Previously: 40 Years in Beer, Part Eleven: The Fat Cats Deli & Pub was short-lived but inspirational.
One afternoon in August, 1987 an archaic device affixed to the wall started ringing. I lifted the plasticized receiver from its cradle, gently brushing against the numerical rotary dial.
(Recall that we lived in caves back then, brandishing big clubs to pursue brontosaurus steaks.)
The caller was my old pal TR, asking about my recently concluded second journey to Europe. We chatted about the trip, and then he suggested we continue the conversation over lunch at a new spot on Grant Line Road in New Albany—well, not exactly new, but recently changed. A moribund Noble Roman’s Pizza outlet had different management, and it was now a local eatery dubbed Sportstime Pizza.
I knew that TR and his father enjoyed bonding over meals at area restaurants, and could always be relied upon to provide informative reviews during this word-of-mouth era preceding internet ubiquity, so a couple of days later we met at Sportstime for pizza and soft drinks, as I couldn’t quite bring myself to consume draft Budweiser so soon after returning from...Read more
