How About Another 9 Years?

Yep, that is what my husband said to me last night while we celebrated our ninth anniversary. I said, "Sure, then you can trade me in for two twenties." We weren't planning on going out to celebrate, as Avery had a swim meet, but after two hours of working in the snack bar and watching Right Ballet Legs and Kips being slaughtered by the eight and under swimmers, it was time for a beer.

Auburn finally has a brewpub, and being zymurgists, we had to check it out. The kids had a bowl of ice cream, which our fellow diners assumed was their dinner ("Cool", they said), and George and I each had a pint of Gold Digger IPA. Nice and hoppy, but a little sweet. We ordered a baked bread and cheese concoction as an appetizer; George had been promised it would feed four, so it seemed like a good choice for the two of us. It took over an hour to receive our dish, but we were comped two more beers for our patience. Avery and I kept ourselves busy by playing tic-tac-toe with some melted ice cream that had spilled on the table (I forgot to mention we didn't have any napkins or silverware). We had fun, but I think we will hold off on returning until all the new-restaurant-with-untrained-staff-kinks are ironed out.

The brewery is located in one of Auburn's oldest historical buildings. For many, many years, it was home to the Shanghai Restaurant. The Shanghai Bar was used in the movie Phenomenon. George and I went there for our third date, and we ate there on the eve of Aidan's birth. We are glad to have a brewpub in town, but also saddened to have lost Shanghai, with the cranky waitress, old player piano, spongy sub floor, and incredible Egg Foo Yung. But time marches on, and change is inevitable. Yeah, I'll take another nine years of making history.