Good luck to Jason Thomas, who is leaving the News and Tribune to join Business First as managing editor.

During Jason Thomas's time at the News and Tribune, we often agreed, although there were a few spirited disagreements. It's even possible that I was in the wrong on occasion, but no more than once or twice.

Jason always listened, always engaged, and always replied. I respect the hell out of these traits because they're rare hereabouts, and while I wish him all the best at Business First, his departure is a blow to local journalism in our neck of the woods.

The ranks of quality are thinning, and Bill Hanson isn't exactly improving -- something I reminded him about earlier today.

ON THE AVENUES: Welcome to "Pagan Life," a weekly column devoted to heathens, infidels, idolaters, atheists, non-theists, irreligious people, agnostics, skeptics, heretics and apostates.

Good luck to Jason Thomas in all his future endeavors in journalism. He's a classy guy, and we need more like him.

THE BEER BEAT: Airline pricing for movie theater drinks, although we've little idea which ones.

If I were an editor at Business First -- well, that's unlikely, given that business-oriented publications contain far too many numbers for a humanities major like me, and anyway, it's my habit to refrain from fetishizing grubby capitalists -- I'd ask the contributing writer why some of the following beers are tagged by brand name, but the wines are identified by style.

What's on tap at Baxter Avenue Theatres' new bar, by Marty Finley (Louisville Business First)

... The bar has been in the works for months and carries several domestic and imported beer selections on tap — priced between $7 and $9 — alongside red and white wine selections for $10, according to Apex.

The theater's beer selection includes Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Rolling Rock, Cumberland Brew, Dos Equis, BBC Pale Ale and Rhinegeist. Wine selections include merlot, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, white zinfandel, chardonnay and moscato.

Maybe the printing on the mass-market wine box was too small, or the press release incomplete.

Furthermore: Miller Lite is a specific beer brand, but Rhinegeist and Cumberland Brew (forgot an "s" there) are not. Which beers from these two breweries are they?

Then there's the reference to BBC Pale Ale. To my knowledge, BBC (currently down a brewery since the St. Matthews location closed earlier this year) isn't packaging at present. Is this draft, and if so, might it be BBC American Pale Ale (APA), which has been the name since the mid-1990s?

To summarize, seeing as I attend movies in theaters like this about as often as I read business-oriented publications ...

Is this the same Guy Fieri who got history's worst (and funniest) restaurant review back in 2012?

Now that the former News and Tribune editor is working for Louisville Business First, will it devote the bulk of its coverage to fluffing chains in Cincinnati?

Inquiring minds want to know, but I digress.

Today the electronic media breathlessness took hold, and it wasn't pretty.

Guy Fieri plans Louisville announcement, by David A. Mann (Louisville Business First)

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri will make an announcement in Louisville tomorrow, according to a media advisory.

The advisory is from Fourth Street Live developer The Cordish Cos., which could indicate that a Fieri restaurant is going to locate there. It says Fieri will make "a special appearance and announcement" during the Hometown Tourist Attraction Showcase news conference.

Yay -- Cordish will save us from ourselves!

Sorry, media shills, but whenever I hear Guy Fieri's name, all I can think about is that epochal gut-buster of a review in the New York Times (2012). If anyone truly belongs at Fourth Street Live, it's Fieri.

If you need me for anything, I'll be dining and drinking locally, thanks. Now, prepare to laugh loud and long.

As Not Seen on TV: Restaurant Review: Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square, by Pete Wells (New York Times)

GUY FIERI, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square? Have you pulled up one of the 500 seats at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar and ordered a meal? Did you eat the food? Did it live up to your expectations?

Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex? When you saw the burger described as “Guy’s Pat LaFrieda custom blend, all-natural Creekstone Farm Black Angus beef patty, LTOP (lettuce, tomato, onion + pickle), SMC (super-melty-cheese) and a slathering of Donkey Sauce on garlic-buttered brioche,” did your mind touch the void for a minute?

Did you notice that the menu was an unreliable predictor of what actually came to the table? Were the “bourbon butter crunch chips” missing from your Almond Joy cocktail, too? Was your deep-fried “boulder” of ice cream the size of a standard scoop?

