whatever you're doing right now, it's not as important as this..
http://www.al.com/business/mobileregist ... xml&coll=3
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
By ANDREA JAMES
Business Reporter
MOBILE — Members of the beer-drinking public are drumming up support to save about 1,800 gallons of beer, worth $80,000, that are spoiling at Mr. Jim's Cannon Brew Pub after the power was cut last Thursday.
The last-ditch attempt is being led by the locally owned pop-music radio station WABB-FM 97.5, which dedicated its Tuesday morning show to finding ways to "save the beer."
"There was more fanfare today than when the Brew Pub opened two years ago," said the pub's general manager, Stephen Haywood. "The public outpouring was just amazing."
To restore electricity, $8,000 needs to be paid to Alabama Power. Another $4,000 is due for gas and water, Haywood said. Payday is Friday for the pub's 35 employees, and they are not expected to receive checks, he said.
The owners, who are responsible for paying the utility bills, live in Columbus, Ga. One of those owners, William Gantt, told the Mobile Register on Tuesday that "financial irregularities" have to be sorted out before business can resume.
Gantt hopes to have the downtown pub, which occupies a three-story building on the corner of Dauphin and Joachim streets, open Friday, he said. Brewmaster Todd Hicks has said that may be too late for the tanks of specially brewed, refrigerated beer.
"Hopefully, we'll be pouring beer for you very soon," said Gantt, speaking on advice from a lawyer who had cautioned him not to say anything more.
The pub's sister restaurant in Columbus is open, its general manager said.
On Tuesday, calls flooded into the radio station from people concerned about the brew pub, disc jockeys said.
Suggestions to save the hops included throwing a block party for Alabama Power employees to entice them into restoring power, raffling off a vat of beer and selling tickets to a Jell-O wrestling match between Mayor Sam Jones and former Mayor Mike Dow, D.J. Matt McCoy said.
Eventually, they decided to sell T-shirts with the word "beer" and the pub's logo. Some of the pub's employees and radio crews set up shop at lunch and yelled, "Save the beer! Buy a T-shirt!"
As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, about $700 had been raised -- enough to pay half of the employees, Haywood said. The T-shirt sale is expected to continue today.
"We just think that with Mardi Gras so close it would be a waste of some perfectly good beer," McCoy said.
On Wednesday morning, WABB-FM will auction the three owners' mugs.
The publicity has encouraged a downtown business owner to express interest in buying the property, Haywood said. The unnamed businessman was expected to meet Tuesday night with the brew pub's board of directors, he said.
Downtown's nightly partiers and daily workers all seem eager for the pub reopen.
"A lot of my friends worked there, and they are all out of a job," said Daniel Ellis, cook manager at Picklefish pizzeria.
Said Diana Hunter, an apprentice tattoo artist at L.A. Body Art, "That's an abomination unto the Lord to let that much beer go to waste."
