Randolph the Moose reigns over the scene at Sleder's in Traverse City, waiting for the next round of beer, tall tales, and smooches from tourists visiting the venerable northern Michigan tavern.
While smooching a dusty stuffed moose head isn't my style, I especially enjoyed the relaxed, primarily locals, vibe at the bar the last time we visited on a cold winter afternoon.
Many tourists know Traverse City for its panoramic bay view, numerous nearby golf courses, a busy downtown shopping district, and a burgeoning foodie scene, but visiting Sleder's feels like slipping into a time machine to visit a quieter and more rustic northern retreat from more than a century ago.
I recently wrote a series of entries about immigration and migration into Michigan for an encyclopedia of state history, so I find the Sleder's story and background as a cornerstone of Traverse City's "Little Bohemia" neighborhood especially fascinating.
Vencel Sleder, a wheelwright and hard-working immigrant from central Europe, established the tavern in 1882.
Sleder's sits on Randolph Street, a mere couple of blocks away from US-31 and the beautiful Grand Traverse Bay, in the heart of a former working class neighborhood known as Little Bohemia, or Slabtown, in Traverse City.
Slabtown attracted many Bohemian immigrants when authoritarian governments in Europe moved to repress reformers in the mid-1850s.
The Bohemian immigrants were skilled craftspeople and mechanics, and Traverse City sawmills offered plenty of jobs for skilled machinists and woodworkers. Mill owners allowed their workers to use scrap lumber slabs to build homes, hence the name Slabtown.
Vencel Sleder envisioned the tavern as a place where his hard-working neighbors could relax at the end of the day. His neighbors quickly got behind the idea, helping Sleder build the bar out of scrap slabs from area sawmills.
Construction dragged over three years because the workers had to stick to a Sunday-only schedule to build the tavern.
The neighborhood demographics may be different from the era when Sleder's first opened its doors, but today the tavern remains as one of Michigan's oldest, continuously-operated taverns. The original 21-foot mahogany bar, sided with cherry wood and featuring a brass foot rail, still stands center stage at Sleder's, while old oak tables, ice cream parlor-style chairs, and a 12-foot-high stamped tin ceiling give Sleder's a vintage late-1800s vibe.
Sleder's even remained operating throughout Prohibition in the 1930s with a little ingenuity, a great waterfront location, and neighborly hospitality towards local law enforcement. The tavern kept barrels of "root beer" (a mix of bourbon and rye) in stock, serving it in tea cups. Local law enforcement, reportedly enjoying free tea cups full of Sleder's special "root beer", managed to look the other way when questions arose about the tavern's continued operation.
Traverse City has plenty of trendy and sophisticated dining hot spots, but I love local "joints" like Sleder's where I can feel at home as I enjoy my burger and beer.
Sleder's menu includes plenty of Northern Michigan specialties like whitefish, fried smelt, cherry barbecued chicken (with locally produced sauce from the nearby Cherry Republic), fried lake perch, and buffalo burgers made with locally raised meat from Oleson's farm and markets.
My favorite menu items? Olive burgers and deep fried pickle spears! Just the thing to go with a cold beer as you imagine yourself in an earlier era with hard-working Traverse City neighbors as they bellied up to the bar that they built with their own hands.
Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved
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