Read my profile of Bourbons Bistro, as published in the current issue of Food & Dining Magazine.

In the past I've usually waited until the following quarterly issue of Food & Dining Magazine to publish the text of my most recent contribution, but these days our articles appear at the web site during the weeks following the magazine's release.

As such, here's the link to my profile of Bourbons Bistro, originally published in the Fall 2019 issue.

Profile — The Bourbons Bistro Legacy: Putting the Urban in Bourbon, by Roger Baylor (Food & Dining Magazine)

“Irish Hill is the Louisville neighborhood you find when you’re lost.”

It’s an old-time Louisville saying about a relatively small, richly historic patch of ground shoehorned between Baxter Avenue, Lexington Road and Beargrass Creek, and Eastern and Cave Hill Cemeteries.

On Irish Hill’s northeast side is Breslin Park, formerly the site of Louisville’s fortress-like City Workhouse, where minor offenders were incarcerated while they paid their debt to society through menial labor. Across Payne Street is a collection of imposing old brick warehouses known since the 1980s as Distillery Commons, used nowadays as offices, businesses and creative spaces.

Once this was National Distillers and Chemical Company’s Kentucky Distillery Warehouse & Bottling Plant. The mighty National Distillers owned some of the country’s most venerable bourbon brands, like Old Grand Dad, Old Crow, and Old Taylor, and by the 1940s it controlled 70% of the American market for bourbon and rye.

At its peak National Distillers had a work force of 1,400, most of whom lived within walking distance. Numerous families depended on these jobs, but consumer trends were unkind to the whiskey market and the plant closed in 1975.

“Headliners (a music venue) used to be the lunch hall for National Distillers, which was just down the street from us. I call it the UPS of the time; it was the economic engine for our neighborhood and others nearby, like Phoenix Hill and Clifton, even Butchertown.”

Meet Jason Brauner, who grew up in Irish Hill and was in knee pants when National Distillers was shuttered. Brauner’s great aunt and great uncle both worked there. So did business partner John Morrison’s father and grandmother.

Brauner and Morrison opened Bourbons Bistro in 2005. Call it cosmic, karmic or just a well-turned business plan, but their Frankfort Avenue refuge became an instant classic, primarily because Brauner and Morrison scanned the cluttered landscape of gimmicky bar and restaurant concepts, settling on a unifying principle so incredibly obvious as to be invisible: Bourbon.

PINTS & UNION PORTFOLIO: Kind words at my workplace, and I'm touched.

It was a fine Guinness pour on my part, and I'm reminded that it's time to lose thirty pounds; a few too many chins, but I'm almost 60, and nowadays my primary vice seems to be gluttony, not drunkenness. 

Anyway, Cassie gave me advance notice of my turn as subject of the employee profile, and she did a fantastic job with it. It hasn't always been easy finding my footing these past four years, but verily, it's getting better all the time. 

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You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in New Albany who hasn’t heard of or met Roger Baylor, a long-time New Albany resident who has had his hand in many beer-related ventures. Roger curates our beer program here at Pints and spends a lot of time researching, sourcing, and of course drinking the unique and delicious beers we keep on tap.

He describes himself as a “flagrant Europhile,” so the beers at Pints&union that he enjoys most are the ones that connect to travel experiences in Europe, like @pilsnerurquell (Czech Republic), @fullers (United Kingdom) or our excellent small list of Belgian Trappist ales. In 2004, he got to bicycle with a group of friends around the country to all the Belgian monasteries to drink that brew ale so it holds a special place in his heart. Picking a favorite beer at Pints is no easy task, but he says “sipping on a Rochefort 10 or draining a tankard of Urquell takes me back to some very good times abroad.”

When he’s not sorting through beers at Pints&union, he’s generally at home in his century-old house just up the street from the pub with his wife Diana and their three feline lodgers. He loves reading, music, cooking, trip-planning and local political commentary, but he stays pretty busy with his other part-time job as digital editor for Food & Dining Magazine.

Thank you Roger for your dedication and the care you put into selecting great beers for the pub, I think we can all agree New Albany wouldn’t be the same without you!

