Episode 5: The Black Horse

(Listen on your favorite podcast player: iTunes, Spotify, Overcast, HeartRadio, Amazon Music)

Outside of New York City, New Jersey has some of the oldest restaurants in the U.S. Sitting near the top of that list is an institution that started out as an Inn waaaay back in 1743, but has weathered more than one storm to become an icon of Mendham: The Black Horse.

For those who don’t know, the Black Horse Tavern and Pub is essentially the geographical and cultural center of Mendham Borough. You can’t drive down Main Street without noticing the big white colonial era building at the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue. 

I arrived in Mendham in the midst of the pandemic. Restaurants were closing everywhere. Businesses were struggling. But The Black Horse was still open, thriving even. And then I find out that it has been operating since before we even had a constitution. How is this possible???

The answer has to do with consistency. 

The story of humanity is the story of consistency. When life changes, consistency sets you at ease. Sad events like funerals, happy ones like marriages - world-changing events like 9/11 or local events like a hurricane - these things all drive a need for consistency. 

Nowhere in Mendham is this felt more than at the Black Horse, where this town was essentially founded. Where weary travelers stopped on their journey west. Where a future president (whos name rhymed with Florge Floshington ) maybe stopped to discuss revolutionary matters. Where a modern-day diva came for a night out with her family and enjoyed the bubbly shrimp. 

According to menutiger.com, three out of five restaurants won’t make it past their first year.  But somehow, The Black Horse managed to beat the odds again and again, for 275 years., making it the oldest continually operating restaurant in New Jersey.  Perhaps the original proprietor, Ebenezer Byram, read this statistic from menutiger.com a