Eagle Tavern - Offers a Pleasant Respite during Your Tour
My spouse and I
dined at the Eagle Tavern at Greenfield Village on a Monday afternoon in early
July 2017. The Tavern is open for lunch from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm whenever
Greenfield Village is open. The restaurant offers the only sit-down
table-service meals in the Village, although there are many casual self-service
mostly outdoor counters and restaurants, including the Sir John Bennett Sweet
Shop, State Street Lunch Stand, Frozen Custard, Carousel Confections, Cotswold
Cottage Tea (with seating adjacent to the adorable building on a patio
surrounded by gorgeous flowers in the spring and summer), Mrs. Fisher’s
Southern Cooking, Owl Night Lunch Wagon, and A Taste of History (an indoor
cafeteria).
As with all
structures at Greenfield Village, the Eagle Tavern enjoys a long history. In the early 1800s, a
stagecoach line operated between Michigan cities Detroit and Tecumseh, and eventually
extending to Chicago, Illinois (the route was later called the Chicago Turnpike
and US 12). As settlers from the east began to travel west along this route,
taverns were built to feed and shelter them. In 1831, one of these outposts
called the Parks Tavern opened in Clinton, Michigan. (It later changed its name
to the Eagle Tavern in 1849; however, it was also known as the Union Hotel
during the Civil War.) Weary travelers visited taverns to eat at common tables and
sleep in common bedrooms; in addition, local people dropped in to socialize.
At today’s Eagle
Tavern, servers in colonial garb serve historically accurate food and drinks, most
of whose ingredients are locally sourced from within 150 miles of the museum.
Patrons can sit in the small barroom, in the main dining room, or on the covered
side porch. (On the day that we visited, guests seemed to serve themselves at
the bar and then carry their drinks outside to enjoy them on rocking chairs.) While
you wait for your table, you can sit on wooden benches in the small sitting
room where stagecoach passengers would have waited for their ride. You can peek
into the Gathering Room/Ladies Parlor, where women and children congregated
quietly before or after dinner while the boisterous men visited the barroom
across the hall. The main dining room is large yet sparse, with many long
communal wood tables and chairs. (If your party is smaller than 8 people, you must
share table space; however, the hostesses are adept at spacing, staging, and
staggering guests in order to allow maximum privacy.) Because in the tavern’s
original days, electricity was not yet invented, today you dine by candlelight in
the dim room; if you visit on a chilly day, a fire in the large hearth offers
additional light. But not to worry: in several nods to modernity, the Tavern
offers indoor plumbing in its restrooms, is fully air-conditioned, and accepts
credit cards. (Note that the current main dining room was not original to the
tavern; Henry Ford added it after he moved the building to the Village.)
The Eagle
Tavern aims to remain as historically authentic and accurate as possible, so it
serves the type of cuisine and beverages available in the 1800s. The tavern has a liquor license, so you can
enjoy an alcoholic beverage with your meal if you so desire. The “temperance” drink
section does not list any soft drinks because they would not have been
available during in the 1800s; however, sodas are available if you ask. We ordered
a pitcher of the (non-alcoholic) lemonade to share, which turned out to be a
great value: a single glass was nearly $5, whereas the pitcher cost only $8 and
contained 6+ glasses. Even the drinking straws were historically accurate, made
of macaroni. (Metal straws would also have been appropriate during that time
period way before plastic was invented.) While we waited for our meal, we
enjoyed the complimentary rolls and cornbread, served with butter and berry
jam. We ordered main dishes of chicken fricassee and beef; both hearty portions
were served with a starch and a vegetable (that day it was green beans and
potatoes) on period plates. Other entrée options (all priced around $20) included
ham, trout, or noodles. In addition, the tavern offers soups, salads, and a
meat-and-cheese plate as appetizers. Portions are plentiful, so regrettably we
had to pass on the yummy sounding desserts.
Although not
inexpensive (when compared with the self-serve casual dining options at the
Village), our lunch at the Eagle Tavern was enjoyable and provided us a well-needed
rest during our day of touring.
