With its famously etched tables, Gothic arches and German comfort food, this ‘rathskeller’ remains a Princeton institution.
By: Kate and Tom O’Neill
|
Yankee Doodle Tap Room |
The Yankee Doodle Tap Room, downstairs at the Nassau Inn, is enviably located in the heart of Princeton. The Inn once operated three restaurants, including the Tap Room, which provided an informal gathering place for travelers and locals alike. Today, both the formal dining room and the Greenhouse, the Inn’s sunny breakfast restaurant, are gone, leaving the Tap Room with a jack-of-all-trades culinary mission. It opens with breakfast, then serves lunch, followed by a dinner menu of grilled meats and an ambitious German-inspired menu and, finally, a late-night menu.
The many German-influenced dishes seem at home in the Tap Room’s old-world, rathskeller setting. The restaurant’s recent affiliation with D.G. Yuengling & Son is widely evidenced in the dinner menu, from the drunken shrimp appetizer ($12.50), through the beer-braised bratwurst ($18) and beer-glazed Half-in-the-Bag chicken ($19), to the Yuengling-assisted "browniecide," which features porter-infused chocolate sauce ($9).
Behind the large bar is Norman Rockwell’s 13-foot mural of Yankee Doodle. Other links to the past include a row of photographs of noted Princeton alumni, ranging from James Forrestal to Brooke Shields. We were offered seating in the bar beside an inviting fire, but after a few moments’ exposure to the many TVs, we retreated to the dining area. There we were seated in one of several booths, where the table surfaces are famously etched with the initials and class years of Princeton undergraduates.
On the Sunday evening we stopped by, two separate families seemed to be celebrating children’s birthdays. Several people sat at the bar, while the dining area hosted a couple of travelers working on their laptops, and a scattering of couples. The floor of the Tap Room is tiled throughout. Stone arches support the ceilings, recalling the university’s Gothic architecture, and the booths and tables are of dark wood. The hard surfaces make it noisy, and the frequent, two-tone ring of the maitre d’s phone will make fans of the TV series 24 feel they are on the set with the Counterterrorism Unit.
Two willing servers did their best to cover the whole room, but service was slow and careless. Our server didn’t appear for 10 minutes after we were seated, and another five minutes passed before he brought a wine list. He was helpful and knowledgeable in his wine suggestions, but not in the wine service: during the appetizer course, he delivered the glass of Pinot Noir we’d pre-selected to accompany an entrée and set it down next to the glass of Sauvignon Blanc that we were enjoying with the salmon tartare appetizer ($12.50).
Thin-sliced and minced smoked salmon had been molded into a ball, with the slices serving as the envelope. A ring of dry pumpernickel bread points ringed the plate, so that, with the accompanying crème fraiche and capers, it became a tasty make-your-own-canapé.
We shared the salmon tartare, because our other appetizer, green tip mussels in Riesling sauce ($10), never appeared. We inquired about the missing mussels when our server arrived bearing entrées along with a glass of Yuengling to accompany the sauerbraten venison chops ($27). He was chagrined and apologized with a "Sorry, the beer’s on me."
Both our entrées came from the varied grill menu, which includes burgers as well as steaks, chicken, bratwurst and salmon. The calves liver ($19) was cooked pink, as requested, and grilling allowed the meat’s delicate flavor to stand alone, enhanced by crisp, smoky bacon and a sweet topping of caramelized onions and pears. The venison chops ($27), firm, lean and tenderized by a red wine and vinegar marinade, were aromatic (cloves and perhaps a hint of ginger) and tasty with sweet and sour flavors that enriched the slightly gamy venison.
We had asked our server to switch the spaetzle that usually accompanies the calves liver with the potatoes that come with the venison. Instead, the liver was served atop a deep bed of spaetzle in brown butter, supplemented by a high-heaped dish of smashed potatoes. In the case of the chops, the switch worked better: they arrived only with spaetzle, dense, al dente and nicely balanced by a wedge of piquant red cabbage.
Tap Room desserts are rich and tempting. They include the "browniecide" ($9) a brownie layered with caramel and chocolate cookie pieces, topped with chocolate ganache, white chocolate gelato, chocolate sauce and chocolate shavings and the sumptuous Doodle monkey ($9), in which cookies are topped with two kinds of ice cream, peanut butter chocolate sauce and bourbon caramel sauce, chocolate shavings and pecan pieces. By contrast, the cheese plate ($15) sounds like health food! We chose a middle path, having fallen in love with the name Branntweinapfelpfannkuchen, ($8). These warm apple fritters were accompanied by a scoop of refreshing cinnamon gelato but, alas, the Pfannkuchen (crepes) were bone-dry and flaked off the brandied apple filling they should have enclosed.
Executive Chef Robert Mehnert has created an interesting, wide-ranging menu that could meet or exceed the expectations of the Tap Room’s varied clientele. Well-prepared, as it is here, German cooking can be comfort food at its best. But with good food, the diner expects polished service, and we hope the Tap Room will strive to balance these two key elements of dining-out success.

