My husband and I are always on the lookout for good places to eat. We think we have found another one, right here in Siloam Springs -- the Sweetwater Tavern at Inn at the Springs in downtown Siloam. They have been serving for several months now but we finally got around to trying them out, and are now not only completely sold on them but can hardly quit talking about them.
We learned that they have a chef who can cook up a fine meal. When we first visited the Tavern, we found a small table near the fireplace and placed our orders. We learned that they offer only fresh food, no frozen and no canned vegetables, and have been getting things from the Farmers' Market for food preparation.
I ordered their country fried steak with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, and fresh vegetables. I found the gravy to be wonderfully delicious. I am a gravy-lover and I was not a bit disappointed. The fresh vegetables turned out to be green beans. Let me say that I like green beans, but I do not love them, and I especially do not usually love fresh green beans. But these, these were absolutely delicious, crisp and seasoned "to a T." So when I began eating, I actually began "scarfing" my supper (dinner if you must) down, and did not stop until it was all consumed. My husband could hardly believe I cleaned my plate, since I rarely do. But it was all marvelous and I didn't stop until I was finished and my plate was clean. We recently learned that they occasionally experiment a bit with their menus so you might be surprised and pleased next time you stop by, to see what they are offering. And the daily specials can be quite wonderful too -- as we found with a recent supper of chicken and dumplings and delicious bread on the side. They now are offering a pork meal that I anticipate trying.
My husband ordered their hamburger sandwich and fries. He was extremely pleased with the taste of the burger and he felt the fries were some of the best he's ever eaten, again, fresh from the Farmers' Market. When we finished our meal, I commented that he is not a "gusher," as I am more apt to be, but he was "gushing" about the delicious burger he had just eaten.
Then, we were pleased to meet one of the owners, Barbara, who offered to show us the upstairs rooms which have been restored and are now available for rental. The open staircase, going up from the front door on University Street, leads to four bedrooms, all tastefully and beautifully done, mostly in white, and each named for a beautiful tree of the South -- Dogwood Suite, Magnolia, Wisteria, and the Redbud rooms. The Dogwood is a master suite, with a king-size bed, another smaller bed, and its own private bath. All the bedrooms open onto the veranda overlooking the creek or the side yard, a wonderful place for creek-watching or people-watching -- or both. The three smaller bedrooms offer various-sized beds, each with a sink in their rooms, and each, again, tastefully and beautifully decorated. Two bathrooms are at the far end of the hall to be shared. The big central hall is lovely and awaits a sit-down if guests might like to avail themselves of a break, or is simply an approach to the beautiful staircase to the main floor.
On a subsequent visit, another sister-owner, Rosemary, showed my Bible study group the same area, again telling of the process of restoring it to its present beauty and charm. Four sisters in all are involved in it, but I think you will likely meet Rosemary and Barbara when you visit there.
I found that Carol is the "accountant" and prefers to be out of the spotlight. Leigh is the local "girl," married to Dr. Darren Lee here, and was instrumental, I think, in drawing the sisters together for this wonderful project.
They are all very personable and I think visitors will enjoy getting to know them. They are also very accommodating, we found. My husband prefers French or Catalina dressing on his salad, as opposed to their offerings, and Rosemary promised she would personally go buy a bottle to have on hand! (We hope the chef did not faint or go on strike in protest!) so we will soon learn what salad dressing they have when we eat there again! By the way, we have not, traditionally, availed ourselves of any "tavern" because the connotation, from where we had long lived, was not favorable. But now, I remind people that the "tavern" of old (say, the 1700s) was simply an eating place.
I was so in love with the whole facility that I expressed a desire to drive downtown to stay overnight at the Inn on our anniversary, enjoying a lovely room and the veranda overlooking the creek, the adjoining park and surrounds. My husband thinks we really ought to drive somewhere a bit of a distance for such an occasion, or simply stay at home.
The ground floor offers several rooms of tables including the "fireplace room" (my name for it) which houses the bar. We are teetotalers but the bar is not offensive in any way to us nondrinkers and the surrounding windows are picturesque, looking out onto the side yard or onto the deck with a trellis built over it. All the floors were redone, after layers and layers of old finish on them was removed. Rosemary's husband had a big hand in that process.
If you search out Sweetwater Tavern on Facebook, you can follow from the beginning (go to the bottom and scroll upward) their transformation of the place. It is exceedingly interesting and even shows Rosemary's young son, Lucas, demolishing some of the structure in the remodeling. We found both her sons to be pleasant when we met them on one occasion at the Tavern, and look forward to seeing the older son play some baseball next spring, and possibly some football this year, too. We have noticed that the boys are often found at the Tavern, after school and football, so this lends to the family-friendly atmosphere, I think.
The history of the place includes the fact that it was built in the late 1800s, as the John Ewing House Annex when it was a rooming house, attached to an old hotel which is no longer standing. I am happy to be living at this time in history, after the many transformations have gone before, and it now stands in glory and beauty, inviting people to come by to enjoy.
For the ending to this column, I can tell you that our children conspired (after they had heard quite a bit from us about the Inn) to give us a gift of an overnight stay in the Dogwood Suite, along with a meal! We were elated, and received it with great joy and anticipation. It was presented to us too late for a stay on our anniversary weekend, so we scheduled it for a Friday night in early October when the nights will be a bit cooler. We will enjoy the meal on the preceding night with time in the morning for extra sleep. With a complementary continental breakfast, the stay should be complete. We look forward, weather permitting, to sitting on the veranda to watch people and traffic and to see the creek flowing.
-- Jan Mullikin is a Siloam Springs resident and former employee of the Herald-Leader. She can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Community on 09/24/2014