Here's the beer list at Smoke and Rye, the new eatery at Horseshoe Southern Indiana.

Recalling the many and varied layers of pain NABC was compelled to navigate in getting local beer into Horseshoe Casino, this turning out to be a somewhat brief experiment, it always interests me to see what the casino is doing in terms of better beer -- bearing in mind that I'm by no means the target customer.

Above: The beer list at Smoke & Rye

Below: The Smoke & Rye concept (full menu here)

You can be the judge. I'm not taking position, apart from gently suggesting for the umpety-teenth time that given the effort and expense of the restaurant refit, the beer could be done better than this. Still, it's an improvement.

If you visit Smoke & Rye, let me know how it is. I'll make it down there at some point.

Smoke & Rye tempts foodies to cross the river, by Bailey Loosemore (Courier-Journal)

Smoke & Rye — a new restaurant that pairs gourmet burgers and barbecue with a well-cultivated list of more than 160 bourbons and whiskies — is a concept that could likely hold its own on any busy street in Louisville.

But with its grand opening Friday, the restaurant doesn't plan to compete with the Feast BBQs and Down One Bourbon Bars of Market and Main streets. Instead, it hopes to draw foodies across the river to what the business' creators hope will become a new destination: Horseshoe Southern Indiana.

"The area needed something like this," said Lizzet Verdi, the casino's marketing manager. "... So we're not just about gaming. A lot of people say, 'I don't like to gamble.' Well, we have other things for you to do."

Smoke & Rye — a $2.5-million investment — is located in a 9,600-square-foot space previously occupied by Legends, a restaurant that Horseshoe Southern Indiana regional president and general manager John Smith said lacked a distinct personality.

Legends has been a part of the casino since shortly before it opened in the late 90s, and several general managers have made changes to it over the years without ever re-branding the restaurant completely, Smith said.

NABC will be pouring this weekend at the Horseshoe Casino, Live @ Five and Rock the Rocks.

It started in early May, and by most calculations, the event season should be winding down, but it doesn't feel like it.

On Friday night (September 28), there's an opportunity to pair local beer and local music at the Horseshoe Casino. It's a fine and progressive idea, and I'll be on hand Friday night to take in the scene. The four NABC beers on tap will be: Black & Blue Grass, Community Dark, Hoosier Daddy and Tafel Bier.

Also on Friday night:

Live@5's last show of the season starts on Friday at 5:00 p.m. with the band Wax Factory. The venue is the 400 block of Bank Street. NABC's Rosa L. Stumblebus will be on hand to dispense soul-enriching craft beer.

And then on Saturday, the 29th, the scene shifts to Clarksville:

Saturday, September 29, 2012, 6:00 to 10:00 pm

• Live music by Appalatin
• Mayan fare from Terri Lyn's Catering by Design
• Bourbon and tequila tastings by Jim Beam Brands
• Craft beer tastings by New Albanian Brewing Company
• Wine sampling by Horeshoe Bend Winery

Tickets are $75 each in advance, $100 day of event, $600 for a reserved table of 8
Proceeds to benefit the Crossroads Campaign for New Exhibits

Order Tickets Online Now

Free Parking Shuttle from Clarksville Aquatic Center to the Falls

Thanks to our sponsors - American Water Company, Duke Energy, The Estopinal Group, Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County, L&D Mail Masters, Louisville/So. IN Chapter of IUAA, MAC Construction, Raymond James: Morgan Keegan, Solid Light, Inc., Town of Clarksville, and Your Community Bank.

The park's website provides further details.

NABC on the road: Horseshoe Presents: "Local Beer, Local Rock" (Elizabeth IN; 09/28/12).

We've been doing well with NABC beers at Horseshoe, and I'm appreciative for the opportunity to pair local beer and music. It's a fine idea, and I'll be there. We don't yet know which of our beers will be pouring, so stay tuned.

Ogle Center's Bier Prost at Horseshoe Southern Indiana on Friday, August 26.

It was an experiment of sorts, shifting from a previous Bier Prost approach of beers from everywhere in the world, and narrowing it to exclusively Indiana-brewed beers (and Louisville's BBC), most of them transported to the venue in growlers poured from kegs at the Public House.



It seemed to work well. I was given a hard-working staff of four, and once they caught on to the names and placement, I was able to inform and educate the public about the beer, styles and breweries.



Thanks to the organizing committee, my servers and David Hawkins of World Class Beverage for the supplementary bottle donation. There was even a rare Josh Hill spotting!



Earlier: Ogle Center Bier Prost promo on "Fox in the Morning" on Friday, August 26.

Ogle Center Bier Prost 2010 at Horseshoe on Friday, May 21.

NABC and World Class Beverages donates microbrews, handcrafted and imported beers, and they're paired with international foods prepared by Horseshoe's caterers. More info here.

Going Local: Were we in downtown New Albany Saturday night, and did we really do all that?

(expanded version of previously published text)

Times may be changing in New Albany, but days like Saturday still strike me as somewhat surreal when viewed from the sobriety of a mellow morning after.

Perhaps some day this will change -- not the sobering up, which is a required feature of the professional drinker's life, but the surrealism of change in New Albany.

We began with late afternoon, craft-roasted coffee at Dueling Grounds, browsing the Destinations Booksellers racks as we sipped (I need a fresh copy of Garrett Oliver's book in the worst way), and then adjourning to the Bank Street Brewhouse for frites and a beer for each of us. Mine was Elector, because I felt a curious premonition.

Next stop was Wick’s on State for dinner with our friends, the Gillenwaters. Upon entering, I heard a familiar voice: Hugh E. Bir, covering Conway Twitty’s “Tight Fitting Jeans” from a stool in the crowded barroom. Not only is Hugh a performer, but he also owns the Louisville area's last authentic honky tonk, just up the street on Market. We really need to have Abzug pouring in there.

Mike "The Big Wick" Wyckliffe didn’t even wait for me to ask, and within minutes, I was ushered behind the bar, changing the tap handles as Elector supplanted Amber Bock on tap. They're long draw draft lines, and it took a few tastes to get the A-B liquid washed away.

This brief effort led to progressive pints to accompany our pizza and salad, and sated, the four of us proceeded to the Horseshoe Casino for the local leg of The Who singer Roger Daltrey’s “Use It or Lose It” tour in the Showroom. To my considerable surprise, the Horseshoe’s main barroom had BBC Bourbon Barrel Stout on tap, and it proved a worthy libation for sipping as I caught up with Mo, arguably the area’s biggest fan of The Who, after a chance meeting with him along the concourse.

This isn’t intended as a concert review. At the same time, Daltrey was spry and in as good a voice as one might imagine at the age of 65. The set list was predictably filled with Who songs, but to Daltrey’s credit, some of these are seldom played live by anyone, including the group itself ("Tattoo" and "Pictures of Lily" spring to mind). A wildly energetic version of “Going Mobile” was sung by Daltrey’s band mate, Simon Townshend (yes, the younger brother of Peter), and will stand as my top concert moment of the year so far.

When it was over, we returned home to reset clocks and contemplate the evening’s central theme: Most of the action took place within New Albany, and all of it within 10 miles of home, without crossing the river to Louisville.

Let’s all pat ourselves on the back … and return to work, because the trick now is to keep the momentum going.