Over thirty years after immigrating to the US, Max Hermann still speaks with a thick German accent.

“I don’t want you to come in here because you’re hungry,” the owner of The Tavern restaurant said, “you put bologna in bread and you won’t be hungry anymore.”

Don’t get Hermann wrong, visitors to his restaurant are as likely to leave hungry as they are to find a drab bologna sandwich on The Tavern’s unique menu.

He simply believes that a great dinner requires more than satisfying the appetite.

Hermann, along with his son Nick and daughter-in-law Amber can be seen putting this belief in practice every night by doing almost anything to ensure their guests enjoy The Tavern’s fun and relaxed environment.

Almost anything, that is, but staying past midnight. 

That’s when the ghosts show up and the Hermann’s clear out.

Built in 1779, The Tavern is Abingdon’s oldest building and is preserved to give visitors a glimpse into the past.

The mail still arrives through a slot left over from when the building served as the first post office west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and bubbles forming in the original windows show where the glass is beginning to lose its battle with time. 

Yet it’s rumors of more supernatural links to the past that have attracted a few adventurous tourists and paranormal investigators to the restaurant.

Hermann laughs as he remembers the brave visitors.

“Two people tried to stay the night, they both wound up leaving.”

After one particularly hair raising experience, Nick, a long time skeptic of ghosts, convinced his dad it was time to give the spirits their space.

“Once it gets late, we let them have the place,” the younger Hermann said.

Before midnight, however, the Hermann’s insist that The Tavern belongs to the customer.

Those customers can enjoy a unique dining experience that blends the building’s American post-colonial history with the European roots of its proprietor.

Everything on the menu from locally-inspired crab cakes to jagerschnitzel is prepared fresh from scratch upon order.

Even seafood from the south pacific is rushed from Honolulu to The Tavern by overnight delivery to insure that every dish is completely fresh and in season.

An extensive wine list and a large selection of imported beers help make the extra wait caused by the added time for preparation hardly noticeable.

The Hermann’s are even glad to lead curious customers up to the attic to see old markings left on the walls from the building’s days as a hospital during the Civil War.

Just don’t expect to get the tour after midnight.

222 East Main Street
Monday-Saturday: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Reservations recommended (276) 628-1118