"A quarter century of beer and pizza," by Matt Nash.

Matt commences with an ominous sentence, considering the record of the early years, but it's a nice segue into his personal account of pizzas, beers and so much else.

NASH: A quarter century of beer and pizza, by Matt Nash (News and Tribune)

JEFFERSONVILLE — My personal relationship with the New Albanian Brewing Company goes back to a few years before I was even able to drink beer, legally.

NABC Pizzeria & Pub a "pizza pick" in the Courier-Journal.

Nice words from Marty Rosen in Saturday's Louisville Courier-Journal: Four pizza picks that are sure to please.

NABC Pizzeria and Pub

The NABC Pizzeria and Pub, a component of the New Albanian Brewing Company, boasts a legendary beer list that draws connoisseurs from all over the country. There's nary a mass-market lager to be found, but if your thirsts are artisanal, there are hundreds of ways to quench it.

Also included is the Charlestown Pizza Company, which fully deserves the recognition.

I appreciate Marty's help with the ongoing process of rebranding, although if you still wish to call our Grant Line components by their Rich O's and Sportstime names, please feel free. One of my resolutions for 2010 is to be more consistent with my written references to NABC Pizzeria & Pub. We'll see how it goes.

Lunch hours at the Public House, beginning now.

Beginning this week, opening hours at NABC’s Public House (Rich O’s) are being expanded backwards to include lunchtime.

I say "backwards" because we opened the Public House at 11:00 a.m. until 1999, when it was concluded that one dining room was enough for lunch. The variable that has changed since then, and the one now being recognized, is smoking vs. non-smoking. In practical terms, this change has the effect of opening the non-smoking area at the Public House to lunchtime business.

Feedback is kindly requested. Among other things, Gravity Head now becomes more interesting, earlier.

From now on, both the Public House and Pizzeria (Sportstime) will be open at 11:00 a.m., Monday through Saturday. Closing hours remain 12 a.m. (midnight) at both. NABC’s original Public House and Pizzeria are closed on Sunday. NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse downtown is open on Sunday, but closed on Monday.

Got it?

NABC update: Beer events for July and August at the Public House & Pizzeria.

From today's e-newsletter:

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At the original Grant Line (Rich O’s and Sportstime) location, business continues as always. Special recognition goes to brewer Jared Williamson, who is working the Grant Line brewing system daily to make enough beer for both locations.

Apologies for not being able to precisely fix dates on a number of forthcoming beer events, but I’ll give you what I have and hope that they fall into place as expected.

In July, roughly by the 6th, we’ll be doing three English “real” ciders on the hand-pull at Grant Line: Yarlington Mill, Scrumpy and Norman (single varietal), all from Gwatkin. They’ll follow one after another until depleted, and once we decide on a serving order, I’ll let you know.

Also in July, Mike Bauman is organizing Brooklyn Brewery and Magic Hat promotional events. These probably will fall on Monday or Tuesday.

For the resumption of Lambic by the Glass, I’m going to say that some time around August 1 – 5 is the window. Again this year, I’ve had trouble sourcing enough product to pour the typical 4-oz samples. However, Shelton Brothers is shipping a few Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen selections, including Cantillon draft. When I’m able to be exact, I will.

Similarly, Sandkerwa is on for late August, circa Friday the 28th. I’m working with Shelton Brothers of a shipment of Franconian craft drafts that could be mind-blowing if it comes together, and these will be featured alongside the usual Schlenkerla smoked lagers.

Stay tuned. As a final calendar notification, don’t forget the Brewers of Indiana Guild festival in Indianapolis on Saturday, July 18. Tickets are on sale at the Public House.

Both NABC locations will be closed on Saturday, July 4.

Sorry I haven't been around as much. Here's why.

(Stream of consciousness, unedited)

I understand your concerns. Let me tell you the story as I see it, and know that to the best of my ability, I’ve endeavored to keep you informed. But life has been craaazy lately.

