The Windsor opens its bar and lounge tonight, and there'll be a party.

Tonight marks the debut of the Windsor Restaurant and Garden's new bar and lounge, the result of an interior retrofitting of the space known locally as "where the music shop used to be."

A bar has been installed, and with a full 3-way liquor license, the full gamut of beer, wine and cocktails will be available. Draft beer highlights are to include two NABC beers, rotating taps for Samuel Adams seasonals and Indiana microbrews, Bell’s, Goose Island, Newcastle, Dogfish Head 90 Minute, and a couple of others that have slipped my mind. The bottle list will begin short and grow.

The Windsor Restaurant and Garden shares ownership with the Grand Convention Center, and the two establishments are located adjacent to each other on Market Street in downtown New Albany. Dave Himmel's reconstituted Connor's Place pub is across the alley from the Grand, and Dave's Market Street Fish House lies across Market to the north.

The Windsor's chef, Justin McMillen, came out to chat a couple of Fridays ago when Mrs. Curmudgeon and I dropped in for dinner, and he said business has been steady. That's good news in a choppy economy. Our meal that night was very good, with grilled scallops to match the great seafood served by the defunct Bistro New Albany when it occupied the space. Isaac Fox, server and bar manager extraordinaire, who did time with the Bistro and later gravitated down the street to Speakeasy before alighting at the Windsor, is the bar manager.

I'll be there at 5:30 today when the celebration begins.