Copperhead Tavern has opened in Indialantic. I have previously written about eateries on the Space Coast. One of them was City Tropics Bistro along 5th avenue. City Tropics Bistro, if you read my blog is a nice, but tired eatery that has one of the better happy hour menus and Sunday Bunches Beachside.
Well the owner of City Tropics Bistro, and several other Beachside venues has opened another eatery at 205 5th Ave where his last restaurant (and failure) Andimao used to sit. This new venture for Dijon (the owner) is called the Copperhead Tavern and opened on Thursday January 30th.
I went in last night to meet with a couple of friends and I will say that the look of Coppperhead Tavern is nice. The interior of the restaurant is open to 5th Avenue which is good. Much like City Tropics Bistro down the street, the exposure to Copperhead Tavern, is inviting and you definitely notice it when you drive down 5th avenue. Exposed brick walls and photos of screen starts like Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis, Jr and more grace the walls. The atmosphere is lively and humming even if the music is a bit too loud. Our waiter Jason was wonderful, gracious, accommodating and just an all around nice guy!
The food on the other hand was a BIG LET DOWN! The menu is sparse to say the least and has not ONE vegetarian item on it. Being that I visited with two of my friends (one of whom is vegan) this was not good. My friend was reduced to eating an extremely overpriced dish of marinated olives for her dinner.
I opted for a hamburger, though while "decent", it was almost small enough to pass for a slider at other restaurants. Our waiter told me that I could have ordered an "additional meat paddy" for $4.95 which would pump up the burger to the size of a hamburger at other burger joints. That would be $10 for what is in essence a mediocre or average burger. My biggest disappointment came when I bit into the pickle that came with my oh so petite hamburger. The pickle was an insipid and overly sweet bread and butter pickle! I detest bread and butter pickles and NEVER have I had one served with a hamburger. When I requested a dill pickle, I was informed that they do not serve them at Copperhead Tavern. Big thumbs down on that one for me!
Our table also ordered the Oxtail Poutine which is basically french fries covered with an oxtail gravy with cheese curds. They were decent, but I couldn't help but compare this dish with the Gumbo Cheesy Fries at Bunky's Raw Bar down A1A which are not only superior in taste, but are also priced better.
While I appreciate that the owner of Copperhead Tavern has put a lot of money into the construction of this restaurant, the menu selection, prices and portions served are going to have to improve tremendously if he wants this venue to succeed and not go by way of his previous restaurant in this very spot. A Happy Hour Menu would go a long way in drawing people into the Copperhead Tavern, as the standard menu certainly will not.
Yes, Brevard County's Beachside community is small enough to not have an incredible selection of restaurants, but we are also smart enough not to be taken for a ride by establishments that serve mediocre food at exorbitant prices.
I would say stop by Copperhead Tavern for a beer after work, but move on for dinner, the value just isn't there.
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