The Park Cities hotel restaurant is now known as Front Room Tavern.
The former Front Room: A Park Cities Diner at Hotel Lumen in University Park has been completely overhauled with a new name and chef, a fresh menu and a revamped interior. It’s now called Front Room Tavern and is cheffed by Michael Ehlert, whom diners may remember from his stints at hot-spots-gone-by The Chesterfield and CampO.
Besides a slightly cozier, more rustic interior (read: trendy bare bulbs and lots of wood), the menu has gotten a considerably more creative spin, with dishes like pea fritters with charred onion yogurt and pickled shrimp with whiskey remoulade; entrees hit on all the usual suspects, including salmon, scallops, roast chicken, flat iron steak and a $14 “tavern burger.” (Leslie Brenner complained about former chef Nick Amoriello’s penchant for “random egg-plopping” when she reviewed The Front Room in its previous iteration back in 2012, and it looks like that’s still in effect to some degree; this time around, there’s a croque madame and a pork schnitzel dish both featuring fried eggs.) There’s also a pretty tasty-sounding ice cream float made with Dublin Bottling Works’ orange cream soda and cheesecake ice cream.
The Front Room was taken over by restaurant group Consilient back in mid-2013, but earlier this year a major shakeup ceded control of the group’s hotel restaurants (which also included CBD Provisions at The Joule) to Headington Companies; Front Room Tavern is now operated by Tim McEneny’s NL Group (Dish, Dragonfly).
Front Room Tavern is open daily for breakfast and dinner; lunch is served Monday through Friday with brunch service on the weekends.