What exactly about a small salad with four or five miniature/a> croutons makes Guy’s Famous Big Bite Caesar (a) big (b) famous or (c) Guy’s, in any meaningful sense?

Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?

Business First demeans the late Exit, then chronicles its Italian transformation.

Last week, NAC broke the Irish Exit's closing: Irish Exit makes its ... exit. Now Business First offers details in The Irish Exit in New Albany is going Italian (by Caitlin Bowling), but not before two strange lead sentences.

The Irish Exit, a rundown bar in downtown New Albany, is changing nationalities.

“The Irish Exit has exited the building and exited the universe, hopefully," said Cyle Mullikin, who is now leasing the property.

Why is the word "rundown" necessary to the story?

Why is the snarky "exited the universe" quote necessary to the story?

They're jarring, and more appropriate to a blog mike mine than Business First. Has it scrapped the stodgy traditional style template in a bid to emulate the breezy breathlessness of Insider Louisville's business coverage?

And then there's this little matter of consistency in spelling.

Mullikin and his wife, Ulrike Mullikin, who used to work as a restaurant manager at The Brown Hotel, will open an upscale Italian restaurant called Don Vito’s Italian Bistro in the former Irish Exit location. They have hired Annette Saco, owner and chef at the now-closed La Gallo Rosso in the Highlands, as their head chef.

Kyle Mullikin described the cuisine for Don Vito's as fresh, rustic Italian and the restaurant's ambiance as an Italian speakeasy. The bar will serve signature cocktails, and the menu will include sea bass, risotto, scallops and stuffed chicken breast.

First Cyle, then Kyle.

This is the second time in a week that I've read a Business First piece about New Albany and scratched my head. The first one, also written by Caitlin Bowling, was here: New Albany mayor, business owner talk about city’s growth. It read as though it had been randomly edited by dartboard, and didn't coherently tie together comments by the mayor and Ian Hall.

Of course, there remains a larger issue: Does downtown New Albany really need two Italian restaurants? I suppose the market can decide that one.

Congratulations to Cary Stemle.

There doesn't appear to be an official announcement, at least yet, but the social media grapevine reports that former longtime LEO editor Cary Stemle is to be the new managing editor at Louisville's Business First, where Insider Louisville recently was compelled to resort to a reading of tea leaves to make sense of a personnel "exodus."

I'm not a BF devotee, but sincere congratulations to Cary. He's good people.

Outside, it's New Albania.

We take the staircase to the first floor
We turn the key and slowly unlock the door
A man breathes into a saxophone
And through the walls we hear the city groan
Outside it's America
Outside it's America
-- "Bullet the Blue Sky" by U2

Downtown New Albany's ongoing revival is profiled in a Business First article from July 29.

Historic downtown New Albany comes back to life with new shops, restaurants opening in wake of Scribner Place’s arrival, by Sarah Jeffords Pister (Business First)

"(River View) is going to be a public space we think will be on the order of a square or plaza you typically see in Europe,” (Carl) Malysz said.

When it comes to whoppers, questioning eases stress, and so one's first query of the deputy mayor should be this: Which Europe? NAC provided one such answer, a full two week's prior to the Business First reference.

Stop the presses: Exciting new plan for Trickle Platz at River View.

We also offered a vision of Reaganomics Platz with a human face:


Come to think of it, no one connected with River View ever so much as attempted to modify the unfortunate analogy wherein the benefits would "trickle out" to the community at large.

Any of them want to give it a belated shot? We're all ears.

"A pretty cool place to live, work and play," but alas, still no Trader Joes or Chili's or Williams-Sonoma ...

A couple months back, Business First produced an editorial in support of the River View waterfront development project, otherwise known as the "We Don't Want Another Parking Garage Karaoke Night" at the Luddite Bar & Grill.

The entire piece is reprinted here, primarily so readers can join me in attempting to fathom the transition from this: "If River View gets built, downtown New Albany is going to be a pretty cool place to live, work and play."

