After I don’t even know how long, I finally tried Tavern for lunch with some co-workers. We got there just before noon and were the second table to be sat in the bigger dining room area. I loved the decor, it was classic and sunny. I took a glance at the bar area and the big chairs and bar stools were leather and “royal-like” – I have yet to go during the busy time so I can’t say what kind of scene it is. Just about 10 minutes in, the dining room filled up with business lunches and “L-dub-L’s” (ladies who lunch.) I swear the table next to us want to be the next Real Housewives of Brentwood/Santa Monica so badly, but looking at them I couldn’t help but shake my head. ANYWAY, onto the food. I had the soup of the day – potato leek with creme fraiche & chives… it was REALLY good, I’m not a huge soup person but a good soup is great to me. I ate almost the whole “cup” – and I put that in quotes because I ordered a cup, but it was a small bowl. I went on to have The Pilgrim sandwich. I knew that there was mayo on it, but I think they put too much on it – both slices of bread? Was that necessary? So after making a mess trying to scrape it off one side, I attempted to put it back together and enjoy it. It was good, but not amazing. The idea of a mini Thanksgiving dinner between two slices of country bread sounds amazing and can be, but only if your stuffing is filled with flavor and the turkey is juicy. I felt like the turkey was a little dry and the cranberry sauce sort of took over. And I SAW that I was eating the stuffing, but couldn’t really taste it. It was like eating cranberry jam on bread, but yummy bread. Speaking of bread – the sourdough they give you is really good, they warm it up just enough. My co-workers had the favabean spread to start and they couldn’t stop talking about how amazing it was, I was too busy with my soup to try it though. The Nicoise sandwich looked really good, but I noticed that Molly never said if it was good or not. She ate one half and then picked the tuna out of the second half and ate just that. I can’t remember the name of the other sandwich, but other two co-workers had it – it was vegetarian and had burrata in it… can’t remember what else. They both said it was good and they both finished it. They all came with light sweet potato chips which we oddly addictive. And I say oddly because they were just fine, but we all kept eating them! So overall, lunch was good. I’m not going to race to go there for dinner, but I’m sure at some point I will. Molly knows Suzanne Goin too, but unfortunately she wasn’t there so I couldn’t meet her.
Tavern | 11648 San Vicente Blvd, Brentwood | 310.806.6464
give it another chance and try the turkey burger at the bar next time. prob best in the city. plus, saw marie digby there last time i was there – she’s a bwood local. (http://twitpic.com/1smcls)