Tavern in the Square
West Hartford
July 3, 2024
Tavern in the Square, located near Westfarms Mall, prides itself as a restaurant chain “rooted firmly here in New England,” with restaurants across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The West Hartford location is the only one in Connecticut, so I had to check out what the hubbub was about.
Even though it was my first time at the Tavern, I was greeted by a familiar face. My server was an old friend named Mike that I’ve known since my days at Capital Community College. It was reassuring to see him, because I’d also been served by him when he was a bartender at Cheesecake Factory. He made good, strong drinks and he made them fast, so I wasted no time opening up the drink menu.
I started with the Shades of Strawberry, which was made of Ghost Tequila, Giffard Fruits de la passion, strawberry puree, elderflower, mint, and lime, and came with a black lava salt rim. Many times I recognize nouns and adjectives in food names as more marketing tools than actual descriptors. “Ghost” tequila may in fact include ghost pepper, but it’s not nearly as spicy as the name implies. In fact, I barely felt any heat at all as I drank, but I was OK with that because I was enjoying the fruity, refreshing mix of different flavors in the drink.
Black lava salt though? 100 percent as advertised. While it doesn’t actually come from a volcano (it’s a mixture of sea salt and activated charcoal), it hits with the force of a magma eruption. Salty is not a strong enough word to describe the flavor. It tasted as if I’d swallowed a mouthful of sea water, minus the brine and algae. Although it looked enticing, I drank from the unsalted side of the glass and enjoyed the rest of the drink.
Next I tried an old standby, the espresso martini. As I’ve written before, I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but the last time I tried an espresso martini was at Cheesecake Factory, and you can probably guess who made it for me. This version of the martini, made with New Amsterdam Vodka, Kahlúa Coffee Liqueur, irish cream and cold brew concentrate was rich and creamy, more like a dessert drink than a before dinner spirit. I liked that the cream masked much of the coffee flavor, allowing me to enjoy the color and smell of coffee without dealing with its sometimes bitter taste.
The entree that I tried was the General Tso’s chicken. It consisted of sesame fried chicken, tempura broccoli and bang bang sauce on a bed of coconut jasmine rice. The bang bang sauce was quite good, with enough spice to give the chicken a little bit of bite, but a sweet aftertaste that cooled the heat after the initial bite. I wanted more sauce to cover my rice as well, and my friend brought it over after I requested it.
I couldn’t taste the coconut flavor of the jasmine rice, which is probably my own fault. As soon as I got the extra sauce, I smothered the plate with it. The chicken was good, lightly fried to give it a crispy texture without drowning the seasonings in the flavor of cooking oil. My favorite part of the dish was the tempura broccoli, which combined the freshness of the vegetable and the crunch of the chicken.
It’s not every time that I go to a restaurant that I see a friend who is also a talented bartender; I lucked out by running into Mike at the Tavern. If you ever find yourself there (or Cheesecake Factory), ask for Mike, and tell him that Jamil sent you.
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Tavern in the Square is open seven days a week.
Jamil goes to the kickoff of Monday Night Jazz in Hartford.
