“Where Everybody Knows Your Name”

While many New Year’s Eve revelers celebrated at glitzy downtown Indy hotel ballrooms and trendy Broad Ripple and Mass Avenue bars and lounges, the end of our earthly home’s revolution of the sun and the commencement of another spin through the blackness of space guided by the stars, others chose to toast the New Year at their local neighborhood bar “where everybody knows your name.”
The corner tavern predates the founding of the Hoosier capital city. Soon after coming into the area in early 1820, John McCormick opened a tavern in his small cabin on the bank of White River at the mouth of Fall Creek (today just north of the old Washington St bridge). This first business in what would become Indianapolis was followed the following year by settlers John Hawkins, Major Thomas Carter, and Matthias Nowland who after building their cabins each opened a tavern. The Nowland Tavern was on the south side of Washington near the river while Carter’s Rosebush Tavern and Hawkins Eagle Tavern were located on the north side of Washington St, one east and one west of Meridian St near the corner. By February 1822, the village of Indianapolis had forty dwellings and seven tavern keepers.
As the city’s population grew, so did the number of taverns/saloons. By 1883 locals could slake their thirst in one of 360 Indianapolis “watering holes” that offered 5¢ beer and a free lunch. In addition to food and drink, the corner saloon provided dart boards, pool tables, the back-room card game, and other gambling opportunities for patrons to while away their hours and pay checks which led to the anti-saloon movement and eventually prohibition. Shortly before midnight, Tuesday, April 2, 1918, more than 500 Indianapolis saloons made their “last call” before Indiana’s dry era began. About one third of the saloon keepers continued to conduct business as soft drink and lunch establishments.
Germania House (formerly the Civil War era Concordia House and later Tremont House), corner of South and Meridian Streets, was one of the former saloons that remained open as a pool hall selling soft drinks. However, within a month of the state’s prohibition law going into effect, the proprietor Louis Beck was arrested for operating a “blind tiger,” selling whisky from two large glasses concealed under the bar. A subsequent owner also was charged for selling whisky. With the repeal of prohibition, the venerable establishment, now known as Moore’s Tavern, resumed providing a frothy cold draft or a shot of rotgut to a thirsty clientele. A couple of additional name changes occurred before the Slippery Noodle Inn opened in 1964.
The repeal of prohibition saw new taverns starting up around Indianapolis. Patrick McNelis opened the Silver Leaf Inn in 1935 at 5420 E. Washington St in Irvington but faced with opposition from the residents he relocated to 501 N. Emerson Av where McNelis Tavern served the neighborhood until his death in 1955. Tom McShane continued the corner bar as McShane’s Parkway Tavern, and it became a popular spot for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. A rent dispute led McShane’s to move across the street to 5066 E Michigan St and the Irish Saint’s celebration continued under a large tent erected on the parking lot. Ownership changed over time and the new millennium saw McShane’s decline into a public nuisance leading to its eventual closure. The Golden Ace Inn, 2531 E. Washington St, continues to be a “to go” site for celebrants of St. Patrick’s Day. Established by John and Ann McGinley in 1934, this Irish neighborhood tavern remains “all about family, all about tradition” throughout the year.
Today, the Catalina Bar, 3032 E. Washington St, is closed and boarded up. When it opened in 1935 across the street from the former P. R. Mallory Co as Green Tavern, this watering hole catered to Mallory workers for many years who patronized the lower-level restaurant and tavern. During World War II the establishment became the Sho-Bar Tavern and under the ownership of Charles E. “Red” Walker its long involvement in illegal gambling eventually led to the bar’s closing in 1955. Re-opened as the Catalina Bar by brothers Frank and Dick Cardis, this alehouse came under new management in 1980, and darts, billiards, and a TV for watching sports shows were the bar’s simple attractions making it a “good neighborhood bar to grab a drink and enjoy the eastside.” However, the bar’s shady past had continued and when Joe Wilson bought the Catalina in 1985 he discovered an illegal sports betting set-up with 30 telephones had been operating from the building’s second floor. Wilson liked Marilyn Monroe and prominently posted her pictures along with her seated mannequin and those of other celebrities around the bar. A Wall of Fame featured photographs of deceased regulars.
In the past dozen years, the Butler Inn, 5221 E. Washington St and the East Way Inn, 6117 E. Washington St, have closed and the Ritter Inn, 466 S. Ritter Av, was lost due to fire. Located on the edges of Irvington, outside of the area where restrictive covenants prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages, these cozy eastside neighborhood taverns were established at the end of the Prohibition Era. While the Butler Inn and the East Way Inn served a mostly residential community, the Ritter Inn not only offered up a “12-ounce ribbon” to local customers, but it was a popular drinking spot for nearby International Harvester workers. These taphouses provided a friendly atmosphere for their patrons, and the barkeeps “hardly ever forgot a face.”
Southsiders have long patronized Barringer’s Tavern, 2535 S. Meridian St, with its laid- back atmosphere, friendly service, and camaraderie that is “hearty and warming.” One of the city’s oldest taverns, Barringer’s survived Prohibition as a confectionery and resumed selling beer in 1935. On the westside what began as a small restaurant at 234 N. Belmont Av in the early 1900s became the Belmont Lunch Room in 1918 under the ownership of Louis “Louie” Stamatkin, who became known as the workingman’s friend for allowing striking railroad workers in 1922 to run a tab at the restaurant. Years later using this moniker, the diner became a tavern known as the Workingman’s Friend serving a regular blue-collar and white-collar clientele.
Other classic neighborhood taverns that remain scattered across Indianapolis like the Dorman Street Saloon (formerly Ninth Street Tavern; Mahogany Bar; and May’s Lounge), 901 Dorman St; the Hilltop Tavern, 6500 E. 10th St; the Kitley Inn, 825 S Kitley Av; the Rural Inn, 2725 E Michigan St; and the Red Key Tavern, 5170 N College Av, continue to extend a friendly welcome to regulars and newcomers alike, serving up a cold pint of your favorite brew and making a congenial “place where everybody knows your name.”