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We’ll be back to Baxter.

29 Comments

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The husband and I found a (not so new, but new to us) brewery in Lewiston recently.

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Baxter brewing is housed in the old Bates mill complex …

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And has a fabulous tasting room space.

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I love when companies repurpose old buildings. This was a hydro powered textile mill back in the day and if you look closely in the far corner of that picture you’ll see a raw rock wall. During heavy rain storms it weeps… wear waterproof shoes if you sit there.

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The beer?

Yeah, there’s lots of it on tap.

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That chocolate orange stout?

Primo!

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They also have a full bar and since I’m a sucker for fresh herbs in my cocktails…

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I sampled the thyme after thyme mule with pear and lime ginger beer. Yum!

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At the bar we spied an outdoor mural we missed on the way in.

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Along with the beer?

Food.

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Sadly it wasn’t as good as the booze.

The husband’s French onion soup was sent back because it was basically just a bowl of soggy bread.

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My dumplings were tasty but a bit overdone with hard edges.

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The generator that powered the mill.

It’s massive and would have cost a fortune to remove so they just painted it and left it in place.

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The husband liked his chicken tenders, though I thought the coating was too heavy and too dry.

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I should have known better than to order a smash burger… I don’t usually like them as they’re thin and well done… but the bartender said the maple honey cream sauce was amazing so I took the plunge.

Sauce aside, it was a dry hockey puck.

Am I the only one who hates this smash perfectly good meat to smithereens trend?

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Poor pub food aside, the atmosphere and beer were good enough to warrant a return trip.

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We’ll just order something it’s harder to screw up. Like nachos, or salad.

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😊

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29 thoughts on “We’ll be back to Baxter.”

  2. I hate that microbreweries have followed a trend of being so fancy with a big kitchen and a wide variety of food. Stick to beers, people. Although I do love mules with fresh herbs, myself. But not at a microbrewery! Damn.

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      1. It makes sense, but I’ve become so old-fashioned in my views. “Back in the day, microbreweries served beers in their tasting rooms only! No food! No liquor! No merch! Get off my lawn!”

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      3. I think we’ve talked about this – I remember that, lol. We’ll get take out from nearby and bring that in with us. My husband does not sully his beer drinking with food, but I like to eat at all times. You and I would have to hit a brewery together and leave the guys at home.

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      5. Mine doesn’t like those, either, funny enough. He’ll go for a big bowl of pho any day, as long as it’s at the usual lunch time, which you are not to mess with.

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  3. Beer? take it or leave it. I’ll smash my burgers now and then but I know how to do it: I heat my griddle until you can see it glowing from space, then put down a healthy dab of Wagyu beef tallow. I crush ’em for about twenty seconds a side and eat ’em while they’re hot. The dumplings? I don’t understand how you can mess that up. It does look like a cool place, though, and the fries looked pretty good.

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  5. Hard to screw up nachos? I beg to differ. Just squirt on cheez from a can or that gloppy nacho cheez that you see at sporting events – it’s not even solid at room temperature – instead of actually melting real cheese over them. Easy to make the dish crappy!

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  8. I was about to say this is my kind of place, until you got to the food. Bummer. I too appreciate repurposed old buildings. I think it’s cool the generator is still there. Adds to the charm, perhaps. What’s the deal with the last pic of the dilapidated old building?

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  9. What is it with America and their desire to disguise the taste of beer? Coconut almond porter…mango in beer …yuk! I was in Florida recently, happened on a beer bar and was looking forward to tasting (I don’t go to pubs much in the UK) only to find myself confronted by a load of flavours that would have been better confined to vapes… deeply disappointed

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    1. I like the variety of strange flavors. Every brewery has the basics and traditional beers, but in my state there are microbreweries in almost every town. Competition is fierce.

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  11. Love the interior. I wrote a post a while back about a soaking spa in Minneapolis that also happens to be a repurposed mill. Seems it doesn’t matter whether you’re drinking or soaking, doing it in a repurposed mills just makes it better.

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