Checking In On Westport’s Tavern On Main

Pity the poor food editor who hardly ever gets to enjoy home cooking as he guests on restaurant reviews, attends endless food-themed events, receives invitations to countless special dinners and generally scours Connecticut for its best dining venues 24/7. Yes, I know—violins! I may not have riches, I may no longer have my youth or good looks, and I may not see nearly enough of my captivating wife and loving children, but thanks to the kind of work I do, there are times when it’s still good being me.

Never mind home cooking, another problem with being a food editor is that so many new restaurants clamor for attention that one rarely gets the opportunity to visit old favorites. Sigh, I know—violins again. So I was delighted recently to receive an invitation to attend a press dinner at the venerable Tavern on Main in Westport.

Press dinners aren’t just held for new restaurants. They’re also held for established ones that have (1) undergone a change in ownership, (2) hired a new chef, (3) renovated drastically, (4) changed their dining concept, or (5) simply feel the need to remind people of their existence. In the case of Tavern on Main, it appeared to be reasons (1), (2) and (5).

Tavern on Main changed ownership in 2006, with Demetri and Helen Zervos taking the venerable institution’s reins. For many years, Tavern on Main’s chef was David Raymer, who moved on to open Strada 18 in Norwalk. Tavern on Main’s new owners brought in Jose Briceno, who was highly regarded for his cooking at Telluride in Stamford. Just know that we food writers track new restaurant openings and owner and chef movements the same way sports fans follow manager hirings and firings, rule changes and personnel trades.

Now that you’re up to date on what’s going on with Tavern on Main, let me give you a quick recap of our exhilarating meal. I believe everything we had came from the menu or wine list, so you should be able to recreate all or part of this feast or chart your own path.

At press events, one tends to receive smaller portions of each item so that one’s appetite will hold up through the many courses one will try. Some restaurants have even been known to hide the bread. Upon arrival, we enjoyed a bit of bubbly and some hors d’oeuvres. After we took our seats, we began our meal in earnest with a taste of prize-winning New England clam chowder that was so good we wanted to request a bigger serving, but we held our tongues because we knew we would be well fed in the end.

A Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay, Russian River, California accompanied our next two courses. The first course was a pan-seared sea scallop with wild mushroom, fava beans and corn vinaigrette; the second a tempura-fried oyster with seaweed salad, tobiko and a mustard nori sauce.

A Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand heralded the arrival of our next treat. The citrusy white wine was married with smoked salmon served over sweet potato blini with baby artichoke, capers and lemon horseradish.

As you can see, the wines were almost as much fun as the food. Our next bottle was a St. Clement Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa, California, which was paired with grilled New York sirloin in a balsamic reduction with Gorgonzola and immensely tasty duck fat fries. Yep, duck fat fries.

Any normal press dinner would have been winding down at this point, but we were still wining and dining. “Normal” is overrated, don’t you think? We still had three entrées to go. First, there was a grilled salmon fillet served with a lobster sweet potato purée and cranberry jalapeño relish, a busy combination that was a big hit with my fellow food writers. The salmon was accompanied by a Vitalba Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina.

And then there was actual duck. Delicate slices of pan-seared duck breast in a port wine sauce with fresh papaya and a dried-fruit five-grain pilaf were matched with a Rex Hill Pinot Noir, Newburg, Oregon. Our last entrée was Chilean sea bass in a piquillo pepper sauce with paella risotto, the Pinot versatile enough to accompany fish and fowl alike.

Desserts also are terrific at Tavern on Main. You could hardly go wrong with the chocolate lava dessert pictured below, but our dinner wound up with an equally satisfying mixed berry meringue tart.

The point of which, I guess, is not to make everyone want to be a food writer, although there are worse ambitions, but to remind everyone what they probably already knew, which is that Tavern on Main is still one of the nicest spots in Fairfield County to get a terrific meal in a historic yet uplifting setting.

Tavern on Main, 146 Main Street, Westport, 203-221-7222