New traditions.

I am so excited about a new restaurant that will be opening this weekend in Newmarket: Popper's at the Mill. They describe themselves as:


...locally owned and operated full service restaurant and bar committed to a "snout to tail" artisanal style of cooking, using only locally grown, seasonal produce and humanely and locally raised protiens. We respect the animal and farmer by taking care to produce exceptional, handmade dishes with as little waste as possible.  

I'm not a food critic and have no idea if this will be a good fit for Newmarket, but I'm thrilled that someone is giving it a try. Don't get me wrong, I love Riverworks, but I'm super excited to be adding another option to the list in town. This started me thinking about the downtown in general and how much growth Newmarket has seen in the last couple of years. New businesses such as Good JuJu, Rocky's Famous Burgers, Organic Bonita Salon have brought so much to the downtown.

It's exciting to walk down the sidewalk on a Saturday morning and see the line out the door of the Big Bean. My kids are such early risers that my family is usually able to avoid the rush (think walking in at 7:30am) when my husband takes Caleb and Nate for "boy's breakfast", a tradition loved by all of us, but probably best by me. Of course the latest tradition is to go after baseball and it's much harder to get a table, but worth the wait every time.

We bought our house here almost 12 years ago and I remember walking downtown, seeing the old mill buildings, wondering what would happen here. We were hopeful then, and now I walk through the refurbished Mill buildings and am amazed that this is our town. Companies like  Independent Fabrication and BaileyWorks, successful established businesses, moved to the Mills recently and I counted a total of 13 business tenants in the directory, helping to bring Newmarket's downtown back to life.

I'm anxious to hear about the Brazilian restaurant that will open soon and have my fingers crossed that plans will continue for the former Joyce's Kitchen site also.

Until then, I wish Popper's the best of luck and plan to check it out as soon as I can.
Maybe we can start a new tradition?