A Pub Night Mistimed

After a fun range trip we headed over to The Tavern for dinner. Most of our party had a hankering for "Wings," while I was thinking about a juicy burger and a beer. It had been a while since we visited this pub, but we remembered they had good food and a decent beer selection.

When we arrived I saw a sign for Devils Backbone Vienna Lager. I've got bottles of that one in my fridge, but I don't think I've ever had it served on draft, so my beverage decision was easy. Three of our party opted for the "Tavern Wings" appetizer for their main course. I went with the "Blue Heaven" burger; a half pound burger topped with a generous portion of honey ham and Swiss cheese. Yep, it was as tasty as it sounds!

So far so good, what could be wrong you ask? As we were enjoying our food, the proprietor came by and jokingly remarked "You're supposed to order wings on Wednesday!" That's when we realized that The Tavern has half-priced wings every Wednesday. Then I looked at the daily specials list sitting on the table. It turns out burgers are half-price on Mondays! We were there on the wrong day for both.

The Vienna Lager poured a dark amber color with a beige head. The aroma was bready with some sweetness to hit. Served a tad too cold for my tastes, the flavor peaked after a few minutes of warming. The lager is rich with caramel and bread flavors with a hint of toasted nuttiness. Just a hint of bitterness finishes it off. My serving, a real 20 ounce "pint", went down way too quickly. On my next visit I'm going to allow time for another. I suspect that visit will take place on a Monday or Wednesday evening.

The Tavern

I've written previously about a local pub called The Pub. I've told you about a local indoor shooting range named The Range. Now I'm here to tell you about a local tavern, yep you guessed it, The Tavern. We like to keep things simple around here.

The Tavern (also on Facebook) is a standalone, nondescript building in the Lee's Hill shopping center. Once inside we found a comfortable pub atmosphere with dark wood and a large stone fireplace. There's a small seating area with tables and a bar area separated by a windowed wall. There is also a small outdoor seating area. The beer menu on the table listed 15 selections, and the waitress named off a couple more that I don't recall. They had the usual factory beers, and the expected Irish selections of Guinness and Smithwick's. There were some good craft selections such as Blue & Gray Fred Red, Fat Tire and Yeungling. In a surprising twist, the draft selection also included Goose Island IPA and Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning. I was especially surprised to see the "Über Pils" from Heavy Seas on draft. That's an off-the-wall selection for a non-specialty pub.

I opted for the Small Craft Warning to enjoy with our Tavern Sampler appetizer, which consisted of buffalo wings, fried shrimp, mozzarella sticks and jalapeño poppers — a fried pub food delight. The wings were the best part of the platter and we'll definitely be ordering more of those in the future. Small Craft Warning is a malt-rich, sweet and toasted brew with some piney hops to balance. For our meal, our group all opted for burgers. The burgers are hand-formed, juicy, and surely check in around 1/2 pound. Ordered cooked "medium," the centers were hot but still bright pink. These are indeed multiple napkin meals. Add thick streak fries drenched in malt vinegar and you have a robust and tasty meal. I selected a Goose Island IPA to enjoy with my "Lee's Hill Burger" topped with green peppers, onions, mushrooms and provolone. The IPA was a malty English IPA with a rich dose of citrus hops mixed in.

I admit to being ignorant of the existence of The Tavern until very recently. It's not a new place, they celebrated 7 years in business earlier this year. The food was good, the beer selection interesting, and the service excellent. I understand the spicy tavern shrimp are quite popular. I expect we'll be back to try them out, along with more of those wings.