When you walk through the courtyard toward the Sun Inn, you are surrounded by history. The Moravians built this two-story public house of entertainment in 1758, complete with an inn. You're walking where army troops camped out during the Revolutionary War. And when you're inside, sitting at the locally sourced ambrosia maple bar, think about the other Founding Fathers and their kin who spent time here: George (and Martha) Washington. John Adams. Alexander Hamilton. Samuel Adams. Ethan Allen. The Marquis de Lafayette. The Continental Congress convened here, too. If you believe the rumors, there are catacombs underneath the building, full of provisions such as tobacco and alcohol. Above ground, though, there's a fully operational eatery called the Tavern at the Sun Inn, which opened in December 2016.
The Sun Inn has been an inn in name only since the early 1960s, having long shuttered the lodging part of the business. In some capacity or another, the restaurant has been operating since the 1980s. It was the enterprising nature of three high school friends—Colin Anderson, Brett Biggs and Michael Santanasto, all three born and raised in Bethlehem—that led them to want to bring a restaurant back to the premises. (The space hadn't seen a restaurant since chef Michael Adams stopped cooking in the kitchen in late spring 2013). “The Sun Inn Preservation Association [which owns the building] really wanted to bring a restaurant back into the space,” says Anderson, whose other partner is Seth Cornish, a past president of the Sun Inn Preservation Association.
But the latest iteration seeks to put a little history back into the dishes. Welcome to the Tavern at the Sun Inn, which is run by a handful of locals, three of them childhood friends—one of them being Billy Gruenewald, who owns and operates the place. Young chef (and Bethlehem native) Gruenewald also owns the People's Kitchen and the Bolt & Key Café, both also in Bethlehem.
At this writing, it's been a busy summer for the Sun Inn. The restaurant was open continuously through Musikfest, serving folks outside on the inn's new patio, called the North Green. It seats about 60 people at simple wooden tables in a garden-like setting among native flora and fauna (hydrangea, river birches, magnolia). Once the weather turns cold, the downstairs bar, or rathskellar, will likely open back up—or perhaps be featured in new capacities. It's a new place; things are in flux. “We have had wine dinners down there, and initially thought of that space as a tasting room for the distillery,” says Gruenewald.
Wait, what? Have you heard about Christmas City Spirits? That's the distillery that started this whole venture. “The original idea was to do food two days a week to complement the liquors, but then we fell in love with the space and it morphed more into a restaurant concept,” says Anderson. Rather than distill on site—can you imagine the nearly impossible hurdles involved in retrofitting a historic building?—the group is close to setting an agreement on a property in Hanover Township. Once the distillery is up and running, the Tavern will serve and sell the spirits by the drink and by the bottle, effectively serving as a tasting room. The idea is to use old recipes and native ingredients as much as possible. Think rum, apple brandy and some whiskeys. “We could do moonshine easily, too. People really love white whiskey it seems,” says Brett Biggs. The owners are thinking hard about what would work. The Tavern is well situated to grab a crowd that likes to hop from place to place. Residents and visitors alike can buy local beer, cider, wine, mead and, soon, spirits—all on one block.
When the Tavern first opened, alcohol sales were limited to only Pennsylvania-produced items according to the terms of its usage as a microdistillery, but now there's a completely accessible full bar. From the beginning, the Tavern offered Yards beer, from Philadelphia; specifically, its Ales of the Revolution, which feature recipes from the Founding Fathers (Thomas Jefferson's Tavern Ale, General Washington's Tavern Porter, etc.). The bar area of the dining room offers four taps, two of them from Yards, on a rotating basis. By the time this is published, however, one of them ought to be pouring the Tavern's exclusive namesake ale from Yards, which is fermenting at this writing and should land somewhere in the mid-5 range in terms of ABV. “It's spicy, and malty, and uses things you would have found here in Pennsylvania such as oats and rye,” says Biggs.
Speaking of recipes, Gruenewald's menu is spare and to the point, with five small plates, a half-dozen shareable plates and five large plates. There's one dessert a week, and it's often a variant on bread pudding—an economical and old-fashioned dish that's easy to modify as the seasons change. “I always do my menus pretty small. You stretch yourself and the product too thin otherwise,” he says. Perhaps, too, a large, multi-paged menu would also seem out of place for the concept they're executing—far too contemporary.
As for the particulars of a menu you'd find in a Colonial-era building? The way the kitchen incorporates the past isn't just merely to serve meats with a bunch of heavy root veggies—it's more about taking ingredients that were commonly used during that time period, and offering a contemporary take. The lesson? Farm-to-table is basically how people cooked; it was sustainable not by choice but for survival. To that end, there's consistently a sausage of some sort on the menu, called the Hunter Brat; elk was the choice at this writing. Gruenewald uses herbs such as tarragon, sage, rosemary and thyme, which were prevalent. The pork chop on the menu receives an apple and onion chutney, with the spices similar to what were available thanks to the East India Company. There are some surprises though—at least for those who aren't early-American history scholars. For example, summer's lobster salad doesn't bear the imprimatur of modern takes on the crustacean as an expensive, seasonal food. “They used to feed lobster to prisoners during this time period,” says Gruenewald.
All new restaurants have challenges, but some are just unique to running one in this building. For one, the kitchen is in the basement, which means meals are delivered via a back staircase and an elevator. “We kind of use it like a big dumbwaiter,” says Gruenewald of the elevator.
Another challenge is a bit ironic: Most people know about the Sun Inn, but many folks have not been inside—whether it's to view the rooms on display or come to drinks or dinner. The Tavern is emerging as a favored spot for rehearsal dinners (with weddings at the Hotel Bethlehem the next day), but in general, the Sun Inn is not a spot that's typically on the radar of diners; it's often thought of in a historical context and not one that offers food. There's a little confusion upon first encountering the building as to where to enter; there's a sign that hangs down facing Main Street, and a sandwich-board-type set-up sits on Main Street when the restaurant is open, Thursday to Sunday. The team is working constantly to increase visibility, but if you're standing on Main Street in front of the Sun Inn, the Tavern entrance is right there, on the right-hand side of the building. The new patio on the North Green—which used to be the old King's Road to Philadelphia—is an advertisement in and of itself, and should boost visibility during pleasant weather.
“This is the most underutilized space, but the building has been here; it won't go away. We want to provide people with a good experience, and tell people that this incredibly important part of your history is right here, in your hometown,” says Gruenewald.
Tavern at the Sun Inn
564 Main St., Bethlehem | 610.419.8600 | suninnbethlehem.org
Hours
Dinner: Thurs.–Sat.: 5–10 p.m.; Sun: 5–9 p.m.
Parking
Street and deck parking
Reservations
Recommended but not always needed
Payment
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover
What to Order
The menu fluctuates regularly, but unique twists include the Lafayette Sandwich—the Tavern's take on the French dip, with tarragon butter and Gruyere horseradish cream. Thomas Jefferson is honored for his assistance in popularizing macaroni in America through Jefferson's Mac, which features Parmesan, asparagus, red onion, carrot and tomato. Ask for the Tavern's namesake beer by Yards, or one of the cocktails, such as the American Ally—American rye, Laird's applejack and French Cointreau.
