Supernatural Friday: Seventeen Haunted Restaurants in America

 Being this is summer and many people take vacations, I will blog about 17 haunted restaurants and bars that maybe on one of your trips you can stop by for a bite to eat and maybe even a bit of paranormal activity. I am sure there is pleny more out there, but this is some to begin with. 

 

      1. The Bistro at Market and Grove, Petersburg, Virginia. A restaurant  in Old Town Petersburg where good food can be found, it is also haunted. A female spirit has been seen and even photographed dancing in the dining room. A male spirit has been heard cussing and anther female spirit of a friend of the owner still hangs around—seen, heard, and even odor from marijuana smelled she used to like to smoke in life.  Paranormal investigators have investigated it, even filmed and investigated for episode on DVD for Paranormal World Seekers. It will be a chapter in an upcoming ghost book too.    https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bistro-at-Market-and-Grove/99642348471

          2, Poogan’s Porch, Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston police have received so many calls about a distressed woman dressed in black trapped inside this upscale Southern restaurant that authorities disregard new reports. Zoe St. Amand, a spinster schoolteacher, is who supposedly haunts the building. She owned the house in the early 1900s and went mad after the death of her sister, her only friend. Legend has it that Zoe fell down the stairs to her death while fruitlessly searching for her sister one night. She likes to move place settings around the tables and mess with food orders. She also hurls bar stools at the staff and throws open doors when she's upset. The restaurant's namesake was a Wheaton Terrier named Poogan who died in 1979. It is also said that the dog still runs through the dining room, claims made by children. who say they feel Poogan running under the table. poogansporch.com

          3. Old Town Pizza, Portland Oregon. Old Town Pizza was founded in 1974 when the Accuardi family opened the doors of a legendary Portland landmark, the Merchant Hotel, the spot Old Town Pizza now stands atop the city's infamous Shanghai Tunnels. The lobby of the Merchant Hotel was transformed into the hippest pizza joint in town. Generations of Old Town Pizza loyalists remember the restaurant as a bustling hang-out for leaders in Portland’s counterculture scene of the 70s. Actor Willem Dafoe was a regular at the time and could usually be found lounging on a couch on the mezzanine. Today the Milne family keeps the Old Town Pizza legacy alive, nurturing a little piece of Portland’s past for the next generation. On the haunting front, legend tells of one of the young “working women” sold into a thriving white slavery market and in an effort to clean up the neighborhood, traveling missionaries convinced her to share information in exchange for freeing her from a fate she did not choose. Nina cooperated but soon afterward was found dead in the Merchant Hotel. That woman was Naina and she has hung around the place for a century. She supposedly scratched her name into a brick on that elevator shaft, which is now part of a booth. Nina is often seen in a black dress observing diners and wandering the basement below. Any faint perfume smelled or a presence felt behind, but when you turned to see and no one is there, you've just met Nina. http://www.oldtownpizza.com/

 

           

      4. Muriel’s, New Orleans, Louisiana. In a city like NOLA, haunted    
buildings are a dime-a-dozen. And while Muriel's doesn't boast the most      horrific backstory, it's seen some dark deeds. In the late 1700s, Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan bought the burned-out mansion and restored it to its old charms. Then, in a classic future-ghost move, he bet the entire house in a poker game, which he lost. Because he couldn't bear to leave the place, he killed himself on the second floor, right around where the Seance Lounges stand today. Jourdan spends most of his time there -- he pops up as a shimmery light rather than a complete ghostly form, but he still knocks on the brick wall with the gusto of a full-fledged apparition. And he's got company. Paranormal investigators picked up the voice of a woman in the Seance Lounges, and there's definitely another poltergeist in the Courtyard Bar who's big on smashing glasses. There is one unavailable table at this Jackson Square restaurant. It's freshly set every night with bread and wine for a previous owner of the property, Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, whose ghost has a standing reservation. Gambling ruined Jourdan in 1814, when he lost his house in a poker game. Inconsolable at having to vacate, he committed suicide on the second floor. The appropriately named Séance Lounges upstairs are where Mr. Jourdan is said to spend most of his time knocking on walls, but the staff claim that glasses have flown from behind the bar and shattered against the far brick wall three times since 2001. muriels.com

