THE BEER BEAT: It has been three years since BSB's original kitchen closed, so let's return to "Ice Cold WCTU (A Modest Proposal)."

Today marks three years since NABC closed the original kitchen at Bank Street Brewhouse.

May 13, 2014: It's time to reinvent, so changes are under way at NABC’s Bank Street Brewhouse.

Earlier in 2017, Evansville's Tin Man Brewing announced the end of its restaurant concept, followed shortly thereafter by the news that the brewery was available for purchase. I believe Tin Man is still brewing amid a hazy future, but at the time I was reminded in visceral fashion what it felt like when we emitted a similar explanation. To say that I commiserate with Tin Man is an understatement of vast dimensions.

Naturally, 2014 was a tumultuous year. I wanted to reinvent Bank Street Brewhouse as a destination taproom, and numerous auditions occurred, including a food truck experiment with Big Four Burgers, pop-ups with Dan Thomas (One night stand: Hot fried chicken pop-up coming to New Albany) and at year's end, a plan to install Taco Punk on weekends.

By then, we'd already had problems maintaining the "statutory compliance" menu of frozen hot dogs, powdered milk and instant coffee: Law-abiding by weenie was never this viral.

By January of 2015, I'd decided to run for mayor and take a leave of absence, which turned permanent shortly thereafter -- and no, they haven't paid me a dime yet. Perhaps it's time to make an attorney rich.

All in all, it's been a charmed life, and I have few regrets. One of them is that it wasn't possible to follow through on what undoubtedly was my greatest idea: Ice Cold WCTU, a museum and conceptual memorial to the victims of Prohibition, doubling as the unique shtick to draw customers to the brewery.

Of course, many elements of the idea might be free-standing, or function the same in a different setting. All that would be missing is the awesome irony of the beer garden as former site of the WCTU's headquarters.

Following is a reprint of a column detailing Ice Cold WCTU (July 24, 2014). I'll never give up on this idea. It's only a matter of time.

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ON THE AVENUES: Ice Cold WCTU (A Modest Proposal).

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Once upon a time in downtown New Albany, a house stood in the space between Bank Street Brewhouse and the Ricke & Associates agency to the north. If there is an extant photo somewhere, I haven’t seen it, although it is safe to assume an appearance somewhat like that of the Ricke house itself, or the Fox law office on the other side, probably positioned close by the street in traditional row house fashion.

Before the house was demolished around 1955, it had been used for a very long time by New Albany’s branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In case you didn’t know, the WCTU’s mission was to create a “sober and pure world” through “abstinence, purity and evangelical Christianity.” City guides dating from 1954 all the way back to 1919 identify the house as the WCTU chapter’s headquarters.

The following was written in 1937.

In the year 1852 Mr. John Crawford built and sold to Mr. Silas Day the large brick house on the west side of Bank Street now owned by the W.C.T.U. This was an example of a New Albany home of the better class in the 1850s and 1860s.

We don’t know when the WCTU bought the house, although in 1882, New Albany’s chapter merited mention in the “Minutes of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of Indiana at the Annual Meeting.”

The New Albany WCTU’s zenith was in the early 1900s, during its ultimately successful campaign for statewide and later national Prohibition. Fortunately, Prohibition’s myriad and well-documented failures served to discredit America’s teetotalers far better than my puny words ever could. Today, the craft brewing revolution flourishes in New Albany on the very same spot where beer’s enemies once conspired.

That’s delicious, and it’s why we need a monument to victory over the prohibitionists.

---

The project I’m proposing is called Ice Cold WCTU, and it aims to provide a unique, fully functional entrance to Lloyd’s Landing, the NABC “beer garden” adjacent to Bank Street Brewhouse. Lloyd’s Landing is named for the late Lloyd Wimp, who I’m confident would have enthusiastically approved of this idea.

Ice Cold WCTU is designed to be multi-faceted. It addresses the history and architectural heritage of New Albany, provides a conceptual “memorial” suitable for becoming a genuine tourist attraction, addresses themes of art and sustainability, and will be the only thing like it, anywhere.

That’s because the WCTU helped bring about Prohibition, and Prohibition almost killed brewing in America – and so who better than a local brewer belonging to the new, flourishing “craft” generation to commemorate the killjoy villainy of the WCTU?

