The Standard Plate & Pour is coming, so let's remember what preceded it in the Bader Block and adjacent Parthenon.

The Standard Plate & Pour has set June 24 as its target opening date, and in the time-honored tradition of the entire human race, let's celebrate the advent of this new downtown New Albany eatery by describing its footprint -- according to what used to be there.

"The way to the royal castle? Why, you take a left where the oak tree used to be, then a right where they sold mead in leather buckets back when I was a kid."

The following was published on November 24, 2015 -- as Gospel Bird was preparing to open. Here's a photo to complete the narrative.

As a final preliminary note, be aware that TheatreWorks of Southern Indiana has been staging theatrical productions in the Parthenon for the past two years. 

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As announced on Monday, a new downtown New Albany restaurant called Gospel Bird is being developed by Louisville chef Eric Morris and is slated to open soon in the Jacob Bader Building at 207-209 Main Street.

We welcome Morris and the Gospel Bird with open arms and our senseless one-way streets.

Steve Resch now owns this prominent building, as well as the adjacent historic bank known by New Albanians as the Parthenon. Resch also will be rehabbing upstairs living space at the Bader Building, a project started by a previous owner but never completed.

Gospel Bird will be the fifth dining/drinking establishment to occupy the Bader Building site since 2007. Others have been located in the Parthenon space. Following is a brief rundown of previous occupants ... because institutional memory is important in a city where selective recall is the norm.

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When the Mr. and Mrs. Confidential moved downtown in 2003, the Bader Building’s street level commercial space was occupied by Maytag Laundry & Dry Cleaning, which had been in operation for decades.

At the time, both building and business were owned by Carl Holliday and Steve Goodman, who had purchased them in 1999. I’m unclear as to exactly when Maytag closed, although it was still operational in 2006.

When David Himmel departed Bistro New Albany to open his own bar, the Maytag floor space was remodeled and Connor’s Place was born in May, 2007

By September of 2008, Goodman and Holliday had placed both the Bader Building and the Parthenon up for auction (eventually they were sold to new owners), but Connor’s Place had been gone for more than six months.

Himmel put Connor’s in storage in mid-2008 while opening The Market Street Fish House (current location of the Louis Le Francais), then re-establishing Connor’s Place in the freshly rehabbed space now housing Bella Roma. It opened there during Harvest Homecoming, 2008.

The MSFH closed in November, 2009, and Connor’s Place became defunct in May of 2010.

In the early summer of 2008, Studio’s Grill and Pub took over in the Bader Building. Studio’s was owned and operated by Trish Meyer, formerly a key employee at Sam’s Food & Spirits. Studio’s was the scene for many city council unhappy hours, and was reviewed favorably on more than one occasion.

Studio’s closed in September of 2010, and almost immediately, Matt McMahan opened The Irish Exit. It wasn’t terribly Irish, and apart from a brief period in early 2011 when Drew Scharlow manned the Exit’s kitchen, the establishment generally functioned as a nighttime drinks mecca.

In November of 2011, McMahan announced The Bank Fusion Cuisine + Lounge in the Parthenon space, but it never really jelled. By November of 2012, The Bank had become a music venue called Dillinger’s, which enjoyed a longer run, through 2013 and into 2014.

The Irish Exit ran for four years, making its final exit in late August, 2014. Shortly thereafter, Don Vito’s Italian Bistro became the second downtown restaurant to feature Italian cuisine. There was optimism when Don Vito's was announced, but considerable snark in the opening innings proved to be a harbinger of short life to come, as Vito left after less than a year.

Resch has owned the property since early 2015, and his team is at work preparing for the Gospel Bird restaurant's opening.

Join me in wishing good fortune to everyone involved!

Late supplements: 

Jeff Jackson reminds us that Journey Church met in the Parthenon for nine months in late 2013 and early 2014. 

The Gospel Bird is coming, so let's remember what preceded it in the Bader Building and Parthenon.

As announced on Monday, a new downtown New Albany restaurant called Gospel Bird is being developed by Louisville chefs Eric Morris and Dustin Staggers, and is slated to open soon in the Jacob Bader Building at 207-209 Main Street.

We welcome Staggers, Morris and the Gospel Bird with open arms and our senseless one-way streets.

Steve Resch now owns this prominent building, as well as the adjacent historic bank known by New Albanians as the Parthenon. Resch also will be rehabbing upstairs living space at the Bader Building, a project started by a previous owner but never completed.

Gospel Bird will be the fifth dining/drinking establishment to occupy the Bader Building site since 2007. Others have been located in the Parthenon space. Following is a brief rundown of previous occupants ... because institutional memory is important in a city where selectivity is the norm.

