Hot Spot Charlottesville: The Tavern

The Tavern

1140 Emmet Street North, Charlottesville, VA

Lightning fast service, Southern charm, great values, and delicious comfort food - find it all at Charlottesville's The Tavern, "where students, townspeople, and tourists meet."  But if you happen to go in the summer and eliminate the students from the equation, the lines are much shorter.  The menu is huge and is full of amazing classics, like biscuits and gravy and corn cakes and new favorites like lemon poppy seed or bacon pancakes.  Our waitress was delightful and I've literally never received faster service.  Our first items came within two minutes, no exaggeration, and everyone had all their food within five minutes.

I ordered a cheese and bacon omelet with a side of biscuits and gravy.  The biscuits were so fluffy, buttery and delicious they would be amazing on their own, but slathering them in pork sausage gravy doesn't hurt either.  The omelet had whole slices of bacon in it, not just crumbles.  Pam ordered strawberry pancakes and they came with a generous portion of real fruit and whipped cream.  Four of us ate to our hearts' content for just over $37.  Jake got the pancake of the month which was corn cakes with blueberries and they were amazing.  The atmosphere is warm and the ceiling is UVA blue and orange.  There is no beating it. 

We glanced at the lunch menu too, which offers a selection of "kosher style" sandwiches.  Apparently The Tavern's interpretation of "kosher style" is: exactly the opposite of kosher.  Almost all the sandwiches offered meat and cheese combos.  Well Toto, we're certainly not in New York City anymore.