         5. Brennan’s Restaurant, New Orleans, Louisiana. Chef Paul Blangé created many of this restaurant's iconic dishes, like bananas Foster flambéed tableside, and staff says he never leaves the kitchen—even though Blangé died in 1977. The chef was so dedicated that he was buried with the restaurant's menu and a knife and fork across his chest, and he is said to mark the end of a night's shift by banging pots and pans as the restaurant's doors are locked. In the wine cellar, the ghost of sommelier Herman Funk—who helped build the restaurant's legendary collection of wine and spirits—now signals his selections to servers by clinking bottles. brennansneworleans.com

      6. Wabi Sabi, Petersburg, Virginia.  Located in Old Town Petersburg on the first floor of the former National Friend house. They serve food, particularly sushi, there is two bars, have live music and art gallery.  The place also has ghosts. From a black Confederate soldier to maybe a former lady of the evening that might still be plying her ample charms (the building also was rumored to be a brothel at one point), and even the ghost of a little boy, the living are not the only beings in the place.  http://www.eatwabisabi.com/

      7. Crab Louie’s, Midlothian, Virginia. Once called Midlothian and owned by a family named Wooldridge, the place changed hands and names over the years. It was once a stop for the Lynchburg-Richmond stage, and it's also been a boarding school, a nursery and finally a restaurant. Notice of the ghostly phenomena started in the 1980s and continues to this very day. The main ghosts are a man dressed in clothing from the 19th century and a little girl, though one past owner thought it might be several that haunted the place. But it is "Rachel," the little girl ghost, that most of the phenomena is attributed to. This includes glasses coming off bar racks (many times flying), plates disappearing and apparitions of the little girl near table 10. Children have also been heard singing around table 10, and a calculator once turned itself on. Next time you go to Crab Louie's, ask for table 10 - if you dare. http://crablouies.com/

         8. White Horse Tavern, Newport, Rhode Island. Considered America’s oldest tavern, it opened in 1673. The White Horse was a regular haunt for Colonists, British soldiers, Hessian mercenaries, pirates, sailors, founding fathers and all manner of early American folk. By 1954, the structure showed years of use and neglect. Through the generosity of the Van Beuren family the property was acquired by The Preservation Society of Newport County and meticulously restored. It re-opened as The White Horse Tavern in 1957. O.L. Pitts of Fort Worth, Texas, along with three partners, purchased the White Horse Tavern in 1981. Infamous participants in the revelry of the America’s Cup races, they continued the tradition of good fellowship, good food and good cheer. On his ninetieth birthday, O.L. Pitts turned stewardship of the Tavern over to Paul Hogan, a Newport native and only the sixth owner in three hundred and fifty years. The story behind the hauntings was that two men showed up at the tavern in the 1720s looking for a room for the night. The next day, the owners found one dead by the fireplace and the other completely vanished. A specter now chills by the fireplace, daring people to solve his freak death. There have also been encounters with a colonial-looking dude in the upstairs bathroom, and mysterious footsteps all over the place. Coincidentally, there's another White Horse Tavern in New York City with high ghost-hunter interest. It's where poet Dylan Thomas drank himself to death, and he still hasn't learned his lesson, as he occasionally pops up at his regular table.  http://www.whitehorsenewport.com/

      9. Casey Moore’s Oyster House, Tempre, Arizona. Casey Moore's has several different stories on the poltergeists that spook the grounds. One account goes that a coed named Sarah, who was strangled by her crazy boyfriend on-site, sulks around the dining room tables. Another says the spirit of a little boy, whose photograph was unearthed years ago amid renovations -- prowls the halls. Either way -- you might actually have to believe your buddy when he insists half your shrimp cocktail "just disappeared" when you went to the bathroom. http://www.caseymoores.com/Home.html

     10. Stone’s Public House, Ashland, Massachusetts. John Stone, the original owner of this inn-turned-gastropub, had a secret. A psychic who visited in 1984 claims resident spirits told him that in 1845, Mr. Stone killed a New York boarder named Michael during a fight, after Stone accused the man of cheating in a card game in which Michael won $3,000. Witnesses to the crime aided Stone in burying the body. Now the staff dreads Stone and other spirits placing ghostly hands on customers' necks and throwing glasses from the shelves. www.stonespublichouse.com

