Waiting For Good Dough

Years passed in our little town aside the Ohio River. Years of decline layered upon years of decline. Even a few years of false starts passed in the same town, before they were layered over by more decline. During one of the false starts I remember watching an evening of mud wrestling--at the Grand. One of the young girls who maneuvered in the pit that night had to take her bows quickly, because she had to,"get showered, and shampooed, and get to work at The Dodge House", as the owner of the Grand, the emcee of the evening explained.

Apparently those days have dropped off the calendar for good, unless we are now in some extended false start, which will end one day only to find us, once again, roaming a deserted downtown looking for dubious forms of entertainment, with no hope of a decent meal or a good brew.

During those days in New Albany, roughly coinciding with most of the latter third of the Twentieth Century, commercial activity in the downtown area was mostly a memory. The action was in the malls. "Buy local" was an admonition that would have been hard to actualize. One who hoped for a day when New Albany would be home to numerous, good, downtown restaurants would likely have been accused of living in the past. If one had spoken of a day when beer and wine of local origin would be served in good restaurants downtown, one would have likely been called delusional.

And yet, here we are today. Go to downtown New Albany today and find independent restaurants serving good food, good beer and good wine. That the wine and beer is locally produced is icing on the cake. These restaurants are a sign that New Albany has crossed a line between what was and what can be; a line separating decline and abandonment from reclamation and renewal.

But as much progress as New Albany has made, and I hope continues to make, one glaring absence in the culinary scene is seen. Where's the good bread?

New Albany has graduated to a level of appreciation for good, independent restaurants. Our citizens' palates have been cultivated to appreciate craft beer and local vintners. I believe we have reached a point where locally baked, artisanal bread can be introduced into this city.

As we sat down to supper last night, my wife and I both remarked on how good the Pug rolls from the Blue Dog Bakery were. Bread is, after all, one of the oldest staples of the human diet. It is also, in the hands of an accomplished baker, one of the simplest delights.

As the wall of anti-commerce, in the form of tolls and construction delays, between New Albany and Louisville moves closer toward disruption of our regional market, I believe a golden opportunity awaits some talented entrepreneur to open a good bread bakery here. If the owners of the Blue Dog could be enticed to locate here, that would be wonderful, but I sense their hands are full.

The people of our city have responded enthusiastically when good quality food and drink is offered. We have broken the pattern of always choosing the lowest common denominator in dining. This would have been unheard of only a few years ago. Is it too much to think New Albany might now have arrived at a point where the staff of life might earn a higher, artisanal and local expression? I hope the wait will soon be over.