The Tavern on Central — Restaurant in Ashburnham

It’s a Saturday afternoon and I am with eleven other men celebrating (which means making fun of) one of the last members of our group to fall victim to a beautiful woman. Yup marriage is right around the corner so we need a place where we can induct him into the club, explain to him how radically his life is going to change, and then let him ponder reality over a few beers and some Jameson. Our first choice has a line a mile long. We want to stay very local so after a quick call to ensure they have the room we head over to the Tavern on Central in Ashburnham Massachusetts.

If you're not local, the tavern is well worth a visit. Chef Sean McNally purchased it in 2014; he is also the chef-owner of Blueprint New American Bar and Grill, and the event venue McNally's Catering, both in Westminster. We are very fortunate here to have a talented restauranteur who wanted to build out his businesses locally rather than moving to the “big city”. If you are thinking about a visit you can expect a twist on the tavern food theme. Sean is a creative chef who puts an Avant-Garde spin on comfort and pub food. I will write more about that in a separate review on Blueprint.

This time we were less interested in lunch and more interested in the beer and snack menu. The Tavern has a great selection on draft to include Guinness (#1 in my book) and the locally brewed Wachusett ales with an excellent cross-section for everyone else. We ordered every variation of the chicken wing on the menu, bone-in. Hot, BBQ, Tavern Fever, Old Bay, Sweet Thai Chili, Teriyaki. Although they were all very tasty a few were similar and hard to tell apart. They were also on the saucy side. Sometimes less is more. Hot needed more heat, but putting Old Bay seasoning on a chicken wing, brilliant! The nachos were generous, hot (as in temperature), and loaded with goodies including the pulled pork option suggested by our server.

The service was excellent. Our server smiled with her eyes and voice, important nowadays with everyone doing their COVID-19 mask imitations of “Bane” from the Dark Knight rises. Fast delivery of hot food and cold drinks was the order of the day. They had to split our party due to the latest variation of indoor dining rules but we were seated in the back and adjacent to each other, so it all worked out well.

Oh, a heads up. There is no cell service. Ashburnham still uses the pony express and party lines. Don’t complain, its small-town New England. The restaurant has WiFi and provides the password for you so you connected junkies don’t go into withdrawal

Let me rant about tipping for a moment. We had an excellent server who was going to get a very good tip. In fact, I tipped her very generously after the first round of drinks was delivered and let her know this was in fact a “pre-tip” I have done this on a few occasions when I was with a large group for business or pleasure. It lets the server know they are appreciated early on and almost always guarantees a step up in service. At the end of the evening, she would have received an additional twenty percent plus on the bill. Enter Auto Gratuity. I hate that. Auto Gratuity is what you get when you have a larger group and the restaurant decides what you should tip regardless of the level of service. But here is the dirty little industry secret. According to Federal Law (IRS Part I. Rulings and Decisions Under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) that 18% charge you get added to your bill as “automatic gratuity” is NOT a tip. In fact, it’s a “Service Charge” and as such the restaurant gets to keep it. They are under no obligation to pass it to the Wait Staff. That is another good reason to hate the darn things. I am sure that our local gems don’t take advantage of the staff but remember this if your dining out, the service is great, and your bill comes with an 18% gratuity built-in. Your server may be getting the short end...

Short lady with black short hair waited on my boyfriend and i, took 20 minutes to get our drinks, told her we were a little upset she blamed the bartender who was doing her job very well our drinks sat for ten minutes, she told us we shouldve ordered our food with our drinks, nope thats not how you waitress. We asked her if she had too many tables and she told us no. While smiling and smirking and being very rude while we were being very nice to her. Making excuses the whole time for everything in a rude way. Blaming us as well as the bartender. It was not busy at all, I personally know Marissa and she was awesome with all of her tables. The table next to us came in 5 minutes after us and received both their water and drinks ten minutes before our drinks came. I will never come here again. Worst customer service i have ever...

Very disappointed, we traveled 6 and 1/2 hours from ny. We walked from our ARBNB and had 2 glasses of wine with dinner, went shopping walked around town and went back in the evening. The bartender refused to serve me and my sister saying we had drunken too much wine at the establishment.....our food bill was 120 dollars mind you that we tiped we tipped 20 percent on!! She refused to serve us more than a glass of wine each when we returned saying we drank too much. I asked her if she accounted for the fact that we were there early and left and the time, she's stated she would "lose her job for serving us" we were asked to leave the establishment. Nothing like feeling like a dirt bag on vacation! The food was great but service clearly sucked! I do...