Tavern Law

I'd checked out Tavern Law soon after they opened. I was to meet a friend who texted that she was stuck in traffic for a good 40 minutes. What to do but have a drink! I started with an Old Fashioned (a cocktail litmus test, personally) and was not sorry. Time flew.

The friendly, solicitous bartender, told me the cocktail was good because he made it "with love". He asked if I wanted another and I said I'd found that love fairly intoxicating, and should probably switch to water lest my friend finds me drooling and lolling on the bar. My friend arrived and we got the crispy pork belly that time; small, but stellar.

So recently, after working a whopping two days during the holiday week, I felt like celebrating with fancy cocktails and Mr. Pants. We headed for Tavern Law and the drinks WERE fancy, not that I expected anything less from the Spur people, after all.

The drink list is fun to read, with everything from slings to fizzes and a glossary of terms for the curious. Mr. Pants sat down to his Singapore Sling with gusto, and I sipped my Seelbach Cocktail, with bourbon and bitters.

Drinking on an empty stomach, while fun, gets nauseating right quick, so we ordered the Arancini: little round balls of fried risotto with an insanely delicious variant on a Romesco sauce, slightly spicy, with tiny slivers of orange rind.

The next table sat four very dressed-up women on a night out, who all ordered the same dish. I shouldn't rant, but it does make me unduly enraged when I see a table for four all getting the same item! To be fair, the menu is small. They all got the seared Butterfish with Fregola Sarda and after I tasted it, I couldn't blame them. It was gorgeous and delicious. Though Mr. Pants complained that it was too rich. (WHAT?!)

Highlights: Drinks! Arancini appetizer, crisply seared Butterfish. Drinks! Drinks!

Disappointments: It is what it is: slender portions at fairly stiff prices, your tab can add up quickly.

Mr. Pants: Liked it on the whole, loved the arancini, but found fish dish too rich and used a silly French word to describe this sentiment. He left secretly happy. I could tell.