Hi-Way Tavern

Frank & Dora Catalano opened the Hi-Way Tavern in the right half of this building in 1934 and operated it as a combination tavern, cafe and liquor store.

There's a house attached to the back of left side of this building, you just can't see it in this photo. The house belonged to Ed McLaughlin, in 1924 he built a small cafe onto the front of the house. Another 1924 addition, this time on the right (east) side on the house, initially housed the Tuefert & Rabus Meat Market.

The Market space reportedly housed several different occupants before the Catalanos opened the Hi-Way Tavern there 1934. The Catalanos bought the property in 1950 and enlarged the cafe space by building one more addition this brought the front of the cafe space out to the sidewalk. They also added a brick veneer to the commercial spaces resulting in the building shown above. The house was used as residential rental space.

After that last expansion George and Mary Lautner, members of the the Catalanos extended family, ran the Hi-Way Cafe in the new addition as a separate business. Some folks say this was the first cafe to offer "Pizza Pie" in Edwardsville.

The house remained as a residence, but the Cafe and Tavern spaces got sheathed in brick so that from the front it looks like a single structure.

After the Catalanos retired in 1959 the Lautners continued to ran both businesses until they were sold in the early 1960s. Dora Catalano passed away in 1960 and Frank in 1964. Under new owners the cafe and tavern continued as separate businesses through the prime time days of Route 66. Eventually the two spaces were combined into one.

The combined space became Nuemann's Bar & Restaurant, probably in the late 1980s and stayed until 2012 or so. The building was empty for a couple years but reopened as the Hi-Way-Tavern in 2014. That was the year that Frank and Dora Catalano were inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame. In 2018 the tavern became a Krupp Florist shop and in 2025 a coffee shop.