The Mews Tavern

A fine restaurant and tavern at 456 Main Street in Wakefield Rhode Island, with sixty-nine brews on tap. I don't mean sixty-nine variations of Bud and Mich and Sam. I mean great international beers, micro-brews, and many other wonderful tastes to wet your whistle. They also have a fine assortment of hard liquors: 200 single malt scotch varieties, 30 of tequila, 40 rums and 30 vodkas. Their home-made root beer and cream soda are also on tap. I think if you ordered a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, they'd be able to fix one up for you.

This restaurant/tavern is arranged so that you can choose from a variety of atmospheres. First, there are two entrances-dining room and bar. If you enter by the dining room entrance, you get to see their souvenir shop filled with drinking implements, along with random touristy merchandise-shirts and underwear with various Mews slogans, etc.

• The dining room has two levels. The upper level has darker wood paneling and snug booths, or you can sit at the brick-oven pizza bar and watch how to make a great pizza. The lower level has lighter wood paneling and a large, de-barked, dead tree in the middle of the dining area. This means the ceiling is fairly high up. This is convenient to hang things from, such as a simple ski-lift chair and Santa's sleigh. It has a much more open, airy feel to it than the upper level, and adjoins the bar so there is sometimes a mix of music from the two areas.
• The bar is just a regular bar, a few dinner tables but mostly bar stools at the bar and in a general area. There's a juke box and televisions showing various sporting events.
• And then, of course, you could always go upstairs. Upstairs is Cecilia's Lounge. Lounge meaning couches and coffee tables and comfortable chairs. This is where Mews Tavern holds their wine tasting events. It has a more relaxed yet more refined feel to it, compared to the bar area. Dimly lit, with soft music playing and one muted television showing sports, the room seems willing to accept anyone while bringing a touch of class to a tavern.

The menu includes sandwiches, full dinners and brick-oven pizzas. They offer an Everest burger, and if you are able to eat a whole one you get another one free that visit. You can get chicken, steak, seafood and even vegetarian dinners. I personallly favor the Rasta Pasta - chicken cooked in a Jamaican Jerk Marinade, then tossed with pasta and chunky tomato sauce. It's a sneaky spicy, the kind that suddenly tingles your lips. Chicken wings come in three flavors of buffalo, and one each of teriyaki, Caeser, cajun and BBQ. The head chef there also has a cooking show on public access television.