By Chris Sturgis
In 1947, Ernie and Catherine Palsho set out to run the kind of tavern that wouldn’t interfere with their children’s homework.
They lived, worked and raised five children in one building, Ernie’s Tavern, and the attached liquor store, 9 Robbinsville-Allentown Road. At one time or another, all the children — Kathy, Joanne, Sandy, Susan, and Charles — worked in the tavern. Now, son-in-law John Hipple is behind the bar, having retired from a job with a local bank.
“We wanted it to be homey, comfortable. We didn’t want any problems, especially because we were raising a family here. We wanted our children to come home from school and do their homework here,” Palsho said, seated at one of the tables in the dining room, which has the atmosphere of a hunting lodge. Several rifles and trophy animals are on display.
In recent years, patrons who make off-color remarks are put in “Ernie’s Doghouse,” a decorative piece that hangs over the bar with different colored dogs named for likely suspects. When one is sent to “Ernie’s Doghouse,” he or she must buy drinks in order to be let out, Palsho said. A customer made the doghouse, Marvin “Woody” Woods, and his friend, Henry Wilbur, painted the dogs.
“It’s a Cheers bar. With the knotty pine walls and the kind of people who come in, it’s surprising how much it’s like the show,” she said. From about 2:30 until 5:30 on the day before Christmas, Ernie’s has a big party for its patrons, who sing and put on skits that have come to be known as “Ernie’s Christmas Show.” Whole families come out to celebrate and Wilbur plays tunes on his keyboard.
The Palshos traced the ownership of the building back as far as 1859 and found it had always been a tavern and inn, with sleeping quarters on the second floor. Catherine believes the building may have pre-dated the railroad that came through in the 1830s, because there are earlier references to it. She said the true front of the building faces the tracks, not Robbinsville-Allentown Road.
Catherine Palsho could not remember any nervousness about going into business with her husband, although they had to work hard in the early years to build up a clientele. Ernie, who had just come home from serving in the Seabees in World War II, continued to work as a ticket agent in the Trenton train station for the first few years they owned the bar. Catherine would tend bar during the day while he worked, and he would tend bar at night.
“You know, when you’re young, you don’t have fears,” Catherine said. “When you get older, you think about things like borrowing money and how you are going to pay it back.”
The Palshos met a lot of townspeople by sponsoring local sports teams. Currently, it sponsors a girls soccer team that is coached by Kathy’s husband, David Lubbe.
“I go to all the games and they had their end of the year party here. It’s on a Sunday and they bring their parents. We go through a lot of Coke and Shirley Temples that day, and a whole jar of cherries,” she said.
Ernie passed away Jan. 15, 1999, but reminders of his hobbies adorn the walls of the tavern. He shot a buck, whose head is mounted on the wall with a Guinness hat atop its antlers. Two ducks were fashioned into a lamp by a local taxidermist. Ernie didn’t shoot the fox who sports a red bow-tie. It was donated by a patron whose wife was tired of looking at it. Catherine was happy to learn the white marlin he caught could be cleaned. Years of hanging in a smoky tavern had discolored it. Now, that smoking is forbidden, the fish will stay white.
Catherine has no intention of retiring. Not even when she turns 84 on June 12.
“I think it’s helps my health,” she said. “I’m busy. I always have more to do than I actually get done,” she said. “I’m going to work here as long as I can.”
Catherine Palsho and her son-in-law, John Hipple, share the bartending duties at Ernie’s Tavern, which Palsho and her husband, Ernie, bought in 1947. Staff photo by Chris Sturgis.,
