I’m always happy to see Mark Harwood when Maria and I go to the blog. There is no place I no better on a cold, dark, and windy night to go for a hamburger than the Bog, formerly known as the Foggy Bottom.

When the restaurant owner died four or five years ago, nobody in town thought there was a chance this much-loved tavern and restaurant would survive.

The restaurant was a mess and was falling apart. Mark, a contractor, stepped in spent the first year or so of the pandemic restoring the restaurant and meeting all of the state health department requirements for re-opening. It took a long time and a lot of hard work.

He said if he weren’t a contractor, he’d never have been able to do it.

When Maria and I got there tonight, Mark and his friend Erin were already having dinner. I asked if I could take his picture, and Mark said sure, would I also include a friend.

I was happy to do it.

Mark is a warm and friendly man; I imagine he is also tough and focused when he needs to be. He had to be to get that restaurant open again and looking fine.

Mark has one of those faces I love to photograph. It’s very American, and he is almost always smiling.

So is Erin, who I met tonight for the first time. I learned a while ago only to take portraits of people I like; they always come out well.

Mark is genuine, honest, and seems to love the Bog. He did the town an excellent service when he took on the restoration of the Bog. Nobody else wanted to get near it, and nothing nearby could replace it.

Maria had a plain hamburger with coleslaw, and I had a chicken Ceaser Salad; even the Mayo Clinic would have been happy. Tomorrow I’m cooking rolled oats for breakfast.

Maria wasn’t crazy about the Steel Cut oats I made Friday morning. She said they were too chewy and not flavorful.

She made her Icky face, which is the kiss of death for food around here.

She loved her hamburger at the Bog.

I keep squawking that the coleslaw has way too much mayonnaise; it’s too soupy for me. But I don’t think anybody else in town feels that way. Around here, they love lots of cheese and lots of mayonnaise.

I’ve given up the mayonnaise fight.

But there is a lot of healthy food in between at the Bog. I love going there, and I have many choices, even under my rigorous new food plan.

I’m grateful for the Bog. It just always feels good to go there. The blog hadn’t changed in memory before Mark, and he has managed to keep the original feel of the place with modernizing it at the same time.

There are always families and lots of friends sitting at the bar and sharing the tables.

They have a knockout new digital jukebox that kids can operate on their phone apps.

Our world is constantly changing. Mark is going with it.