Trotter’s Restaurant at the southwest corner of 8th and Harvey Road is a long-term Auburn institution, known for its tasty fare, its friendly atmosphere and its old-timey servings of ice cream piled as high as Texas hair but tasting much, much better.

Running the eatery and greeting and serving its many customers and friends means everything to its owner, 30-something Michael Braxton, who started out washing dishes for Trotter’s in high school when he was 16 years old.

He chuckled as he recalled the day former owner Steve Trotter interviewed and hired him. With no time to spiff up in a suit and tie, or to don his best go-to meeting suit for the interview, he set off immediately, still wearing his Auburn High School football uniform.

“Coach Elliot had always told us to dress up so we would be ready for anything,” he told customer and local realtor Suzzy Wilder-Poe in a video she shot in 2022 to promote small local businesses.“I told him I’d do whatever it would take to get a job there.”

Braxton got the job. Over time, he and his family came to love the restaurant so much that when Trotter put the business up for sale years later, the family bought it.

“We were at the point of deciding before we bought the restaurant if it was really what we wanted to continue to do,” he said. “We’d watched so many kids grow up here,, so many young people come in who were busing tables for us, and are now graduating from high school and starting families of their own, I love that.”

But facts are facts, and at 50-plus years of age, the building — it started out as Big Scoop Ice Cream Parlor in the early 70s— is showing its age. The infrastructure badly needs attention if it is to continue to throw open its arms to welcome in customers with a smile and serve generations to come.

The carpet is badly worn, the seats are cracking, Braxton needs a new fryer, a new ice cream maker and the HVAC system is outdated.

All of that costs money.

Rather than see her beloved restaurant continue to fall further into decline, 88-year-old Rosalie Deresch, a long-time Auburnite, a Trotter’s regular for the last 30 years and a fan of Braxton’s launched a fundraiser late last year to help out, said her daughter, Sandy Smith. .

Braxton, said Wilder-Poe, greets everyone who comes in with a big smile. By now he knows her favorite breakfast dish by heart: spinach, feta cheese, tomatoes, skip the hash browns, sourdough bread with butter hold the toast.

“When you walk in, you magically feel like family due to him,” Wilder-Poe said on her video. “I’ve known him for [18 ]years, and he’s like a brother to me.”

“I think this the best idea I’ve ever had. I just wanted to help him,” said Rosalie.

If you want to help Rosalie help Braxton, just go to givesendgo.com and search for the Trotter’s Restaurant fundraiser. Any amount would be appreciated.