Baked Brie
Loaded Sweet Potato nearly two years.
In 2021, new owners Matt Noble and Maggie Noble purchased the building, which needed some tender loving care. They invested over $ 2 million in a full restoration and renovation, updating the infrastructure, expanding the restaurant footprint, making the building accessible( adding an elevator and accessible restrooms), modernizing the kitchen, adding a wood‐fire grill and pizza oven, and even building a rooftop terrace.
The newly‐renovated Tavern reopened in May 2024, welcoming a new generation of diners while honoring the building’ s nearly 200‐year history.
Under the Nobles, Tavern on the Square emphasizes farm-to-table dining, sourcing meats, produce, and other ingredients from local farms whenever possible. The restoration preserved many historical details. According to the new owners, the wooden beams in the barroom, which predate the 1849 house and come from a local barn, were salvaged.
The food
We focused a bit heavily on the menu’ s appetizers, including the Korean Sticky Ribs, Baked Brie, and
Scotch Eggs, because they were all so unique to any menu we’ ve seen yet. The sticky ribs were plentiful and could have served as a meal. With a little bit of sweet heat, these ribs fell off the bone and left me wanting more.
The Baked Brie is chef’ s kiss delicious. As appealing to the eye as it is to the palate, this dish is a brie cheese melted in house-made flatbread and topped with housemade preserves and raw honeycomb. It’ s noticeably popular as we watched it be delivered to table after table, and as a group of friends were seated at the booth next to ours, one woman exclaimed to the others that the Baked Brie was a non-negotiable appetizer because they all“ absolutely must” try it. We agreed with her sentiment. Delicious.
If you’ ve never had a Scotch Egg, it’ s a very unique dish popular in England that takes about 15 minutes to prepare. A local farm egg is wrapped with house-made sausage and coated with a golden panko crust. The honey mustard aioli takes it to another level.
The menu includes a“ sticky skillet,” a nod to the traditional sticky buns for which The Tavern is known. It takes me back in time, too. While a student at Westminster
College, it was always a treat to go to The Tavern for sticky buns and coffee. At that time, the sticky buns were served as a precursor to the meal. Now, the skillet is best enjoyed as a warm dessert with locally churned vanilla ice cream.
The menu also features main meals like filet of ribeye, New York Strip, catch of the day, salads, woodfired pizzas, and lunch specials. There are also burgers, one of which is the Buck Burger, named in tribute to Maggie Noble’ s grandfather, Buck. This burger includes a barbecuebasted patty, beer-battered onion ring, black Sheep bacon, Tavern sauce, and blue cheese, served in a house-made potato bun.“ It has blue cheese on it because we know he’ d like it,” said third-generation namesake Buck Chutz, restaurant manager.“ It was important to us to pay homage to his legacy.”
The Tavern is committed to strengthening the local food economy by sourcing its ingredients from a wide network of nearby growers, makers, and artisans. Fresh produce is selected from Apple Castle Orchards and a variety of area Amish growers, ensuring seasonal quality at its peak. Seafood dishes feature responsibly harvested selections from Great Depths
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