A reader writes, we answer: "Roger, when you ran for mayor, didn't Extol Magazine have a profile about you?"

Frequent reader R writes: "Roger, when you ran for mayor, didn't Extol Magazine have a profile about you?"

R, you have a long memory, indeed. I'd completely forgotten about it. The story was in one of the 2015 editions, early in the magazine's existence,, and I believe Angie Fenton wrote it.

Fortunately the page in question can still be viewed on-line: Roger Baylor

Love him or loathe him, there’s no denying Roger Baylor is passionate about New Albany ...

 ... While he’ll always be revered as a veteran zythologist (the man knows beer), he’s now known for speaking up about what’s occurring in the New Albany – often and loudly – and unapologetically sharing his perspective, even if that means taking to his blog to skewer those involved.

Baylor also has taken plenty of heat himself. “I have people who call me all kinds of non-flattering names, but I would hope that right or wrong, I throw punches, I get knocked down, I get back up and I keep throwing punches. … I hope that somebody would say, ‘He does a good job of standing up for what he believes,’ even if they didn’t agree.”

THE BEER BEAT: In which we talk beer on the "Flies on the Wall" podcast at Crescent Hill Radio.

Flies on the Wall is a weekly podcast on Crescent Hill Radio.

Last week I had the great pleasure of sitting in on the podcast with Kevin Gibson and Butch Bays. We talked about beer and listened to tunes by Roz Tate and Jericho Woods. If you have an hour to kill, listen to it on Soundcloud -- and no, I'm not going to give you a preview.

But I had a blast, and we might do it again.

Here's the LouisvilleBeer.com podcast link at LouisvilleAM.

The podcast has been posted -- not on the LouisvilleBeer site, which is having technical issues unrelated to this, but at LouisvilleAM.

Episode 12 – Roger Baylor of NABC

Louisvillebeer.com held a long overdue conversation with the Podcastable Curmudgeon, Roger Baylor, of New Albanian Brewing Company. Roger talks in depth on the subjects of beer geeks; his passion for localism; distributor issues; how the craft beer phenomenon has changed over the year; and the most important thing, being an “old” curmudgeon. Scott discusses BBC’s upcoming Toys for Tots campaign and Highlands Beer Festival at ValuMarket. John Wurth works for laughs while John King is questioned whether he works at all.

The NewAlbanist: "And Then There Were … None?"

Admittedly, it struck me as a bit premature that Brad Bell announced his candidacy for the 2015 council race some 20 months before the primary.

In addition, there's a "once bitten, twice shy" hangover from my erstwhile newspaper column's shoddy treatment (post-primary, 2011) at the hands of the Blind Goys from Alabama.

It's also true that no one's running for anything until there's the correct election to contest. Verily, at this precise moment, I'm not running for office, although if you're interested in examining the platform from my council race in 2011, the Facebook campaign page remains up.

Clear as mud? Now, here's what the bookseller (NewAlbanist) has to say, and as always, it's quite thought-provoking. Now if you'll excuse me, there are tea leaves to be read.

And Then There Were … None? by newalbanist

At their next family reunion, if not sooner, Jeff Gahan, New Albany’s mayor, and Dan Coffey, the city’s longest-tenured city council member, will surely share a satisfied chuckle over their cooling baked beans and warming potato salad. For yet another talented and innovative New Albanian has thrown in the towel and conceded the electoral field to the reigning cabal.

My friend, Roger Baylor, seems to have literally done that. In the midst of a renewed effort on his part to simply help improve our city, Roger has been compelled to issue a caveat in conjunction with that effort – “I’m not running for office.” More on this, below.

The Holy Roman Emperor strikes back.

It's only fair that Jameson, who after all has become a known entity in time and no longer toils anonymously, has the marquee for his response to yesterday's post: I'm willing to take the bait. Maybe we'll both learn something.

Longtime blog readers will note that Blogger comments are not searchable. That's why it's useful on occasion to life comments to the marquee.

Discussion?

