Mason Tavern

In real estate, the corner unit is always very desirable but in the resto scene, that isn't always the case... This end corner location has been the kiss of death for a handful of concepts while all the other restos in this strip has been doing brisk business. The last place that inhabited this space was Scoreboards... Which was a total shithole. Dismal food, awful service, garbage drinks, cheap ass decor (black paint), a mess of wires dangling from the TVs, smelled like a herd of elephants took a 2 ton dump in the corner, even rats were embarrassed to be seen in that place. The Nest Bar & Grill before it was no better... Trust fund students trying to be businessmen with zero experience, yeah, that will work out. We won't even discuss the Ethopian stuff here before that.
So, now comes Mason Tavern, a concept by Concentrics (partnered with newbies Next Door Hospitality) as managing partners like they did with STATS and Max's Coal Oven Pizza which we all know sucked ass since. I'm not a fan of their restos, they're too generic and cookie cutter... But they do know how to run a business and target certain demographics, though. So, can Concentrics turn this cursed location into something viable? Or will they lead these resto newbies into more debt and embarrassment... Let's go find out.

White Gazpacho, grapes, almonds, cucumber, pickled shrimp. There is nothing wrong with a great regular gazpacho but this white version was an interesting take... Especially, for a new resto. White gazpacho is nothing new, vegheads love this shit. There are like dozens of different versions of it...Some with bread, stock, bread, creme fraiche, yogurt, etc etc. It was a nice presentation but it was way too thick like a Greek yogurt. Not that there is anything wrong with adding a touch of Greek spunk in there but it was like eating a big bowl of tzatziki sauce. The flavors were lightly there but not very prominent. The only things that gave it texture, structure and flavor were the toppings. The pickled shrimp almost tasted like chicken if you closed your eyes... Fuck me, everything does taste like cheekan! It's a good idea on paper but it needs a little more tweaking.

GA Kale and Greens, pulled chicken, radish, candied pecans, buttermilk vinaigrette. I find it funny as hell that people love to over think food placement on a plate. Look at this, it's all pushed to one side in order to zig zag a little of the vinaigrette for cutesy plating. It's a pretty ordinary salad with ordinary ingredients. It's not a bad salad, it was pretty tasty but the pulled chicken tasted a bit weird to me... Like it's been sitting around for a bit with that build up of slimy-esque coating in the mise en place container. But how can that be when they have just basically opened for biz... I hope the chicken wasn't sitting in a "cocktail" to prevent it from drying out... Industry peeps know the mat cocktail all too well.

Piggy Mac and Cheese, gruyere, brie, braised pork belly, crispy cracklin’. Curly mac- check, pieces of pork belly- check. Dusting of cracklin's- check. Ooey gooey cheese- uhh. This has all the makings of a pretty damn good mac and cheez... Except that this cheese sauce was too thin and gravity took hold and pulled it all to the bottom. Gruyere is fine when melted with some other cheese with substance but brie turns it into cream. Speaking of which one can only imagine how much cream was used in here as well. So weird the white gazpacho was too thick and this was too thin... With a little tweaking this could become a pretty awesome side dish.

Hot Chicken, blue cheese slaw, lime aioli, ciabatta. When I see hot cheekan, I order it. It's a no brainer. Too bad this was not even close to a hot chicken. It was basically a fried chicken schnitzel tossed in Frank's hot sauce... Which is fine and dandy but when you add blue cheese to it, it becomes a hybrid Buffalo chicken tender sandwich. It wasn't even spicy. The ciabatta was a weird choice for a hot chicken but butter and toast it at least. This was no hot chicken, it was just a fancy Wendy's spicy chicken sando when they were pushing their ciabatta sandwiches. The skinny fries were great, though... But does one really need two sauce tins of lime aioli which didn't even taste like an aioli, it was just pink and kinda tasteless. It is so hard to find a decent hot cheekan in this town... Oddbird is the only one that does it halfway decent, for a price. There is no amount of tweaking on this dish to make it right... 86 it and do over.

Spring Pea Ravioli, saffron, lime, mint, olive oil. As an entree, this was pretty weak portion wise. No one can filled up with this veggie thing alone. The color was vibrant, the pasta was a little undercooked but acceptable, the peas were fine but they seemed a bit "previously frozen" to me, it didn't really take anything away from the dish. The filling was a little mushy, needed some texture in there whether it be whole peas itself or some chopped nuts, whatever you got back there just to break up the softness of this dish. It was also a little dry as a pasta dish... It needed more "liquid". Hell, brown some butter with herbs, raisins, nuts, what have you because everyone likes to swirl pasta in some type of sauce. More butter woulda been great with this, shit, toss in some bacon scraps for that crunch factor. Overall, it was pretty decent but a little boring at the same time. Like mostly everything else this needs some tweaking as well.

It's too early for the pouch to make a yay or nay on this place just yet... But the kitchen does need to work a little harder to get the dishes tuned up and consistent enough for a Concentrics resto. I saw the burger which looked pretty nice but the barely cured tuna nachos aka crispy wonton skins looked so Applebee's-esque. And the octopus skewers seemed to have more sausage than octopus, especially, at that price point. The menu have some interesting bites on there but overall it's very generic aka "safe" for their demographics which is basically whities. But I don't think their goal for this concept is to be named best new resto of the Southeast, more like a local hangout with decent food. The cocktail menu is pretty much standard issue but what's with the giant long fireplace matches just to express a peel... Makes me cringe every time I see them use one. What a waste of money. Time will tell if this place will last longer than the other concepts that suffered a premature death in this spot.


1371 Clairmont Rd
Decatur, GA 30033
404) 963-2322
http://masontavernatl.com/