Birds of Prey.

True; the whole class is losing recess because of the actions of a few. At the same time, local governments have refused to enforce their own laws (as Steve notes), and the responsible majority within the food and drink economic sector has looked the other way while the scofflaws deny science and shirk voluntary restrictions. 

Change has to come from both directions. This being America, it likely won't, with the pandemic lasting longer and causing more suffering than it should. 

Opinion: Closing, Opening Bars And Restaurants Hastens Their Avoidable Deaths, by Steve Coomes (The Whiskey Wash)

 ... In 2020, anyone with any sense knows that packing the house is reckless. Still, some insist on rolling the dice and betting their immune systems are superior to an invisible microorganism that’s killed more than 150,000 and infected more than 4 million people in the U.S. alone. Pour alcohol on such stupidity and the gambler just gets gutsier ...

Steve Coomes on Brooklyn and The Butcher: "A steakhouse sans the stereotypical pretension."

Photo credit: Brooklyn and The Butcher on Fb.

It's great ink for Ian and Nikki Hall, with Brooklyn and The Butcher as the lead story by Steve Coomes in this morning's Insider Louisville. Moreover, it's validation for the growth of New Albany's downtown food and drink purveyors.

Both Brooklyn and The Butcher and Gospel Bird came out of the box fully formed, which is a testament to professionalism -- and it's professionalism that will ensure their longevity and the strength of our dining scene.

Congrats to the Halls and their staff.

First look: Brooklyn & The Butcher — a steakhouse sans the stereotypical pretension

 ... The steakhouse, created and operated by BRAND Hospitality Group owners Ian and Nikki Hall (also owners of The Exchange), bills itself as a place for “small plates and big steaks,” a fitting tagline given their desire for a steakhouse sans the stereotypical pretension. You’ll find serious steak here, but not cuts delivered with speeches about dry-aged this or that or wine lists dominated by budget-busting cabernets and cognac. Even better is no one comes out with a cart laden with raw lobsters, steaks and vegetables. I’m hard pressed to think of more awkward tableside marketing than that.

Steve Coomes on the "serious labor shortage" faced by metro Louisville restaurants.

Celebrate Food & Dining: The magazine's 50th issue is on the street, and my column is inside it.

A Thanksgiving coincidence? It's been a good week to talk about food and dining.

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

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

As usual, there is a flip side.

In recent years, I've caught my share of heat for pointing out that exuberance in craft beer isn't always rational: Will there be enough retail shelf space and loyal on-premise taps to sustain all the start-ups geared toward production and distribution?

Strategies suggested by some for future brewery survival include a conscious return to the basics. In short, get your "brewpub" on and sell fewer beer at higher margins from your own space. In the absence of mobile street food culture, this generally implies having a kitchen, which in turn suggests another potential issue.

Namely, staffing.

Throughout the year, Steve Coomes has been writing about a restaurant labor shortage in the area. There is yet another side of this coin for Southern Indiana: Assuming the continued growth of the restaurant and bar segment on the sunny side, what happens when tolling comes into effect -- not just as it pertains to customers, but also workers?

Perhaps we need to consult the "effect on Indiana small business" study conducted by the Bridges Junta.

Except they never did such a study, did they?

A serious labor shortage, not restaurant openings, is Louisville’s main concern, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville)

... The sheer number of openings has this upside: the mark of a healthy dining scene and an acknowledgement of Louisville being a favorable place to open such businesses.

Brett Davis, partner in Falls City Hospitality Group, at the site of the future JQ Public House.
Brett Davis, partner in Falls City Hospitality Group, at the River Road site of the future JQ Public House, which will employ a large staff. | Photo by Steve Coomes
The troubling issue is what customers don’t see, namely that the skilled labor pool required to run these new places is nearly dry. Alongside many menus posted in restaurant windows is, all too commonly, a Help Wanted sign. And if that plea isn’t in the window, it’s in an ad on Craigslist or a post on Facebook ...

Updated: Steve Coomes on Bank Street Brewhouse's reinvention.