Begin by accepting that it was time for NABC to expand. The trick has been to do so in a way that maximizes our strengths, minimizes our weaknesses, and offers something different in a crowded marketplace. Merely duplicating the original location would be inadequate, and probably disappointing, because it is unique. The decision was to take the most comparatively undervalued section of the portfolio, NABC’s own beers, and provide it the room to grow, while at the same time rebranding it with an entirely different on-premise atmosphere that would contribute to the regeneration of downtown New Albany.

We knew from the beginning that once the Bank Street Brewhouse opened, supplying both retail locations with NABC’s own house-brewed beer as brewed within the confines of the existing garage brewery would be a profound challenge, at least until the new brewery downtown went on line. Everything had to be perfect for the game plan to work.

Unfortunately, everything wasn’t perfect. Because the aim all along was to sell NABC beer and NABC beer alone downtown, without any guest taps, I decided that the taps downtown would be kept filled with NABC beer to the exclusion of the selection at Rich O’s and Sportstime. The reasoning remains simple. At the pub and pizzeria, there are 30 other taps and a few hundred different bottled brands to provide temporary cover for the absence of house brands.

Of course, this assumed that production would be consistent in the existing brewery. We’d run low, but not run out. However, yeast issues in the existing brewery were not supposed to be part of the equation, but as living creatures, yeast sometimes have minds of their own. Replacing yeast and growing it to strength takes time, and so does a normal brewing schedule, and that’s why our core brands have been absent, and it’s also why I’ve already been compelled to swallow hard, reverse course and happily welcome guest beers to the new location. They’ll remain on tap as we slowly catch up, because there’s only one way to catch up: One brew day at a time, until serving tanks and kegs are filled … and then immediately repeat the process.

Meanwhile, rumor has it that the “regulars” at the Public House miss me. I’m flattered, but would ask that you not draw faulty conclusions from my absence.

I spent quite a lot of time in January and February working concurrently with the Bank Street run-up and Gravity Head 2009. Veterans of the pub scene understand how much work Gravity Head entails, much less actively opening an entirely new business. My strategic plan? With Gravity Head off and running for all of March and usually into April, time would be provided for me to concentrate on Bank Street’s opening before returning to the original location to begin envisioning the remainder of the year in beer and facilitating the long overdue beer list update.

All this became possible because of Mike Bauman, the beer manager at Grant Line, who has done marvelous work running the day to day while assimilating a staggering amount of information about the tricks of the trade. Trust me when I say that the many recent shifts in wholesale availability, from regularly stocked items to a large preponderance of special order beers, would have baffled even me, and without the Bank Street demands. Mike’s been slogging through this, and the hard work should soon visibly bear fruit.

Other than getting into the habit of referring to the original site as Grant Line and the new location as Bank Street, which should help newcomers distinguish between the two, little will be changing on the north side. At some point in the near future, we hope to implement a few long-delayed and sorely needed changes: Kitchen expansion, the incorporation of much of Prost as a full-time Public House seating and service area, improvements to the existing brewery as it assumes the role of seasonal/specialty/experimental work area, and whatever outdoor seating can be carved out of the remaining scant real estate. I hope these things can begin happening later this year, and during 2010.

For them to happen, we must continue making our friends and customers happy by serving them food and drink. With respect to me, personally, it should be obvious that doing all these things at the same time makes it difficult for me to predict when I’ll be at which location. I hope you understand that. Like so many other considerations, my absence from the pub isn’t at all personal. It’s business. We’ve been at this a long time, and the business is at the point where it must grow. I’m working as hard as I can to achieve this, and so is Kate, Amy and the rest of the teams in our employ.

Finally, I’ve accepted that this is what I want to do when I grow up. Now, I have to grow up. I’ll be seeing all of you somewhere, some time. You remain family, and don’t doubt it.

Bell's Oberon release party at NABC Grant Line this Wednesday, April 8.

Mike Bauman, NABC’s Grant Line beer manager, is staging a Bell’s Oberon seasonal debut in the NABC pizzeria wing (3312 Plaza Drive, off Grant Line Road) from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 8.

The party is in conjunction with World Class Beverages, Indiana’s wholesaler for Bell’s, and our WCB rep Tish Dean will be on hand. Mike will be pouring draft Oberon, and there’ll be glassware for keeping as well as drawings.

