A few views from Hull & High Water's soft opening. Regular business hours begin on Thursday at 4:00 p.m.

Hull & High Water is located at 324 E. Main Street, and if you've been around long enough to recall previous incarnations of this building, be prepared for bedazzlement. Steve Resch always does quality work, but this one is something special. Note the interior "fish tank" art, courtesy of David Thrasher. The long haul begins tonight ...

In honor of new fish joint, DNA rehearses inaugural Crab Walk.

I'm already looking forward to the Irish Car Bomb Walk on St. Patrick's Day.

But where's the civic anchor?

THE BEER BEAT: Hull & High Water is only days away, and it has me all playful about beer lists.

Hull & High Water at 324 E. Main Street in New Albany should be open for business on Friday, and it would be an understatement to suggest the anticipation is palpable.

While I'm generally skeptical about the ability of "business" publications to get relevant aspects of culture right -- usually there's too much dollar-sign fetishist-speak for the benefit of the clueless moneyed classes -- this preview is fairly good.

INSIDE LOOK: Hull & High Water restaurant finishes its nautical-themed digs, by Bridgett Weaver (Louisville Business First)

Garrett Petters said that often when people think of going to seafood restaurants, they think of spending a lot of money.

But his goal with his new restaurant, Hull & High Water, is to be more like a coastal seafood shack — offering good seafood at an affordable price.

"When you go to the coasts, there's a lot of seafood shacks. We wanted to bring seafood back to the normal people," Petters said. "To take it back to where it came from."

I caught myself wondering what sorts of wine are to be sold at an inland seafood shack, then began trying to remember when (or even if) I've ever ordered wine at a seafood restaurant of any sort.

Everything about Weaver's piece screams "beer," and precisely because not a soul has asked me, here are a few ideas for a solid, nautically-and-aquatic-themed beer list. It isn't real, and I have no idea what you'll find at Hull in terms of beer, although there'll be "craft" choices.

At the same time, no gimmicks. These are fine beers, every last one of them. Some (including me) might quibble with corporate owners like Constellation Brands and Sapporo, but they're not AB-InBev, and I'm just having fun without thinking too much about the credentials of the choices.

Off the top of my head, I'm not sure if there are any locally-brewed beers with an appropriate name ... unless Falls City decides to make Calliope Hoppy Pils year-round.

It would rock a seafood menu as the go-to Pilsner draft choice.

Otherwise, leading off, Ballast Point Brewing Company gets a whole category to itself, given that ...

From day one, Ballast Point’s philosophy has always been doing what we love, and making what we love to drink. So, naturally, we named the beers after something many of us love almost as much as brewing—fishing. Today, many of the beers are named for fish or fishing terms, and the labels have fish on them as a reminder to always do what you love.

I'd have Anchor Steam on draft, and push it hard. It's amber but lighter-bodied than many "craft" beers, with more flavor than most mass-market carbonated waters masquerading as beer, and entirely poundable at 4.9% abv.

If available on draft, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter would be delightful, too. Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA could be a hoppier choice, or perhaps Bell's Two Hearted Ale (see Big Two Hearted River, a short story by Ernest Hemingway).

Baltic Porter as a style category is named for the Baltic Sea, and Zwiec Porter from Poland in 16.9-ounce bottles is one of the best imported beer values going. Maybe Hull & High Water could keep some herring around, just for me.

For higher gravity Belgian-derived styles, there's Brigand (brewed by Van Steenberge) and Piraat (brewed by Van Honsebrouck), both from Belgium. in a similar vein from Canada: Unibroue Don Dieu (also Maudite and Raftman), all with imagery of ships, boats and such.

For dessert after a few oyster shooters and the catch of the day, why not Rogue's legendary Old Crustacean Barleywine, pulled from a secret stash somewhere on the premises? It's a coastal Oregon classic.

One of my eastern seaboard favorites is Shipyard Export Ale, from the harbor town of Portland, Maine. It is described as a North American Blond Ale, though I detect the founding English influence. Beer Advocate hates this beer -- which is another reason to seek it out; in April while in Portland, I consumed one with a lobster roll. It was perfect.

I'll stop there, cognizant at having omitted countless choices. Feel free to offer upgrades to my faulty memory in the form of comments, and best wishes to Garrett, Eric Morris and the rest of the team at Hull & High Water. I'm in post-holiday detox, but will make it down sooner or later.

