In May 1774, soon after City Tavern opened for business, Paul Revere arrived at its doors to announce Parliament’s closing the port of Boston. In 1777, the Tavern hosted America’s first official Fourth of July celebration. And in 1789, this landmark inn held a banquet for George Washington as he passed through Philadelphia en route to New York for his presidential inauguration.Through the Revolutionary period and the early republic, City Tavern was the center of American political and social life. More than a meeting place for prominent Americans, the Tavern also acquired a reputation as the best restaurant in North America, the setting for suppers, “as elegant as was ever laid on a table,” according to John Adams.
