JagBytes

Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Grant Smith The Slippery Noodle Inn, one of Indianapolis' landmarks is located at 372 S. Meridian St.

If you were standing around, waiting to be seated, you would think the Slippery Noodle Inn is Indiana's oldest continuously operating bar, located on the south side of downtown at the corner of South and Meridian.

The Noodle's first incarnation was the Tremont House, founded in 1850; 168 years later, plasma screen TV's hang in every room of this 500 seat bar and restaurant. Over the past two decades, it has become a nationally-recognized blues venue.

Its modest brick exterior gives way to a clean, modern, albeit typical, dining interior, complete with Bud Light banners and low-level lighting. It may not seem all that special, but oh, if these walls could talk.

The east wall will tell you about the slugs still embedded in it. They were allegedly fired from the guns of the John Dillinger and Al Brady gangs, who used this part of the building for target practice during the prohibition era. It was originally a horse stable.

"Customers ask to see them on a daily basis," said kitchen manager, Paul Bowman, referring to the infamous bullet holes.

Known then as Moore's Restaurant, they bootlegged beer illegally in the basement, which in turn, attracted the prominent gangsters. Pipes used to run booze to the barroom from the illegal operation are visible in the basement.

The walls of this historic building would also tell you about the countless slaves it helped free during the civil war, as a safe house on the Underground Railroad.

The walls will tell you in modest detail, about the bordello ran from upstairs until its close in 1953. Two patrons quarreled over a woman-one patron stabbed the other to death, leaving the bloody knife on the bar before fleeing.

Despite its colorful past, or perhaps, in homage to it, The Slippery Noodle Inn has enjoyed accolades of recent years as a renowned "hot blues" venue. In 2003 it was named the "Blues Club of the Year" by the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation. It was also named the "Best Live Music Venue" by Citysearch from 2001-2005, and the "Best Blues Bar" from 1992- 2004 by a NUVO reader's poll.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools