The new Keg Liquors location in New Albany opens today.

State regulatory bureaucracies move quite slowly in the best of circumstances, and so kudos to Todd Antz and his crew for getting the Keg Liquors move accomplished so quickly.

The Keg Liquors

We'll be opening the doors at 10:00 this morning. Stop in and check out our brand new store at 4304 Charlestown Road, New Albany — at Keg Liquors New Albany.

The new location of Keg Liquors in New Albany will be 4304 Charlestown Road.

It's old news by now, but as a follow-up, here's the official "new location" news from Todd Antz.

We've made it through the paper work stage of moving our liquor permit for our New Albany location, and now its on to the manual labor of moving a store, and building it all over again. We're also happy to announce the address of our new location, 4304 Charlestown Road, in New Albany. Our hopes are to be open by the end of October, or the beginning of November. Here are a few pictures to show you the construction of the new location. We thank everyone for their patience during this transition.

Keg Liquors announces the closing and imminent relocation of its New Albany location.

Verbatim from the mail slot, from whence oddly, I've just now received the announcement, although the Twitter feed shows it going out earlier in the week.

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Closing and Relocation of our New Albany location

It is with a mix of sadness and optimism that we announce the closing and relocation of the downtown New Albany location of Keg Liquors. Friday, September 26th, will be our last day in operation at 302 Pearl Street. The new location will be announced soon and we are thrilled that the existing New Albany staff will transfer to it.

The relocation of the New Albany store does not impact the Clarksville location, which will continue to operate under its normal business hours.

We opened the New Albany location 3 years ago to be part of the renaissance of downtown New Albany. I feel that Keg Liquors has been a key contributor with the revitalization and we have enjoyed watching the area grow and prosper. However, in order to meet the business objectives for Keg Liquors and to continue to support the development of New Albany, it is time to relocate the store to an area more conducive to our type of business.

As the owner of Keg Liquors, I am thankful for the wonderful customers and the relationships we've formed, as well as the other business owners and employees that we've gotten to know. I look forward to continuing those relationships and to creating new ones.

Thank you to everyone who patronized our New Albany store on Pearl Street, and we look forward to serving you at our new location.

Sincerely,
Todd Antz
Owner, Keg Liquors

Keg Liquors
Keeping Kentuckiana Beer'd since 1976
http://www.kegliquors.com

The itinerary for NA's Jingle Walk and Holiday Fest, this Saturday (November 30).

Hasn't the calendar been kind to the Grinch this year?

When we drag ourselves all bloody, drunken and bloated back to work on Monday, December 2, it will be only a little more than three weeks before Christmas is over, too!

All I must do is avoid public places with insipid seasonal music playing too loudly, and it'll be a breeze  ... although some alcohol may be required, and results will vary from patient to patient.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the city of New Albany's holiday kickoff, and let's hope it's the last one ever to be conducted in the shadow of Comrade Caesarescu's festishistic one-way arterial street grid. I will join the inimitable Tony Beard to represent NABC within the friendly confines of Keg Liquors, where I suspect we'll be pouring samples of Naughty Claus, Hoosier Daddy and Tunnel Vision.

Go here for Truth, Lies and Saturnalia (2012), including the only Christmas song that matters, by the Pogues. I hope to see some of you on Saturday, and remember: All I want for X-mas is the Indiana attorney general's advisory opinion v.v. PourGate, so c'mon, Santa -- drop that sheet of paper down the chimney, 'cuz I've got some accounts coming due, big time.

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HolidayFest / Jingle Walk & Light Up New Albany - November 30th
Develop New Albany invites you to our Annual JingleWalk and HolidayFest in our Historic Downtown! The weather forecast looks good on Saturday as we celebrate the beginning of the Holiday Season. 

