The word “haunt” has several meanings, according to — to visit often, to continually seek another’s company, to reappear again and again, to linger and, of course, to inhabit as a ghost.
In a manner of speaking, perhaps that means many things can haunt a place, including ghosts, ideas, people and even good food.
If you’d like to celebrate Halloween by checking out restaurants in the СŷƵ and beyond that are considered haunted — in the spooky sense of the word — read on for СŷƵ’s list of the most spirited eateries in the region.
Jukebox-loving mobster
A classic СŷƵ haunt is the Iron Mule restaurant and bar at 831 S. Delaware Drive in Williams Township. The building was constructed in 1782, and the restaurant wings, egg rolls, Bavarian pretzels, sandwiches, salads, salmon and chicken marsala.
In 1928, when the Iron Mule went by the Black Horse Tavern, a deliveryman reportedly discovered the body of mobster Saverio Damiano at the property after he had been shot. As the years went on, staff members reported events like the jukebox playing on its own and items mysteriously moving in the kitchen. The property was featured on Animal Planet’s series “The Haunted.”
Manager Barbie Colon believes, while nothing malicious seems to occur, the building is haunted and regularly host to strange events.
She shared a story from a year or two ago, when she was behind the bar.
“I’m talking to several customers and I had my back turned away from our kitchen door, and I thought I heard someone say my name,” she said. “So I turned around because I thought that the chef may have come out to call me because he may have needed something. But I turned around and no one was there. I turned back around, and the patrons that were sitting at the bar were like, ‘You all right?’ Because they had seen my reaction and seen how surreal how everything looked. I’m like, ‘You guys didn’t just hear somebody call me?’ And they said, ‘No, we didn’t hear anybody.’ “
According to Colon, another employee reported looking into a refrigerator’s reflection at the bar and seeing a “shadow” pass behind her, but nobody was there when she turned.
Customers looking to celebrate Halloween at the property can enjoy a themed karaoke event Oct. 30.
A spreadsheet of spooky stories
The Riegelsville Inn, constructed in 1838 by borough founder Benjamin Riegel, operates at 10 Delaware Road in Riegelsville and cauliflower tempura, shrimp cocktail, lobster stew, bacon, chili, chorizo, salmon, burgers, and fish and chips.
Owner Evan Kechely doesn’t believe in ghost stories and hasn’t experienced anything paranormal himself, but he records stories from employees and customers.
These stories include doors swinging open on their own, figures in the darkness, a tequila bottle lifting on its own, mysterious voices through a recording device employees brought, sounds of an older woman roaming around and a little girl asking a customer why people ignored her.
The creepiest story, Kechely said, is the “Black Static Man,” a presence reported to loom over guests in their beds.
“[An employee] described the apparition to me as like … picture the snow you would see on your TV in the ’90s when you weren’t getting a signal, except there’s no white. It’s just all black. There’s an actual, visual presence that he claims to have seen. When you walk past him, it feels like your hair is affected by static electricity as well. Like, your hair starts lifting up.”
Halloween plans: To celebrate the holiday, Kechely said the inn will host a “Dinner of the Damned” event at 5 p.m. Oct. 31 with live music and seasonal food and drink.
Falling clocks and the ghost of Rex
Ringers Roost, constructed in 1920 at 1801 W. Liberty St. in Allentown, has a “longtime history of people seeing things that nobody else sees at the same time,” general manager Kelly Dalmaso said.
Those events include a new clock falling off the kitchen wall three times and reports of someone in the basement — perhaps the ghost named Rex.
“I’ve actually witnessed it,” Dalmaso said. “You’re down there and you think someone’s there with you, and then you turn around and no one’s around. It’s really strange. He’s friendly. Let’s put it that way. … He doesn’t really do anything to scare you. He just makes his presence known.”
Halloween plans: The restaurant serves a of sandwiches, pierogi, calamari, crab cakes, fajitas, quesadillas, and macaroni and cheese. Festivities this month include a costume-optional party Oct. 31 and specials such espresso pumpkin martinis.