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"So, what's the disconnect? Is the biggest difference between us our respective interpretations of a Greek philosopher who has been dead for more than 2,000 years? Is it shallower? Deeper than that? It isn't about me, and it isn't about you. Right? So, tell me: What's it all about?"

Roger, it is everything above and more. The sad thing is even if I try and explain it to you I know you will not read and listen to what I’m attempting to convey. Some of the fault lies with me, I wish I could express things to your satisfaction, but that is where NAC’s hypocrisy and double standards begin and gets worse from there. I standby what I said last night, and the crazy thing is that understanding Socrates will explain a lot of what it is all about.

A lot of people read this blog, but what most people are unaware of are the things said outside of their view. You play victim here but you are the assailant. You list all the things you invest, but are they more than what others have risked? Saying that your investments are any greater than mine or anyone else’s is egotistical. Maybe you’ve just had more time than others. When you list the things that you are apart of all I see is how your personality, just being there, would cause others not to participate, and that is why being a “Gadfly” is unjust. It is to your advantage to keep it this way, not for the advantage of the whole.

Why does it matter? It matters because people do what to see New Albany improve, but when there is someone being a “Gadfly” you cause injustice. You poison the well for those who want to see people work together. The “disappointment” lies with the fact that you do have the ability to be a greater contribution than you are now, but I don’t think that you have ever given it a chance. Either you’re scared to, for the reasons I said last night, or you don’t want to, for the reasons I said last night. Mark suggested to me that I should go and read previous NAC postings, I did, and even from the first year’s post I read where the paper black balled you for being nasty. You didn’t try 5yrs ago and you're not trying now.

It is easy to find support in this homogeneous blog but when people attempt to engage with a different point of view it is met with hypocritical double standards like the ones you find on the Shawn Hannity Radio Show. Like there, people don’t want to listen to other perspectives, and I know you are not listening here, because if you were you will find out that we agree on more than we disagree. Even from the first time we met you didn’t listen you assumed things. You missed the conversation that Greg Roberts and I had about two-way traffic, and what he found out is that we agreed with each other more than we differed but you never even tried to listen to what I was saying, and even today I don’t think you are. Maybe NAC already has all the answers but if it is this way with me it would be like this for others. A bias group's idea will not stand up to the group who’s idea is made up of different temperaments, talents, and convictions.

Today will be history and tomorrow will be the present. Maybe this post is your attempt to begin anew; actions will speak louder than words.

I'm willing to take the bait. Maybe we'll both learn something.

That passive-aggressive bit bores me.

Jameson, if I didn't want to see anything here in New Albany improve, I wouldn't have spent hundred of hours writing this blog and my columns. I wouldn't have taken my own time to sell improvement and progress to people who habitually view New Albany as nowhere land.

From city council to neighborhood association, from forums to Develop New Albany and the Urban Enterprise Association, I wouldn't have joined, volunteered, attended meetings, taken notes and participated. I wouldn't have taken every chip my company has on the table and bet them on downtown revitalization.

I wouldn't have stood here, fully known and unmoving, and absorbed the (mostly) anonymous abuse hurled at me for the past six years by the looters, the embittered and the clueless, these being the sorts who stand in the path of improvement. They love trying to make it all about me because it satisfies an itch that they're compelled to scratch, but I know that in a tactical sense, wisdom comes from my knowing that it isn't about me -- not at all, because while they're busy pounding me, others are free to go about accomplishing things.

Being a decoy is fun. You should try it some time.

How do I know that these tactics are succeeding? If I point my camera in the air during a council meeting and take a flash photo of the ceiling, Dan Coffey will whirl in his seat, glare, and form silent curse words with his lips. If I were to state that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, Steve Price would disagree and claim that we simply can't afford to know the truth.

Am I guilty of rattling their self-confining cages? Yes, I am. Do I throw their venom back at them? Damned straight I do. Does it make me lose my temper on occasion? Of course it does. When the Erika Denharts of the community suggest that the city's economic future be irreparably gutted for the sole reason that they're unwilling to pay what it costs to flush, it's hard not to lose your temper. They're treating their own city the way that Rome treated Carthage. Tear it down, spread the salt around, and go on a Wal-Mart shopping round.

