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Story by Christine Fillat
Park Tavern opened this past October as a welcome oasis in Severna Park, an area littered with strip malls and fast food joints. With the successes of the Pratt Street Ale House in Baltimore and the Ale House in Columbia, owners Don Kelly and Justin Dvorkin have brought their fine crafted beer and dining experience to the space formerly known as The Woodfire Grill. Oliver Brewing Company is the house brewery, and they christen their beer with rock and roll names like Draft Punk and Everybody Wants Some (a collaboration with DuClaw Brewery). An impressive thirty taps of craft beer adorn the bar with selections from Colorado, Pennsylvania, Maine, California, Belgium, and England, and the aforementioned home brew. And if that isn’t enough, there is also an extensive selection of beers and ciders in bottles and cans.
Suffice it to say, at Park Tavern they know beer.
Dark reclaimed wood combined with ample lighting and tiled surfaces create a sophisticated environment. The bar is long and well lit. The dining area is quieter, with lots of tables; it’s far enough away from the bar scene to not be as noisy, but not too far to separate the diners from the general liveliness of the whole scenario.
The menu is huge with two kinds of chicken, two kinds of steak, five salads, three kinds of mussels, and four different flat breads, and mac and cheese.
So what was it that made our visit a problem? We sampled the beer, and it was quite nice to be able to compare four different drafts. Nothing wrong there.
Appetizers were good too, for the most part. Buffalo Oysters were plump and the sauces were nicely spicy. Crab Dip Fritters were pleasantly crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside, although there was more cream than crab. Herb and Cheese Flatbread was fine, with mounds of fresh ricotta and other cheeses, and a mild hint of garlic. The Blackened Fish Tacos unfortunately disappointed, with that flavor that fish gets when it isn’t fresh.
The main trouble came with the entrées. Everything we ordered had an issue. On a previous visit to Park Tavern, the Thai Green Curry Mussels arrived to the table cold and undercooked. So we decided to try them again, to see if perhaps the kitchen had just had an off night. Once again, the mussels arrived to our table in a beautifully huge mound, and completely cold. The mussels were sent back to the kitchen and reheated. When they returned to the table, they were certainly hot, but small and shriveled. All of the joy had been cooked out of them.
A friend had recommended the Double Cut Pork Chop, and on a previous visit, my husband ordered it and had a beautiful thick chop. The pork chop I was served was extremely fatty, like an inferior cut of meat. Since the pork had been brined for 24 hours, the brining flavor overwhelmed the overall taste of the chop.
The Roasted Half Chicken was delivered with thick charred burn marks. It was served with roasted root vegetables in chicken jus that had the same flavor as the brined pork chop. The similarity of these flavors made the dish taste flat. The vegetables did not shine on their own, as
they would have had they not been swimming in a pool of the meat cooking juices.
Whoever dressed the Petite Local Greens Salad used a heavy hand because the greens were slick with vinaigrette.
An apple turnover enclosed a gooey mincing of diced apples. A chocolate pudding was pleasant enough, but rather ordinary, reminiscent of boxed pudding, and not made with quality chocolate. Worse, a spoon that came with the pudding was not clean.
Our visit was on a Wednesday night. It was not too busy, but there seemed to be some disconnect between the waiter who took our order, and the servers who brought our food. My companion termed the service “chaotic.”
Park Tavern has some missteps to correct to be a truly great place to eat. In the meantime, enjoy the beer along with a few appetizers.
Park Tavern is located at
580 Ritchie Highway
Severna Park, MD
410.793.5930
parktavernsp.com
info@parktavernsp.com
Hours of Operation:
Monday–Friday: 11 a.m.–11 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday: 10 a.m.– 1 a.m.
Christine Fillat lives on the Magothy River and is an aficionado of
Chesapeake Bay cooking and living.
From Vol. 6, No. 2 2015
Annapolis Home Magazine