HOURS IN SEASON:

In season (Memorial Day – Thanksgiving):
Seven days per week, whenever we open, until we close, or for those of you who are planning a special trip down…
Monday – Friday 2:00pm – 8:00pm/Close
Saturday 11:00am – Close
Sunday 11:00am – 8:00pm/Close

HOURS OUT OF SEASON:

When we are out of season we have limited hour and may close the bar early due to weather.  Please note: If our bar is not open we will still gladly serve patrons alcoholic beverages and selections from our bar menu.
Friday 5:00pm –8:00pm/Close
Saturday and Sunday 2:00pm – 8:00pm/Close

About the Story Still Tavern:

The Story Inn’s tavern is named after the still that Brown County Sheriff Clarence Moore captured at this location in 1932. Today we celebrate the fermentation process, and most certainly we acknowledge the value it imparts upon ordinary grain and fruit. Were it not for this cottage industry, we doubt if any of Brown County’s residents could have survived the Great Depression. (Curiously, the grain mill that stands silently next door ceased operations not long after the enactment of the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition.)

On a typical weekend afternoon, you will find the bar teeming with a mélange of humanoids who arrive by Harley, sports utility vehicle, BMW, or horseback (the Still sits at the end of the “E” trail, about five miles from the largest horseman’s camp in the Midwest). The first of these (Harley riders) we limit to two drinks, regardless of body mass, for reasons which are obvious.

In the Still, we will accommodate the most pedestrian as well as pompous of palates, as one can readily see from the Wine List and Beer List. We will also accommodate your desire for distilled beverages, offering several mixed drinks found nowhere else. When Vera’s Appropriate Rural Garden is in bloom, your mint leaves will still be photosynthesizing in your glass.

In the Still, you may dine from the upstairs Dinner Menu during appropriate hours if you must. More commonly, our Still patrons seek nourishment from the Bar Menu.

About our Newly Remodeled Bar:

On Tuesday, August 4, 2009 the sky above Story, Indiana opened and discharged nearly eight inches of rain in scarcely four hours. The retention pond above the Story Inn soon burst its banks, flooding the Herb Garden, Sommergarten and walkways, and carrying patio furniture across Elkinsville Road. The water also spilled into the stairwell to the Story Still Tavern. The weight of that water made short work of the door, which burst, inundating our venerable bar and wine cellar, leaving our beer and wine coolers bobbing like corks in more than five feet of muddy creek water.

Word of our misfortune spread quickly, even without phones, electricity, or Internet service. A small army of friends, employees and their relatives quickly descended upon our beleaguered little business, armed with irrigation pumps, pressure washers, shop vacuums, carpet extractors, shovels and earthmoving equipment. With the help of our friends, the basement was pumped out by Tuesday evening, and we were able to recover the water softener, plus most of our wine inventory.

Necessity is the mother of invention. In response to Mother Nature’s harsh lesson, we removed the center wall that previously segregated smokers from non-smokers. By removing the wall we were able to reconfigure the layout to allow for additional seating, and we consciously determined to cast our economic fate with the non-smokers, having read the actuarial tables.

We hired only the very best to execute this mission: the appropriate rural architectural firm of Rob Rogers, which employs the very latest in Brown County know-how and technology. The crew cannibalized two century-old barns to salvage barn wood siding, rusted tin metal, and pegged support beams, to rebuild the venerable tavern in only twelve days. (We are cognizant that the Old Testament Yahweh took half as long, but Rob can be forgiven for his dilatory response because he paused not to rest, but to give the old gal a hip replacement--three new support beams to protect the General Store from the further effects of entropy). We also employed a local artist-welder, Brad Cox, who has fashioned new bar stools from old tractor seats.

The lasting legacy of The Great Flood of ’09 will be, we believe, the creation of an appropriate rural watering hole where one can enjoy the flavor of a single malt scotch, red wine or local micro-brew without the respiratory complications of inhaling black mold spores. It will be a place where water and resveratrol meet in harmony.

We implore our loyal customers to give thanks to Bacchus by ordering a “Trust the Lord, not your insurance agent” and celebrate the repeal of prohibition in 1933 in an appropriate rural style. The dearth of alcohol made the Great Depression much longer, and more difficult to endure, than the current economic malaise.