My column at LouisvilleBeer.com: "Drink, Smoke and Enjoy."

I am referring specifically to New Albany, but don't forget Youngstown Cigar Shoppe and Riverside Cigar Shop, both in Jeffersonville.

Drink, Smoke and Enjoy

Posted by Roger Baylor in The Potable Curmudgeon | 0 comments

Tolerable front porch weather resumed in September this year, and temperate temps lasted well into October. Suddenly, as though gripped by an obscure internalized auto-pilot, I found myself queuing at various local cigar purveyors, and layering my humidor.

New Albany is fortunate in this regard. There’s Kaiser Tobacco, which has operated on Pearl Street for more than 175 years, and also Billow, celebrating a year in business on Market Street.

Billow’s strategic location is especially pleasing to the senses when those days when the planets are aligned. Just next to it is the Quills coffee shop, and across the street Habana Blues, a Cuban restaurant. Aromas of cigars, coffees, teas and spicy roasted meats can be pervasive in that area, reminding us of how very important our retained impressions of smell can be, combining with sights and sounds to conjure wonderful memories.

And then there’s beer.