Photos by Tony Valainis / Indianapolis Monthly
The Slippery Noodle Inn at 372 S. Meridian St. has been a consistent presence in Indianapolis since its opening almost 200 years ago. It’s Indiana’s oldest bar to still operate in its original building and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The old structure is not the sole reason the establishment has garnered interest—with a history so extensive, it’s to be expected that (especially in October) claims that the building is “haunted” will start to circulate. A look back at the building’s past helps explain why.
The Slippery Noodle first opened as roadhouse and bar called the Tremont House in 1850. According to local lore, it might have also served as part of the Underground Railroad. In 2018, Sara Etherington, the bar’s event coordinator, told CBS4 that formerly enslaved people would “hide out in this building and then catch a train north,” as it “may have served as a hiding spot for slaves during that time.” That loaded part of history kept Etherington out of some parts of the basement, as “Something just doesn’t feel right” in the basement area.
According to a now-deleted page on the Slippery Noodle’s former website, the building was
also home to a brothel until 1853. “Two customers of the bordello got into an argument over one of the women,” the business claimed, “one killing the other and leaving the bloody knife on the bar.” It’s the kind of violent crime that begins many a ghost story, if you believe in such things.
In the 1860s, the business was renamed the Concordia House. One of the first German clubs in Indianapolis, it was named after the first German Lutheran immigrant ship to land in North America and was later renamed Germania House to reflect that affiliation.
With the start of World War I, German associations were typically avoided, beginning a new series of name changes: Beck’s Saloon, then, as Prohibition shut most taverns down, new owner Walter Moore redubbed it Moore’s Restaurant. (Rest assured, beer and whiskey were still being crafted in the basement.)
Shortly after Prohibition ended, the Dillinger Gang haunted the bar in real life. Leader John Dillinger, a violent bank robber active across Indiana and Ohio from 1933 to 1934, would often frequent business with his gang. Their presence is still commemorated by lone bullet slugs stuck in the basement walls—supposedly left by “target practice”—though the targets, inanimate or alive, remain unknown.
In the years following, the bar changed hands a few more times. Harold and Lorean Yeagy took possession of the bar on Friday, the 13th of December, 1963. After a lengthy family debate, they decided to rename it The Slippery Noodle, the name that remained when the couple’s son, Hal, took over the bar in 1985. Hal transformed the space from a lunch counter to a blues club. New owners Jason Amonett and Sean Lothridge, who purchased the business in 2023, haven’t indicated any plans to change much, which will doubtlessly please the ghosts said to occupy the space.
One such spirit has been given the name “George” by patrons. According to legend, George was a former caretaker who remained on the property after his death. Haunting the basement in a pair of overalls, he has allegedly shocked workers delivering kegs to the basement over the years.
Another apparition spotted by some is a male cowboy, said to be the victim of that fatal brothel knife fight. Also from that era are phantom sex workers allegedly seen on the second floor, as well as formerly enslaved people who are said to appear in the basement.
Psychic Gary Spivy bolstered those claims when he visited the building and reported a “spiritual hand” sticking up from the basement floor. Spivy also claimed he saw George, and a female entity on the second floor, who communicated through a woman in his group
that she was “the madam of the brothel.” The mythology around the supposed haunting was significant enough that Yeagy, who died in 2020 even hosted tours for a time, compiling ghost stories from his life spent around the restaurant.
The Slippery Noodle Inn is currently open seven days a week until the early hours of the morning, with live music featured on one of their two stages almost every night. The restaurant, which promises “Good Food, Booze, and Blues,” doesn’t play up its potential haunting the way it used to—in fact, they declined to speak with Indianapolis Monthly for this story. But during spooky season, those ghost hunters still head out to the venerable restaurant and bar. According to Etherington, “There are some people who come here specifically because they want to see if they can feel a presence or see something with their own eyes.” And if not, there’s always the blues.
