City Tavern: Bring on ye tasty, traditional food

Originally opened in 1773, City Tavern has proudly upheld the time-honored techniques of 18th century American chefs.

Every dish offered on their menu has a unique story behind it. My guest and I began to order our appetizers and our server came to life from being a formal colonial servant to animatedly telling us the story behind each dish: How W. Indies pepperpot soup ($7.50) was served by General Washington to his army and is made from a recipe more than 250 years old, how giant cornmeal fried oysters ($9.25) became a renowned dish of City Tavern and how basil shrimp ($10.95) could only be made during the summer as that was when the basil was available.

Be prepared to enjoy these kinds of discussions yourself as every employee of City Tavern is trained in the background of the establishment along with stories behind the individual dishes.

Despite the amazing ambiance, the food does not get overshadowed. Every dish has a very powerful aura around it; they have been being served for nigh on 250 years.

My guest and I ordered the medallions of venison ($29.99) and the Tavern lobster pie (market priced). Both dishes came out steaming and were placed in front of us carefully so as not to disturb the excellent presentation. The medallions of venison were quite tasty and did indeed remind us of colonial food, as if someone had hunted the deer earlier that day. Waiters and managers frequently told us the medallions were their favorite. In our opinion, though, the Tavern lobster pie took the cake so to speak.

After breaking through the thick, flaky, evenly cooked crust you delve into what can only be described as a creamy lobster soup where mushrooms, shallots, sherry and shrimp blend together to tease your nose as you use your fork to find one of the many lobster pieces in the pie. As you might hear from your server, lobster was used as fish bait in colonial times, and was considered inhumane to feed it to prisoners more than four times a week.

Before you leave, make sure to ask about the history of the Anadema sweet bread that they serve, you will most certainly be amused.

And finally, as you leave, make sure to look outside; as you look past the candles lit in each window to see the cobblestones in the street below you just may expect to call a horse and carriage rather than a taxi to get back to Penn.

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