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When the Mr. and Mrs. Confidential moved downtown in 2003, the Bader Building’s street level commercial space was occupied by Maytag Laundry & Dry Cleaning, which had been in operation for decades.

At the time, both building and business were owned by Carl Holliday and Steve Goodman, who had purchased them in 1999. I’m unclear as to exactly when Maytag closed, although it was still operational in 2006.

When David Himmel departed Bistro New Albany to open his own bar, the Maytag floor space was remodeled and Connor’s Place was born in May, 2007

By September of 2008, Goodman and Holliday had placed both the Bader Building and the Parthenon up for auction (eventually they were sold to new owners), but Connor’s Place had been gone for more than six months.

Himmel put Connor’s in storage in mid-2008 while opening The Market Street Fish House (current location of the Louis Le Francais), then re-establishing Connor’s Place in the freshly rehabbed space now housing Bella Roma. It opened there during Harvest Homecoming, 2008.

The MSFH closed in November, 2009, and Connor’s Place became defunct in May of 2010.

In the early summer of 2008, Studio’s Grill and Pub took over in the Bader Building. Studio’s was owned and operated by Trish Meyer, formerly a key employee at Sam’s Food & Spirits. Studio’s was the scene for many city council unhappy hours, and was reviewed favorably on more than one occasion.

Studio’s closed in September of 2010, and almost immediately, Matt McMahan opened The Irish Exit. It wasn’t terribly Irish, and apart from a brief period in early 2011 when Drew Scharlow manned the Exit’s kitchen, the establishment generally functioned as a nighttime drinks mecca.

In November of 2011, McMahan announced The Bank Fusion Cuisine + Lounge in the Parthenon space, but it never really jelled. By November of 2012, The Bank had become a music venue called Dillinger’s, which enjoyed a longer run, through 2013 and into 2014.

The Irish Exit ran for four years, making its final exit in late August, 2014. Shortly thereafter, Don Vito’s Italian Bistro became the second downtown restaurant to feature Italian cuisine. There was optimism when Don Vito's was announced, but considerable snark in the opening innings proved to be a harbinger of short life to come, as Vito left after less than a year.

Resch has owned the property since early 2015, and his team is at work preparing for the Gospel Bird restaurant's opening.

Join me in wishing good fortune to everyone involved!

Late supplements: 

Jeff Jackson reminds us that Journey Church met in the Parthenon for nine months in late 2013 and early 2014. 

We welcome Staggers, Morris and the Gospel Bird with open arms and our senseless one-way streets.

Others among us recall it as Connor's Place.

Do you remember the businesses previously located in this spot?

I've known about this project for a while, but was pledged to silence and kept the vow. Someone owes me, but make no mistake: The Gospel Bird is big news for downtown New Albany's dining scene.

The new and expanded Bread and Breakfast will be only a few steps away at Underground Station, as will Ian Hall's Brooklyn and The Butcher at the corner of Bank and Market. Another new watering hole about to open is the Red Dragon Pub, located on Main Street in the approximate space formerly occupied by Cafe 27.

The story is folded into IL's Monday morning business tout, so click the link and scroll down. Just imagine the multiplier effect of these business start-ups with a functional street grid.

Louisville chefs head to New Albany to open their next restaurant, by Caitlin Bowling (Insider Louisville)

Chefs Eric Morris and Dustin Staggers are heading across the river for their next concept.

It’s been a whole two months since the Staggers crew opened its second Epic Sammich Co. store, so it was about time for them to announce a new venture.

Here it is: Tentatively called Gospel Bird, the restaurant will be the love child of Morris’ Loop 22 and Staggers’ time at The Monkey Wrench. Gospel Bird is a term for fried chicken that is eaten on Sundays, the traditional church-going day.

The menu will feature dishes including butter beans, rotisserie chicken, cauliflower grits, chicken-fried rabbit and Brussel sprouts. It will cover the South, from the Appalachian Mountains to the low country to New Orleans and hints of Florida — and include some ingredients from New Albany’s farmers market.

“We are just trying to make country food,” said Staggers, noting that all the fried items on the menu will be fried in a cast iron skillet.

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.

Irish Exit makes its ... exit.

Matt McMahan reveals all on Facebook:

Well....four years in the making... The Irish Exit has been sold. We've pissed off a lot of people. We've made a ton of friends. But the time has come to let it go. The new owner is changing the name , concept and all. Wish Cyle the best of luck. And now on to the opening of Charlie Nobels Eatery + Draught House in Sellersburg , Pride bar + lounge downtown NA and we also we be announcing the location for Big Four Burgers New Albany soon too!!!

