bristol's ownership group to open Cuvée Wine Table.

Meanwhile, Brett's restaurant management company is perhaps best known for Doc Crow’s Southern Smokehouse & Raw Bar. The company originated Doc's Cantina, which didn't work out, and also owns a restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee.

As someone eternally fascinated by the process of selection -- exactly how does an eatery or bar cull the thousands of possibilities to produce a manageable list of available libations? -- this skull session with Scott and Brett provides numerous opportunities for reflection. Here's an excerpt.

INSIDER INTERVIEWS WITH DAVID FURER: BRETT DAVIS, MS AND SCOTT HARPER, MS

Brett Davis and Scott Harper are Louisville’s two resident Master Sommeliers having both studied and passed the exam together. Introducing myself to them a couple years ago after attending a Bourbon seminar they gave, we became reacquainted last summer barside over draft glasses of Grüner Veltliner at Harper’s Bristol Bar & Grille. Here’s the chatter.

DF: Louisville is growing for reasons other than only whiskey. As both of you are clearly successful in Louisville’s resurging market, and considering market growth in any city, what challenges and what problems might the good wine professional anticipate in planning an effective program?

Scott: Be mindful of where the market is going. New dispensing and preservation systems should be ‘green’ while taking care of your wine. The days of serving oxidized wine that’s been open for 3 days are gone. Coravin, Enomatix, Wine and K are all important to note when building your concept. Retrofitting your operation is expensive, outfitting it right from the beginning—not so much. The same thing from stocking Bourbons to craft beer being ‘on fire’ means making sure you’ve plenty of storage. If you don’t have as much as 50 wines by the glass are you a progressive program? Maybe you can be but you have to be more dynamic.

Brett: You have to read your market. I’m going from fine dining to what I call ‘fun dining’. Even though the economy is coming back people haven’t yet loosened their belts. We’ve begun doing ‘bubba food’ with a good beverage program which is an ‘everyman’s’ wine list, things customers read about and know the varietal they know of if not the brand. The same is true for whiskies and all spirits. I always have Bud Light in my restaurant because I want someone to feel comfortable while also being able to order the most eclectic beer available. It’s not about us, it’s about them.

Scott: Your lists should strike a balance between fun, cutting edge selections that are interesting for the cognoscenti but also have national brands for those people not looking for an intellectual experience in ordering.

Brett: People want to have fun, and are flocking to these middle brow concepts. Markets filled with people with disposable incomes want fine dining, sure, but do they really need white tablecloths? Keep it simple and down-home.

In short, to be a Master Sommelier is like serving as curator of a massive old school library with thousands of volumes, while calibrating selections for restaurants is the process of choosing a couple hundred of these books to be available for reading at any given time -- and to determine ways to make the books entertaining for potential readers.

(Another theme of interest to me in the Furer interview is the relative inferiority of locally-made wines, though a discussion about this can wait for another day. As a novice positioned with two Master Sommeliers, I can't possibly muster an opposing viewpoint ... can I?)

Of course, my central question is about Brett's reference to a Bud Light comfort level for beer: If one is an expert on wine first and foremost, is his or her minimum acceptable level for a dumbing-down point substantively different for the grape than it is for the grain?

Put another way: When it comes to the inevitable descent of offering a comfortable choice, does a Master Sommelier find it easier to do so for a beer than a wine? Is there a place for Gallo ... for Kessler blended whiskey? Or are these impossible, while Bud Light forever probable?

Debating questions like this is why I've had so many enjoyable tasting sessions with both Scott and Brett over the years. As a final example, consider this preview by Bridgett Weaver in Louisville Business First.

FIRST LOOK: Oskar’s Slider Bar shows off Nordic theme

Oskar's also will carry at least four brands of a Scandinavian liquor called aquavit, which Liz said tastes something like gin, but with more specific flavors. It has notes of caraway, juniper and dill. With the liquor, they will offer cocktails with herbs and fruits.

There will be a typical craft beer selection, as at Grind, with 10 tap lines, and a "pretty extensive" can and bottle offering, Jesse said. But the couple wanted to make sure to give the bar and restaurant a neighborhood feel, so all of the go-to domestics will be available, too. And beer will be for sale by the pitcher.

"It was important to us that it was fun but also approachable — both from a food point, but also from a price point," Liz said. "I think we did that."

Expensive imported spirits and Scandinavian foodstuffs inexplicable in the Louisville market? I'm solidly for it, having been blinded by aquavit on several previous occasions. However, kindly note that yet again, when it comes to the reassurance necessary to quell potential squirming, "domestic" beers are the preemptive cure.

As a side note, does anyone care to wager whether the "craft" beer brands from Oskar Blues will be available at Oskar's?

I'm slowly working my way around to a specific point (the gallery erupts in cheers), which is occasioned by this recent article by Caitlin Bowling at (Insider Louisville).

Red Herring ownership, dinner menu change,

Red Herring’s executive chef Jacob Coronado and bar manager Clay Livingston are now part owners of the bar and restaurant — and their first order of business was to change the dinner menu.

The plan was always for the two to build up “sweat equity,” which would later turn into real equity in the business, Livingston told Insider. However, the process was sped up when restaurateur and Red Herring co-owner Brett Davis left to work at a Michigan winery.

Davis is no longer involved with Red Herring. Mo Deljoo, who owns the building and is an entrepreneur, is still a co-owner of the restaurant and bar.

Our mutual friend Kevin had tipped me to the prospect of all sorts of positive changes in the offing for Brett. If it hasn't been made clear already, I think very highly of this man and wish him all the best both personally and professionally.

But when one of only two Master Sommeliers in Louisville goes to Michigan to work in a winery, it strikes me this is a story meriting slightly more coverage than an aside in an article in just one local publication -- no offense intended with regard to Caitlin Bowling, who's a fine reporter.

The only constant is change, or changing of the guard. Many thanks to Brett and Scott for their efforts toward making Louisville such a wonderful food and drink city.

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As an added bonus, here's a post from Potable Curmudgeon dated August 24, 2005. Both Scott and Brett were in attendance that evening, and I'm very glad Diana was driving.

At the recent L & N beer dinner, a chat with table mates led to the setting of a date for a meal, accompanied by wine and beer, the idea being to compare pairings of both libations with food -- and to give the Curmudgeon something to write about for the next issue of "Food & Dining" magazine.

Deadlines have a way of sneaking up on you.

Last night was the night, and the Bristol Bar & Grille in downtown Louisville was the place. It was a gorgeous, cool summer evening, with a light breeze coming in from the terrace, and a view of "old" Main Street across the way.

We join the party well in progress:

Beer highlights included Lindemans Cuvee Rene Gueuze with fried calamari, Schneider Weisse and a Bibb salad (including Stilton cheese, walnuts and mandarin oranges) and Stone Smoked Porter with the glazed pork chop and baked potato at the bottom of the photo.

Great wine, mostly reds, and all European, flowed courtesy of the three high ranking area wine gurus in attendance. It's always a treat to receive instruction from the best.



With a closing port flight available, only one dessert beer made it onto the table.

My only regret is that I have but one liver to give for research like this.

TRAVEL PRELUDES: Poperinge and a date with Westvleteren.

I harbor a great deal of affection for the town of Poperinge, to which I was introduced way back in 1998.

I'd organized a motorcoach tour, wherein 16 of us visited beer pilgrimage spots in Netherlands and Belgium. It came to me attention that the tourist office in Poperinge was dipping its toes into beer tourism, and had an inexpensive program to supply a guide to board our bus for a few hours and officiate.

We went to a countryside roadhouse, learned about old-fashioned pub games, toured the Van Eecke brewery in Watou, and finished at the Hopmuseum Poperinge.

There a strange man approached me and asked if I was the tour leader Roger, whereupon I met Luc Dequidt, then the tourist office's director, and these days happily retired.

Many bountiful returns have accrued from this meeting with Luc, beginning with my first triennial hop festival in September, 1999. I've only missed one since, in 2011.

