Stone Street Tavern

My expectations for the overpriced Stone Street tourist traps have been pretty much non-existent, so this was a very pleasant surprise. After being burned for the second or third time over here, I pretty much avoided any of these restaurants as potential lunch spots for months. My Skipper and I came here for lunch yesterday (a Friday) around 1pm. Despite the excellent weather and prime mealtime, this place really wasn't crowded, even in their more-heralded outdoor picnic table area. No matter. We secured a high top close to the bar with zero issues. Since we passed several people in Halloween costumes and there was a very slight Fall nip in the air, I decided to go with a Hot Toddy ($14); tis the season. It was very good. A LITTLE more citrusy than I would prefer (lemon is usually pretty prominent in this drink, to be fair, but I like the sweeter variations of this) but still hit the spot. And the temperature remained hot throughout consumption of the beverage, which was a selling point. The menu item that caught my eye earlier and ended my Stone Street boycott was the Braised Beef Pappardelle Pasta entree ($23). Huge fan. In an interesting decision that paid off, they cooked it with fresh mint throughout, which gave it a fun, refreshing taste that I wouldn't have guessed paired well with everything else. It was a decent portion that I polished off pretty quickly. The service was pretty good. The waitress was civil and pretty attentive but I wouldn't classify her as friendly, per se (which was a little surprising given how heavily a place like this caters to tourists). It took about 10 minutes to get my drink despite the fact that the bar area and overall restaurant were pretty empty, but the food itself arrived quickly and the waitress DID stop by a few times to check in; beyond the initial drink, I don't recall any point where we were actively waiting/looking around for someone to assist, and we were in and out of there probably within 45 minutes or so. Even if this restaurant wasn't on Stone Street, I think the price point was pretty reasonable for the area overall - a legit $23 entree and $14 drink are arguably slightly lower prices than the average here. It's definitely possible and maybe even probable that the dinnertime crowd experiences higher prices than this, but I'm pretty impressed by the lunch situation here.