Jingle Walk (1:00pm - 6:00pm)

The day of fun begins with the Jingle Walk at 1:00pm. Sample local wines from area wineries while shopping in our Historic Downtown. If you haven't visited downtown recently you will see a downtown full of locally owned stores, boutiques, museums and art galleries. Current participating wineries include Cedar Creek Winery, Best Winery, Huber’s Winery, Mallow Run Winery, Old 502 Winery, Winzerwald Winery, Indian Creek Winery and Keg Liquors. Must be of legal drinking age to participate on the Jingle Walk. Tickets can be purchased at the event.

Click here to Purchase JingleWalk Tickets and save $5 per ticket!

(Online ticket purchasing will end on Friday at Noon)

HolidayFest (2:30pm - 5:30pm)

HolidayFest is the family friendly activites for the celebration and will include performances from local dance troupes in the Main Source Parking Area and Craft/Gift Making, Toy Giveaways, Face Painting, Ornament Making activities will take place at the Floyd County YMCA.

Light Up New Albany (6:30pm)

A message from the Mayor of New Albany, announcement of Jingle Walk Prize winners, the arrival of Santa Claus and the lighting of the Downtown Christmas Tree will conclude the day of Holiday Fun.

Localism + libations + street grid reform = a powerful message behind the booths.

Anyone listening?

Keg Liquors: On the right side of New Albany street grid history.

Keg Liquors

October 24 update: My two-way street project and how you can help.

Holiday Fest and Jingle Walk and Holly Jolly Trolley on a day that finally feels like winter.

The Trolley is somewhat self-explanatory, and will be running through downtown New Albany following the Jingle Walk today (Saturday, November 24).

As for the Jingle Walk itself, it is the entirely worthwhile, ambling/sampling component of the Holiday Fest, New Albany's quasi-official civic Christmas kickoff, which relies heavily on  municipal employee and fire department work hours, so enabling the otherwise stone busted Develop New Albany to take credit for all of it.

Start the Holiday Season in Downtown New Albany for the 2012 Jingle Walk! The Jingle Walk will be held on Saturday, November 24th from 1pm - 6 pm. Tickets are $15 in advance ($20 day of the event) and will include commemorative wine glass to be filled at designated stops in Downtown New Albany for wine samplings.

Keg Liquors New Albany will be a stop again on this year's jingle walk, and we'll be offering both beer and wine samples. We are partnering up with our friends from New Albanian Brewing Company as they do their launch of Naughty Claus, available for the first time in bottles. We'll also be sampling other great beers from them. We'll also have Luke from InVie wine on hand pouring wine samples as well.

I will join NABC graphics wizard Tony Beard in manning the sampling table at Keg Liquors from 1 - 6 p.m. today. In addition to Naughty Claus, we'll have samples of Black & Blue Grass and Hoosier Daddy.

A reminder: The next NA First event is tomorrow ... and there'll be wine samples ...

And before a city council meeting, no less. Excellent timing.

New Albany First

Join us to learn more about New Albany's Independent Business Alliance and try some great Turtle Run wine!

A 'be local.' Meet and Greet plus Wine Tasting at Keg Liquors New Albany

Thursday, March 15 at 6:00pm at Keg Liquors New Albany

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Yesterday's ribbon cutting at the new Keg Liquors on Pearl Street.

Kicking ass downtown.

Verily, there were hordes afoot in downtown New Albany yesterday for the various holiday kickoff activities, which generally were being referred to as the Jingle Walk.

Frankly, it was amazing.

I took no photos, because they all would turn out the same: Lots and lots of people milling around eateries and shops, few of which existed five years ago. One man lunching at Bank Street prior to setting off for the wine tastings with his wife asked me, “How has this happened? I grew up here and there wasn’t anything downtown, but now … ”

There are lengthy explanations, of course, but perhaps the most interesting single aspect of New Albany’s downtown regeneration is that it has occurred in spite of recession and international economic chaos, and it is proceeding apace during the transportation dislocations of the Sherman Minton Bridge closing.

