The Taverne of Richfield
 Richfield, Ohio        Date of Visit  12/29/13         http://taverneofrichfield.com/ 

We were tipped off to this place in Richfield and swung in for lunch. It’s a beautiful building and well appointed inside. We are sat at the same time as a family, a big family, a 15-top. There are two young men working the floor on a Sunday afternoon, and even though they have the big-top set when everyone arrived they are pretty quickly overwhelmed keeping everything moving.
 

Flat Bread NEEDED The Marinara
 

Our server, Hugh, started off pretty well but both he and the kitchen seemed to struggle. We should have gone for a little hike during the lulls, there are apparently other floors used for all sorts of festivities. There is a ballroom and who knows what else, where they have daily specials…from tacos to tango to complimentary sushi, you might walk into something any day of the week. They also have live music over the weekends.

Our orders were pretty simple, a flat bread, soup and salad and chicken parm. The flat bread is made in house with herbs, garlic, parm and chili oil. You can get a cup of goat cheese marinara for a two dollar up charge. Get the cup or order something else. The bread tasted fine, but there were some issues with the oil saturating some parts of the very thin bread leaving it limp. The tomato and goat cheese pairing made up for the errors but there isn’t really enough bread to get close to using up the dip. A little less dip, a little more bread and maybe rolled a bit thicker would make it above average.
 

Steph ordered the express lunch with endless soup and salad, lobster bisque was an option so there was no other option for her. The salad was pretty good and served with flavorful ranch and white French dressings. The soup and salad also comes with house made rolls and gremolata for dipping. The herby/garlicky oil was nice. The rolls would have been nice as well but half of them had taken on a charcoaly hue from the reheating process. I hate big-tops. Its been years since I ran a pass but I still hate them. I still have nightmares about the night a server dropped a tray holding a 12-top on the way to the dining room.  The lobster bisque didn’t suffer from the crush in the kitchen but from the get go. Overly creamed and under lobstered. Most bisques are going to start with shells and a mirepoix but the veggie trio ought not be the predominate flavor in the finished product.
 

My chicken parm fared much better. It was piping, screaming, smoking hot…didn’t expect that necessarily the way things were going. The chicken wore a thin breading and a blanket of provolone. Nothing wrong with that. What surprised me was the marinara on the linguini. I don’t know if I missed it in the cup but the sauce had a deep dusky red wineyness which was superb. Twirl it in well cooked pasta and add in a bit of chicken and you have a tasty dish. The Taverne of Richfield was overwhelmed the day we were there. Some mistakes were made, but there were hints of some nicely homemade treats. Now the question is tacos or tango.