When I heard that 12th Street Tap House opened on W. Main Street a few months ago, I imagined something akin to one of my favorite Richmond haunts, Capital Ale House, where the beer flows like wine and the food, when eaten, strays not far from the meat and potatoes of the American palate — as one would expect from a tap house. When those expectations are not met, as during my visit to 12th Street Tap House, a customer may not be pleasantly surprised; and if he or she is thrown off by more exotic dishes, then the down-home recipes had better come through.
With more than 200 restaurants, many Charlottesville locals and University students like to brag that the city might just have more restaurants per capita than any other city in America. Whether that statistic is accurate, the number of dining locations in the city surely makes the tough restaurant business only more difficult to sustain.
For instance, the location that now houses the 12th Street Tap House had two former occupants during the almost four years I have been in Charlottesville: Northern Exposure, an American restaurant turned event location, and Spry’s BBQ, a Carolina barbecue joint. The building seems advantageously situated; a short walk from the eastern edge of the Corner, just down W. Main Street past Mellow Mushroom, it is accessible to those with and without personal transportation.
Two friends and I made our way to the tap house Friday night. Although we walked in just after 7 p.m., we were immediately seated in the restaurant’s main dining area. Stretching across the length of the restaurant were two long rows of tables, each backed by a single row of bench seating and divided by a wide center aisle. Across from the dining areas was the bar, located in the back right corner of the restaurant. At the front were open spaces for additional seating, ideal for accommodating large groups. Flanked by large windows, the area drew twilight into the space. Plenty of lighting and voices filled the air, and despite the bustle of conversation and work, we never had to speak up.
My only complaint is about the music selection, which was a tad loud and reminded me of the music played at King’s Dominion: the Beach Boys and other popular summer music from the middle of the 20th century. The décor of black-and-white photos spaced down the walls against the subdued and natural tones of wood seems to call for down-home blues mixed in with some jazz; and this nitpick seemed only more relevant when we were given menus.
As the name suggests, the restaurant boasts about 15 beers available on draft, advertised on a chalkboard above the bar as “$4 pints,” and about 40 beers in bottles, as well as good selections of wines and spirits. For the most part, the selection of alcoholic beverages reflected a personal taste rather than a specific international or local influence; other than three Starr Hill mainstays, the choices included a bit of everything.
The food menu ranged across cuisines, but the main thrust seemed to indicate a Creole or New Orleans influence, evidenced by a variety of seafood, whiskey rubs for meats and willingness to put curry, collard greens and coconut on the same page. In terms of pricing, appetizers ran from $7 to $9, dinner salads from $9 to $12, main courses from $9 to $15 and desserts less than $6. The prices may be more expensive than some University students want to or can pay on a regular basis, but if you would like to splurge to celebrate a birthday or job offer with some friends, the variety lends itself to both the adventurous and hesitant.
After glancing through the menu, we started what ended up being a three-course meal with an appetizer special, a Cajun Fish cake drizzled with a lime cilantro sauce for $9. A fork dove right through the cake without crumbling, and a hint of paprika and pepper gave a kick of spice. Regular appetizers include baked brie and baguette with a variety of fresh fruits ($9), bruschetta ($8), fried calamari ($7) and a hummus plate ($7). I washed down my swallows of fish with one of my favorite concoctions, a Black and Tan, which mixes Guinness Draught and a pale ale, usually Bass, in the States. Though I am far from a beer connoisseur, I have tried my fair share of Black and Tans, and the bartender here poured a solid admixture.
For our main course, we went with tried-and-true dishes. Although they did not reflect the restaurant’s diverse offerings, they provided a good litmus for what to expect during return trips. We chose the baby spinach salad ($11), roasted duck and chicken pot pie ($13) and baby back ribs ($12). Overall, the three entrees were filling and satisfying, but ultimately, they fell short of the expectations set up by the possibility of the menu.
The baby spinach salad was a bed of leaves spread underneath a mix of walnuts, bits of bacon, goat cheese, slices of Granny smith apple and raspberry vinaigrette. The spinach dominated the dish, which could have used something sweet, like dried cranberries, to complement the cheese and bacon, as well as a few scoops more of the vinaigrette, which did not spread well through the clumps of spinach. The menu included two other dinner salads: a Niçoise salad featuring Ahi tuna and the traditional plate of vegetables ($12), and a classic Caesar ($9).
The roasted duck and chicken pot pie, a noted favorite of the chef, was served with celery, carrots and onions. The pot pie came out steaming hot and the underside of the puff pastry cover oozed and stuck to the fork when cut — almost as well as it stuck to the sides of my stomach. The vegetables were cooked just enough to keep a hint of crisp, and the broth did not overwhelm and reminded me of the cold, winter holidays. I ate my way through the pot pie and salad with a tall glass of cider that bordered on the briskness of good champagne.
With plenty of meat, the ribs came off the bone almost too easily, and my friend opted to simply eat his bed of fries and ribs with his fingers. Considering the preparation time and spice in the other dishes, the straightforward barbecue on the ribs seemed a disappointment, tasting like your run-of-the-mill sauce.
Other main courses included bourbon glazed meatloaf ($12), Thai chicken curry ($11), Creole style red bean and rice cakes ($9) and grilled salmon over linguine ($15). For those diners who favor hot dogs and spaghetti to fish and rice cakes, was the Bison burger served with cheese on a Kaiser roll ($10).
For dessert, I ordered a mint brownie sundae ($4) and a traditional Irish coffee ($6). The warm whiskey and coffee, without the Bailey’s Irish cream, melted the three layers of the sundae — vanilla ice cream sandwiched between slices of mint fudge and brownie — in my mouth.
If you could not have already guessed, there were not any leftovers to take home, and I plan to return and venture into the Malaysian shrimp sauté ($15). The competing influences in the menu provide variety, but I think it gives mixed signals to potential diners about what exactly they should expect to be served at the tap house.
Hopefully the seafood and seemingly inventive poultry dishes will remain true to their ingredients because, while pot pie and ribs can suffice the taste buds with easy flavors, the menu’s other dishes brim with imagination. The future of this restaurant seems interestingly hinged on how the chefs balance a willingness to experiment with consistent maintenance of that standard.
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