          11 Catfish Plantation, Waxahachie, Texas. Known as "the most haunted    
          restaurant in Texas," this Cajun restaurant occupies a Victorian house and
         boasts the presence of multiple specters. Caroline, a former resident who 
        died in 1970, seems to be under the impression that she still runs the kitchen. 
       The restaurant's owners in the 1980s, Tom and Melissa Baker, reported 
       finding a pot of coffee brewing one morning and teacups stacked in the 
       middle of the floor another morning—though no one else had keys to the 
       restaurant. Since then, others have witnessed the apparition of a bride 
        standing by the window. catfishplantation.com

12. Beardslee Castle, Little Falls, New York . This restaurant is in a faux Irish castle in the Mohawk Valley. It was in an episode of Ghost Hunters. There are tales of ghosts shattering glasses, moving objects and closing doors. In 1983, Norm Gauthier, a ghost hunter from the New Hampshire Institute for Paranormal Research, surveyed the property and concluded that there were definitely two spirits present in the castle. While one legend says that Native Americans were killed on the property in the 1700s, the ghosts in residence are believed to be younger: Anton "Pop"; Christensen, the former owner who hung himself in the ladies' room in the 1950s to put an end to his failing health; and a bride-to-be named Abigail who died the night before her wedding. (Weddings are still held on the property.) In 1989, a fire broke out in the castle and destroyed the kitchens without harming the original structure. Some believe that this was the ghosts' way of rebelling against all the attention. Not all of the ghosts' activity is destructive; some say they also reset tables. beardsleecastle.com

  13. Patrick’s Roadhouse, Santa Monica, California. Known for celebrity sightings, overstuffed omelets and a funky, shamrock-adorned exterior, this narrow roadhouse has ghosts from the building's former incarnations as a motel, hot dog stand, brothel and trolley station. But the most vibrant ghoul is the Roadhouse's last owner, Bill Fischler, who was known to publicly ridicule customers who complained about food. He occasionally pops in to check on his restaurant and its employees. One chef even quit after seeing Fischler's ghost appear at the back of the restaurant, glaring at him with dissatisfaction. patricksroadhouse.info

14. Blue Willow Tea Room, Petersburg, Virginia. Located in Historic Old Towne Petersburg and situated adjacent to Penniston's Alley Antiques and Collectibles, you can enjoy “a spot of tea", as you sit "amongst the antiques" in this c.1815 Federal townhouse. They offer a traditional English tea service consisting of a cream tea, luncheon tea, Victorian tea or full afternoon tea.  They also have homemade desserts, soups and salads. Though it is mainly the second and third floors above the tea room and Penniston’s next door that has the bulk of the hauntings, whose to say that the spirits might not come downstairs to check out the people. While it is thought that the first mayor of Petersburg stalks the second floor, the third floor is haunted by slaves fleeing slavery by the Underground Railroad, though obviously, they never left the place. At one point, the ghostly slaves frightened off some ghost hunters one night.  http://www.bluewillowtearoom.com/

 15. Manhattan Bistro, New York City, New York. On December 22, 1799, when Soho was still a sloping meadow, Julia Elmore Sands was murdered by her fiancé and thrown into the Manhattan Well at 129 Spring Street. Marks on her neck suggested she had been strangled. Handbills distributed to the public implied that Weeks had impregnated Sands before killing her, and the woman's family later displayed her corpse outside their boarding house to encourage speculation. Weeks was arrested and tried for murder on March 31, 1800. It was the first murder trial in American history to be fully documented by a court stenographer. He was found innocent, thanks to his lawyers (who happened to include future dueling opponents Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton). Weeks fled the city due to pinlic outrage. Many years later, the well still exists in the basement of the now-shuttered Manhattan Bistro. History buffs are always eager to view the basement. Former owner Martia DaGrossa who had run the restaurant in the Spring Street building her family has owned since 1954 recalls two incidents when bottles of red wine flew off the wall and crashed onto the floor. The Travel Channel has named it one of the 10 most haunted places in America.