The memorial plaque might read:

“In a house once standing here, New Albany’s chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union advocated for Prohibition and abstinence from ‘Demon Alcohol.’ But Prohibition proved to be a disaster, and so it is vitally important that we remember the WCTU’s efforts favoring Prohibition, all the better for us to reject Prohibition, now and forever.”

Here’s how it might work.

At the entrance to Lloyd’s Landing, facing Bank Street, we’ll “trace” the front of the former WCTU house. This structure will take the form of pergolas (on the Lloyd’s Landing side, to eventually be linked to a shelter house or patio improvements) and an artistic façade or “false front” rising higher on the street side, constructed mostly of salvaged and recycled building materials. Because the front would mimic the roofline of the (an) old house, there’ll be at least the suggestion of a restored streetscape.

The facing will be representational, not an exact reproduction. It might be painted, or not. Vines or hops might grow on it, or not. Gaps could be complemented with shutters, window frames and other architectural mementoes, or not. It is to be artistic, not a duplicate. I envision an interpretive plaque, as worded above, as well as a life-sized, all-weather cutout bearing the photographic image of WCTU members – the Wild Women of the WCTU, next to whom visitors can pose for selfies.

But there’s even more.

---

Bank Street Brewhouse’s fully enclosed, former outdoor patio area already has been dubbed the WCTU Reading Room, and there is just enough unused wall space therein to redeploy as a museum, with exhibits explaining the WCTU, Prohibition, and their deleterious effects on civilized society.

The grand opening can be preceded by a community-wide art contest, in which local artists riff on a theme of fundamentalist zealotry. For the occasion, we might clear the former dining room of furniture and display the art there. Behind the art, through the window, lies the brewery, and if those machines kill fascists, surely they eradicate prohibitionists as well.

Ice Cold WCTU simultaneously pushes so many red hot buttons that I’m hard pressed to count them all.

It restores a streetscape, references New Albany’s history and recognizes the city’s architectural heritage.

It serves as a permanent art project and tourist attraction.

It provides a focal point to rebranding Bank Street Brewhouse, something we need in the absence of a kitchen, giving us a place to begin or end brewery tours.

Best of all, every aspect of it is factually verifiable. It is non-fiction. To return yet again to the words of Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." There needs to be a memorial and a museum to the WCTU and Prohibition, because they must not be forgotten.

Now all I have to do is figure out a way to finance Ice Cold WCTU. If ever there was a Kickstarter project capable of succeeding, this is it.

Anyone know a grant writer?

As for the recycled materials, paging Mr. Steve Resch …

Steve, if you’re reading …

Is anyone interested in crafting a local platform while drinking craft beer?

Winter is coming, and for me, it's a less hectic time compared with warm weather and the many outdoor activities that occur then.

And, there'll be city elections in New Albany next year.

Also, we have the WCTU Reading Room at Bank Street Brewhouse, which can be heated in winter. With luck and enough money, we'll have it air conditioned by the time the weather heats up in 2015.

For a long time, I've wanted to attempt something like the exercise I'm about to suggest. It's been tried before, here and there, and never to any degree of consistency.

Time: Maybe a Wednesday evening, each week, roughly 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at the WCTU Reading Room at BSB.

Idea: A weekly open discussion about what is to be done locally, in any and every sense, in preparation for city elections next year. If you will, the development of the ideal civic platform, shaped by weekly chats and brainstorming. Anyone is welcome, and the intent is ecumenical. The result might serve as a blueprint, or a yardstick. There may or may not be a result. I view it as a loosely organized and evolutionary process. Come and go as you please; no mandatory anything.

How do we make this a place where we want to stay, not leave? Can we?

Is anyone interested in such a reverse brain drain? I'm happy to host it, but it's Dutch treat on the beers.

ON THE AVENUES: Ice Cold WCTU (A Modest Proposal).

ON THE AVENUES: Ice Cold WCTU (A Modest Proposal).

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Once upon a time in downtown New Albany, a house stood in the space between Bank Street Brewhouse and the Ricke & Associates agency to the north. If there is an extant photo somewhere, I haven’t seen it, although it is safe to assume an appearance somewhat like that of the Ricke house itself, or the Fox law office on the other side, probably positioned close by the street in traditional row house fashion.

Before the house was demolished around 1955, it had been used for a very long time by New Albany’s branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In case you didn’t know, the WCTU’s mission was to create a “sober and pure world” through “abstinence, purity and evangelical Christianity.” City guides dating from 1954 all the way back to 1919 identify the house as the WCTU chapter’s headquarters.

The following was written in 1937.