I spoke with Steve Coomes at length, because he gets things right. It might be easier for me to post first, and comment later. At the moment, it's a pinball machine effect on the iPhone.

We're improvising an opening schedule. Tuesday - Thursday hours for beers at BSB are 3 - 9 p.m., with weekend hours yet to be determined. When we say food's gone away, it's what we mean. Of course, we'll adhere to the ATC rules, and the kitchen remains fully licensed by the health department, pending the latter's periodic policy coin tosses.

No food means no brunch on Sunday; no brunch means no Bloody Mary bar, at least for now. The exciting part of all this is that we get to create a whole new program from the ground up. It will be confusing, but it will evolve, and at some point, it will make sense. As it evolves, we'll do our best to keep people informed.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments so far. We achieved aesthetic success; if it just wasn't for those damned, pesky numbers.

Bank Street Brewhouse ends foodservice, will serve beer only after midweek shutdown, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville)

... Despite the cost, Baylor said he’s glad to have helped shepherd the process of revitalization in downtown New Albany. Since its opening, multiple restaurants have moved in and turned the once-tired area into a lively entertainment and retail district. Baylor said BSB also needed to adjust better to the neighborhood competition and play to its own strengths: great beer and socializing.

More on Mayor Fischer's beer-less task force.

It's a tempest in a teapot, but on an otherwise slow weekend, I'll play the hand I'm dealt.

The topic is Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, his task force on top-shelf dining and bourbon, and the absence of other food scene elements (including brewing) from the plan.

Greg Fischer: Bourbon and local craft beer don't mix.

This morning at Insider Louisville, Steve Coomes goes deeper in support of the mayor's aims.

Steve Coomes: Some complain mayor’s restaurant-bourbon tourism team neglects beer, coffee, food trucks

There have been good points all around during this discussion, and given that it's always a good idea to consider your own side's strong and weak points before jumping into the fray, one thing stands out to me: If there was to be a cogent rebuttal from Louisville's brewers, it should stem from a position of unity. Unity requires organization, and this is a great and enduring challenge for craft brewers in general.

As a director on the board of the Brewers of Indiana Guild, I feel qualified to admit to such. BIG has made considerable progress in bringing itself to a point where a political personage such as Louisville's mayor (and his staffers) wouldn't think of a task force without consulting the craft brewing bloc first. It takes time, though. It requires commitment and engagement.

Otherwise, we're merely lobbing barbs from a barstool.

Harvest dinner with NABC isn't just a pigfoot and a bottle of beer.

Once again, NABC is pairing with Harvest Restaurant in Louisville for a beer dinner, and Steve Coomes does a fine job of describing the thought process behind the pairings. Meat eaters should be particularly mindful of Chef Coby Ming's comment about "showing respect for the animal." To me, laying into a pork chop but being squeamish about the tongue makes no sense at all. There are compelling reasons not to eat meat, but if you do, then parts is parts.

Cheeks and tongue, feet and head ... bring them on, please. We have some very nice beers to match.

Hog callin’! Harvest hosting 4-course, ‘nose to tail’ New Albanian Brewing dinner April 9, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville)

Usually when chefs create special dinners paired with adult beverages, they have the menu in mind before they choose their liquid pairings.

The reverse happened recently when Harvest executive chef Coby Ming was planning such a meal, one she’d already decided would center on beer. Her food choices were a mystery until hog farmer Adam Barr came calling.

It's a good thing I've managed to take off 12 pounds in January, because now there are going to be some challenges to the girth reduction regimen.

Earlier this week, there was an excellent beer dinner at Against the Grain; next week, the NABC/Varanese pairing as described here; and on Valentine's Day, another NABC venture with the Garage Bar.

I appreciate the shout-out from Steve Coomes at Insider Louisville, and it's fully justified considering the plain fact that Varanese is one of the top tables in Louisville. It's also no exaggeration that Chef John Varanese's approach to the beer dinner has been unconventional, which is a very good thing.

