taverna

What it means

1. A small Greek restaurant.

   In the tavernas of Loutro I had the best octopus I’ve ever eaten, grilled simply with garlic, olive oil and sage over a charcoal fire.

   2007 November 18, Henry Shukman, “In Rustic Tavernas, a Classic Cuisine Gets Its Due”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   1 more example

   The streets of Palizzi, through which no Englishman perhaps had as yet descended, were swarming with perfectly naked, berry-brown children, and before I reached the taverna I could hardly make my way through the gathering crowd of astonished mahogany Cupids. The taverna was but a single dark room, […]; still it was a better resting-place than the hut at Condufóri, inasmuch as it was free from many intruders.

   1852, Edward Lear, Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria, &c., London: Richard Bentley, […], pages 46–47

In a sentence

In the tavernas of Loutro I had the best octopus I’ve ever eaten, grilled simply with garlic, olive oil and sage over a charcoal fire.

2007 November 18, Henry Shukman, “In Rustic Tavernas, a Classic Cuisine Gets Its Due”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Where it comes from

1. Latintaberna
2. Greekταβέρνα
3. Englishtaverna

From Greek ταβέρνα (tavérna), from Latin taberna. Doublet of taberna and tavern.