Yesterday was Friday, and quite frequently for the crowd I hang out with the early evening on a Friday is spent at happy hour. Kim Dean is the current Master of Ceremonies for Austin’s irregular gathering of beer-loving lithographers, though John Petersen or I sometimes take charge and call a gathering together. We visit a number of venues, but our preference is for brewpubs and our favorite is the Draft House (formerly known as the Draft Horse, but that’s a different story), where we always drink in the parking lot. Jeff Byers, as a true lover of good beer, takes advantage of these assemblies as often as anyone, though he claims his reason is to avoid the Friday traffic home (which can easily become an hour’s drive for him).

Ten years ago, things were a bit different. The date was not irregular, and neither was the place: every Friday afternoon, and sometimes late into the evening, Austin’s best (or at least most social) lithographers could always be found at the Waterloo Brewing Company in the now ultra-popular warehouse district of downtown Austin. The O’Henry Porter was one of the best beers ever made (I’m getting a lump in my throat just thinking about it), and the burgers were the perfect complement to the beer. Alas, Waterloo, the first brewpub in Texas, closed in 2001 – a victim of rampant downtown development, and probably some bad business management on the part of the owner, Bill. But for nearly eight years a lot of interesting lithography ideas were discussed there, companies and technologies admired or panned there, and friendships forged there.

At least once a year I would meet Jeff at Waterloo for lunch to offer him a job. After about the fifth year in a row, we started scheduling the meeting as our annual Jeff job-offer lunch. I was quite happy and surprised when in 2000 he actually said yes!

No one called for a happy hour last night. We will soon, though, I’m sure, and when we do we will all be drinking to Jeff’s health.