Old Whitten Tavern

Good food, good fun, smoking is allowed and encouraged. Great burgers! I love this place!
I bookmarked this one a month or so ago because of the incredible pictures. Speaking of the old building on old Whitten, its been ten years or so since I’ve been in. Probably was a different business then and I never thought of it as
for a good meal. I decided to go there today, found it to be vacant, and was so relieved to find it had only moved.
I’ll start with the location. Its really clean and new. They are starting to look more moved in. I think it will be a cool place to hang. The old building was a dirty dump as I remember, but this location is so much better.
This is one of the few places still left in town you can smoke cigarettes at lunchtime. Yes, I do respect the nonsmokers, but this place is for us. You are not required to smoke here, but if it repels you, then this place is not for you.
This is not a Hooters hint hint, (a nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat) but the servers and bartender certainly were qualified. Say no more! They were exceptionally gifted and added an extra charm. I’ll bet she does, I’ll bet she does!
There was no music playing when we got there, but I had fun picking songs from the jukebox. They have it piped into a killer sound system that balances the sound across the entire bar, rather that just one area. It wasn’t too loud for lunch, but it sounded like a good enough system to crank up at night.
Ok, my take on the pizza. This pizza truly has the potential to be among the best in the city, but falls short in a couple areas. I ordered the Charlie’s special which itself is a perfect creation of toppings. The very best part for me was the sauce. This may be THE best pizza sauce. It was applied generously to really stand out on every bite. This sauce really made the pizza. I’ll bet this sauce is the result of years of experience. The cheese is excellent and was cooked with the beginnings of a perfect caramelized brown to it. The cheese was not salty, not chewy, and not hard to swallow. Just the right amount of cheese without skimping or over doing it. The mushrooms, black olives, and onions were all fresh. Pepperonis are pepperonis. All toppings were cooked under the cheese, which is a matter of preference.
Where the pizza falls short is the sausage and the dough. The sausage is not good. Sausage should be easy to season and make in house. The worst part of the pizza is the dough. I’m certain these are frozen discs. It isn’t frozen pizza, and it was cooked perfectly for what it was, but this dough is holding it back from being world class.
My friend ate a club sandwich that was really great. So good in fact that he took chicken strips and a burger home to his family. That burger is my next order there. It looked great!
My imaginary friend Loretta went with us. She didn’t order though because she brought a pimento cheese sandwich and jalapeño peppers. She likes peppers. At first they objected to her bringing her own lunch, but when I explained that she was only imaginary, they did finally allow it. After all, what harm could it do? She did create quite a spectacle of herself dancing alone in the corner, but we all bought her a round and had to carry her out.
I should be at 4 stars because of the shortfall on the pizza dough, but for me, the sauce and the rest of the food was well above excellent. And I get to smoke!