16. Succotash, Kansas City, Missouri. Before being rechristened as local brunch favorite, this 100-year-old saloon was the Dutch Hill Bar & Grill. One of its old regulars still haunts the bar. Succotash owner Beth Barden first encountered the visitor while renovating the abandoned restaurant. "We would smell cigars," Barden recalls. "I spoke to one of the old neighbors and some of the old staff, who said there was a gentleman named Radar who was there all the time. He used to sit at the end of the bar and smoke these cigarillos." To this day, after closing up the restaurant, the staff will smell the distinct musk of a cigar. "I guess this was his home away from home," Barden says, "He was a barfly who spent many, many days here, and when he died, he just stayed." succotashkc.com

17.  Ruth's Chris Steak House, Richmond, Virginia. Another restaurant with spirits beyond the alcoholic kind is Ruth's Chris Steak House at Bellgrade Plantation. The story behind the haunting has all the makings of an Edgar Allen Poe tale. In 1840, the Friend family sold the plantation to an older Frenchman named RBeardslee Castle, Little Falls, New York. This restaurant is in a faux Irish castle in the Mohawk Valley. It was in an episode of Ghost Hunters. There are tales of ghosts shattering glasses, moving objects and closing doors. In 1983, Norm Gauthier, a ghost hunter from the New Hampshire Institute for Paranormal Research, surveyed the property and concluded that there were definitely two spirits present in the castle. While one legend says that Native Americans were killed on the property in the 1700s, the ghosts in residence are believed to be younger: Anton "Pop"; Christensen, the former owner who hung himself in the ladies' room in the 1950s to put an end to his failing health; and a bride-to-be named Abigail who died the night before her wedding. (Weddings are still held on the property.) In 1989, a fire broke out in the castle and destroyed the kitchens without harming the original structure. Some believe that this was the ghosts' way of rebelling against all the attention. Not all of the ghosts' activity is destructive; some say they also reset tables. beardsleecastle.com

18.  Patrick’s Roadhouse, Santa Monica, California.  Known for celebrity sightings, overstuffed omelets and a funky, shamrock-adorned exterior, this narrow roadhouse has ghosts from the building's former incarnations as a motel, hot dog stand, brothel and trolley station. But the most vibrant ghoul is the Roadhouse's last owner, Bill Fischler, who was known to publicly ridicule customers who complained about food. He occasionally pops in to check on his restaurant and its employees. One chef even quit after seeing Fischler's ghost appear in the back of the restaurant, glaring at him with dissatisfaction. patricksroadhouse.info

Blue Willow Tea Room, Petersburg, Virginia. Located in Historic Old Towne Petersburg and situated adjacent to Penniston's Alley Antiques and Collectibles, you can enjoy “a spot of tea", as you sit "amongst the antiques" in this c.1815 Federal townhouse. They offer a traditional English tea service consisting of a cream tea, luncheon tea, Victorian tea or full afternoon tea.  They also have homemade desserts, soups and salads. Though it is mainly the second and third floors above the tea room and Penniston’s next door that has the bulk of the hauntings, whose to say that the spirits might not come downstairs to check out the people. While it is thought that the first mayor of Petersburg stalks the second floor, the third floor is haunted by slaves fleeing slavery by the Underground Railroad, though obviously, they never left the place. At one point, the ghostly slaves frightened off some ghost hunters one night.  http://www.bluewillowtearoom.com/

 Manhattan Bistro, New York City, New York. On December 22, 1799, when Soho was still a sloping meadow, Julia Elmore Sands was murdered by her fiancé and thrown into the Manhattan Well at 129 Spring Street. Marks on her neck suggested she had been strangled. Handbills distributed to the public implied that Weeks had impregnated Sands before killing her, and the woman's family later displayed her corpse outside their boarding house to encourage speculation. Weeks was arrested and tried for murder on March 31, 1800. It was the first murder trial in American history to be fully documented by a court stenographer. He was found innocent, thanks to his lawyers (who happened to include future dueling opponents Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton). Weeks fled the city due to pinlic outrage. Many years later, the well still exists in the basement of the now-shuttered Manhattan Bistro. History buffs are always eager to view the basement. Former owner Martia DaGrossa who had run the restaurant in the Spring Street building her family has owned since 1954 recalls two incidents when bottles of red wine flew off the wall and crashed onto the floor. The Travel Channel has named it one of the 10 most haunted places in America.
19. Succotash, Kansas City, Missouri. Before being rechristened as local brunch favorite, this 100-year-old saloon was the Dutch Hill Bar & Grill. One of its old regulars still haunts the bar. Succotash owner Beth Barden first encountered the visitor while renovating the abandoned restaurant. "We would smell cigars," Barden recalls. "I spoke to one of the old neighbors and some of the old staff, who said there was a gentleman named Radar who was there all the time. He used to sit at the end of the bar and smoke these cigarillos." To this day, after closing up the restaurant, the staff will smell the distinct musk of a cigar. "I guess this was his home away from home," Barden says, "He was a barfly who spent many, many days here, and when he died, he just stayed." succotashkc.com