In 2005, the missus realized she liked beer after all. The revelation came in Brugge, when she absconded with my Trappist ale, a Rochefort 10. Hence this dispatch from Poperinge, where she closed the deal. It was dated September 22, 2005 and written following our return home for publication at The Potable Curmudgeon.

2017 updates will be linked here, in due time.

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In the grand tradition of beer advertising, we've chosen a beautiful woman to display the product being touted.



Trust me - it's really Westvleteren 12, the beer that “disappeared” from circulation when it was selected as the best beer in the world by readers of RateBeer.com.

Not that it was easy to find, even in Belgium ... even where it is brewed.

The Cafe de Vrede, across the lane from the Sint Sixtus Abbey, was closed for its annual autumn break, which seems usually to occur at the very same time that beer lovers gather in nearby Poperinge for the triennial hop festival. We biked past the venue, and as my old friend Barrie would say, paused to kiss the lock on the door before proceeding into town.

Arriving at the marvelous Hotel Palace in Poperinge, we found no Westvleteren at that estimable cafe; actually, it wasn't clear whether Guy had had any from the start, or whether his stock already was depleted by the time we checked on Saturday.

Cafe de la Paix? Fine food and a great beer selection, but no, not there, either.

Then on Sunday, in preparation for the parade, we dined at the Poussecafe, located just up Ieperstraat from the Palace, and the elusive Trappist elixir was right there, printed on the paper menu, in full view.

I asked the server, who proved to be the owner, "Do you really have this beer in stock?"

He shrugged and replied: "It wouldn't be listed if I didn't."

An incredible lunch followed, and the food was good, too, but I still prefer Rochefort 10, with Westvleteren a close second.

Later, comfortably seated along the parade route, I was introduced to a great new way to enjoy Poperings Hommelbier.



Pitch the lemons and limes, and go back to the basics.

On barber schools, then and now.

The name Marshall Pence rang a bell.

Snipping set-backs: Jeffersonville barber school appeals to students with troubled pasts, by Danielle Grady (News and Tribune)

JEFFERSONVILLE — Marshall Pence could have sought out students with clean records and plenty of opportunities to learn at his barber school when he opened it in 2011. He also could have hired self-important, suited men to lead his classes. But that’s not what he wanted.

“I’m seeking after the people who have got their hands in the air and they said ‘I’m ready to give it up; I’m tired,’” he said. “Those are the people I want because those are the real stories.”

As it turns out, that's because almost exactly 10 years ago, another of his barber schools was operating in New Albany, and I wrote abut it.

$4 haircuts return to downtown New Albany.

... We talked him into taking in a city council meeting that same night, and Councilman Cappuccino’s bravura performance made quite an impression on Marshall.

Happily, Marshall decided to open the barber college, anyway.

Unlike Paul Harvey, I cannot tell you the rest of the story, primarily because I don't remember what happened apart from Pence's school being open a while, and then gone.

I wish him the best in Jeffersonville.

ON THE AVENUES: Say a prayer for NA Confidential as it conducts this exclusive interview with Councilman Cappuccino.

ON THE AVENUES: Say a prayer for NA Confidential as it conducts this exclusive interview with Councilman Cappuccino.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

It’s an election year in New Albany, and to prove it, tonight’s city council meeting will be devoted in part to a consideration of whether the Lord’s Prayer should be reinserted into its twice-monthly agenda.

That's right, reinserted, when naturally this particular variant of invocation is nowhere to be found within the ordinances defining council. Mind you, the non-issue of how council conducts its meetings is not destined for the top of the charts with a requisite bullet, but of course this isn't the reason for Dan Coffey’s latest diversionary tactic.

When Coffey demands a resolution on the Lord’s Prayer, or bemoans the absence of a crucial audit, or abstains from a vote immediately following his vicious denunciation or hyperbolic praise of the precise topic at hand, you can be sure he is doing so for the very same reason your cat purrs, rubs your leg or piddles on the blanket.

Which is: He demands to be fed … and fed right now.

For those just tuning in to the abysmal shambles of New Albany’s underachieving city council, this is hardly Coffey’s first dance. As Yogi Berra probably never said, it’s déjà vu all over again.