We tasted beers in the kitchen while stock was being prepared and chickens cut, rather than at the bar before opening when the aromas of food aren't wafting all around, providing inspiration for a meal. The price point for a menu of this caliber is superlative, at $49 (plus tax and gratuity). Follow the link for the full article, and plan on attending. This is going to be a good one.

---

Beer ye, beer ye, NABC and Varanese pairing up for unique dinner for Feb. 7

By STEVE COOMES | Published: FEBRUARY 1, 2013

When contemplating the menu for an upcoming beer dinner at Varanese, chef-owner John Varanese took an unconventional approach by tasting the beer first and then crafting a menu around it.

And while that approach would make Homer Simpson proud, he said it just made the most sense.

John Varanese, chef and owner of Varanese.

“Beer’s food friendly anyway, so I knew that was a good place to start,” Varanese said.

"Brew By You" at Edible Louisville.

Check out NABC's David Pierce and the history of homebrewing in our area at Edible Louisville (Beverage Issue), in an article by Steve Coomes.

It's called onlinedigeditions.com/publication/index.php?i=140690&p=34">"Brew By You."

Ryan and Ian and Roger on the radio, tonight.

Those infernal Louisville-area television stations with such short attention spans forgot all about me after the Sherman Minton Bridge reopened earlier this year, so it’s time to take my talents to Clear Channel radio, at least for one Thursday night in June.

I’ll be joining Ryan Rogers and Ian Hall tonight on Chefboyardean. The show runs from 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at 1080 AM Talk Radio, WKJK. Ryan's new Feast BBQ is days away from opening in New Albany, and later this fall, Ian is moving his Exchange pub + kitchen to space adjacent to Ryan's in the former Shrader Stables building on Main Street in New Albany.

Chefboyardean is hosted by the legendary Louisville chef Dean Corbett, but Dean’s out of town, so stepping in as the radio program’s guest host is my former beer student, the freelance food writer and all-around great guy Steve Coomes. Just like Steve, I have the perfect face for radio, although Ryan and Ian are fairly photogenic.

We’ll be talking about Feast, Exchange, NABC and downtown New Albany’s dining and drinking scene. Tune in, and read Steve Coomes's explanatory column here.

Gravity Head rest (?) day, and kudos for Chef Josh and his crew at BSB.

There's been this little celebration going on called Gravity Head, and it tends to be intense. I don't want to miss a chance to thank NABC's staff for their labors, because without them, it cannot be done.

Also, with the inevitable emphasis on the Pizzeria & Public House during Gravity Head, it's a good time to remember the crew at Bank Street Brewhouse, where critical mass is being achieved in record time: A day of rest, or perhaps not. Either way, BSB is open for Sunday business.

On a fully related note, here is a blog link to good press by freelancer Steve Coomes:

Thanks, Chef Josh: Praise for Bank Street Brewhouse in Louisville Magazine and Insider Louisville.

The rebirth of downtown New Albany is well underway, specifically its restaurant population. There have always been a handful of small cafes and seedy dives in the area, but with the addition of Bank Street came Toast on Market, Wick’s Pizza and several other truly respectable spots that make the drive from Louisville worthwhile. Much like my wife and I do on Bardstown Road, you could plan to stay several hours, park your car and hop between bars and restaurants, nibbling and noshing as you go.

Bank Street Brewhouse in today's C-J.

Good press for the business in the morning C-J: Long-awaited Bank Street Brewhouse opens in New Albany (by Steve Coomes).

When Steve, a veteran free-lancer, visited the Brewhouse last Sunday, we were chatting about beer and he revealed a forthcoming trip to Italy to write about a pizza competition. I told him that Italian microbreweries are red hot, and then in the days since he did more research and found one near his destination. Now I'm envious that he'll get there before I have the chance. Italian beercycling, anyone?

Here's the link to a Bank Street discussion at the restaurant forum: First Visit: NABC Bank Street Brewhouse.

From all of us at NABC Bank Street Brewhouse: Thanks for coming in the past week. Next week you should be seeing the evening food menu phased into place, as well as a special involving cask-conditioned Thunderfoot on the hand pull and elegantly styles duck on the plate in front of it. Cheers!