T J Smith Victorian House

Recently attended a wedding at the TJ Smith Victorian House and had an absolutely splendid time. In fact I have about 14 + things to share about my visit.
+ Beautiful blue exterior with white trim, a grand front porch, and a nicely landscaped yard.
+ Plenty of parking.
+ Separate rooms for each part of the wedding process (bridal suite, chapel, tavern for cocktail hour and reception room).
+ Lovely little chapel with high ceilings, fireplace (not sure if it works), large windows and seating for at least 100 people.
+ Nice acoustics and no need for a microphone during the ceremony.
+ Great tavern with bar for cocktail hour, tables w/​stools, fireplace and windows looking out to the front yard.
+ Super nice staff behind the bar. Mixing up delicious drinks and even suggesting a few.
+ Large reception room with enough space for 10+ dining tables, DJ, decent sized dance floor, cake and/​or head table.
+ Separate coat room.
+ Coffee & tea bar set up during the whole reception (and included a wide variety of teas — not just regular and decaf).
+ Clean restrooms.
+ Crisp salad and [seriously] awesome dinner rolls.
+ Delicious entrees! Stuffed chicken, potatoes & [non mushy] green beans were excellent! Steak looked mighty tasty too.
+ Plenty of space to move around and socialize.
and one negative (and this seems to be a problem at just about ever single wedding I’ve been to…)
— AC could have been pumped up a bit more.

My husband, daughter and I visited the Publik Tavern last everning. We were a bit hesitant to go somewhere that just opened and sadly we should have gone elsewhere. They are not ready for the public. First we were greeted by the waitress who told us we could have a table if we promised to be out by 8. There were 3 empty tables at that time so we didn’t understand why she’d put in such a way. It was only 6:45. So we agreed and sat down with our paper menus but that should have been a big enough red flag to just go. They have no childrens menu which I guess I shouldn’t expect but I found it a tad odd. I decided to order my daughter a pizza despite her pizza lunch but the waitress told me they take a long time. Plain and simple as that and I was stumped as there was no other option. She then tells me they are not on the menu but they have chicken nuggets which were frozen dinosaur nuggets. I ordered a steak and my husband a cheeseburger. The cheeseburger was clearly a frozen patty. Generic is how he described it. My steak was very rare and I ordered a medium rare. It also had a large piece of visible fat in the center that made the steak almost look like two pieces. It was completely unappetizing. Good thing the the soup was edible. The beer selection is minimal and they have no draft beer. Their menu is limited but included a baked stuff chicken, steak, meatloaf, and the special was a pasta carbonara. The ligthing could be dimmed a bit for the atmosphere. We won’t be going back. I can say that the waitress did remove my steak from the bill and we did tip her well for taking care of it but it says a lot to have to complain about your food. Maybe in a few months they will figure things out but in the meantime they really should go back to just being a function hall for weddings.