Sundowners with our buds at the biergarten were nice. The Bohemian pilsner was back on tap, and it was just as refreshing as I remembered 
When we got to the Sichuan place, two women unfamiliar to us were working. No sign of the owner, Jean, or her partner. They seemed confused by our (now basically standard) food order, and I was starting to get nervous. Our buddy’s Chinese GF was able to explain some of the shorthand we use, and so we settled in and caught up with small town tea.
The cukes brought out didn’t look or taste like what we’re accustomed to, and were heavy on garlic and sesame oil. That said, they were still tasty & we snarfed them up, but the garlic eggplant that showed up next made me a bit anxious about what was to come next 
We now had some serious doubts about how the other dishes (fish dry pot, dry-fried green beans, cumin beef, salt & pepper shrimp, Chongqing chicken, and mapo tofu) would come out. I kept trying to get our buddy’s Chinese GF’s attention, but she was on the phone. Her name is also Jean, just to make this all even more confusing 
Well, wouldn’t you know, the following dishes were all very good.
The mapo may have been the best we’ve had there in a long time. Turns out the cook called the former owner to ask about the dishes. She immediately recognized the order as coming from our group, and so she had called our Chinese friend (Jean, too, or II 
), telling her that she ‘d sold the place to her sister, as she was retiring and moving to Madison. She was insistent on coming to see us one last time and express her gratitude and friendship to me and the rest of the bunch for our faithful patronage over the span of 15 years. She showed up shortly thereafter, happy to see us all & there were lots of hugs and tears.
She also gifted me a gorgeous bottle of Canadian ice wine, and we took a few commemorative pictures.
While it was a relief that the kitchen can still crank out the food we love, it won’t be the same without Jean. A bittersweet evening.
