Yesterday’s “Goodwood is closing” dramatics were a tad confusing. They still are.
I’m just trying to decide what I think about it.
As of Wednesday morning, April 1, Goodwood’s most recent post at Facebook is almost three weeks old, dated March 12. You be forgiven for thinking it already was closed.
Surely it would have been better for management to release a broad statement of explanation to clarify what was happening, silence the contradictory rumors, and be accountable to employees and customers.
April fool, suckers.
But after mulling over it, perhaps I’ve found a mild epiphany amid the confusion. Bear with me; it’s a stream of consciousness type of day.
Goodwood Brewing & Spirits — closed? open? evolving? Bueller? UPDATED
As of Wednesday, it seems that both Goodwood properties in downtown Louisville are closed, with the newer Whiskey Row concept dead for good, but a (supposed) possibility that Goodwood’s traditional taproom might reopen, assuming the creditors lined up outside are paid, and pending a sale or a merger with a Nashville-based savior. As the story plays out, I keep returning to the same question.
What about the beer?
I’m tiresome that way, and stubbornness like this is what marks me as a quaint, doddering old-timer, because whatever is happening with Goodwood at present, it doesn’t have very much to do with the brewery’s beer.
Okay, okay.
It is true that I seldom drink Goodwood’s beers, and so most of my thoughts have been about the brewing history of the Beer Corner of Main & Clay, extending all the way back to Pipkin’s debut in 1997.
The subsequent chronology has been complex, but the mere fact that beer has been brewed continuously at the site for almost 30 years isn’t chump change. It’s an important part of Louisville’s brewing history.
Maybe those properly funded Nashville cats can convince Samuel Smith, Rodenbach or Weihenstephaner to take over
Beyond the most immediate consideration of those Goodwood employees losing their jobs with scant notice, it dawned on me that when the “Goodwood is closing” news first broke on Tuesday, just about everything to be found about it on social media was coming from musicians and trivia game operators, who’d apparently learned even more quickly than employees that their gigs at Goodwood Whiskey Row were gone.
A few Reddit denizens mentioned...Read more