Ghosts want attention, too
Hanoverville Roadhouse recently celebrated its 200th anniversary at 5001 Hanoverville Road in Hanover Township, Northampton County, where customers can order chicken, prime rib, seafood, pasta, wings, salads and sandwiches.
While he tries to debunk as much as he can — those plastic lids probably fell off the shelf because someone bumped into it a few seconds earlier — owner Mark Dennis does believe the property is haunted. There have been names being called, moving shadows and a glass flying across the bar. (A column blocking the security cameras prevented him from verifying that last story.)
“Nothing ever seemed malicious, I’d never gotten that bad feeling or bad vibes or anything,” he said. “It’s kind of like, ‘Hey, we’re still here, pay attention to us.’ “
The building was constructed in 1825 as a stagecoach shop before other uses including a post office, a general store, a restaurant, bar and hunting lodge, a brothel, a performing venue and, Dennis believes, a part of the Underground Railroad system.
Halloween plans: The restaurant will host a premiere party in its screening room at 7:30 p.m. Friday for an episode of .
Unexplainable noises, objects falling off shelves
The history of the Buckeye Tavern, 3741 Brookside Road in Lower Macungie Township, speaks for itself for why it may be haunted.
The building was constructed in 1735 and, according to research done by the Lower Macungie and Macungie historical societies, may have been one of the places where local tax protesters met during the Fries Rebellion in the late 1790s.
It was destroyed in a 2015 fire, and restored in 2017.
General Manager Lauren Kleman said that a couple of weeks before the tavern reopened, ghost hunters investigated the property and reported unexplainable noises. Before the fire, staff reported objects falling off shelves randomly, hearing a woman’s voice and sightings of a man.
Halloween plans: The restaurant will offer Halloween-themed food and drink specials during the holiday weekend. typically includes nachos, scallops wrapped in bacon, wings, pierogies, empanadas, Brussels sprouts, pasta and burgers.
Ghostly orbs
McCoole’s at the Historic Red Lion Inn, originally known as , opened in 1750 under Walter McCoole at 4 S. Main St. in Quakertown.
The property served as a meeting place for the Fries Rebellion, several protestors from which were to be hanged opposite the inn until President John Adams pardoned them, according to the restaurant website. It also was part of the Underground Railroad.
The restaurant reported several “paranormal” events such as orbs being seen in pictures of the restaurant and customers seeing them as people.
clam chowder, paninis, salads, prime rib, chicken parmesan, crab cakes, macaroni and cheese, and hummus and chips.
A tombstone in the basement
In the basement of the restaurant Morgan’s, constructed around the Revolutionary War period at 3079 Willow St. in South Whitehall Township, lies a worn tombstone with the name Mary. It was there when the property was known as Appennino’s Ristorante, after which it became Morgan’s in 2005.
“When they unearthed some of the land around the area to do an expansion a few years ago, they came up with a tombstone that was on the property,” said Morgan’s owner and founder Blake Morgan. “I don’t know about any remains or anything like that, but the tombstone is in the basement as well. So that’s where a lot of the things, a lot of the reports of it being haunted and those kinds of things, those stories, people that owned it before would say that they saw things strange at night or heard things.”
He added, “I’ve been here when we were out of power and I’ve been here in the dark at 3 o’clock in the morning. I’ve never seen anything other than creepy things that happen in old buildings: weird noises, winds, those kind of things. Have I ever had a personal encounter? No, I have not. Have people that have worked here said they have? Yes, they have. So I guess like any other story, any other haunted thing you’ll hear — ‘I was there and saw nothing, and I was there once and felt this or that’ — I guess it just depends on people’s perspective, really.”
The restaurant regularly posts online , including salads with pumpkin maple dressing, caramel apple cheesecake, maple pecan bread pudding, flatbreads, sandwiches, shrimp bruschetta and omelets.