In the year 1852 Mr. John Crawford built and sold to Mr. Silas Day the large brick house on the west side of Bank Street now owned by the W.C.T.U. This was an example of a New Albany home of the better class in the 1850s and 1860s.

We don’t know when the WCTU bought the house, although in 1882, New Albany’s chapter merited mention in the “Minutes of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of Indiana at the Annual Meeting.”

The New Albany WCTU’s zenith was in the early 1900s, during its ultimately successful campaign for statewide and later national Prohibition. Fortunately, Prohibition’s myriad and well-documented failures served to discredit America’s teetotalers far better than my puny words ever could. Today, the craft brewing revolution flourishes in New Albany on the very same spot where beer’s enemies once conspired.

That’s delicious, and it’s why we need a monument to victory over the prohibitionists.

---

The project I’m proposing is called Ice Cold WCTU, and it aims to provide a unique, fully functional entrance to Lloyd’s Landing, the NABC “beer garden” adjacent to Bank Street Brewhouse. Lloyd’s Landing is named for the late Lloyd Wimp, who I’m confident would have enthusiastically approved of this idea.

Ice Cold WCTU is designed to be multi-faceted. It addresses the history and architectural heritage of New Albany, provides a conceptual “memorial” suitable for becoming a genuine tourist attraction, addresses themes of art and sustainability, and will be the only thing like it, anywhere.

That’s because the WCTU helped bring about Prohibition, and Prohibition almost killed brewing in America – and so who better than a local brewer belonging to the new, flourishing “craft” generation to commemorate the killjoy villainy of the WCTU?

The memorial plaque might read:

“In a house once standing here, New Albany’s chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union advocated for Prohibition and abstinence from ‘Demon Alcohol.’ But Prohibition proved to be a disaster, and so it is vitally important that we remember the WCTU’s efforts favoring Prohibition, all the better for us to reject Prohibition, now and forever.”

Here’s how it might work.

At the entrance to Lloyd’s Landing, facing Bank Street, we’ll “trace” the front of the former WCTU house. This structure will take the form of pergolas (on the Lloyd’s Landing side, to eventually be linked to a shelter house or patio improvements) and an artistic façade or “false front” rising higher on the street side, constructed mostly of salvaged and recycled building materials. Because the front would mimic the roofline of the (an) old house, there’ll be at least the suggestion of a restored streetscape.

The facing will be representational, not an exact reproduction. It might be painted, or not. Vines or hops might grow on it, or not. Gaps could be complemented with shutters, window frames and other architectural mementoes, or not. It is to be artistic, not a duplicate. I envision an interpretive plaque, as worded above, as well as a life-sized, all-weather cutout bearing the photographic image of WCTU members – the Wild Women of the WCTU, next to whom visitors can pose for selfies.

But there’s even more.

---

Bank Street Brewhouse’s fully enclosed, former outdoor patio area already has been dubbed the WCTU Reading Room, and there is just enough unused wall space therein to redeploy as a museum, with exhibits explaining the WCTU, Prohibition, and their deleterious effects on civilized society.

The grand opening can be preceded by a community-wide art contest, in which local artists riff on a theme of fundamentalist zealotry. For the occasion, we might clear the former dining room of furniture and display the art there. Behind the art, through the window, lies the brewery, and if those machines kill fascists, surely they eradicate prohibitionists as well.

Ice Cold WCTU simultaneously pushes so many red hot buttons that I’m hard pressed to count them all.

It restores a streetscape, references New Albany’s history and recognizes the city’s architectural heritage.

It serves as a permanent art project and tourist attraction.

It provides a focal point to rebranding Bank Street Brewhouse, something we need in the absence of a kitchen, giving us a place to begin or end brewery tours.

Best of all, every aspect of it is factually verifiable. It is non-fiction. To return yet again to the words of Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." There needs to be a memorial and a museum to the WCTU and Prohibition, because they must not be forgotten.

Now all I have to do is figure out a way to finance Ice Cold WCTU. If ever there was a Kickstarter project capable of succeeding, this is it.

Anyone know a grant writer?

As for the recycled materials, paging Mr. Steve Resch …

Steve, if you’re reading …

Ghosts of the WCTU, revisited.

These days, we drink beer on the same spot where in olden times, Prohibition was plotted by fanatics. Lately is has occurred to me that as an aficionado of history, a commemorative plaque alone may not be sufficient to scratch the itch, seeing as I firmly adhere to the Santayana dictum, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Consequently, a plan is taking root. Due diligence is yet to be completed, so in the interim, consider this project in Florida (thanks KG), which artistically and conceptually "traces" the footprints of former structures.