On seafood, cigars and riffing about two popular end-of-year blog posts.

NA Confidential remains parked at a decidedly unfashionable Blogger Dot Com address because the price is right -- which is to say, it's free.

It reminds me of the time I helped start a pub, which didn't have a snowball's chance in Guam because it was badly located somewhere off Grant Line Road. Then as now, I believe location to be irrelevant so long as what you're doing represents quality.

More on this in a moment.

As a humanities major, raw numbers have a tendency to make me suspicious, but trends can be revealing, and I've gradually taken a greater interest in traffic as it pertains to the blog's readership. What this examination usually verifies, though I didn't always pay attention, is that being first on the scene matters, especially if the topic is food and drink.

Sometimes this also is true of other locally-oriented stories, as with retail openings, building rehabs and the like. My political and cultural obsessions? Far less so, but one factor remains constant, because if the post gets picked up by even a few persons on social media, traffic increases exponentially.

As such, things got interesting during the final two days of the year, after I'd already finished sweeping up and tidying the joint in readiness to kiss 2016 goodbye.

First on the 30th there was this.

3,542

Cigar smokers rejoice: The second location of Riverside Cigar Shop/Match Cigar Bar is coming to downtown New Albany.

Cigars and spirits are coming to downtown New Albany in the form of an establishment tentatively to be known as Match Cigar Bar New Albany.

Then on New Year's Eve, this.

9,017

Gospel Bird's Eric Morris nixes Concrete Jungle concept, opts for seafood, seafood and more seafood at his new restaurant at 324 E. Main in New Albany.

"So, what’s coming to 324 E. Main Street in 2017 is (WORKING TITLE), a fresh seafood grill with a raw bar, including a rooftop bar overlooking the Ohio River. Think of it as a comfortable niche between fast food and the high end. It’ll be a family-style approach and a very casual place, with most dishes served in baskets and buckets, with a price point to match. The same goes for great beers and the sort of bar program you’d expect from us."

The "seafood concept" post of Eric's took only a few hours to become the year's most read, and about a day to climb to the top of the all-time rankings.

That's right. Best ever, since October 2004.

Similarly, the "cigar lounge coming soon" quickly settled near the top of the month's list, then doubled its page views suddenly on New Year's Day, also approaching the upper tier on the leader board for 2016.

Obviously, both Eric and Jeff Mouttet pushed the post on their social media sites, hence the closest thing to viral I've yet experienced -- at least since my frozen weenie sandwich bar menu got picked up by Uproxx back in 2014.

ON THE AVENUES: Law-abiding by weenie was never this viral.

I'm not sufficiently technological to make proper sense (or use) of these developments, apart from saying that it's always nice to be read, and if forced to choose between famous and infamous, I'll always opt for the latter.

However, they play into some thoughts I've been having for a while, centered on the fact that I've been doing this blog thingie pro bono for 12 years. It takes a lot of time, and maybe I'm missing something -- like looking at ways to wet my own beak now and again.

And yes, it would be far easier to touch juice if I were a paving contractor ... or mayor of the city.

Yesterday I noticed something at Jim Wright's Stonekettle Station blog, which is at Blogger just like NA Confidential:

Donate to Stonekettle Station

Like anybody else, I have a mortgage and a kid in college and a powerful need to eat once in a while. As Stonekettle Station has increased in popularity, it takes up more and more of my time to write the content you come here for, and that means I've got less time to do the things that actually pay the bills. I have no desire to move Stonekettle Station behind a paywall, I'll stop writing before I do that, but if you think what I do here is worth a bit of your hard earned money well then I'm not too proud to accept a token of your appreciation. And thank you.

NA Confidential comes nowhere close to the turnstile spin Wright generates, but this isn't the point. The point is that my time is worth something, even if I'm a hopelessly quarrelsome and cantankerous curmudgeon.

Especially if.

Here's the conclusion: I'll be looking into ways of making a few farthings off the blog. It may be with advertisements and sponsors. It may be with a tin cup proffered for donations. Your thoughts are appreciated, as always.

Gospel Bird's Eric Morris nixes Concrete Jungle concept, opts for seafood, seafood and more seafood at his new restaurant at 324 E. Main in New Albany.

