What sets Chowning's apart from the other colonial taverns in town are its "gambols": after-dinner festivities featuring punch, 17th-century-style ale, games, and live music. Get into the spirit of it all and you can have quite a good time. And that will be important here as the service can be very slow (the poor servers have a stairway to navigate to the kitchen) and the food can be hit or miss. Still, where else will you get to play "Shut the Box," join in song with roving balladeers, make new friends at the candlelit communal tables, and smash shelled peanuts open with your fist (without anyone tsk-tsking your behavior)? Reservations for dinner are required, but gambols are first come, first served.