“Parsnip, curried. Lightly” Tommy said when I asked about the soup of the day, “but let me check with Katie.”

Primo Kingpin Katie, affirmed. 

‘Yes, slight kick,” reported barman Tommy and so, hearing “curry” and “kick” in the same sentence, I ordered, not a cup, but a bowl.  

The soup, I tell you,  was superb. 

I wanted it to last all evening. . 

Yes, this was at New Castle’s Primo on a Friday night, where Katie runs the show and barman Tommy knows what the whole city drinks and may even get it to you before you’re seated.

You have surely noticed? 

Several new restaurants have joined Primo in the downtown area. 

There’s “Ink and Ale,” “Ky’s American Bistro,” “Blue River Tap House,” “That’s My Dog,” and the newly renovated “Twin Lions.”

While I have visited some newbies in town I like to drop into Primo, slide in through the front door and take the first bar seat on the left. It’s an observer seat and it gives me a barfly feeling (a secret longing I have harbored for years) when I “007” in this way. 

At Primo I have Tommy, my own barman.

I’ve never had a barman before, a man who knows exactly how to serve Club Soda,  my drink of choice. It’s the only drink I’ve really ever over-indulged in any bar my travels have taken me, although, to be perfectly honest, I did have a White Russian in Sicily on one occasion. I repeated the act when the friend who challenged me in Sicily did so again when we visited Primo together. 

Back to the Katie soup: the texture was divine, the spicy kick was just strong enough to warm my inners but not enough to water my eyes. 

Perfect. 

I’m sure there was a little carrot added for coloring but I could be wrong. 

Katie did say there was leek and coconut milk.

Perfect, I tell you.

Downtown I am not only encouraged by the restaurants, you might also have noticed that apart from restaurants, there’s a rapid rise in the number of AirBnBs.

 As the same goes “a rising tide lifts all ships” and so, yes, the increase in restaurants, the increase in the number of AirBnBs, and by the way, an increase in the use of Uber, is all good news for all us who live here. It’s good news for the local economy, for the mayor and the city council. It’s good news for all involved in the county’s economic development, and for the Henry County Community Foundation.

I love so much about living here: the fact that there are no parking meters and there are seldom traffic jams, the fact that I can get to major shopping outlets within five minutes from my home. 

And, I love it here because Tommy knows just when I have enough to drink on my undercover barfly jaunts to Primo so I don’t find myself in the soup.

Rod Smith is the director of OpenHand International, INC. a New Castle based nonprofit which supports local and international causes.