Take a look at this illustration. The building it depicts is going to be built in downtown Amarillo.

What’s it called? Six Car Pub & Brewery.

Yep. It will be a brew pub, a place where one can purchase a cold one brewed in the back room. Right there. On site.

I have lived in Texas for nearly 33 years. We moved to Beaumont in the spring of 1984, gravitating to Amarillo early in 1995. I’ve never quite understood why craft breweries have not yet become part of either city’s commercial landscape.

My family and I moved to Texas from a community in the Pacific Northwest where craft beer has become the norm; it’s part of life in Portland, Ore. If you’ve been to the City of Roses, you’ll see a city bursting with life that includes brew pubs throughout its downtown district — and in neighborhoods all over the city.

Will the Six Car operation break the mold in Amarillo? Will it become the first of many such outfits here in the Yellow City? I do hope so. It’s not that I am going to consume a lot of beer at this place; I drink little of it, although I do like the taste of a cold one on a hot day.

We had that brewery on Olsen Boulevard. Then it closed. The Big Texan now has a brewery on site. If there are other such sites in Amarillo, I’m unaware of them.

Now we’re getting this Six Car Pub at Seventh Avenue and Polk Street.

This clearly is part of what appears to be the fundamental reshaping of Amarillo’s once-moribund downtown district. They’ve cleared the site where they hope to build the multipurpose event venue. The Embassy Suites hotel job is getting closer to its finish, right along with that parking garage next door.

Even though I don’t intend to imbibe regularly at this new place, my enthusiasm for its presence in downtown Amarillo is no less vigorous. My hope for the city is that it signals a new era as the city continues reshaping its downtown district.

And no, I’m not advocating that Amarillo become a city of drunkards and sloths. I do advocate that the city transform its central business district into a top-tier after-hours place where residents can chill out, relax and enjoy a better quality of life.