Prohibition is an "experiment" that doesn't need repeating. I suspect most of us imagine it won't, but to me, it's important to remember why the idiocy occurred in the first place.

Stay tuned for more.

Thanks to Todd Coleman and Classic Furniture.

To make a lengthy story much shorter, Todd's been extremely helpful as we've worked toward furnishing the WCTU Reading Room at Bank Street Brewhouse, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for it.

From WCTU to Woody, some heroic murals.

Above is a template with information elements, which I've handed over to the NABC graphics wizard Tony Beard for incorporation into a banner or sign for a wall in the WCTU Reading Room at Bank Street Brewhouse. Since I'm no graphic designer, Tony is charged with making it into something clever and colorful. He excels at it. I really like what he did with the banner for the Culbertson Mansion Garden Party.

It is to be adapted for Reading Room use, too. Of course, if we can find a place for them, these following two images can be nicely combined into one expression of principle. There's a lot of outside wall space facing south, toward downtown.

Tony also will be painting the front of the building, in a variation of this mock-up.

I like images ... with beer. Yet to be determined is a marker for Lloyd's Landing, which I view as something to think about just a bit longer. It'll come.

Indie craft consciousness downtown on Saturday, September 22.

NABC’s contribution to the festivities of Louisville Craft Beer Week surely will strike some observers as atypical.

That’s because “typical” in craft beer is in desperate need of redefinition, and tilting at windmills like these is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

On Saturday, September 22, we’ll be breaking in Bank Street Brewhouse’s recently approved, (yet far from completed) former patio, called the WCTU Reading Room, and our new “biergarten,” known as Lloyd’s Landing. We’ll be pouring local and regional beers, ciders, meads and even some wines. We’ll be acting as the de facto adult beverage annex to the first-ever New Albany Indie Fest, and just for the fun of it, hosting a Kentucky bourbon tasting and dinner.

I’m calling it the Southern Indiana Craft Beer Showcase, but I might have simplified matters by omitting the word “beer.” It’s the main component, but not the only one. My ideological motivation is two-fold.

To make a point about what I view as overlapping circles of interest, from local to metro, from regional to national, and all the way to international.

To allow the people closest to me to experience tastes of what can be done by local producers and purveyors, not just of beer, but also of other libations that fuel my personal world.

I’ve always counseled event organizers to begin by tailoring their planned gatherings to those potential attendees closest in proximity, and only then widening the scope to entice those from a distance.

A good example is the renowned institution of the Beer Dinner. It has been my experience that the marvels of the “visiting” beer team alone generally will not sell the required number of seats. Rather, the regulars who already enjoy a chef’s menu and regimen invariably compose the biggest bloc of diners, and if they have a particular interest in the brewery or beers being paired, it serves to enhance a spark previously lit.

In like fashion, I want our Showcase event to be about this extended community, and to help explain the aspects of “buying local” that I personally believe are the most important: Shifting one’s personal discretionary spending from multinational to local, and while doing so, visualizing the way these circles touch.

Aeppeltroew ciders are made in Wisconsin, not Indiana. However, Starlight Distributors (owned by old friends) is located just up the Knobs from here. Indiana cideries and meaderies, like New Day, use local apples and honey whenever practicable. Regional winemakers buy grapes and juice from other places, but increasingly source their grapes from local and regional vineyards. Admittedly, barley isn’t grown hereabouts, although it could be. Someday, it might, especially after we conquer the next five percent.

And I want you to know that when you’re in Aurora, Bedford, Bloomington, Columbus or Nashville, there are breweries waiting to serve you (if you’re 21, of course) … that cider can be dry, and craft meads can be as variously costumed as craft beers … and that today’s Indiana wineries don’t restrict themselves to the sadly apocryphal sweet Manischewitz clones.

On Saturday, in addition to what I’m describing here, there’ll be booths, food, children’s activities and music out on Bank Street, courtesy of New Albany First and its Indie Fest.

There’ll also be all of downtown New Albany for roaming, and I wish you would roam it, because even though downtown always will be a work on progress and much remains to be done, more work’s already been done during the past five years than the quarter-century before – and this work has been undertaken almost exclusively by independent, small, local businesses.

