A few weeks ago I was asked about the wooden church pews that may or may not still offer seating on the pub side at NABC’s Pizzeria & Public House in New Albany, formerly Rich O’s Public House and Sportstime Pizza, where I was a founder and co-owner for 25 years.
Q: Where did those beautiful wooden church pews come from, anyway?
A: Nail City, but it’s complicated.
Yes, there is a back story, as originally written in 2001. Eventually it will be slotted into my ongoing “40 Years in Beer” narrative, but today at “Hip Hops” it is yours to read in advance.
First, a few thoughts in retrospect.
As surreal as the experience seemed at the time, it was never my intention to denigrate the city of Wheeling. As a resident of New Albany, then as now, empathy ordains that one remains keenly aware of the challenges inherent to the process of revitalization as it pertains to a struggling, faded city with a presumably glorious past that didn’t always adapt well to post-WWII economic realities.
In fact I always cheer for reinvention, and it would be interesting to return to Wheeling some day and gauge the city’s progress since my sole visit as documented below. Contemporary Google street views paint a hopeful picture.
As for our encounter with the ad hoc greeting committee at a Wheeling package liquor store, it really did happen this way, and the participants were quoted as closely as I could recall their words an hour or so later, back at the hotel, jotting furiously into my notebook. At 63 years of age, as opposed to 41, it is likely that my interpretation of this conversation would be different. But it was exceedingly strange, and there is no compelling reason to disavow my former self’s sometimes jaundiced outlook.
River City Ale Works ceased brewing around 2004, and other restaurants have occupied the space since then. Much to my chagrin and occasional outbursts of sheer horror, the brewpub warning list that I compiled while writing this essay about the Wheeling trip 23 years ago has come circling back with a vengeance and is (painfully) relevant once more, in 2024, as considered in last week’s column.
Hip Hops: Five of my biggest failures as a beer purveyor