Meanwhile, there's a Thunder(foot) Over Bank Street firkin and dinner downtown, beginning at 6:30 pm, same day: Wednesday, April 8: Cask-Conditioned Thunderfoot Release Dinner at the Bank Street Brewhouse.

New Albany’s smoking ban might yet be vetoed. If not ...

At last Thursday’s New Albany city council meeting, 2nd and 3rd readings of the smoking ordinance were passed by identical 5-4 votes. Mayor Doug England has until the end of the month to decide whether he will veto the ordinance. To overturn the veto, there would have to be a sixth vote in favor. In a city long noted for chicanery and cowardice, anything is possible, and predictions are futile. The mayor is being properly circumspect as these various background wheels turn.

From the outset of the smoking ban issue’s introduction, my opinion has remained consistent. If the discussion is kept to the science of second hand smoke and what this means in the context of workplace safety, there can at least be a discussion. But this typically isn’t enough for smoking ban proponents, who generally use their platform not to defend workers, but to attack smokers. As one supportive of fair play, I find this intolerable.

Furthermore, those politicians introducing the topic into our already fractured civic discourse know full well that second only to abortion, smoking is a topic guaranteed to devolve into civil war. They make it political, and I respond in kind, which is why the current council president ejected me from last week’s meeting. Apparently he didn’t enjoy my pointing out the transparency of his political clothing to a waiting world.

All that aside, if the ordinance is signed into law, Rich O’s and Sportstime will have to be smoke-free by March 9, 2009. The ordinance specifies a distance of ten feet from entry doors to where outdoor smoking can be permitted. Given the configuration of our building, there is good news and bad news therein. By spending a few thousand bucks and honoring existing codes, we can finish the outdoor seating area in the back of the building and even weatherize a section of it to make matters comfortable. This outdoor area would be accessible to Sportstime customers from the rear exit door in that section of the building.

Unfortunately, the state of Indiana’s never helpful alcohol laws forbid pub customers from exiting through the door behind the bar (except, of course, in an emergency). Rich O’s patrons will have to go through the entry door in front to a smaller smoking area outside. My consultant Lloyd and I are working on plans for all this. I’m thanking the city council for mandating further expenditures during lean times.

And being fairly sarcastic about the whole thing.

On the status of the proposed New Albany workplace smoking ban.

On August 4, New Albany’s city council passed the first reading of an indoor smoking ordinance.

The vote was 5-4, and two more readings are required, with the tally on the third being the final determinant. If vetoed, an overturn would require six votes. The council intends to vote for both second and third readings on August 21.

Those are the bare facts, and in terms of legislative politics, this is a topic better considered in depth at my other blog. Accordingly, here are a few links to it (two written by me and one by my blogging partner Jeff) and another piece I wrote at the request of the New Albany Tribune.

Council smoking farce: I'm taking it personally, too.

If you've been a slumlord for more than 100 years, are you exempt? (by Jeff Gillenwater)

Doesn’t New Albany have more important issues?

Hypocrisy meter nudges "tilt” as council’s smoking ordinance is revealed.

As we await the shoddy melodramatics to come, end games must be considered. What do we do at the pizzeria and pub if the ban comes to pass?

At work yesterday, we took a few minutes to pace 20 feet from the public entry doors. On the pizza side, smoking patrons can exit the rear door into the back yard, which we’ve intended for some time to convert into permanent outdoor seating. Short-term, we’d have to put down a hard surface and build a roof. Longer-term, we could dust off the old conversion plan and extend both along the length of the building, but equipment, and be in the business of outdoor seating.

On the pub side, it’s more complicated. The rear fire exit is behind the bar, and Indiana state alcohol law forbids customers from using it except in emergency situations. Cigarette breaks for pub denizens will have to be accessed from the front door, within an area to be constructed in front of the Prost windows. It's imperfect.

Currently, we have smoking and non-smoking areas at the pub. Because of customer demand, the non-smoking area has gotten larger over the years, and in general terms, most customers have at least seemed satisfied by the arrangement. We’ve yet to have an employee complain about being forced to work in smoke, but if so, we'd certainly try to accommodate the request.

