Taverna, Newark, DE

My dad and my have birthdays that are only 2 days apart, so we always celebrate together. This year, we went to Taverna, a new restaurant on Main Street in Newark, DE.

For a college town, Newark lately has been getting more and more upscale and trendy. A wine bar opened in the spot of the demolished dive bar The Stone Balloon, fellow dive bar The Deer Park was renovated and reopened, there's a banh mi shop, cupcakes, and tart yogurt.

So Taverna is yet another recent addition to the Newark dining scene. It's part of a restaurant group with a handful or restaurants in Wilmington and Hockessin, Delaware, and focuses on rustic Italian, wood-fired oven, etc.

 It being shortly after graduation, and Memorial Day, the town was quiet, and we pretty much had the restaurant all to ourselves. We started out with an antipasto board - created with 3 selections of your choice. We went with prosciutto, housemade mozzarella and eggplant caponata.

We also wanted to try their homemade ricotta. This was a bit salty for my taste, but still creamy and yummy. Ricotta's one of those things though - even bad ricotta in a plastic tub from the supermarket is pretty good...

For entrees, my dad got the canelloni (stuffed inside with chicken and proscuitto) - quite good!  My mom got the chicken taverna with a caper, lemon, white wine sauce on capellini.

Redneckhunter got the neopolitan pizza, and I made him order it with an egg on top (I got that slice, of course!) 

And I ordered the roast pork and broccoli rabe sandwich, and substituted asparagus for my side of fries. It was a ton of food, and I ended up taking half of mine home as leftovers. All in all, another good addition to Newark!

Taverna
121 E Main St
Newark, DE 19711
(302) 444-4334