The City Tavern Restaurant

The City Tavern Restaurant
138 S 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 413-1443
www.citytavern.comThis Penn's Landing gem situation in the Old City, Philadelphia is unique in that the waitstaff are costumed, the food is authentic 18th century offers, and the china, lighting, glassware is all dated to transport you to another time.  As I sat down to dinner a festive Benjamin Franklin served cocktails to the table adjacent mine and a buxom Harriet Tubman served some gentlemen their ales.  The tables were lit by lanterns which unfortunately made food photography challenging, but...in a phrase...challenge accepted!  Hopefully the images do not disappoint.

The lighter colored bread, Sally Lunn: large bun or teacake made with a yeast dough including cream, eggs, and spice, similar to the sweet brioche breads of France. Served warm and sliced, with butter, it was first recorded in 1780 in the spa town of Bath in southwest England.  Darker bread is Anadama, a traditional yeast bread of New England in the United States made with wheat flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour.  The small muffins are Thomas Jefferson's own recipe for sweet potato butter pecan biscuits.

Note: Thomas Jefferson's Biscuit recipe is from the National Constitution Center (NCC), Philadelphia PA. According to the NCC, Thomas Jefferson's biscuits were served at the first meeting of the First Continental Congress in 1774. These are light, tasty biscuits (scones), with or without the pecans.

Corn Chowder.  Nothing to write home about, but I will comment on the period china it is served in.  Those are iron bowls and something about eating out of a metal bowl just does it for me.  The Founding Fathers surely knew this as well since after tossing back a few ales, coming up with quotes like, "When in the Course of human events..." In fact I'm pretty sure most of the introduction to the Declaration of Independence was written drunk as it has some pretty dramatic stage effect (Jefferson got carried away)...but I digress, anyway, these dishes won't break easily.  Enough said.  Moving on.

Tenderloin Tips & Mushrooms. Marinated & sauteed beef tenderloin tips, mushrooms, sour cream-Dijon sauce, herbed egg noodles & vegetable of the season.

Medallions of Beef Tenderloin. Pan-seared beef medallions, Burgundy demi-glaze, mashed potatoes, asparagus & Sauce Béarnaise. Béarnaise sauce is a sauce made of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks, white wine vinegar and flavored with herbs.

This was a strawberry tort served with ice cream.  The cool thing about the desserts is a huge tray of sample desserts comes out at the end of the meal and you get to pick what it is you want.  Rather than look at a dessert menu, you actually get to see the desserts themselves.

Very touristy atrium.

One of the highlights of the evening.

Historical Information: If you're reading this I expect you already know, this was the place the founding fathers gathered and visited and drank. However it burned down long long ago, and after over 150 years the National Park Service had this new version created but it was made to be as original as possible. It opened again in 1975.