The Tavern, St. Leonard, Calvert County, Maryland

After a big day of eating — three great breakfast stops on the First Delaware Scrapple Tour and a delicious hunk of brisket at Bark in Stevensville, Maryland — I crossed back to the Western Shore and down to Calvert County. Michael and I were luxuriating in Lusby while the girls toughed out a staycation at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington. As the sun started going down, we started thinking about dinner, and decided to try a new-to-us spot in St. Leonard.

St. Leonard is near Jefferson-Patterson state park, the site of two naval battles during the War of 1812, which held up the dastardly British for a couple of months. Today the town (technically a Census Data Place) has, most notably, a volunteer fire department that’s hosted fundraising festivals large enough to have featured Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alan Jackson, and Hootie and the Blowfish at their outdoor pavilion. It also has sundry stores, a couple of gas stations, a small motel, and, at 4975 Saint Leonard Road, The Tavern.

The Tavern is a local bar with a stage and a back room for a pool table. They have lots of special evenings featuring trivia contests, DJs, and the like, as well as times when active duty military and retirees, first responders, and teachers get discounts. It was busy on a cold Saturday night, and Michael and I found seats at the bar. Service was quick and friendly, and we glanced at the menu, just making sure that they sold wings, and looked over the burgers. The Tavern offers an Elvis Burger with peanut butter and bacon, which sounded good. I’m a fan of Missouri’s Guberburger. They also offer an Aloha Burger that features a slice of pineapple. I guess that’s better than putting it on an innocent pizza. We ordered some wings with buffalo sauce and blue cheese (rather than ranch, and ended up getting both).

The wings weren’t super-crisp, but they had a very good flavor and were nice and juicy. We also ordered some fried dill pickles, which were super-crisp, with some corn meal mixed into the batter. Very good indeed.

Michael ordered a regular burger (eight ounces) with bacon, cheese, lettuce, and onion, and chose onion rings as his side. I didn’t get a good shot, but it got a thumbs up from Michael. He would have given it two thumbs up but he devoted one hand to holding the burger. It was a hit, cooked medium rare as ordered. And Michael commented that you can taste the beer in the batter. So that’s what it was. The rings were excellent.

After all I’d eaten, I went with a four-ounce burger, medium rare, with mustard and raw onion, with a side of ‘tater tots.

The burger had an extraordinarily good flavor. After my very first bite, I thought, “Wow!  This is good! Very meaty!”

You tend to get the extra flavor when the burger’s been hand packed with just the right pressure. And it was cooked to order, medium rare. Getting a large burger medium rare is a challenge in most restaurants, but getting a small burger medium rare is prodigy, on a par with finding a friendly and helpful person at the DMV. The tots were their usual crunchy-creamy goodness. I added malt vinegar, of which I’m a fan.

A customer sat next to me with a plate of steamed shrimp. peeled and deveined and graced with a generous serving of drawn butter. We chatted a bit and I mentioned how good the shrimp looked, but he didn’t offer me one. I should have offered him some tots first.

The Tavern isn’t exactly the sort of place you pick for a first date, but I was very impressed by the food, and the folks there were friendly and cheerful. I’ll go back, I’m sure, and I expect we’ll take the kids for lunch. Wings, rings, burgers, and tots — that’s a rich full life right there. You should give it a try.

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