We’ve been following his self-serving antics since the very advent of NA Confidential, having dubbed this most conniving of all local ward heelers twice, both as Councilman Cappuccino and the Wizard of Westside, the latter nickname coming from awed recognition of his unparalleled ability to catastrophically inject himself into city-wide matters from his tin pot’s perch in the numerically tiny 1st council district, while all the sheltering his constituents from any trace of genuine progress.

Unfortunately, the same might be said of the city at large. Turning back the pages of NA Confidential to April 17, 2005, we find remarkable symmetry between the times of our New Albanian lives then, and now – so much so that the drinking lamp might be lit today well before lunch.

In New Albany, we coddle the anti-social dim bulbs and purge the creative, bright lights.

Decades pass. Our worthiest sons and daughters – the bright, capable and eager future leaders of the city – get away from New Albany as fast as they can, far away from institutionalized slum lord debasement not just tolerated but welcomed over a period of four or more decades, away from the overcrowded and down market Harvest Homecoming that is our sole and only claim to infamy, away from a place where any good idea, any sign of intelligent life, any revolt against the lumpy mashed potato norm is dismissed and derided as craziness emanating from a book-reading, un-American queer who can just move the hell out if he or she doesn't like it here.

Do you think this characterization of traditional New Albany is somehow unfair? If so, we submit with all due respect that you have a strong coffee, look around you, and face the unpleasant facts of the matter.

All of it is true, it’s inexcusable, it's embarrassing, and the inescapable conclusion is that we’ve been purging the wrong elements all these years.

Go ahead. Pour the java and have a glance ... if you dare. Disturbing, isn’t it?

Apart from the recent frenzied construction of numerous shiny campaign empowerment objects via the gleaming ATM known locally as TIF, nothing much has changed here in New Albany. Granted, the Wizard has a grand new role, portraying an ever-faithful Sancho Clemenza to Jeff Gahan’s power-crazed Godfather Quixote, but insofar as Coffey’s real political life renders satire nearly moot, we’re stuck in a time warp.

Following is an “interview” first published on April 18, 2005. We hope Sherreff Duggins will note the proper use of quotation marks, although breaths are not being held here in the office.

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NA Confidential: Today in the studio we have a very special guest, the esteemed city councilman of long standing, Mr. Cappuccino.

Councilman Cappuccino: Thank you (preening) … now, where’s that red light? Citizens, just last week, as I spent quality time with my beloved hobby of antique furniture refinishing, which I’d gladly settle for doing in a heartbeat if not for the hopes and dreams of dozens of honest, salt-of-the-earth West Side families, who depend on me to bring home their bacon, improve their drainage, install their water heaters and protect them from the Ordinance Nazis – hah! Boy, that’s a real knee-slapper – I gotta thank my friend Li’l Stevie here (Cappuccino hoists a doll atop his knee) for coming up with the Ordinance Nazi phrase, right Li’l Stevie?

Li’l Stevie (former 3rd district councilman Steve Price): Yes sir, Mr. Cappuccino, you’re dead right, just like always … hey, there they are! NAZIS! NAZIS! Hide the video poker machine!

NAC: He’s certainly well-tanned.

CC: Did you say well tamed? It runs in the family. Hmm, like I was piously intoning … anyway, my downtrodden westsiders need me, and as the Wizard I whiz only for them, even if it kills me.

NAC: All right. Here’s our first question, Mr. Cappuccino. Do you support ordinance enforcement in the city of New Albany?

CC: Well, Knack, when it comes to enforcing the prevailing laws, we have to be extra careful to avoid those questionable practices that might be conscrewed as discriminatory. We must understand at all times that there’s a higher principle involved than just the exterior design tastes and storage practices of fine, church-going, taxpaying people who have chosen to make New Albany their homes, and that’s because they have a right to expect a certain level of respect for the lifestyles they’ve chosen to lead.

NAC: Are you talking about the higher principle of fairness?

