TAVERN Town Tavern of Sand Lake, NY

Hogalbee here and I had dinner last night at the Town Tavern in Sand Lake New York. Sand Lake is a small bedroom community where state routes 43 and 66 meet. As Branilicio and I walked in a little after four in the afternoon, nine men were sitting at the bar and the talk was heavy on construction. Town Tavern pulls from a crowd of dedicated loyalists. Eleven televisions surround the bar area with an emphasis on sports and the staff puts an emphasis on making every sporting event a focus.

While the Town Tavern may be the dominant sports bar in the area, it is so much more. Where else in such a small town could you find amaretto bread pudding prepared onsite? Or homemade blueberry cheesecake? All salad dressings are made from scratch in the kitchen. Two appetizers were on the special board. I was not in the mood for mussels and my sidekick it not one for portabella so we ended up with mozzarella sticks. Branilicio opted for Mom’s Meatloaf which came with mashed potatoes and stuffed zucchini. The meatloaf was billed as two slices and when it came each slice was an inch and a quarter thick. She raved about it but it was the homemade gravy that made it. I looked over the wide selection of Panini’s and specialty burgers. For the sake of the review, I went with the sandwich named for the venue, the Town Tavern burger. It was a juicy burger served with chipotle pepper, roasted red pepper and pepper jack cheese. The waitress warned that it was hot. I am not shy about a little heat so I dove in and found it delicious. The heat, however, proved to be cumulative so by the time I was halfway in, I lost the flavor and was thankful for the basket of bread on the table. The sweet potato fries also came with a full flavored chipotle sauce which was delicious. I am no friend to greasy French fries but I had to dig into these.

The Town Tavern boasts two floors of dining including two levels of balconies overlooking the Horse Heaven Brook and separate dining rooms available for reservation. The building had, for many years, served as a blacksmith shop and was completely restored two years ago given a hunting lodge feel with knotty pine walls and eight inch polished plank flooring. The tables are a highly varnished wood. The only non wood surface is the downstairs dining’s tin ceiling. Looking up through the central open ceiling floor, you find a taxidermist was busy filling the space with mounted animals. The only drawback to the dining décor was the seating. Unless you are at the bar or at a high top table, you will have stack chairs such as I used to sell at Ames for 12.88 apiece to rest on. While not especially uncomfortable, these chairs are better left to the community center’s meeting room.

Branilicio gave the Town Tavern four out of five smiles.

☻☻☻☻☺