Category: Lunch & Dinner

I’ve made many visits to Kutztown in recent years, but I spent a lot of that time trying the new and new-to-me restaurants in town that I haven’t made many return blogs. Recently, though, I got an invite to revisit the Kutztown Tavern, and I couldn’t say no. 

It had been more than a decade since my last visit to the Kutztown Tavern. Things have changed since then. Last year, a new ownership group took charge of the restaurant and brewery that originally opened in 1999. That team includes Chef Aaron Hoppes, Bart Fenstermacher and Darren Calaman. 

Bart’s wife Erin was the one who extended the invitation for a special tasting of their menu. 

After we arrived, Erin showed me around the restaurant. It’s much larger than I had remembered with a spacious main dining room and multiple additional seating areas. 

To the left is the tasting room. When I was attending Kutztown, this was the takeout area. Later, it was converted into a tasting room with a separate menu and tasting experiences. The full menu is now available to those dining in the space, though there is a unique drink menu. 

On the other side of the waiting area is the Club Room, a private space that can accommodate up to 36. 

Another private event space, the upstairs dining room, can seat up to 100. (This is actually where I sat the last time I visited the Tavern). 

When you arrive at the Kutztown Tavern, it’s impossible not to notice the large vats where their signature Golden Avalanche brand beer has been brewed since the Tavern opened. Today, they have six flagship beers and a rotating list of seasonal brews, all made in a traditional German style using German equipment. 

A long, wooden bar sits to the right of the vats. While there are a couple TVs, the Kutztown Tavern is not a sports bar and you won’t see TVs strewed about in the dining area. Instead of play-by-play of the day’s games, we heard acoustic renditions of pop songs coming through the speakers throughout the restaurant. 

After my tour of the restaurant, including a quick trip downstairs to see Shorty’s Bar, we were ushered back to a booth near the rear of the spacious dining room. Sunlight poured in through a nearby window, giving us more light than the bulb that hung above our table. 

Appetizers

The kitchen started us off with a trio of appetizers: cheesesteak eggrolls, hummus and chili. 

I thought the eggrolls and hummus were both good, but the chili was excellent. Whenever I return to the Tavern again, I will be ordering a bowl of chili as part of my meal. It was hearty with plenty of beef and beans. But instead of heat coming in the first bite, there was a hint of sweetness that I loved. Julie and Jakob agreed, too, as we fought over who got to keep eating it. 

The cheesesteak eggrolls were solid. They’re made in house with a thick, crispy outer shell stuffed full. They needed the marinara sauce to bring it all together. While I liked them, Jakob thought they were the best thing we tried. 

We really enjoyed the hummus – it tasted fresh and homemade. The addition of some fresh basil on top and throughout was a nice touch. At the restaurant, I just wish it came with pita chips instead of the little naan pieces that didn’t have much flavor to them. And even with 10 pieces of naan, there was so much hummus that we still took half of it home. (I used some of the leftovers in a wrap the next day).

Sandwiches & Salad

The second wave of dishes included a burger, a sandwich and a salad. All three were very good, and I could see myself ordering them in the future. 

The Tavern offers seven burger varieties on the menu. We had the Avalanche burger which came topped with Swiss cheese, sauteed onions and mushrooms. The burger patty, itself, was excellent. It was cooked perfectly with a little caramelization on the outside to hold in the juices. And it had a nice salty taste to it. It’s a great base for a burger, and the toppings worked well to give it a steakhouse-like feel. 

Our Mediterranean salad was also very good. The blackened chicken on top was perfect – well-seasoned on the outside and perfectly cooked inside. It came atop a bed of baby spinach and assorted vegetables with bleu cheese, walnuts and a cup of creamy poppyseed dressing, which was also good and had a nice little tang to it. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the French onion steak. While it comes topped with cheese, this is not a cheesesteak. It featured a black diamond filet topped with sauteed onions and a horseradish sauce, all smothered in melted Swiss atop a slice of toasted panini bread. The steak was nicely done and flavorful on its own. I was worried about the horseradish being too pungent, but it was actually flavorful without being overpowering. It added enough to make it feel like I wasn’t just eating a deconstructed French onion soup. 

Thankfully, Erin was kind enough to provide us with plenty of to-go boxes so we could taste everything without having to finish it. Despite that, we were definitely starting to feel full by this point, but there were still two entrees left to come. 

Entrees

First, we had the braised pork shank which came served on a bed of Yukon gold mashed potatoes. The pork pulled right off the bone and had good flavor, especially with the herbs that stuck to the outer skin. The potatoes were excellent. Yukon golds have such a distinct flavor that I was instantly transported back to the early days of the blog and meals at Muddy’s. I think I’ll need to order the shepherd’s pie, a dish where potatoes really shine, the next time I go. 

The stir-fry was good, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the rest of the meal. All the ingredients were there – chicken, rice noodles, onions, peppers and broccoli in a sweet and tangy sauce – but it didn’t feel like a “tavern-style” dish to me. That said, I did use it for lunch a couple days later. 

On the day of our visit, the Tavern was featuring corn-on-the-cob from Heritage Farm and Market in Fleetwood. It doesn’t get much better than local sweet corn, and Lukas agreed as I got just one bite before he claimed it for his own. 

Dessert

Because this wasn’t enough food, we also had to try two of the tavern’s signature desserts: chocolate peanut butter pie and coconut cream pie. 

Chef Aaron’s background includes a stint at the former Arner’s (now Crossroads Family Restaurant) on Route 61. That influence shows in the homemade pies.

The coconut cream pie was a mountainous slice piled high with coconut cream filling and topped with a mound of whipped cream. The coconut flavor was more of an undertone to the light and airy cream, but it was absolutely delicious. 

And the chocolate peanut butter pie was just as good. The Oreo cookie crust was topped with the peanut butter and cream cheese pie filling, which was then topped with chopped peanuts and chocolate drizzle. It’s decadent, but worth the extra calories. 

Needless to say, neither of the desserts lasted long enough to go in a take-home box. 

But we did take a lot of food home, and we did our best to get through all of the leftovers. In the end, we got to sample $135 worth of meals from the Tavern. I’ve included the prices (as of September 2026) below:

Cheesesteak Egg Rolls – $13.95
Hummus with Naan – $9.95
Chili – $5.25-$6.25 + 75 cents for “the works” toppings
Mediterranean Salad – $13.95
Avalanche Burger – $13.95 + $3.95 for fries
French Onion Steak – $16.95
Braised Pork Shank – $25.95
Stir-Fry – $17.95
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie – $7.95
Coconut Cream Pie – $7.95

Realistically, we would likely spend around $50, maybe up to $70 if we were splurging, for four meals if we were ordering off the menu.

After a delicious meal (and many more with our leftovers), the Tavern is definitely back on my radar for future visits to Kutztown. 

BCE Rating
Food: Good to Very Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Very Good
Price: $$

Kutztown Tavern
272 W. Main St
Kutztown, PA 19530