American Tavern

This is an «old school» neighborhood tavern. We live two blocks away and in the distant past made this place a regular dinner experience. Back in the day, we brought the crew from work to enjoy birthdays, retirements — you know the drill. «A.T.» has survived some ownership/​management/​décor changes. We stopped going because it was not «our thing.» We heard that it was again «under new management» and our curiosity was piqued. When we saw an ad for $ 5.00 off «ANY $ 20.00 PURCHASE (EXCLUDING ALCOHOL)» my darling wife cut out the ad and we headed out to try our old favorite one more time. The drafts selection has been increased in number and they did have a couple of GOOD crafts, the food is still good. I did the clam bake for $ 21 the middle necks were excellent, the rest was OK. When it came time to pay the bill, we put our $ 5.00 off «ANY $ 20 PURCHASE (EXCLUDING ALCOHOL)» coupon on the tray with my CC. The waitperson came back a few minutes later and explained that the coupon did not apply to the clambake and my wife’s dinner was under the $ 20 so we were not granted the discount!
It was interesting to experience out favorite one more time. It was THE LAST TIME for us.

This restaurant was once the Blue Star Tavern, WHICH HAD GREAT FOOD! Last night, for my 60^th birthday I suggested to my friends that we hit the American Tavern, as in the past their clambakes, offered in October, were fabulous! This is definitely not the same restaurant. They too offered the clambake. We arrived relatively early, 5:30,sat at the bar and had a cocktail. We then asked to be seated. There was a large table in back open, but we were told it was reserved. I had called earlier in the week to inquire if they took reservations and was told only for parties of 8 or larger, but that I shouldn’t worry, that I should stilll be able to be accommodated at 6:00. We were packed into a 4 top with a chair added at the end. The larger table earlier requested, ended up being dismantled and not used… Wait. it gets better… After about 10 min. the server came over in a frantic mode, and asked to take our order. We were prepared but felt he was really put out when we wanted to place a drink order. One couple ordered sandwiches, and we three ordered the advertised clambake. We did not receive our drinks for about 15 minutes. We sat and waited for 40 minutes for the food to be brought out. By this time, about 4 tables had got up and walked out. When the food starting with the barely warm clam chowder came out, we still did not have silverware on our table! The sandwiches were brought out, and they did look nice. We were then brought out plates with corn on the cobb, sweet potato, (undercooked), my charred black chicken,(which I had to scrape to eat, but the burnt flavor went through the meat, and two tough steaks that both had been prepared wrong.(one was over cooked, the other too rare.) Then apparently as dessert, the clams were brought out. The clams were the best part of the meal, and fairly, the couple with the sandwiches said that they were good. In total we waited 1.5 hrs for our meal. No apology from the manager, not even so much as comping us a round of drinks. Terrible service, and terrible food.