These businesses are the real showcase on September 22. I’m choosing beer, cider, mead and wine to make my point about me, my business, and all the other indies. You can choose another platform, but the most important thing is the simplest: Make a choice.

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Now, back to Louisville Craft Beer Week. The third edition begins this Friday, September 21, and runs through the 29th. At last count, more than 61 events had been registered, and there’ll be a special pull-out section detailing them to be found in Wednesday’s edition of LEO Weekly.

Online, my friends at LouisvilleBeer.com is your conduit for LCBW events. Here’s the description of LCBW, 2012.

Louisville Craft Beer Week is a distinctively local celebration that seeks to educate and to raise awareness of the American Craft Beer Revolution at the local level, to showcase the incredible variety, dynamism, and expanding market presence of Craft Beer in Louisville, and to promote independent local establishments.

Louisville Craft Beer Week is a collaborative local mission. American Craft Brewing has re-established old traditions and created entirely new ones, and is closely tied to emerging ‘buy local’ principles. Local Craft Brewers are partners in the economic sense, perpetuating success by making the pie larger, and keeping money in our community.

Louisville Craft Beer Week is economic development. Craft Beer’s demographic is increasingly dynamic, but traditional patterns remain unchanged: youthful, college educated, well-traveled and affluent. The Internet is filled with urban revitalization success stories with a brewery as part of the scene, beginning with Governor John Hickenlooper’s Wynkoop Brewery in Lo-Do (Denver) in the 1980’s.

Louisville Craft Beer Week is all of us – brewers, wholesalers, package retailers, pubs, bars, and restaurants – but most importantly, Louisville Craft Beer Week is you – craft beer lovers living, working and playing right here in our city. Your patronage and enthusiasm makes it happen for all of us, and we thank you.

When you’re out and about during Louisville Craft Beer Week, always drink responsibly and whatever you do, don’t drive drunk.

Who can tell me about picnic tables?

Capital Brewery's biergarten in Middleton, Wisconsin 

By now, many readers are aware that I’ve succeeded in legislating the Bank Street Brewhouse parking lot out of existence, and initiating a conversion into a rectangular space intended for human, not automotive, habitation.

We‘re calling it Lloyd’s Landing, in memory of Lloyd “Highwayman” Wimp, and it strikes me as important to concede from the outset our clear-eyed recognition that resources are lacking to transform overnight an expanse of fenced asphalt into the sort of patio/beer garden all of us would like to see. I had to start somewhere, and the first hurdle is cleared. Now we embark on a long, meandering pathway to completion, which after all is a longstanding NABC tradition.

The asphalt needs removing and a new surface (or surfaces) put down. Landscaping and abundant greenery must be planned, and already we’ve had a generous offer of assistance in that area. In the sense of daily operations, there is a ripple effect of having Lloyd’s Landing open and usable. It is an extension of the WCTU Reading Room, and so the Reading Room must be completed, as well as beer taps installed in the new, second bar area. There must be employees, procedures, scheduling, sweeping, signage – and can someone buy another case of cups?

However, in order to do so much as bluff our way through this at the barest of minimums, perhaps the second most important factor after the licensing itself is to have somewhere in Lloyd’s Landing for customers to sit.

Two things that all patios have in common are tables and chairs, and when it comes to areas designed for outdoor beer drinking, tables and chairs often merge into the unit we’ve come to know as the picnic table. In a Bavarian beer garden, these usually come detached, with benches not physically connected to the table. They’re certainly an option, and while pricey, can be purchased used in Louisville. The Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Kentucky, deploys them to marvelous effect.

Note that if we could afford a first-class buildout like the Hofbrahaus's exemplary Bavarian-style beer garden, I'd likely be living in Munich already.

Thinking outside "classic" boxes, non-traditional materials might conceivably be used, as with hints provided by these benches built from wooden pallets.

However, in an era of enlarged beer drinkers much like myself, I have recurring worries about durability.

Readers, what do you know about sources and pricing for standard, one-piece picnic tables in the American sense? I can be reached through the usual channels, such as roger(at)newalbanian(dot)com, and I’d appreciate whatever feedback you have to offer.

ATC gives BSB a thumbs up, and the Publican is happy.

Earlier today, Bank Street Brewhouse was given the Indiana Alcohol & Tobacco Commission's approval for floor plan changes, and now the WCTU Reading Room and Lloyd's Landing are legal habitats, respectively, for pouring and drinking Progressive Pints. Quite a bit remains to be done, but this first cleared hurdle is a relief.

