The Towne Tavern, Averill Park

I've been out dogsitting quite a bit lately in North Adams on the weekends. I've been watching these dogs for almost four years, which seems crazy. This has meant marathons of David Tutera and Bridezillas and the sort (last night was the last episode of Bridezillas ever, how is that even possible? End of an era!). It has also caused me to feel incredibly nostalgic for my old job. What is nostalgia really? How are you nostalgic for things you chose to leave behind? Are you nostalgic for parts of yourself you seem to have lost, or some rosier version of life that never really existed? An important ingredient for nostalgia to exist is time - enough time gone by to forget negative aspects of things. One thing I know is that the more ambitious you are, the more difficult it is to feel grateful for what you have, so there's that.

Anyways, so I've been meeting my husband at The Towne Tavern in Averill Park because it is a good halfway point. We've been exploring different aspects of the menu over multiple visits now. Sometimes when a menu has a lot of different things on it, you wonder what the place does well or what you are supposed to order. Like the Cheesecake Factory menu that is bigger than the Bible, too big of a menu seems to communicate something negative about the place. But at the The Towne Tavern, the menu has a lot of variety and everything we've tried has actually been really good. The BBQ dishes are very tasty. They have a variety of sauces (my sister liked the maple bourbon one the best and I liked the Jack Daniels one when we asked to sample them all), and you can just tell the BBQ is going to be great from the strong smoky scent that fills up the parking lot. We've now also tried the pizza bianco (a small one makes a delicious appetizer), and the pretty brilliant picante onion soup (like a southwest inspired French onion with pepper jack cheese on top). I also really like the jalapeno appetizer where the peppers are stuffed with cheese and sausage and baked (insider tip though, the raspberry sauce competes with the other flavors too much, and pairing the dish with marinara sauce is way better).

Today I had the Averill Park Warrior burger (which has carmelized onions and mushrooms), and it was very delicious. The burger had a great char and the bun was really fresh with a light texture. Check it out:


Scott had the BLT which is simple but fresh and satisfying. They make the chips there themselves.


Oh and they have some nice local beers, and some other good ones like the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, which I enjoyed very much.

We never know what to order when we sit down here, and I think it is because everything we've tried has been really good. It is hard to even decide what genre to have because they do it all well - pizza, burgers, sandwiches and appetizers.The food is all quite a bit better than it needs to be.  The staff is all really friendly, there's some crazy taxidermy all over, and today we were noticing some other cool decor objects such as vintage license plates and a collection of vintage bottle openers.

I'll be happy to go home, but its nice to explore things out this way too. The fall foliage is definitely breathtaking.

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