Business & Tech

The Tavern at Wrentham Expands in Size

The Tavern at Wrentham recently finished their newest addition with the grand opening on August 17.

When the Tavern at Wrentham opening in May 2010, it was a risky investment to start a new restaurant in the middle of a financial downswing. Yet judging at the crowd on a recent Wednesday night, owner Doug Smith must be doing something right.

While only a little more than two years old, the Tavern at Wrentham has become one of the more popular local spots for people to enjoy a drink and relax in the evening. Between the live music and weekly pub quizzes, the establishment has been a place for plenty of activity.

The three main attractions to the restaurant has been trivia, karaoke, and open mic night. The trivia is weekly on Tuesdays while karaoke is a Thursday night staple, if not one of their more popular nights.

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“It’s very common here to get up to 30 singers. You almost don’t have enough time to get everybody to sing. It’s really a lot of fun at the karaoke here,” Smith said.

Open Mic Night is held on every other Wednesday and gives customers a chance to try out their guitar skills or see how well their stand up is.

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Seeing the need for expansion, the newest addition of the Tavern features an open space for dining and a bar. Formerly a patio like area, Smith has given his customers the challenge of naming the new space with a nice reward in it for the winner.

“We’re going to give a $50 gift certificate to the person who comes up with a creative name that we can name this room. The Addition and Patio don’t cut it. We got to come up with something new and creative,” Smith said.

To get the room up to building code, Smith was forced to tear down the former structure that Smith described as “pretty ugly.” After that, the challenge was to take an outdoor area and turn it into something that could be used as a indoor facility.

“We didn’t want to do just an outdoor kind of a thing so we said ‘lets build a building and close it, put the sprinklers in and do all the things that you’re suppose to do,” Smith said.

Since the renovation, there have been a few gatherings for locals and regular customers with the room reaching capacity four times in the week that it has been open but the big grand opening has yet to happen.

A weekend affair, the grand opening of the new room will be on August 17 and 18. Featuring live music on both nights, both nights will feature a band named Aftermath that met at the Tavern during an open mic night opening the evenings. There will also be more music and a special menu to commemorate the opening.

The Tavern at Wrentham is located at 263 Shears Street and is open everyday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.


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