The preceding is intended as raw information. My public stance on the matter may seem unusual to some, although to me, it reflects the best possible resolution of a deep personal division, and I’m content with that because life is rarely black and white.

We’ll see what happens next.

Rich O’s Public House CLOSED, Sportstime Pizza OPEN on Derby Day, Saturday, May 3.

Repeating the drill from Thunder Over Louisville ... no, I’m not a fan of Louisville’s foremost annual celebration of horse flesh, gambling, and the atrocious butchering of decent bourbon otherwise known as the mint julep, a cocktail which is consumed only now, and mostly by people who don't know any better.

However, I know that the majority of my friends and acquaintances enjoy the pomp and circumstance of Kentucky Derby, so be it. We’ve long since learned that there’s no sense in staffing both dining areas at NABC/Rich O’s/Sportstime on Derby Day, and we’ll not be doing so again this year. Rich O’s will be closed all day, but Sportstime will be open. No Red Room for you. Blame it on the occasion, whhich is aptly ridiculed here:

From the web: "The Kentucky Derby Really Is Decadent and Depraved."

NABC open for Super Bowl: Sportstime open from 4:00 p.m.

The nation's annual sporting excuse to venerate noxious television ads, otherwise known as Super Bowl XLII, takes up most of the day on Sunday, February 3, and as in previous years, Sportstime Pizza will be open.

Special "Super Bowl Sunday" operating hours run from 4:00 p.m. until the game's over.

It will be business as usual: Dine in, carry-out, full menu and all the beers.

Mailbag: A couple of questions are answered.

Regular reader Brad had a couple of questions following Friday's "Operation Progressive Pint: Current progress", and for various reasons I didn’t get the usual e-mail notification and missed them until today.

Here are Brad’s questions and my answers.

Does this (brewery expansion downtown) mean that the NABC may soon be selling kegs to the general public, or that kegs may be available to the general public through some distribution channel?

We’re able to do dock sales on a limited basis now, although we’re constrained by beer supply and periodic cooperage shortages. I suspect that the planned facility will be able to offer more consistency in the way of keg sales to the public. Otherwise, it is our hope that we’ll be shipping kegs to places like Indianapolis, Bloomington and Louisville.

Also, are there any plans (even sort of "Pie in the Sky" ideas) to expand the brewpub business of NABC/Rich O's? While I don't mind waiting 30 minutes (or more) for great pizza and incredible beer, I'm sure I could justify the trip from Louisville more often if 1/4 of my stay wasn't spent standing around.

Although it’s always been a challenge to deal with Fridays and Saturdays, the past year saw a big surge in business every night, and we weren’t prepared for it.

There has been a longtime conundrum with respect to seating, and the easiest way to explain it is that we’ve continued to add seating capacity with the same size kitchen, which was designed for about a third of the people who now are prepared to order food at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Obviously, the kitchen must eventually be expanded, but to do that means we lose seats, probably on the Rich O’s side.

We could begin semi-regular seating in the Prost banquet room area, but not until the kitchen expands. So, currently we’re working on a plan to change the way we use Prost. As it turns out, Prost really hasn’t been big enough to do regular functions like receptions, and our catering options have been both difficult to prepare and generally supplanted by a preference for pizza. Prost sits empty when we need to use it.

For the short term, and while retaining the option of using Prost as an events area for art shows, FOSSILS meetings and preferred seating during beer festivals, our plan is to establish Prost as a non-smoking bar and waiting area of sorts while we work on a permanent remake. This at least would give people a non-smoking area to wait for a table, and perhaps light appetizers could be offered. There'll be a flat-screen television so that sporting events become an option on that side of the building.

(Note: I always said no televisions in Rich O's proper. Prost is different.)

Hopefully this will give us time to figure out a plan for kitchen expansion, which hasn’t yet been done.

Relative calm before the deluge ... good or bad?

For me, the coming weekend currently is open, and that’s good, because eight out of the following nine are booked with one activity or another, most revolving around beer, beer festivals and beer advocacy.

Before you say it: Yes, I understand that I’m fortunate to have a “dream job” that allows me to drink and talk beer (somewhat) for a living. At the same time, it’s a full contact sport and can be tiring all the same.

