A new restaurant and bar just opened on NH 114 in Henniker, next door to the All In One Market convenience store/deli & gas station, about a mile north of Pat's Peak. This restaurant and bar used to be Willow Bakery & Cafe and Henniker Junction.
Presently at the time of this posting, they are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner Thursday to Monday. The atmosphere here lives up to its name which has a rustic casual atmosphere with finished wood trim walls and wood booths and tables with a separate carpeted dining room and a bar area with seating at the bar, additional tables, TVs, serving beer, wine, cocktails, and mixed drinks.
The breakfast menu offers egg dishes, bennies, omelets, pancakes, French toast, waffles, breakfast sandwiches, biscuits & gravy, muffins, and breakfast sides. The lunch & dinner menu offerings include burgers plates with sides, sandwich plates with sides, appetizers, salads, soup, chili, seafood dinners with sides, chicken tenders, pasta dinners with salad & bread (after 4pm), dinner entrees with sides (after 4pm, fajitas, pork loin ribs, smothered steak tips). The prices here seem pretty reasonable, many breakfast entrees under $11 and most lunch & dinner entrees $9.99 to $27.99.
I stopped by Rustic Rose Tavern over the weekend. They are still on a soft opening schedule and they had oven issues recently which is delaying their grand opening. Upon entering, I could sit anywhere and I sat in the dining room at a booth. The staff here is still in training. I ordered the Chicken Marsala ($14.99 plus tax) served with side salad and garlic bread. Presently, they are using regular silverware, paper plates, bowls and plastic dishes. The side salad came out first, which had a mix of crunchy lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, red onions, and cucumbers. I was given a small cup of BBQ sauce instead of balsamic vinaigrette dressing, the waitress was probably confused with the B on the lid. I decided to keep the BBQ sauce when my Chicken Marsala entree arrived in a round black plastic bowl with the baked buttered garlic bread. The portion was just right, a grilled boneless chicken breast over soft linguine tossed with plenty of mushrooms & onions in a creamy white wine sauce. The chicken was a bit tough and chewy which I cut up and dipped into the BBQ sauce, yummy! I enjoyed my creamy pasta dinner alongside the side salad and garlic bread. I finished all of my food and the waitress promptly clear my table and brought over the check which had a Toast QR code, which enabled me to quickly scan the code and pay online. The staff here was very friendly and welcoming.
Overall, my food tasted pretty good and I would definitely stop in for breakfast! read more