A few days ago, The Keg Liquors officially opened its second location on Pearl Street. Early glimpses at the selection confirm that it will be a high-end kind of place, specializing in niche beverages.

That's the whole point of The Keg being there.

I’ve known the store’s owner, Todd Antz, for a while, and he is a promotional whirlwind whose presence in downtown’s epicenter stands to draw many people who wouldn’t ordinarily patronize the historic business district.

Just around the corner, the ongoing renovations at the former Fair Store have yielded spectacular results. Quill’s is about to open its coffee shop, with beans roasted on-site. A few feet away, an upscale cigar emporium called Billow also will be debuting within days. It includes a walk-in humidor and a fully ventilated smoking lounge. The sleek interior redesign accommodating both these new entities is jaw-dropping; Jenna and Thomas deserve plaudits for seeing the changes through.

All these collective investments and improvements, all these newcomers, and all this progress – and all of it mysteriously achieved without the presence of a single big box chain store and without the massive governmental subsidies that make the big-box exurb possible.

It has happened downtown, and it is working, precisely because the preferred ethos is different -- by design.

We must continue to find the ones who get it, reinforce their experience, and gradually wean them off the standard contemporary cookie-cutter fare. The process is difficult, and it takes time. It’s also rewarding as hell, and reminds me of why I love what I do. Yesterday was just such an affirming experience, and I’m feeling renewed enthusiasm. I hope you are, too.

A bittersweet week, and a jam-packed weekend: Welcome to the beginning of the 2011 holidaze.

The title of my long-awaited autobiography finally came to me yesterday: Beer, Bile & Bolsheviks: "A Fermentable Life." Now I need only begin writing it, but there'll be little time for doing so this weekend.

Today is Plaid Friday. It isn't Black Friday to me. It's Plaid Friday, or as Bluegill suggests, just plain Friday. For so long as we refer to it as Black Friday, and mindlessly play our parts as frantic consuming automatons, the multinationals, chains and big boxes win - and civil society declines.

Beer helps, so here is a broad survey of what NABC is doing this weekend. We'll be at Kaiser's Tobacco on Saturday for the Jingle Walk, as well as vending beer for the Deck the Walls art show the same night. On Sunday, a new brunch (10 a.m. - 2 p.m.) begins at Bank Street Brewhouse, which also has expanded weekday hours to include lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The city of New Albany's gracious decision to finally commence major Grant Line Road reconstruction during the rush time of holiday season, while an Ohio River bridge remains closed 'til March, means that there is more reason than ever before to enjoy a seasonal beverage, and accordingly, Saturnalia MMXI kicks off at 11:00 a.m. at the Pizzeria & Public House. Among the libations is our annual spiced tradition, Naughty Claus.

Over at OSIN, our pal Matt Nash contemplates the blackness of Friday, including this timely reminder:

Studies have shown that when you shop at locally owned, independent businesses, significantly more money is returned to the community in which they are based than money spent at chain retailers. Local independent business owners are people with ties to the community and a vested interested on what goes on here. Local business owners generally hire employees with better knowledge of the products they are peddling and usually have more time to get to know their customers.

As Matt proffers, the general idea is to Shift Your Shopping. Happily, there is a new local option in downtown New Albany: The Keg.

There you have it, or at least some portion of it.

FLASH: Keg Liquors New Albany will be open this Friday (November 18).

Straight from the store's Facebook site:

Todd Antz
8:44am Nov 17
I think we can safely say that the New Albany location of Keg Liquors will be opening on Friday, November 18th at 10:00 AM. No huge grand opening ceremonies, we'll save that for the next week! Stop in and say hello! And spread the word!

Three downtown NA business interiors under construction.

I'm tall enough to elevate cameras over window coverings.

Quill's, the coffee shop coming soon to the old Fair Store Building on Market (adjacent to Thorpe and Toast).

Louis Le Francais, perhaps already open, in the Bergman Building on the same block as Quill's.

The forthcoming New Albany location of Keg Liquors on Pearl Street.