Right here. 

Speaking from personal experience, it's preferable to be comfortable with your concept before the money's all spent.

With this in mind, I saw a Facebook post ...

 ... and after chatting with Gospel Bird's Eric Morris, he offered this generously detailed and updated summary of what's to come at 324 E. Main. It was to have been an eatery and craft distillery, but as Eric explains, there has been a change in direction.

However, I couldn't coerce Eric into telling me the name of his (and Garrett Petters') forthcoming seafood restaurant, so we're going with Working Title until further notice.

Take it away, Eric.

---

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a new restaurant in New Albany, to be housed at 324 E. Main Street in a post-WWII commercial building just a block down the street from Gospel Bird.

I love the space, and the restaurant’s still going to happen, just not exactly the way we’d imagined. Here’s an update for 2017.

Most importantly, I’ve decided not to go with the original idea, which was going to be called Concrete Jungle. Mixing genres with global street food tasted great in theory, but it’s an ambitious concept, and in all honesty it defied every effort to build a menu capable of doing it justice.

At the same time, it’s been a wonderful experience getting to know the city of New Albany, and being a part of its continued growth at Gospel Bird. Taking all these lessons into account, I’ve decided to shift gears

So, what’s coming to 324 E. Main Street in 2017 is (WORKING TITLE), a fresh seafood grill with a raw bar, including a rooftop bar overlooking the Ohio River.

Think of it as a comfortable niche between fast food and the high end. It’ll be a family-style approach and a very casual place, with most dishes served in baskets and buckets, with a price point to match. The same goes for great beers and the sort of bar program you’d expect from us.

There’ll be crab legs, ceviche, and peel and eat shrimp from the open-kitchen raw bar. From the back kitchen, expect fried, blackened and broiled fish platters, ahi tuna dishes and mussels, as well as staples like lobster bisque, clam chowder, crab cakes, lobster croquettes and smoked fish spreads.

We’re planning on three types of grilled oysters: Fernet Branca Rockefeller, roasted garlic and habanero, and Thai chili with sesame.

A signature line of fresh seafood from either Honolulu Fish Company or Bluefin Seafoods will enable unique chef-driven items like a blackened grouper Reuben sandwich, lobster pot pie, halibut cheeks, frog legs and gator.

We’ll also offer non-seafood options: Smash burgers, chicken, nachos and dips.

I’d also like to introduce my new business/managing partner Garrett Petters, a New Albany native and Providence High School graduate whose extensive work history with seafood includes Whole Foods and Doc Crow’s Southern Smokehouse and Raw Bar. Most recently, Garrett helped open Brooklyn and The Butcher, our neighbors in downtown New Albany, and he was General Manager both at Doc Crow's and Brooklyn.

Our licenses and permits are waiting for the build-out, and Resch Construction will be starting soon. Stay tuned for further details, and we hope to see you in downtown New Albany soon.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Clam bellies.

Welcome to another installment of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

But why all these newfangled words?

Why not the old, familiar, comforting words, like the ones you're sure to hear when asking the city's corporate attorney why the answers to my FOIA/public records request for Bicentennial commission finances, due to be handed over on July 8, still haven't arrived on September 6?

Bicentennial commission financial trail? What's two (yawn) weeks (shrug) after 463 days?

September 6 update: Make that 9 weeks since the FOIA record request's due date and  511 days since I asked Bob Caesar to tell us how many books were left unsold, and how much the city's 200-year "summer of love" fest cost.

It's because a healthy vocabulary isn't about intimidation through erudition. Rather, it's about selecting the right word and using it correctly, whatever one's pay grade or station in life.

Even these very same iniquitous, bond-slush-engorged municipal corporate attorneys who customarily are handsomely remunerated to suppress information can benefit from this enlightening expansion of personal horizons, and really, as we contemplate what they knew and when they knew it, all we have left is plenty of time -- and the opportunity to learn something, if we're so inclined.

Since I'm still on vacation -- for all I know, the Bicentennial finances might have been tied to a brick and tossed through a house window yesterday -- today's word isn't a word, but a primer on fried clams.

Can you guess what I've been eating?

A Clam Institution Worth Its Weight in Bellies (The Atlantic)