During our trip to North Carolina for a wedding earlier this year, we were told by my sister that we needed to visit Blowing Rock, a small arts town in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwestern part of the state. While the small boutiques and studios were somewhat interesting to us, we found it to be very similar to Galena, IL. Once we figured that out, we really didn't want to spend much more time there. But we did take the time out to have lunch at an establishment in the heart of Blowing Rock, an interesting looking little place called the Town Tavern.
The original Town Tavern opened in 2009 in the nearby town of Boone. Chris Spillman - a general contractor and part-time realtor - teamed with Justin Davis to open that restaurant and the two opened the Blowing Rock location in 2013. The building that houses the Town Tavern in Blowing Rock had once been a Mexican restaurant and had been a Southern cuisine cafe up to closing in 2013. Spillman and Davis had been lightly thinking about putting a second location in Blowing Rock, but when the space became available they jumped at the chance to take over the location.
A year after opening the Blowing Rock location, Spillman sold his shares in Town Tavern to Davis and to Suzannah Higby, a local resident and a regular at the Blowing Rock location. Higby's family was no stranger to the restaurant business - her uncle once owned the famous Esso Club, a popular restaurant and watering hole near the campus of Clemson University. Davis owns the Boone location while Higby is the sole proprietor of the Blowing Rock location. Both co-own the Town Tavern brand name.
It was just before noon when we made it into Town Tavern located along Main Street in the heart of Blowing Rock's business district. (see map) The outside patio area already had a 15 to 20 minute wait, but the cozy inside dining area had a couple tables open for immediate seating. It was a nice place inside, but it wasn't very big. A number of flat panel televisions were located on the walls around the bar and dining area.
We were seated near the corner of the inside dining area and given menus to look over. Our server for the visit, a pleasant young lady by the name of Allie, came over to greet us. I ordered up a seasonal Kolsch beer and my wife ordered a pale ale that they had on tap from a local brewer. Allie hesitated and said, "Uh, you guys must not be from here." She explained that in North Carolina you couldn't get an alcoholic beverage served to you until 12 noon. "We have a few moments before we can serve." I told her that it was a standing order and to bring the beers to us at 12:01. We were well behind in the queue of drink orders and it was nearly 12:05 when our beers finally got to us.
The food served at Town Tavern is really nothing more than glorified bar food with a number of sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and salads. They're famous for their wings at Town Tavern and they had a number of appetizers including fried pickles, spinach/artichoke dip, potato skins and something they called "Hillbilly Nachos" - fries topped with either barbecued pork or thin-sliced beef smothered in melted cheddar cheese and finished with barbecue sauce.
I decided to go with the mushroom/garlic/Swiss cheese burger and I asked Allie to have the kitchen throw some bacon on that, as well. It came on a brioche bun that was light and spongy. For my side, I got tater tots. There's just something that I dig about tater tots. It's about the only type of potato that excites me any more. For some reason, the tater tots came with a side of ranch dressing. However, I like tater tots with Cholula hot sauce, but they only thing they had to offer for hot sauce was Texas Pete which is made, not in Texas, but over in Winston-Salem, NC.
The burger was thick with a melted chunk of Swiss cheese over top the burger patty with sliced sautéed mushrooms and chopped garlic in between. Lettuce, tomato slices, pickles and a sliced red onion came with the burger with the bacon lying underneath the patty. The burger was juicy and tasty, a messy burger where multiple napkins were needed. We had asked Allie for more napkins when she dropped our food off for us, but she never returned. I had to go forage for more napkins because the one napkin I had was trashed after a quarter of the burger was finished.
My wife got a side salad and two of the Town Tavern sliders that were part of the appetizer menu. For about a $2 buck upcharge, she got some battered steak fries with the sliders. And she stole the ranch dressing that I wasn't using for her battered fries. After having the salad and one of the sliders, she determined that she didn't really need the fries. "This is really a lot of food," she exclaimed as she picked up the second slider to take a bite out of it. She seemed to be pretty happy with her meal, as was I. She offered me a couple of the battered fries. While I thought they were very good, I liked my tater tots better.
But we weren't too happy with our server. Even though it was busy in the place, Allie never once checked back with us to see if we needed anything - like more napkins that I had to go scavenge, or a second beer, like I wanted. My wife was having trouble finishing her beer, so I helped her out by drinking about a third of the pint she had ordered. When Allie finally returned with the check, she asked if we needed anything else as she put the bill down on the table. She was obviously trying to get us to move on so the table would open up for patrons waiting outside for the first available seats.
Other than some puzzling deficiencies in our server's ability to take care of us - and the fact that we felt we were getting the "bum's rush" at the end - I think my wife and I both liked our experience at the Town Tavern. My burger was very good and I like places that offer tater tots in addition to the other choices of sides. My wife was happy with her sliders, but she was getting full pretty quickly after a salad and one of the sliders leaving half of the other slider and well over half of her battered fries in her basket at the end. We just wish the overall experience we had with our server would have stayed as positive as it started out. Town Tavern would have probably gotten a better rating from us had that been the case.
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