Hip Hops_Spring19_Ed-final.qxp_Road Trip_Cinci.qxd 2/28/19 2:44 PM Page 14
liquids | hip hops
PINTS& UNION
Where the classic beer hits keep right on pouring BY ROGER BAYLOR, PHOTOS BY ANDY HYSLOP
Did you hear the one about two buddies walking into a coffee shop to talk about building a brand new “old” bar? One of them was Joe Phillips, and the other was me. We began philosophizing about life, adult beverages, curry and third spaces. This chat was the impetus for Pints&union, a pub in downtown New Albany that opened in August of 2018.
n that fateful morning at Quills, we drained a few bracing espressos and got wired – then excited. We’d both been planning an honest, traditional, no-gimmicks public house where everybody knows your name, and it seemed like a good idea to work together toward this shared goal. Now Joe is the owner of Pints&union, and I work for him as manager of a purposefully archaic beer program, which I’ll get to in a moment. First, meet Joe Phillips and his dream pub. Joe is a food and drink industry lifer who began washing dishes at a pizzeria in California while still attending high school. He’s since compiled a resume that touches just about every base in the local food and drink business: Copper & Kings, Capriole Farms Goat Cheese, Butchertown Social and New Albanian Brewing Company’s Bank Street Brewhouse among others. Pints&union is about “getting back to what really matters,” as Joe often puts it. The pub’s name has an ampersand but no spacing, representing an inclusive sharing ethos; historically pubs have functioned as more than just watering holes.They’re living rooms, libraries, meeting halls and community centers. Housed in a two-story wood-frame structure from the 1880s, Pints&union was rebuilt to its original 19th-century dimensions by Resch
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About the author: Roger has written F&D’s beer column Hip Hops since 2005. He is also the former co-owner of the New Albanian Brewing Company, and served four terms on the board of the Brewers of Indiana Guild. Since 1983 he’s been a liquor store manager, European beer tour escort, homebrewing club founder, bartender and entrepreneur.
14 Spring 2019 www.foodanddine.com
114 East Market Street New Albany, Indiana
812.913.4647 Construction. As many surviving materials as possible were reused during the course of the modernization. The eclectic interior suggests a cross between an Irish pub and an American saloon, and this is fitting given the long record of taverns and eateries occupying the space. In 1890, when Nicholas Sauer’s saloon was the tenant, New Albany boasted a population of 21,000, and there were 80 drinking emporiums — most of which were located downtown within walking distance of each other.That’s a pub for roughly every 262 people. The full-service bar at Pints&union features spirits overseen by Bar Manager Calvin Philley, whose philosophy is simple: a core of classic cocktails tweaked with repurposed ingredients and modified techniques designed to complement Pints&union’s distinctive sense of place amid New Albany’s emerging downtown scene. Meanwhile, Joe and Chef Aaron Tuttle have designed a short but varied menu of international street food suitable for preparation in limited galley kitchen space: Scotch eggs, Chicken Tikka Masala and Currywurst alongside American diner-standard cheeseburgers and fries. Early results have been encouraging for Joe’s new-meets-old mix of stylistic influences at Pints&union, and - speaking personally as a burnedout former brewery owner who was unsure he even had a place in today’s beer world — I’m grateful to Joe for the chance to offer a slate of beers that largely eschews the avant garde. To explain this, we must steal a quick glance through the rearview mirror. I began working part-time in a downtown New Albany liquor store in 1983 with a copy of Michael Jackson’s seminal “World Guide to Beer” in