Joe Schutzman is a Newport firefighter who loves Northern Kentucky’s culture, sense of place – and beer. Find Joe’s previous columns and more on NKY dining here.
I can now say I know how the world felt when The Beatles broke up, how the fans in Mudville ached to see Casey’s final at-bat, and what was going through the minds of viewers during the series finale of Cheers as Norm headed out the front door and Sam Malone sauntered from behind the bar, closed up, and headed out the back.
Tuba Baking Company in Dayton announced last month that they will be closing their doors for good on June 27.
The owners graciously explained in their announcement that the time to end things had come, and that despite its humble beginnings, their business had grown larger and more successful than they had ever anticipated. Despite this, they said they are ready for a change of pace and are making this move to spend more time together as a family.
I thought it only fitting to write this article in honor of Tuba, one of my favorite beer spots, as they inspired me to start this series and were featured in my inaugural piece. They were one of the places that shared my passion for beer, Bavarian flair, and the Northern Kentucky community. It’s a place near and dear to my heart, and a place that has consistently ranked among the best in our area across multiple publications, contests and awards.
A good restaurant, a good bar, a good local spot of any kind is an art. And please make no mistake, I mean art in the most literal sense. It’s a curious mixture of craft and performance, substance and presentation that captures the heart of a community.
As I have tried throughout this series to express, supporting local restaurants and bars like Tuba is so much deeper than a cold beer or a good bite to eat. It’s coming through the door to get a small taste of an experience, and just like going to a concert or going to hear a writer you love talk about their latest work, the food and the beer are merely conduits to a larger meaning and a greater understanding.
It’s why I will be celebrating Tuba’s final curtain call, not with disappointment or sadness, but with a smile on my face and a good German beer in my hand. It will be a final toast to one of my favorite Northern Kentucky spots, a spot that produced from-scratch Bavarian comfort food, the best pretzel I’ve ever had (in or outside of Germany by the way), and one of the coolest beer menus I’ve come across in the entire NKY area.
But it’s not the killer food, the thoughtful beer selection, or the perfect biergarten atmosphere that I will be toasting. It will be all the afternoons spent with my friends, with the people I love, laughing and talking and living a little slice of the good life that I will truly be celebrating. That’s what Tuba really is, a place for folks to get together, a place for the community to gather around a table.
Secretly, however, I must admit that I revel in the knowledge that I will have the pleasure and privilege, along with so many others in our community, to brag about knowing what Tuba used to be. Every pretzel I try for the rest of my life will be compared to theirs and will undoubtedly evoke pleasant memories of afternoons in their biergarten. It will be my honor to say, “Man, there was this little place in Dayton that used to serve Schneider-Weisse on tap and had the best pretzel I’ve ever had. I wish you could have seen it.”
It reminds me of the pride and coy smile my father displayed when he revealed he saw John Prine perform back in the 70s for a small crowd of 200 at NKU. The smile? It comes from the satisfaction of knowing you have had the unique opportunity to experience something no one else will ever experience again.
Tuba will be one of those special experiences for me and will always be a source of fond memories. And if you will begrudge me a little further sentimentality, I’d like to say goodbye to Tuba. As many of you well know, the phrase for “goodbye” in German is Auf Wiedersehen, which literally translated means, “on seeing again.” So until we see each other again, albeit, at a different biergarten, I will say farewell to Tuba Baking Company. Thanks for the good times and great beer. Prost!
Tuba Baking Company is located at 517 6th Ave, Dayton.