Coming soon: "Pints & Union to open in New Albany, will be inspired by classic European pubs."

For more than a year, I've been working with my friend Joe Phillips on a pub project at 114 E. Market in downtown New Albany called Pints & Union.

On Wednesday this week, the cat slipped from the bag in the form of a fine write-up by Kevin Gibson at Insider Louisville KY.

Paraphrasing Robert Frost, we have promises to keep -- and miles to go before we sleep. The first link leads to Gibson's story, with a few thoughts of my own; the second offers some information about how we refer to drinking establishments; and the third provides an overview of my thought process in devising a revolutionary throwback old school progressive beer program.

As there is further information to report, I'll copy here from NA Confidential.

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THE BEER BEAT: "Pints & Union to open in New Albany, will be inspired by classic European pubs."

First and foremost, Pints & Union marks a return to the ethos that originally compelled me to go into the beer business. For this opportunity, all thanks to Joe Phillips -- and serendipitously, Taco Steve (Powell) ...

Pints & Union to open in New Albany, will be inspired by classic European pubs, by Kevin Gibson (Insider Louisville KY)

Leave your cellphone in your pocket, and if you want to watch the local college hoops game with some cheap wings, well, you’ll be going somewhere else.

Pints & Union, which owner Joe Phillips hopes will open sometime in April at 114 E. Market St. in New Albany, will be inspired by European-style (or “Anglo-Irish”) pubs, built for conversing over a pint — or five. Even the name reflects typical pub names in Europe and the United Kingdom.

“We’re going to resurrect the spirit of what a real pub is,” Phillips told Insider.

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SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: On taverns, pubs, Gaststätten and Bung -- with a Mencken chaser.

It's an understatement to say we have lots and lots of work to do, but it's good to have plans, goals and timetables. Until the grand opening, we might spend hours parsing the similarities and differences of pubs, taverns, bars, cafes and the like, as with this chat at Trip Advisor about three German-language descriptors: Gasthof / Gasthaus / Gaststätte ...

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ON THE AVENUES: Golden oldie classic comfort beers at an old school pub? Sounds like Pints & Union to me.

I’ve had enough of venues with 20 beers on tap, the inevitable majority of them IPAs, with the remainder Imperial-this, barrel-aged-that, most of universally high gravity. I’m driven to utter distraction when returning to the same venue two weeks later, only to find that 18 of them have changed, with a whole new crop of “what do you have that’s new,” which might actually mean something if there was an outside chance that the best of the new beers would reappear in less than a year ...

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Of a few taverns past, and some new ones on the way.

Here in New Albany, the shortest way to drive from the vicinity of my Midtown home to the Charlestown Road corridor north of I-265 is to proceed first to Vincennes Street, than hang a right onto Charlestown Road and follow it all the way out.

Doing so, you'll pass a vacant spot by Silver Street where Steinert's Tavern  used to stand before it burned down a few years back. It eventually restarted downtown, but folded. All told, it was one of New Albany's oldest drinking establishments.

A bit further up Charlestown Road, on the right side at Slate Run Road, there stands a modern strip mall on the site of what was called the Lone Star (I believe in olden times it was a lumberyard), then became a Tumbleweed some time around 1983, when the Tex-Mex chain still was local. It burned about a decade back, and was demolished.

Another mile down Charlestown Road at the Blackiston Mill Road intersection are the foundations of Sam's Food & Spirits, which occupied the spot from about 1985 through 2013; it burned just before Christmas, and was recently torn down. Before it was Sam's, it was Ye Olde Mill Inn, the Gasthaus, and for decades prior, the Fourth Dam Tavern.

I turned 21 in 1981, and from that point through 1987, when I first began hanging out at Sportstime Pizza five years before actually joining the business, probably 95% of my drinking occurred at Steinert's (until I was kicked out in a dispute over a salt shaker), Tumbleweed, Sam's and the K & H Cafe in Lanesville. Only the latter never burned, and although the bar business there never ceased being operational (it's Big Momma's nowadays), I haven't been inside since the Schneiders retired in the early 1990s.

My dwelling on these memories may have something to do with aging, or with the revelation that an old, dilapidated tavern building near my house is slated for the wrecking ball:

Some of the taverns at 922 Culbertson, from 1937-1996.

What happens to the ghosts of drinkers past when the buildings go away? Must they find a new spot to haunt?

Of more a optimistic orientation are these stories of impending debuts. Great Flood has started brewing, with NABC's David Pierce providing some helpful hints.

VIDEO: Louisville’s Newest Brewery – Great Flood Brewing

... and three other food and drink businesses on the way have caught my eye. Big Four Burgers is owned by Matt McMahan, who also owns Irish Exit in New Albany:

Big Four Burgers eyeing more in downtown New Albany

In Louisville, there's another branch of the BBC empire coming:

BBC-run Brewhouse to replace Dark Star on Frankfort

Finally, where the epochal Maido used to be, comes a new Japanese eatery:

Old Maido location to re-open as Bar Code 1758, featuring Japanese fare

Will the beer selection at Bar Code 1758 come close to what Jim used to stock at Maido? We boys (and girls) can dream -- of old and new watering holes, and of wasabi and Hop Slam speedballs.