Diary: It's the little things that matter, like APA with claypot catfish.

At Bank Street Brewhouse, we do what we can during the annual time of affliction in downtown New Albany, otherwise known as Harvest Homecoming. NABC promotes Fringe Fest, which in essence is our protest at downtown being taken over by a demographic more suited to the state fair in it most elemental form. You can call Harvest Homecoming family-oriented; I'll call it lowest common denominator. Fringe Fest is an alternative to the drollery.

But I digress.

About the only thing Harvest Homecoming and Fringe Fest have in common is the weather. If it's nice outside, everyone does well. If it rains, crowds naturally diminish. The forecast on Friday called for rain all day long, and by about 5:00 p.m., this prediction was being fulfilled. The missus and I made an Irish exit and went out for dinner.

These days, especially since she accepted a new job on the Indiana side of the river in Jeffersonville, we go to Louisville quite seldom. But in this instance, both of us were craving Vietnamese, and while there are a few highly regarded newer Vietnamese eateries, our choice was the tried and true original Indochinese destination, Vietnam Kitchen.

I've written about Vietnam Kitchen in the past. It isn't a good beer place by any stretch, but the food is transcendent (surely K-8 is among the top dishes in town), and lately, there'll be nice surprises on the beer list -- not extreme, but appropriate. On Friday, on the handwritten tab beneath the glass table top, "Sierra Nevada Pale Ale" was written. It had been a while, and so I had one with my meal.

I have no idea where it was brewed; Chico or Asheville or Port au Prince. It tasted as pleasant as I remembered it, and accompanied the sublime K-8 as well as I'd imagined. When everything's an IPA, it's a pleasure to have a beer that's an American Pale Ale in the class sense of a yardstick, one able to complement the food and neither overwhelm it nor be subordinated itself.

That said, I really like what David Pierce and my brewers are doing with NABC's Action! APA. But for one night at Vietnam Kitchen, the quintessential Sierra Nevada worked well for me.

From Honey Creme to Vietnam Kitchen on Thanksgiving, 2013.

Scrumptious and delicious -- not to mention the donuts.

Unfazed following yesterday's pecan pie purchase at Sweet Stuff, located a few blocks from our house toward the city center, me and the missus strolled ten minutes this morning in the opposite direction, down to another New Albany institution, so as to begin the holiday with style and sugar

Honey Creme is so delightfully old-school that you feel guilty washing down their goodies with espresso. But I didn't have Folger's around the house. Next comes the yearly ritual and family tradition.

We've been doing Vietnamese for Thanksgiving for as long as we've known each other, and I've no need for the elaborate Thanksgiving meal of childhood.

But let's be pragmatic for a change.

If you'll be coming by the Public House on Friday for Saturnalia MMXIII, and JUST BY SHEER UNFETTERED COINCIDENCE you happen to have leftover turkey for sandwiches on your person and are willing to allow me to MAKE OFF WITH JUST A LITTLE BIT of it, well, it is QUITE LIKELY that a nice beer may find its way into your hands. Just saying. Not that I really need turkey, or anything. You know.

Needless to say, both NABC locations are closed today; we'll be open on Friday, November 29 for usual business hours. Be careful out there, and enjoy your adult libations responsibly.

Not "shaping up" for a Boxing Day indulgence.

I'm off to the Irish Rover (Frankfort Avenue, Louisville) for the pub's annual Boxing Day celebration, followed by a few hours at work and then a journey to Charlestown Pizza Company for dinner and beers with the missus and good friends Jerry and Barb. Yesterday we managed to be shoehorned into the Vietnam Kitchen for a fabulous meal of pho with seafood, accompanied by IPA and Brown Ale.

No, the diet isn't going well ...

Friday, December 26 - Boxing Day (from the Rover's web site)

Keep the party going, but get out of the house. Visit the Irish Rover or Irish Rover, Too for a traditional Irish Breakfast and trad music. 10 am - 2 pm. Call for reservations or details.