Salem Tavern

Built in 1784 on the foundations of a frame tavern that burned that same year, the Salem Tavern was the first entirely brick building in what is now Old Salem — and, according to Wikipedia, one of the oldest surviving brick tavern buildings in the United States. The Moravian community that built Salem positioned the tavern on the southern edge of town, where it served as the primary point of contact between the congregation and the outside world. It was where travelers lodged. Everyone else lived by different rules.

George Washington slept here during his Southern Tour in 1791 — two nights, by the record. That visit alone would have earned the building its National Historic Landmark designation. But the tavern's place in the city's story runs deeper than a presidential stopover. Salem was the commercial and civic heart of what would eventually become Winston-Salem, a city that grew by merger and reinvention, absorbing its Moravian origins into something larger and louder. The tavern outlasted all of it. Restored to its 1784 appearance — the brick building and the wood-frame annex added in 1815 both intact — it stood for decades as a museum building inside Old Salem Museums & Gardens.

Then, in fall 2025, it reopened as a working restaurant: period-dressed staff, a menu that draws from Moravian and soul food traditions. History made edible, which is either the best version of this idea or the worst, depending on your tolerance for living history. The walls have earned their stories. The food is new. Go find out which one carries more weight.