Zacherl's Tavern & Restaurant in Saxonburg celebrates golden anniversary

With an infant and three young kids at home, Ed and Eileen Zacherl decided to heap one more thing on their plate — a bar and restaurant.

This month, they'll celebrate 50 years in business at Zacherl's Tavern & Restaurant.

“It really wasn't bad, but we didn't know any different,” Eileen Zacherl, 75, said of the venture. “We just did it.”

Ed Zacherl, 76, and his younger brother Leroy were in their mid-20s when they decided to buy the former Waddingham's Bar on Butler Road in Saxonburg.

“My brother and I were talking one day, and we decided that's what we wanted to do,” Ed Zacherl said.

So they went into Waddingham's, ordered two beers and told Waletta Waddingham they'd heard she wanted to sell.

“She goes over and locks the door and gives us a tour,” Zacherl said. “So we bought it.”

Two years later, Leroy decided to walk away because of work and family commitments. He and his family moved into Ed and Eileen's house on Ivywood Road in Clinton Township, and the Zacherls moved into an apartment attached to the bar.

“The apartment had four bedrooms and there were four kids, but we made it,” Eileen said.

They lived in an attached trailer for a time after expanding the business's kitchen into two rooms of the apartment. They built a house next door to the bar in 1972.

At the time, Ed Zacherl worked for U.S. Steel and sold insurance for American General (now AIG), before committing to the restaurant full-time.

His wife worked three nights a week at the bar, and Leroy's wife, Mary, continued to help out, as did Ed's mother.

Zacherl's now has 10 full-time employees and eight part-time workers. The owners still spend plenty of time there. Ed spends most mornings doing paperwork and other administrative duties. Eileen closes, usually around 1 a.m.

In the years they've owned Zacherl's, the couple has made a number of improvements. They turned their old apartment into the kitchen, and the former sun porch is now a seating area. They also replaced the back-wall bar with the current U-shaped one, expanded the dining room and began to offer home-cooked fare such as ribs and pot roast.

“At first, the bar business was good. And then, after we built the new kitchen, things didn't pick up very fast,” Ed Zacherl said. “It was a little slow, a little tough. Then, all of the sudden, we started to go in the right direction and gradually gained.”

About 70 percent of their business is food sales, and, in the past few years, business has been good. The first five months of this year have been better than ever, Zacherl said.

“Basic, homemade food is what people like,” Eileen said.

Over the years, their customer base has changed from mainly workers to families and people who live in the area.

“We had a lot of business when there was Saxonburg Ceramics,” Eileen Zacherl said of the men who would stop in for lunch during their shift or for dinner afterward.

They also had early morning customers when the coal mines were open, when guys would stop in for beer or coffee.

“Now we have three guys who come in every day for coffee and just to talk,” Eileen Zacherl said. “Usually around 10:30 or 11 (a.m.), people come in to eat.”

After the 50th anniversary June 20, the couple said they might finally be ready to retire.

“I told her one time I was going to retire at 45,” Ed Zacherl said.

“I think he was 20 years old when he said that,” his wife said.

Years later, the Zacherls are serious about retiring while they're still able to get out and do things and spend time with their children and grandchildren.

“It's confining a little bit (owning a restaurant), but it's really nice because you see a lot of nice people,” Eileen said.

Jodi Weigand is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-226-4702 or jweigand@tribweb.com.