CC: (Rolling his eyes) Fairness? That’s what those godless Louisvillians are always pushing. Heck, we have plenty of fairness in New Albany, just so long as you’re normal. (Cappuccino strikes a theatrical pose) No, not, fairness, but the very lifeblood of the city itself, without which we’d have nothing.

NAC: The rule of law?

CC: (Exasperated) Law, schmaw. No, VOTES! Can’t live with ‘em when they’re cast by those hoity toity East Enders, and can’t live without ‘em if they’re my neighbors on the West Side! They don’t call me the Wizard for nothing, you know. At the same time, my world-famous barbecued bologna cookouts only go so far, and at some point, you have to earn the respect of your constituents, and one great way to do that is to protect them from the heat.

NAC: Wait -- did you say barbecued bologna?

CC: Yes, I can smell it and taste it right now. My neighbor Marcelene cooks it up right. Cube the bologna, cook some onions in oil, throw in your favorite barbecue sauce, let it simmer … man, let me tell you, that’s living. Right Li’l Stevie?

LS: And you can put it in Tupperware, Mr, Cappuccino! Save it for a rainy day! Save it for a rainy day!

NAC: Mr. Cappuccino, what were your thoughts last year when the city of New Albany began enforcing the right of way for street sweeping?

CC: Quite frankly, it was a blatant attack on our cherished West End way of life – family, church, iced tea and the ice cream social, all under siege by the Silver Hills elite and the book-readin’ snobs. You know, I’d call it discrimination, maybe even genocide … if I knew what genocide meant …

NAC: To be perfectly honest, that sounds somewhat paranoid.

CC: You book learners are all the same, and it’s a good thing I don’t have to read those books to know what’s in ‘em for me. Listen, just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean the pointy-heads aren’t out to get you. Every self-respecting ward heeler knows that ordinances are just like women – you’ve got to squeeeeze ‘em a little until they start making sense. Go and clean up the porno shop, and the people in the district love you. But when it comes to making them move the old appliances off the porch … well, that’s different. They’ll turn on you, vote against you, and all that tasty bologna’s wasted.

NAC: So, can you explain your vote in favor of ordinance enforcement?

CC: Of course I can. Like I said, I’m for it.

NAC: And what about your public statement that you are in favor of rental unit inspections?

CC: I’m for that, too.

NAC: But won’t you lose votes if such measures are adopted?

CC: There’s the rub, knacker. Being for 'em is one thing, but you didn’t hear me say anything about FUNDING them properly, did you? Or writing that ordinance so it'd have any chance of working?

NAC: Perhaps we’re beginning to understand the central equation.

CC: Don't you see? If we give the uppity East Enders and City Hall what they want, and then it doesn’t work out in the end … well, you just try and guess who gets blamed when it tanks – right Li’l Stevie?

LS: Right, boss!! My friends, I’m not anti-parks, and I’m not anti-progress … I’m anti-success!! No, wait, I mean I’m anti-egress!! No, that’s zoning-speak. I’m anti-Garner!! That’s it!! It's all his fault!!

CC: Yes it is. It’s kind of like the good spy, bad spy thing in Mad magazine.

NAC: Oh, so you read Mad magazine?

CC: NO! For the last time, I don’t read … but I know what people are writing. It’s a trick that Dick Nixon would have taught me if he would’ve been a Democrat … not that I was ever a Republican, mind you. Like I always say, be proud, be Democrat!

LS: NAZIS! NAZIS! They’re coming now, and they have books!!

NAC: But I thought the Nazis burned books?

CC: Who knows, but I’ve found that the biggest words tend to make the best open fire underneath that skillet of barbecued bologna.

NAC: But isn’t there an ordinance against open fires?

CC: Not where I come from, tenderfoot: The Wild, Wild West.

NAC: Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have today. Thanks to Mr. Cappuccino and Li’l Stevie for speaking with us today.

CC: Thanks, and just a quick reminder to my constituents – I have the keys to the crapper, if any of you need to use it.*

* At the time, Coffey was lobbying strenuously to be awarded the keys to the public toilet located at the park across the street from his house, so that he could lock it up each evening. The county parks department responded by demolishing it.