20. Ruth's Chris Steak House, Richmond, Virginia. Another restaurant with spirits beyond the alcoholic kind is Ruth's Chris Steak House at Bellgrade Plantation. The story behind the haunting has all the makings of an Edgar Allen Poe tale. In 1840, the Friend family sold the plantation to an older Frenchman named Robiou. He met and became enamored with the 14-year-old daughter of a neighbor, Wormley, and was granted her hand in marriage. One day, he returned home and found her with a former boyfriend, Reid. He demanded a divorce, which didn't sit well with the father. The father convinced his daughter's lover to help him retaliate against Robiou. What happened next was horrible. Wormley shot Robiou, and both he and Reid were arrested. Reid got off - as it was said he had been coerced into the plot - but not Wormley. Eventually, he was hung at the county courthouse. Within two weeks of her father's hanging, Robiou's widow fell down the front stairs of the plantation house and died. Since that time, both she and her murdered husband's spirits have been seen, mainly in the boxwood gardens behind the place. And sometimes, inside the building, too.
During the Civil War, Bellgrade was used by General A.P. Hill as his headquarters while engaged in a campaign located between Richmond and Petersburg. It was also utilized as a hospital for southern soldiers. General Hill was killed during this campaign. There was an attempt to take his body to Hollywood Cemetery, but there was no way to get it across the James River because of bridge damage and Union troops. Hill’s body was then taken to Bellgrade and buried in the Friend family cemetery. In his last will and testament, he had requested to be buried standing up at Bellgrade. After the war had ended, his body was moved to Hollywood Cemetery and buried standing up. When the statue in his honor was created, his body was supposedly moved for the last time. But later, an administrator at Hollywood revealed the statue, his body, and coffin were removed to another location, at the intersection of Hermitage and Laburnum,  and again he was buried standing up. http://www.sizzlingsteak.com/ruths-chris-richmond


obiou. He met and became enamored with the 14-year-old daughter of a neighbor, Wormley, and was granted her hand in marriage. One day, he returned home and found her with a former boyfriend, Reid. He demanded a divorce, which didn't sit well with the father. The father convinced his daughter's lover to help him retaliate against Robiou. What happened next was horrible. Wormley shot Robiou, and both he and Reid were arrested. Reid got off - as it was said he had been coerced into the plot - but not Wormley. Eventually, he was hung at the county courthouse. Within two weeks of her father's hanging, Robiou's widow fell down the front stairs of the plantation house and died. Since that time, both she and her murdered husband's spirits have been seen, mainly in the boxwood gardens behind the place. And sometimes, inside the building, too.
During the Civil War, Bellgrade was used by General A.P. Hill as his headquarters while engaged in a campaign located between Richmond and Petersburg. It was also utilized as a hospital for southern soldiers. General Hill was killed during this campaign. There was an attempt to take his body to Hollywood Cemetery, but there was no way to get it across the James River because of bridge damage and Union troops. Hill’s body was then taken to Bellgrade and buried in the Friend family cemetery. In his last will and testament, he had requested to be buried standing up at Bellgrade. After the war had ended, his body was moved to Hollywood Cemetery and buried standing up. When the statue in his honor was created, his body was supposedly moved for the last time. But later, an administrator at Hollywood revealed the statue, his body, and coffin were removed to another location, at the intersection of Hermitage and Laburnum,  and again he was buried standing up. http://www.sizzlingsteak.com/ruths-chris-richmond

Next time you decide to eat at a haunted eatery and feel someone watching you eat, it’s not the waiter or waitress. It just might be the ghost that must now live vicariously through the living as they can no longer eat or drink. Happy haunting...I meant, happy eating......