To this: "Although we are big supporters of locally owned stores and restaurants, we can’t ignore the importance of attracting popular brands such as Trader Joe’s, The Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang’s to our city. To many, their presence helps elevate Louisville into the top tier of cities."

I understand that the editorial writer is using one space to make separate points about separate issues, but why does it annoy me? Is it because I'm waiting for the first person to say aloud, wow, just imagine if the commercial space in River View had a Spaghetti Factory or Old Navy!!!

Editorial
River View would boost New Albany’s transformation
Business First
Date: Friday, January 21, 2011, 6:00am EST

For those who rarely travel to the “sunny side” of metro Louisville, you’re missing out on an amazing transformation going on in downtown New Albany.

A few years ago, there weren’t a lot of reasons to go to downtown New Albany, especially after business hours. That began to change in 2008, when the Scribner Place project opened. The $23 million project included the Floyd County branch of the YMCA of Southern Indiana and a city-owned aquatic center. YMCA and city leaders realized that if they built the YMCA branch and natatorium downtown, it not only would alleviate overcrowding at the YMCA in Jeffersonville, but it also would serve as a catalyst to bring people to the city center.

In the last couple of years, numerous restaurants, bars and specialty shops have opened in New Albany. Streets that once were abandoned at night now bustle with activity.

Downtown New Albany can take another huge step forward if the New Albany City Council does the right thing and approves a $12 million bond issue to help fund Phase II of the Scribner Place project. New Albany native Jack Bobo, a trade policy adviser with the U.S. State Department and an attorney in Washington, D.C., wants to build a $42 million housing, retail and office development on the river adjacent to the YMCA.

The project, called River View, would have 30,000 square feet of office space, 30,000 square feet of retail space and 100 to 150 condominiums all built on top of a 550-space parking garage. The plan calls for removing about 600 feet of the levee, which would open up a dramatic view of the Ohio River.

Mainland Properties, Bobo’s development group, is ready to move forward if the city council approves the $12 million bond issue to pay for the bulk of the two-story garage. It is projected that the development would create $23.2 million in tax revenue and tax increment financing proceeds in its first 20 years.

Some major details remain to be worked out. The levee cut would have to be approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and financing would have to be secured to cover its $6 million cost.

When Bobo first proposed this dynamic downtown development, many dismissed it as nothing more than a pipe dream. But then again, many said the same thing when the YMCA was proposed.

We encourage council members to keep an open mind and seriously consider the bond request. If River View gets built, downtown New Albany is going to be a pretty cool place to live, work and play.

Trader Joe’s will be a welcome addition to retail lineup

Rightly or wrongly, cities often are branded by the trendy retailers that have stores or restaurants there. How many times have you heard Louisville shoppers enviously pining for big-name retailers with outlets in Indianapolis, Cincinnati or Nashville?

Well, Louisville soon will be able to add Trader Joe’s to the list of popular chains located here. Business First has learned that the offbeat California company will open one of its specialty grocery stores in the Shelbyville Road Plaza. Finally, you’ll be able to buy “Two Buck Chuck” without leaving town.

Although we are big supporters of locally owned stores and restaurants, we can’t ignore the importance of attracting popular brands such as Trader Joe’s, The Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang’s to our city. To many, their presence helps elevate Louisville into the top tier of cities.

Business First says let's hear it for...

A revitalized downtown New Albany — Like many cities of its size, New Albany has been searching for years for a way to revitalize its downtown. Empty storefronts and under-utilized buildings give witness to a once vibrant downtown that lost out to suburban sprawl.

Downtown New Albany received a shot in the arm last year with the opening of a new YMCA and a city-owned aquatic center. Now a group of investors have plans for a $45 million development featuring condominiums, shops, a boutique hotel and a parking garage on a Main Street block.

The partners in New Albany Horizons LLC have a successful track record of redeveloping historic buildings in New Albany. The planned 210,000-square-foot development would be their most ambitious project yet.

There are a lot of unique challenges to doing a downtown development, whether you’re talking about a city the size of Louisville or one as small as New Albany.

Downtowns should be the hubs of their extended communities. We wish the New Albany Horizons partners good luck in making their vision come true.

Thanks to R for the tip.