Most North Haven drivers know the house even if they have never been inside: the blue Victorian with the pointed turret and the long white deck at 43 Broadway. Since 2015 it has been Amici Tavern, the North Haven sister of Café Amici in Hamden. What a lot of people don’t know is how far back the kitchen’s roots go, or that the man running it came up through old-school Italian restaurant kitchens before he ever made a taco.
Amici Tavern calls itself an upscale tavern, and the menu shows that mix. You’ll find wings that are fried, then grilled, then tossed. There are double-patty burgers, birria tacos, a pound of chicken nuggets for the table, and entrées like parmesan-crusted Broadway Chicken and filet medallions with peppercorn sauce. On the deck in warm weather and in the dining room the rest of the year, it is a place people stop for a beer and a bite, and also where they book a family party.
Two partners and a family of restaurant people
Amici Tavern is run by the Amici Restaurant Group, the company behind Café Amici. According to the group’s own history, Café Amici opened on Feb. 5, 2007, on Whitney Avenue in Hamden’s Spring Glen neighborhood. In 2022 it moved a few doors down, from 1670 to 1640 Whitney Ave., into the building that once housed Leon’s. “In 2015, longtime partners Michael Migliaro and Stephen Barraco expanded their vision by opening Amici Tavern in North Haven,” the group’s website says.
State business records line up with that. Amici Restaurant Group LLC was registered in December 2006 at the Whitney Avenue address in Hamden. A separate company, Amici on Broadway LLC, was registered on Feb. 20, 2015, at 43 Broadway in North Haven, and it is still listed as active.
Migliaro, the group’s executive chef, comes from a long line of restaurant people. His great-grandfather opened Vito’s Restaurant in the 1930s, the group says. His grandfather ran restaurants on Wooster Street and in Madison and later worked at Papa Coppola’s and Delmonaco’s.
Migliaro’s own path ran through Leon’s, the longtime Italian restaurant. He met chef Pierre Daniel there in 1996, and he graduated from Johnson & Wales University on a scholarship in 1998. He went on to become executive chef at Mayor Mike’s. According to the group’s history, the restaurant earned three stars from the Hartford Courant and Best New Restaurant honors from Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Magazine while he ran the kitchen. He reunited with Barraco in 2006, and the two opened Café Amici the next year.
Daniel, the chef Migliaro met at Leon’s, rejoined him in 2013, the group says, and leads the kitchen today.
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The menu: tavern food with a few twists
Where Café Amici leans Italian, the Tavern’s menu leans American bar and grill, with Italian and Mexican touches. The starters are built for sharing. There are homemade House Chips with caramelized onion dip ($13.99), an Onion Brick with chipotle aioli ($16.99), Steak & Cheese Egg Rolls ($15.99), Korean Sticky Ribs topped with sesame seeds and pickles ($21.99), and Enzo’s Carne Asada Fries, loaded with filet medallion, guacamole, pico de gallo and two sauces ($18.99).
The burgers are two 4-ounce patties cooked medium, and the tacos come three to an order on soft corn tortillas. The tacos run from Beef Birria with a dipping sauce to blackened fish, chorizo and an “American Tacos Supreme” with ground beef and cheddar. Entrées include Tavern Ribs by the half or full rack, Chicken Milanese, fajitas on a cast-iron skillet, meatloaf with gravy, and pan-blackened sea bass.
Dessert is where the kitchen has the most fun. There are Apple Pie Egg Rolls with caramelized apples and caramel, and a Fried PB&J coated in cinnamon sugar and drizzled with chocolate sauce, each $9.99.
What to order
The Grilled Romaine ($15.99). This dish keeps coming up in reviews. It is a whole head of romaine charred on the grill, then topped with parmesan, roasted corn, tomatoes, crispy tortilla strips, Caesar dressing and the house Amici balsamic. You can add grilled chicken, shrimp, chicken cutlets or a 3-ounce filet medallion.
A double burger. The Tavern Double ($17.99) comes with American cheese, lettuce, tomato and tavern sauce. The Bacon Cheddar runs $19.99, and the Avocado & Fried Egg burger is $20.99. Burgers come with fries or chips, and you can swap in onion rings, tater tots or Brussels sprouts for $3.50.
Tavern Wings. The kitchen fries them, grills them and then tosses them in buffalo, BBQ, garlic parmesan or “fence style,” a buffalo-BBQ mix. Korean style is $1 more. Seven pieces are $14.99, 14 are $25.99 and 21 are $36.99.
The Taco Salad ($17.99). It comes in a crispy tortilla shell with romaine, tomatoes, roasted corn, black beans, Jack cheese, radishes, cucumbers, pickled red onions and chipotle ranch. You can add a protein, like the steak in this photo.
Chicken Dippers ($18.99). It’s a full pound of chicken nuggets with BBQ and honey Dijon. It’s an easy order for a table with kids, and there is also a separate kids menu with tenders, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese and hot dogs.
What locals say
Sometimes it’s the small things. According to one recent reviewer, tables get popcorn instead of a bread basket. “Had a great experience at Amici’s Tavern! The food and service were both really good,” Santa wrote in a four-star Google review. “I also loved the popcorn as a welcome touch, it’s such a fun switch from the usual bread. Hannah was very nice and super fast. I’d definitely come back!”
Cha gave the Tavern five stars after a family dinner. “Delicious meal and friendly staff. Grilled romaine salad with Blackened chicken was excellent,” the review says. “My daughter said the bacon cheeseburger was the best she’s ever eaten and my hubby loved the pastrami burger.”
Not every visit lands. Stephanie stopped in on the way to Tweed and gave it three stars. “It was a nice little spot and we enjoyed sitting outside,” she wrote, adding that “the grilled romaine was pretty good” but that “the check was a little hefty for what we had for food.” A recent one-star reviewer made a similar point about price, calling a $15 mac and cheese bland and small.
Happy hour, parties and the holidays
Happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m., dine-in only, and the restaurant group lists bar snacks like the Onion Brick, Giant Pretzel, Potato Skins and Nachos among the happy hour items. The bar pours a rotating list of drafts that recently included Guinness, Peroni, NEBCO Sea Hag IPA and Ommegang’s Gnomegang. There’s also a list of $14 seasonal cocktails, like a Cranberry Aperol Spritz, a Winter Old Fashioned made with maple brown sugar syrup and a Pistachio Martini.
The group also books private parties and does catering, and it runs an Amici pizza truck for events. Its online calendar lists Halloween on Saturday, Oct. 31, with an invitation to “bring your best costume,” and National Sandwich Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
If you go
- Where: 43 Broadway, North Haven
- Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, according to the restaurant group’s website
- Phone: (203) 691-6761
- Happy hour: Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 p.m., dine-in only
- Online: amicirestaurantgroup.com, where you can order, reserve and ask about parties and catering
- Also try: Café Amici at 1640 Whitney Ave. in Hamden
Grilled Romaine, a double burger or the wings: what’s your Amici Tavern order? Tell us. And if there’s a North Haven business or organization you think deserves a profile, we want to hear about it.
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