Jameson, I suspect that just like me, you want to live in a place that is bright, not dull. One that succeeds, not fails. One that lives and works smart, not stupid. One that obeys laws, not urinates on them. One that is functional, not comic opera tragic. One inhabited by people who occasionally think of the greatest good and not their own self-aggrandizement.

So, what's the disconnect? Is the biggest difference between us our respective interpretations of a Greek philosopher who has been dead for more than 2,000 years? Is it shallower? Deeper than that? It isn't about me, and it isn't about you. Right? So, tell me: What's it all about?

Readers, feel free to weigh in. Remember/RemeberCharlemagne's comment in response to yesterday's posting is reprinted below.

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Everyone has his or her own style of writing.

When have you ever seen me lose my temper? Ask yourself the same question.
When have I made fun of you or anyone of your friends other than the comment in this thread? Ask yourself that question.


I found this blog by reading your columns and what appeared as an invitation for readers to exchange ideas on local topics. What I discovered is people like you who are very hypocritical. There comes a point when even I tire of trying to work past others who live by double standards.

You have talked about me doing things were other people have tried and failed. I saw it early but wanted to give you and others the benefit and what I saw is the failure has a lot to do with this group here.

It is as simple as this I don't think you want to see anything improve because then you won't have anything to complain about and you will be left with reflecting about yourself. For me, as long as I live in New Albany I will truthfully want to see it improve. I'm well rounded and I don't fear change. You are the "unjust" you only do what is necessary to give the perception that you are just.

"Injustice is strife which arises among the three principles-a meddlesomeness, and interference, and rising up of a part of the soul against the whole, an assertion of unlawful authority, which is made by a rebellious subject against a true prince, of whom he is the natural vassal-what is all this confusion and delusion but injustice and intemperance and cowardice and ignorance, and every form of vice?"

If you like Socrates it is only because he gave you a model of an unjust person that you are. Gadfly? To call you that would be an honor. Disappointment is more like it.

Goodnight Thrasymachus

El Capitán, Coach K, and the promise of funny hats.

I admit to having some initial doubts about the Tribune's cheering and jeering endeavor, but it's hard to argue when they get it right. With full knowledge that any of us may eventually end up on the wrong end of the raspberries, it's nice to see some thus far well-guided editorial action taking place where there wasn't much before.

Today, publisher Steve Kozarovich (or Coach K as I've decided to call him from now on) drops the beat on both NAC's own El Capitán and the City Council.

Roger will be doing a regular Thursday column:

CHEERS..... to New Albany’s Roger Baylor for accepting the commitment to write a weekly Opinions column that will appear in The Tribune on Thursdays. Baylor grew up in New Albany and is a local business owner and political critic. You won’t always agree with him. We may not even agree with him, but we believe all opinions are important to consider. Also, it’s not easy to open yourself up to scrutiny from the general public. We greatly appreciate that he is entering our regular rotation and sharing his thoughts in order to spur debate...

And the Council has been doing the usual:

JEERS..... to only one New Albany City Council candidate running for council president. When you only have one option, there’s not a lot of choice in the matter. It’s a big responsibility and the residents of New Albany will suffer because the one who stood up was Dan Coffey, an obstinate long-term member of the council who has had trouble with factual accuracy and joining the 21st century.

There's more at Cheers & Jeers, Jan. 7, 2009.

Roger may have more to say about it, but tomorrow is Thursday so buy a paper. If it's not any good, I'll show you how to make your very own pirate hat out of it. And don't worry, Capitán, I'm still working on the Bulgarian Navy uniform for you. That Trib photo will be classed up in no time.

Tasty fried fish since 1985 ... and by the way, vote for me.

If Sam Anderson can co-opt his familiar business logo for political gain ...

... then why can't I?



Well, it's sloppy, but you get the idea.

Yeah, I know -- no disclaimer ... but it's hardly an official campaign, is it?