Towson has a new tavern.  Recher Theatre owner Brian Recher has opened this new dark-wood, upscale tavern in the space that a generation of billiards-loving Towsonites got to know as the Rec Room space. It's name is Towson Tavern.

For the Towson Tavern, Recher has hired his favorite chef, Daniel Henry, former executive chef at the Capital Grille in Baltimore. For now, Henry is serving an abbreviated lounge menu, with things like house-smoked pork dumplings, a black truffle and cheddar panini  and pork lollipops with porcini reduction and crispy prosciutto

Think of this as phase one. The next step phase begins in just a few weeks when the Towson Tavern annexes and begins construction on a neighboring space, which for decades has been  Kazem Importers of Fine Persian Rugs. Until that happens, Henry says he'll be changing up the lounge menu every few weeks to keep things interesting. He hopes to have his first full seasonal menu up in the spring, when Towson Tavern completes a renovation of the new space.

The expansion, Recher says, is coming sooner than he had thought. The rug store wasn't supposed to have been available for another year.