As explained previously, the translucent panels above the WCTU Reading Room simply had to be replaced -- and work began this morning on a new, insulated roof. From inception, the space has not been watertight, and while this mattered little when it still served as open-air patio, converting it into a multi-purpose, all-weather room could not be achieved without a better roof.

Many thanks to Steve Resch and his merry band of workmen. There are none better in this city.

We await the ATC's verdict.

The first steps toward improvements at Bank Street Brewhouse have been taken, and now we'll see what the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission thinks. The build-out for Lloyd's Landing and refurbishments in the WCTU Reading Room will take some time to finish, but the most important initial "to do" items have commenced. Stay tuned, because I'll be hitting you up for furniture suggestions very, very soon.

Bank Street Brewhouse's former patio will be rechristened as the WCTU Reading Room.

Construction on Lloyd's Landing at Bank Street Brewhouse begins this week. Here are the plans and details.

Construction on Lloyd's Landing at Bank Street Brewhouse begins this week. Here are the plans and details.

From the inception of NABC’s Bank Street Brewhouse in 2009, it has been our ultimate aim to annex the remainder of the parking area on the building’s north side, and to build an outdoor garden for use in seasonable weather -- although I realize “seasonable” is somewhat the subjective term these days.

I’m happy to announce that finally, the time has come to begin this project. On Thursday (August 23), work will commence with the construction of walls and fences to delineate the rectangular outdoor space, thus complying with state alcoholic beverage regulations governing its future use by craft beer drinkers.

This all-ages outdoor space will be called Lloyd’s Landing, in honor of our cherished friend, the late Lloyd “Highwayman” Wimp.

It is my belief that we can have Alcohol and Tobacco Commission approval for this new “patio” (legally, it will be referred to as a “patio,” not a “beer garden” as such, although this is a mere technicality) in our hands by the first week of September.

This means a few changes, clarifications and explanations.

(1) From the time that construction starts this Thursday, vehicular access to the parking area will cease. According to ATC regulations, there can be no back-and-forth in the ground’s daily usage. Once the parking area has been licensed by the ATC for people and their beers, it no longer can be used to park their cars.

(2) Parking alternatives are many. There is unmetered parking on Bank Street itself. The parking lot across Bank Street once again is open, and the lot adjacent to the Carnegie Center, while signposted for Carnegie use, can be used in daytime. The Fox Law parking lot on the south side of Bank Street Brewhouse can be used after 5:00 p.m., and so can the Schad Law parking spaces, just east of the Carnegie Center and visible from Bank Street Brewhouse. For those interested in centrally located parking to facilitate roaming throughout historic downtown New Albany, please be aware that the city’s parking garage on the corner of State and Market Streets is free on weeknights (after 5:00 p.m.) and on weekends. This is three blocks from Bank Street Brewhouse to the southwest.

(3) The former roofed patio, which was modified earlier this year by the installation of garage doors facing north, now will be considered part of the original building’s extended floor plan, thus enabling us to build out and use the rear bar area. This former patio space will be referred to as the WCTU Reading Room, for reasons to be explained elsewhere.

(3) The officially designated smoking area will be the entirety of the Lloyd’s Landing outdoor garden expanse, as accessed through the door to the left and rear of the WCTU Reading Room. Because the WCTU Reading Room is a building and not a patio, state law forbids smoking inside it.

(4) Our newly evolving public areas have specific purposes. Lloyd’s Landing is intended as an outdoor area for the enjoyment of beers, entertainment and special events (weather permitting). When fully weatherized, the WCTU Reading Room is intended as a year-round casual use area for beers. Weather permitting, it will be a garage-doors-up, natural extension of Lloyd’s Landing. It also will be capable of adaptation for special events, tastings and gatherings (like the Prost room at NABC’s original location). Because Bank Street Brewhouse’s kitchen is small, food service will remain a feature of the BSB main dining room, bar and current street-side Taxpayers Memorial Patio. Eventually, you’ll be able to enjoy a pleasant drink outside, and then be seated when a dining area table is ready.

(5) These first steps (fencing and licensing) are only the beginning. They will be followed by much more work: Lloyd’s Landing surfacing, furnishings and landscaping; WCTU Reading Room roof, furnishings and bar completion; and the step-by-step process of coordinating them all. We will complete these steps as time and money permit.

Thanks for your patience as we begin the build-out. Your suggestions and questions are welcomed.