So we went to Fraunces Tavern to celebrate our anniversary last week and it was a major disappointment. It used to be a fine dining establishment with just about the best steak you were ever gonna taste. To this day people who were there at our wedding love to talk about how good the steak was.
Now an Irish Brewery bought out the trust of the Sons of the Revolution who used to run the restaurant. They weren't making it because the Wall St guys weren't spending like they used to in the boom years. I have no right to complain because we only went there once a year and we really didn't support them the way we should. It is just that it is a pain in the ass to go there and it was a big ticket when you add in the cost and the car service and the whole dealio. So we really can't complain too much.
The Irish Brewery turned it into a beer hall. Long family style tables and four bars are all over the place. They basically copied "Ulysses" which is another very successful upscale Irish pub around the corner on Stone Street. They must have the formula down pat because it was packed on a Wednesday night.
We had gone to the Tavern for two reasons. One was to celebrate our anniversary and the other to see if we wanted to have the wife's birthday party there with the new ownership. I spoke to the general manager and we scoped out all of the rooms and saw the changes they had made. Then we sat down to eat at the Talmadge Room which is where we had the DJ and dancing when we got married. It is a wood paneled room with lots of historic paintings on the wall and is the first room off of the front door. We went through the menu and of course it was mainly pub food. Burgers. Bangers and Mash. Shepard's Pie. That kind of stuff. We ordered several dishes including both of the most expensive steaks on the menu. Let's just say it was underwhelming. Not very good. Not up to our standards. The pub stuff would be fine. But not for the party.
The upside is that these guys know their hospitality. They comped the bottle of wine and the drink we had later at the bar. Typically Irish. Great at the craic and the hospitality but with crappy food. So it was a real mixed bag. I mean I have been at plenty of joints with much better food but they never comped me a fuckin bowl of peanuts. So you pays your money and you takes your choice. Most of the people who are coming to the party are not big drinkers so that is not a big concern. They will be more interested in eating. So I am waiting to see what alternatives they will come up with for passed Hors d'oeuvre and stuff before we decide.
Still Fraunces Tavern is good old style Irish pub now and that is personally one of my favorite places to be. So if you are downtown give it a try. You will like it for what it is.
It is just not what it was.
4 comments:
You can't go home again. I find that all the time when I visit New York. My wife looked at her old neighborhood and it was completely different (we are only talking twenty years ago). Although Fraunces Tavern is probably closer to its Revolutionary roots as an Irish pub than it would be with good food. The Dominico's influence in New York came later than when Washington was hanging out at Fraunces Tavern (granted they probably don't have terrapin and passenger pigeon on the menu).
I hear some blogs are like that too.
It's funny but they used to have a quasi-colonial menu with game dishes and such. That was when it was fine dining.
Now it is a pub. I love pubs. I love pub food. The wife not so much.
So she wasn't happy.
Waddaygonnado?
We had a similar experience with a restaurant here.
Sign of the times, I guess.
City Tavern's Menu
An attempt to recreate a 18 century tavern menu. Was it like this? You are right, it is actually more upscale than I thought.
I assumed that most taverns in early America would be similar to the old country (simple hearty but British meals that go well with ale or whiskey), just with double the portion of protein (thanks New World!). And probably a lot of working class taverns in Colonial America were like that. But GW was a man of taste and I suspect this is why he was eating at Fraunces Tavern.
I ate there once years ago (I think it was lunch), but I do not remember the menu. I do not remember it being either bad or good (I am sure it was fine), I just remember going there for the history of the place.
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