Slippery Noodle Inn

Indiana's oldest bar, open since 1850. The Slippery Noodle has been a roadhouse, bordello, Underground Railroad stop, and blues venue over its 170+ year run. Few buildings have seen more.

The Slippery Noodle Inn at 372 South Meridian Street is Indiana's oldest continuously operating bar in its original building, founded in 1850 as the Tremont House. The building has lived many lives in nearly two centuries: a roadhouse, a German social club known as the Concordia House and later the Germania House, a boarding house, a brothel, and since 1963 under the Yeagy family, one of the premier blues venues in the Midwest with live music seven nights a week. The building served as a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, with its basement believed to have hidden freedom seekers who would then catch a train north. During Prohibition, the John Dillinger and Al Brady gangs used the back building for target practice, and bullet slugs from their sessions remain embedded in the basement walls -- though whether the targets were always inanimate remains an open question.

During its brothel era, a violent death occurred that planted the seed for the haunting. Two customers fought over one of the women, and one was killed, with the bloody knife left on the bar. Staff and patrons think this victim is the shadowy cowboy-like figure they encounter throughout the building. But he's far from alone. The second floor, which housed the brothel, is home to the spirit of the former Madam, who psychic Gary Spivy identified during an investigation when she communicated her identity to his group. Sarah, one of the working girls who was likely killed by a client, shows up as a dark shape on the upper floor, and the spirits of other former sex workers reportedly open and close doors and target male visitors with their presence.

In the basement, a spirit known as George, a former building caretaker, appears to workers in his overalls, sometimes whispering in their ears while they deliver kegs. His appearances are startling enough that some delivery workers have refused to return. An escaped enslaved person reportedly occupies a hidden room that was used during Underground Railroad operations, where the temperature drops sharply and visitors describe an eerie, uneasy feeling. Psychic Gary Spivy reported seeing a spiritual hand protruding from the basement floor during his visit.

The Yeagy family has owned the Slippery Noodle since 1963, and Brian Yeagy began conducting official haunted tours in October 2020, taking groups through the normally closed basement and upstairs hotel areas. The Food Network named it the most haunted restaurant in Indiana. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the original Tremont House signage remains painted on the north exterior, a reminder that even the name on the building cannot keep up with the spirits inside it.