In addition, the period that begins today and ends on August 6 is one of uncertainty for NABC and any other Southern Indiana business that relies in any degree on traffic from Louisville, because for the next month the waterfront stretch of I-64 is closed entirely for repairs. No one is quite sure what effect this will have, although my sense is that many of our Louisville customers come to us via I-65, and that the downtown New Albany bar and eateries serving NABC beer will be hurt worse than we will.

(Go here to learn why I-64 should be refashioned, not expanded: 8664 - (Take back the riverfront)

On the other hand, if Hoosiers decide to stay closer to home to avoid the commuting hassles, then we all may do better in the end. Verily, it’s a coin flip at this point.

Let’s take a brief look at the next two main events on the calendar, beginning with Saturday, July 14, when we’ll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sportstime Pizza with a party in Prost. There’ll be food and beer specials and music, including the rumored comeback of Roz Tate.

Sportstime Pizza will be 20 years old on July 14, and we're having a party.

Then, thinking ahead another week, if you’ve ever wanted to attend the annual Brewers of Indiana Guild festival at Broad Ripple (Saturday, July 21) but didn’t feel like driving to Indianapolis and back, rejoice, because Professor Gesser is on your side.

Rick and Jeff Tours: Buses to the Indiana Microbrewers Festival and Cubs vs. Reds in Cincy.

This is a great, pain-free deal for gaining access to Indiana’s prime festival, and I hope to see many readers from the Louisville area there.

Time warp: Pizza, beer and Glasnost?

See: Sportstime Pizza will be 20 years old on July 14, and we're having a party.

Thanks to graphic artist in residence Tony Beard for another great design.

Sportstime Pizza will be 20 years old on July 14, and we're having a party.

It will surprise some readers and patrons to learn that Sportstime Pizza came first.

Before Rich O's Public House (1990), before I became a part of the business (1992) and before the New Albanian Brewing Company (incorporated in 1994, and brewing 2002), there was Sportstime, occupying the space that previously had been a Noble Roman pizza franchise.

Rich O’Connell -- eventual namesake of the public house, husband of Sharon and the father of current co-owners Amy and Kate -- took over the Noble Roman operation in the summer of 1987. He pronounced it hopeless, began reshuffling the deck, severed the franchise agreement and changed the name to Sportstime Pizza. Around that time I began drinking (bad) beer there with my friends at the time, and eating the first of several thousand pizzas. Shortly thereafter, through sheer coincidence, Rich added bottled Pilsner Urquell to the menu and contracted to buy the whole building.

In 1990, two of his cronies opened Rich O’s BBQ, which passed to Amy’s control within weeks when they became bored with trite notions of labor and effort. In 1992 my tenure at what became the Public House began, and then Amy and I were married, and then her parents divorced … and in 1994 we formed the New Albanian Brewing Company with Kate, who later married Jeff. In 2002 brewing began, the following year Amy and I were divorced, and if this whole story sounds like something lifted from the pages of the afternoon soaps, I can assure you that all of it is quite factual.

Through these many roller-coaster plot twists, Sportstime has endured, and while lately we’ve made a conscious decision to market the NABC name as a means of increasing its visibility as a brand name for the house beers, it’s obvious that the Sportstime brand isn’t going away and has an enduring appeal for several generations of customers. For this, we’re thankful – whichever name one chooses to call us.

On Saturday, July 14, we’ll devote the day to a birthday party in Prost, with business as usual elsewhere in the building. Old photos and accounts are being collected, and if readers have any that they’d be willing to share just for the day, please let us know. Did you work for us at any point during the past two decades? If so, and there are no lawsuits pending, we'd like to hear from you, too. There’ll be beer and food specials and a few surprises, although my effort to engage Def Leppard for the day didn’t work out.

Roz Tate, are you and the 600 Hitlers reading?

Remember, this one’s about the venerable Sportstime dining area, which often gets short shrift compared to the cachet of Rich O’s and the brewery. But we've not forgotten our upbringings, and July 14th will be an observance of our roots. Both old-timers and newbies are invited to poke their heads into Prost and glimpse the progression.