Pineville Tavern

by Frank Quattrone

As we approached Pineville Tavern for our first dining adventure at the landmark restaurant, we lined up behind a veritable parade of waiting cars. Was it a special occasion? In a way it was, as Tuesdays have become Lobster Night at the venerable inn. That means guests can choose from a Whole Steamed Maine Lobster with choice of two sides, Maine Lobster Tails over Spaghetti, Lobster Ravioli, or Maine Lobster Roll with french fries at eminently affordable prices.

When we asked co-owner Andrew Abruzzese if this was the restaurant’s biggest night of the week, he smiled benignly and said, “Someone once told me that the most expensive thing in your restaurant is an empty seat. We do really well most nights, but we thought this might be a way to spice up a sometimes-slow Tuesday.”

Well, well. There’s certainly enough room to accommodate lobster lovers and anyone craving a great meal, with one hundred thirty-five seats indoors, another eighty outdoors, and another eighty in the brand-new Patio Greenhouse that opened in August. And if lobsters aren’t a genuine lure, you could have fooled Culinary Director Matt Levin, one of the region’s most experienced chefs, who said that, on a scorching hot Tuesday late in July, the tavern sold eighty-nine of the ninety lobsters on hand!

In fact, the amuse-bouche the chef sent to our table to tease our taste buds presaged an amazing meal. It was a small bowl of cold Sweet Corn Lobster with Orange Soup whose distinctive aroma and flavor of puréed corn delighted us at first sip. We were not surprised, as we had first met Matt Levin at a restaurant named Moonlight (also owned by Andrew) in New Hope at the turn of the millennium. The resume of the Culinary Institute grad is too extensive to share here, but he has worked alongside the best, in restaurants as far afield as Lacroix, Le Bec-Fin, and Brasserie Perrier in Philadelphia, Aureole in Manhattan, and Charlie Trotters in Chicago, not to mention his own Philly restaurant, Square Peg.

Our appetizer was no less enticing. Recommended by our bubbly server Mackenzie Hahn (“My all-time favorite,” she said), it was a generous plate of Bacon Wrapped Shrimp topped with red pepper flakes and brown sugar on a bed of spicy grain mustard sauce. Now we know why Mackenzie dubbed it “Million Dollar Bacon Shrimp.”

On a table graced with a sweet bouquet of flowers arranged by Andrew’s wife, Marylou, we eagerly awaited our pasta. The ravioli arrived exactly as advertised by the tavern’s co-owner, who told us, “It’s our best dish. It’s all about the dough. You can’t roll it thin enough with a machine. You need hands to do it right. My Italian grandfathers were chefs, and my Aunt Mary used to cook at St. Anthony’s parish near Sciolli’s [Restaurant]. She taught me how to make the perfect ravi.” Sure enough—my exquisitely-flavored ricotta-stuffed ravioli was so delicate and light that I could cut it with my fork. My Italian grandmother would have been proud!

Before Mackenzie brought our entrées to the table, I walked over to the outsized American flag draped vertically across the opposite wall. Foolishly thinking it might date back to 1742, when the first inn was established at this site, roughly halfway between New York and Philadelphia, I soon discovered it was far younger than I. A plaque beneath the flag advised that it celebrated the end of Covid restrictions, so that the tavern’s guests—like co-owners Andrew and Marylou Abruzzese and their efficient son Philip, the general manager—can enjoy “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” with this invocation: “We ask nothing but to come, to eat, to drink and to be eternally merry.”

The Abruzzese family purchased the tavern in 1989 and restored it in 2010 to re-create its appearance in 1797, when the Pineville Hotel was built at this site. The three-story restaurant still retains an original fireplace, windows, and downstairs door, as well as a chestnut wood bar and some original windows in the stunningly beautiful 1742 Room upstairs, the catering center, designed by restaurateur Jim Hamilton.

Then came our entrées. Eve, who loves steak, was thoroughly enamored of her 14-ounce New York Strip Steak, served with creamed spinach and mashed potatoes, while I savored my “Bawlmer” Crab Cake, a superb all-crabmeat treat served with steak fries and house-made cole slaw. It’s all part of a classic American (and somewhat Italian) menu that the chef says the tavern’s longtime clientele absolutely adore. Come this fall the kitchen staff will introduce a few new offerings to entice a fresh generation of Pineville Tavern fans.

The chef has consulted and worked with Andrew Abruzzese for years in a warm and almost familial relationship. He grew up in a family that tended to eat out more than eat in at home, and the young boy was so inspired by “the guys in the kitchen” who took an active interest in the precocious boy who kept asking them questions that he soon decided on the culinary arts as his career path. And it all comes together at Pineville Tavern, one of Bucks County’s premier restaurant destinations.

Pineville Tavern is located at 1098 Durham Road, Pineville, PA; 215-598-3890; www.pineville tavern.com. Open daily for lunch and dinner, 11 a.m.–9 p.m. and for takeout daily, 11 a.m.– 8 p.m. Reservations recommended. Available for catered events. Ask for Susie’s Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies and Coconut Macaroons for dessert or takeout. (She is Philip Abruzzese’s wife.)