I'm told the new owner will open an Italian bistro called Don Vito's.

Personal note: I still believe a solid American-style Irish pub would work here. And a downtown taqueria. But I think two Italian joints are one too many. Just my opinion, nothing more. The market will decide.

Irish Exit: On the right side of New Albany street grid history.

Irish Exit

My two-way street project and how you can help.

Dillinger's Music Venue to occupy the Parthenon.

The Bank Fusion Cuisine & Lounge opened a year ago with a Dillinger Room, and now there's been a rebranding. Here's the scoop, courtesy of the Dillinger's Music Venue page at Facebook.

ABOUT DILLINGER'S

Dillinger's is a music venue for Southern Indiana, located next to the popular Irish/Exit and was originally The Parthenon Building, which served as a bank established in 1837.

The building is multi-level and capped with a dome and is registered on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the New Albany Downtown Historic District. Many of the buildings alterations, including the steel reinforcement under the dome, were put into place to better protect it’s holdings from an anticipated robbery by famed bank-robber John Dillinger and his crew.

The New Vintage books and promotes the new venue. The company has spent the better part of two years booking/promoting all shows at ZaZoo’s in St. Matthews and occasionally at other Louisville venues, including Zanzabar and Headliner’s.

Hunter Embry, who runs The New Vintage with partners DeadBird Studios and Ryan Thompson, said “Dillinger’s is designed to cater to New Albany’s fast-growing nightlife scene. It will be a full-fledged music venue, much like the ones we’ve worked with in Louisville.”

Embry plans to bring in local, regional and occasionally, national acts to Dillinger’s. Dillinger’s will also be available for private parties and events.

“There’s been a solid music scene growing in Southern Indiana for quite sometime now and the town deserves it’s own venue. Like ZaZoo’s, Dillinger’s will have a top-notch PA with sound engineers to match. Bands will enjoy the comfort of green rooms and hospitality.”

"This place is rad - the huge pillars out front, tall ceilings, rustic look and that dome. It's going to be a pretty cool spot to see live music."

On the Board of Public Works tablings.

Let's be honest about this.

A couple of weeks ago, the Board of Works approved NABC's request to use the Amphitheater for our July 22nd shindig. It's hardly controversial to acknowledge that a different standard is being used to judge Matt "Irish Exit" McMahan's interest in using the facility, primarily because Matt himself is controversial.

Then again, so am I, and I've yet to be asked whether NABC has insurance for our forthcoming event (note: we do). In all such matters, a policy approximating constructive engagement seems sensible to me.

A big part of the city's problems with Amphitheater management during past administrations stemmed from the tendency of a small controlling elite to judge the facility's use by exceedingly narrow standards of appropriateness. By all means, there should be a usage policy, one that includes a fee structure (as previously suggested), but it should be a flexible formula that enables the greatest amount of diversity when it comes to the use of the Amphitheater by entrepreneurs, while ensuring the basic are covered.

Just because wrestling isn't my preference doesn't mean there isn't an audience for it.

Wrestling event proposed for New Albany amphitheater; Live@5 to remain on Bank Street this week, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — Two requests for use of the Riverfront Amphitheater in July were tabled by the New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety on Tuesday.

News from the Irish Exit.

From Facebook. I'm not sure what the winning entry is ...

Ok we need some help here from our customers....we have been building a new bar, stage and bathroom in "the billiards room/ aka the Palladio". We will be launching a grand opening and new bar name for just that side Wednesday November 23rd!! That bar and the irish exit will be ran as two separate places....We have a few names picked out but we want some imput from the customers. Let's hear em??

The Irish Exit takes over the Studio's space on Main.

It looks like a quick turnaround at 209 E. Main Street. On October 1, a bit more than a month following the departure of Trish Meyer and Studio's, The Irish Exit is slated to open.

More where that came from: The Irish Exit replacing Studio's; Parthenon to be events center, by Daniel Suddeath (Tribune)

The title The Irish Exit is derived from a saying that refers to someone leaving a social setting, such as a bar, without letting their friends know they are going.

(Matt) McMahan said Studio’s owner Trish Meyer has helped his business team avoid a possible delay in starting the bar.

“We’re going to operate on [Studio’s liquor] license while we transfer it so that allows us to open up basically immediately,” he said.

My capsule assessment: There's room in any town for a well-poured pint of Guinness, so the best of luck to The Irish Exit's team.