The Hagedorn’s Tavern building, located on 2037 W. Franklin St., was built in 1883 for Philip Mundo and originally served as a wine and beer saloon, a boarding house, and as Mundo’s personal residence for his six-member family until 1892 when he began leasing the property to proprietors selling beer and wine, and later soft drinks and ice cream during prohibition.
Since 1925, the building functioned as a local German tavern under the name of Hagedorn’s, where regulars frequent for 6 a.m. breakfast, plate lunch specials, and a full dinner menu while washing it down with Coca Cola, Pepsi, or RC products or beer, cocktails, or wine in the tavern’s bar or family room.
One of those regulars is the owner Mike Nunning’s daughter Heather Nunning.
“(My dad) smokes most of the meat at the bar,” says Nunning. “He’s always doing that so the meat is always fresh.”
Mike Nunning, an Evansville native, honed his cooking skills during his 20 years as a local firefighter, smoking meat, pulled pork, and country-style ribs for nightly dinners at the station. These firehouse dinners now are best sellers at the tavern along with the array of German dishes and Evansville classics like fiddlers, boneless catfish fillets, frog legs, tavern burgers, and brain sandwiches.
“Almost everything on our menu, especially the lunch specials, are prepared and ready really fast,” says Lisa Hardin, a Louisville, Kentucky, native and Hagedorn’s server. “We have a lot of locals who plan their visit to the tavern around the daily lunch specials.”
Hagedorn’s doesn’t leave room for dessert with their lunch specials. The choices include pork roast and dressing, smoked ribs and kraut, barbeque ribs, and hand-breaded tenderloins.
For more information about Hagedorn’s Tavern, call 812-423-0794 or visit its Facebook page.
