Review: Rich O's Public House

(Editor's note: Rich O's is now New Albanian Brewing Co. The ownership is the same.)

"Extremism in the defense of good beer is no vice."

This slogan of Roger Baylor, an owner of Rich O's Public House in New Albany, is just the beginning of the devotion to craft beers (and the often whimsically political atmosphere) of the pub that is both a magnet for serious malt enthusiasts (with over two dozen taps and hundreds of bottled selections from around the world) and the unofficial faculty club for nearby Indiana University Southeast. It's the closest thing to the kind of cafe/-pub to be found in towns such as Cambridge, Mass., and Oxford, England, that the Louisville area has.

But you don't have to be an attenuated '60s radical academic to enjoy hoisting a pint in the Red Room. That's the dining area featuring a wall-sized portrait of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, whose political philosophy was 180 degrees away from late Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, whose words are paraphrased in the pub's slogan. You can eavesdrop on, or engage in, some lively dialogue, but you also can come here to enjoy first-rate pub grub (at rock-bottom prices) and an extraordinary selection of beers from around the world. Add to this the on-site microbrewing activities of the embryonic New Albanian Brewing Co., and you have a truly unique hang-out.

On a recent visit, friends and I sipped samples of the five house brews on tap, enjoyed a round of other pints and munched on an array of menu items.

The fixture beers in the New Albanian lineup (whose brewers are Michael Borchers and Amy Baylor) are Beak's Best (an English-style Extra Special Bitter ale) and Community Dark (a mild ale, another English-style so-called because its alcohol content is lower than that of other ales).

The bitterness from the hops and the sweetness from the malt in the Beak's are nicely balanced. It's not the classic Fuller's ESB, but considering that Fuller's has been brewed for over a century and Beak's for only a few months, you can taste the promise.

Milds use dark-roasted malts for flavor, so this is no "light" beer (a species forbidden to cross the threshold at Rich O's), even though it's light-bodied. It had a pleasant touch of smokiness too.

The other three beers in our sampler were Elector, a hybrid of American and English ale styles with a German derived name and a smoky undertone; Tunnel Vision, a Belgian-style wheat beer spiced with orange peel and coriander; and The Black Hand, an espresso-flavored dark-as-night porter. (Pints of the house brews are $3.25 each.)

But we didn't overlook the food in our quest for beer. With the samplers, we shared two appetizers, Rich O's fat breadsticks made with pizza dough ($2.75) and spinach kase ($5.25). Many sauces are available for dipping the bread. We asked for homemade tomato sauce and garlic butter. The savory spinach dip is a blend of housemade beer cheese served with blue corn chips.

An impressively crisp and fresh house salad ($2.25) was perfect with the addition of garlic olive oil and vinegar. Entrees were equally fine examples of their type, though one came later than the others when the order got lost in the kitchen.

Two of us shared an 11-inch Big Ten pizza ($8.50) topped with pepperoni, sausage, ham, bacon, mushrooms, ground beef, green and black olives, green peppers and onions. The spicy tomato sauce is a Rich O's signature.

The hearty portion of Greek lasagna ($7), made with chicken, spinach and Kalamata olives, was served in the dish in which it was baked.

The Italian sausage hoagie ($4.75) was the latecomer, but the fennel-flavored meat and melted mozzarella served between slices of pizza bread proved worth the wait, as did the side of the outstanding house-made potato salad.

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