I LOVE snippets. Both City Tavern in Philadelphia and the
Raleigh in CWilliamsburg played to elite political audiences
with much politickin done within their walls. Dan Croziers
search for City Tavern turned up nothing because of later
development on the site but deeper shaft features associated
with it might still survive. Julie Steele et al have been
working at City Point's(Virginia) wharf where a tavern seemed
to serve the busy inport/export trade there in the late
eighteenth century and the early nineteenth. It even was
associated with the nearby Custom House.It is remarkable to
me that there ISNT any syntheses of taverns in a colonial or
early nineteenth century setting. And by the way if you are
searching for one of the those topics through time and space
this one is for you!!We DO KNOW a lot about the tabernae
(tavern) in Pompeii where graffitti even state that the late
drinkers even pushed political candidates.Back on the
delaware the Blue Anchor tavern(Philadelphia) has left us a
huge collection of material which I among other things will
be sorting out in the new future.
Taverns are extremely important because of their"multi
tasking" propensities. For text aided archaeology this is a
site whose time has come.It lends itself to both processual
and post-processual approaches.  Ned's caveats are excellent
and should be kept in mind. But in the colonial period and
throughout our history they were a place where everyone knew
your name. Well, almost everyone. Hopefully, you will not be
told by a colleague that he "finds your argument as empty as
your tankard".