Gospel Bird's Eric Morris nixes Concrete Jungle concept, opts for seafood, seafood and more seafood at his new restaurant at 324 E. Main in New Albany.

Right here. 

Speaking from personal experience, it's preferable to be comfortable with your concept before the money's all spent.

With this in mind, I saw a Facebook post ...

 ... and after chatting with Gospel Bird's Eric Morris, he offered this generously detailed and updated summary of what's to come at 324 E. Main. It was to have been an eatery and craft distillery, but as Eric explains, there has been a change in direction.

However, I couldn't coerce Eric into telling me the name of his (and Garrett Petters') forthcoming seafood restaurant, so we're going with Working Title until further notice.

Take it away, Eric.

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For the past few months, I’ve been working on a new restaurant in New Albany, to be housed at 324 E. Main Street in a post-WWII commercial building just a block down the street from Gospel Bird.

I love the space, and the restaurant’s still going to happen, just not exactly the way we’d imagined. Here’s an update for 2017.

Most importantly, I’ve decided not to go with the original idea, which was going to be called Concrete Jungle. Mixing genres with global street food tasted great in theory, but it’s an ambitious concept, and in all honesty it defied every effort to build a menu capable of doing it justice.

At the same time, it’s been a wonderful experience getting to know the city of New Albany, and being a part of its continued growth at Gospel Bird. Taking all these lessons into account, I’ve decided to shift gears

So, what’s coming to 324 E. Main Street in 2017 is (WORKING TITLE), a fresh seafood grill with a raw bar, including a rooftop bar overlooking the Ohio River.

Think of it as a comfortable niche between fast food and the high end. It’ll be a family-style approach and a very casual place, with most dishes served in baskets and buckets, with a price point to match. The same goes for great beers and the sort of bar program you’d expect from us.

There’ll be crab legs, ceviche, and peel and eat shrimp from the open-kitchen raw bar. From the back kitchen, expect fried, blackened and broiled fish platters, ahi tuna dishes and mussels, as well as staples like lobster bisque, clam chowder, crab cakes, lobster croquettes and smoked fish spreads.

We’re planning on three types of grilled oysters: Fernet Branca Rockefeller, roasted garlic and habanero, and Thai chili with sesame.

A signature line of fresh seafood from either Honolulu Fish Company or Bluefin Seafoods will enable unique chef-driven items like a blackened grouper Reuben sandwich, lobster pot pie, halibut cheeks, frog legs and gator.

We’ll also offer non-seafood options: Smash burgers, chicken, nachos and dips.

I’d also like to introduce my new business/managing partner Garrett Petters, a New Albany native and Providence High School graduate whose extensive work history with seafood includes Whole Foods and Doc Crow’s Southern Smokehouse and Raw Bar. Most recently, Garrett helped open Brooklyn and The Butcher, our neighbors in downtown New Albany, and he was General Manager both at Doc Crow's and Brooklyn.

Our licenses and permits are waiting for the build-out, and Resch Construction will be starting soon. Stay tuned for further details, and we hope to see you in downtown New Albany soon.

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.