New London’s Dutch Tavern is Witness to a Changing City

Photo courtesy of Lucie Englehardt ’23

The memories that cling to the interiors of the Dutch Tavern bar instantly take me to my grandfather’s pool room, where a similar Guinness beer pelican and 1920’s baseball paraphernalia decorated its well-loved walls. The familiar rust red “Miller High Life” can is a family memory etched in me, and the same ones shelved at the tavern are emblematic of its beloved antique quality.

Unlike my grandfather’s basement, however, Dutch Tavern is a cash-only local watering hole marked by its old school charm. You’d miss the place if you weren’t looking hard enough, nestled in the narrow Greene Street with the soft fluorescent flow of its exterior that quietly invites its passersby to come in for a drink. The smell of simmering beef patties wafts through the air from the small counter grill and the soft buzz of easy conversations permeates the room, warmly lit and small. Beer is flowing on tap. Vibrantly timeless and refreshingly intimate, Dutch Tavern remains largely unchanged since its Prohibition-era debut. 

Though it relishes in its rich history, the Dutch Tavern isn’t stuck there. It has faithfully emerged from the confines of a quarantine that otherwise wounded restaurants far too deep, and the Tavern is a space depended upon for community members to convene again. 

“People were waiting for us, writing to us,” co-owner Martha Conn recalls from the fourteen months that the Dutch was closed during COVID. Martha and her partner Peter Detmold own the place, so closing and reopening was always going to be deliberate and at their own pace. 

Though Martha estimates that their customer base is split evenly between locals and tourists, they keep a neighborly and casual cadence with the waves of customers that come and go. Their patient and kind dispositions pair well with the comfort of the tavern. They know people – their orders, too – and preserve the culture of building relationships with regular guests. 28 years ago, the couple took over the Dutch Tavern when its previous owner, Peter Burgess, pursued retirement. 

Martha and Peter have lived in New London their entire lives. Some of Martha’s first memories at the Dutch, she tells me, harken back to when the drinking age turned to 18 years old the year she turned 18. She became such a regular presence that she could expect a call from her mother down at the tavern when she needed to come back home for dinner.

She shared with me a sepia-toned newspaper clipping from 1974, where the bar’s longevity was treasured even back then. At that time, those who came for lunch were often “lawyers, newspapermen, bankers, stockbrokers, railroad workers, downtown businessmen and City Hall employees.” The regular crowd at the tavern has since shifted, but nonetheless reflective of goings on downtown.

The permanence of Dutch Tavern’s identity is rare. Between restaurant closures during the pandemic and the naturally experimental and diverse culinary landscape of New London, the food identity of the city is eclectic. Perhaps it is the casualness of the tavern that fits so well within the neighborhood. Or, that it is representative of small business culture that runs the city’s downtown. 

Frequentists of Dutch seem to fall into a familiar ease in chatting with other regulars, meeting new guests, and soaking up the atmosphere. They serve lunch, too; their classic soups have stood the test of time. Split pea soup with ham is the Tuesday special and Wednesday will always be beef barley bean. It is one of the only establishments that still serves liverwurst, and classic hamburgers here are small, but packed with flavor. 

The red-bricked Bayou BBQ & Grill boasts cajun-tex-mex, and RD86 Space is an intentionally ever-changing innovation site down the road. Along Bank Street, establishments come and go, some with more longevity than others, but The Dutch Tavern is a historic culinary cornerstone of New London.

“We are mostly happy that we were able to maintain it as the place it used to be,” Martha responds when asked about what she cherishes most about owning the Dutch. As New London continues to evolve, the Dutch Tavern will thrive as a dependable hub of community activity without getting mired in the past.