Happy holidays from the Palsho family!
2020 was tough - looking forward to this new year!
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Catherine Marie (McGee) Palsho, longtime and legendary proprietor of Ernie’s Tavern in Robbinsville, passed away peacefully at home with her family on November 15, 2019 at age 95. Her beloved poodle Piper was by her side.
The eldest of five children, Catherine was born in Tonawanda, NY, on June 12, 1924, to Anna (Schwenck) and Herbert McGee, who raised their family in their Victorian B&B and engaged Catherine at an early age in the hospitality industry that would later define her life and legacy.
After graduating from Lowville Academy, Catherine ventured from her hometown of Turin, NY, to attend Rider College in New Jersey. One day, a fortuitous loss of luggage at the Trenton train station put her in the path of Ernest (Ernie) Palsho, who was working at the railroad and helped retrieve her lost bag. The two were married on July 22, 1944.
In 1947 the pair purchased the Robbinsville Hotel, renaming it Ernie’s Old Robbinsville Hotel. Together with her husband, Catherine made Ernie’s a warm and welcoming community spot, while raising five children. A Philadelphia Eagles season-ticketholder, Catherine enjoyed golf and sharing her signature dishes -- Buffalo wings and “Ma’s cutlet” – with family and friends. She loved roses and for decades cultivated a stunning garden in her backyard.
After Ernie’s passing in 1999, Catherine was determined that the tavern and its traditions continue. And they did. Patrons have enjoyed decades of lively Christmas Eve sing-alongs, popular Wednesday burger nights, and cold beers with neighbors, all with congenial Catherine at the helm. Catherine also ensured that the tavern actively gave back to the community she loved, sponsoring local sports teams and charity events.
Setting an amazingly high bar for rigor and work ethic, Catherine never entertained the notion of retiring and was in full command at the tavern until just before her passing. Thanks to Catherine, Ernie’s has operated continuously for 72 years, and continues to live on.
Catherine, of Scottish descent, was honored as Irish Person of the Year at the Robbinsville St. Patrick’s Day Parade and received a proclamation from the Robbinsville Mayor commending the longevity of her business. She was a member of the NJ Tavern Association, and a trustee of the Ernest C. Palsho Memorial Fund.
Known as “Ma” to her 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, she enjoyed gathering her large family at her Jersey Shore retreat, where she oversaw great-grandchildren crabbing on the same docks her children once did. She was a longtime member of the Gilford Park Yacht Club.
Predeceased by her parents; her loving husband of 54 years, Ernest C. Palsho; and her sister, Irene Marks; Catherine is survived by sister, Evelyn Moonan; brothers, William McGee (Emily) and Herbert McGee (Chrissy); daughters, Sandra Davall (Barry), Susan Hipple (John), JoAnn Hathazi, Cathy Lubbe (David); and son, Ernest Palsho, Jr. (Allison). She is also survived by grandchildren, Karin Warner (Tim), Jeffrey Davall (Susan), John, Kate and Jason Hipple, Susan (Dodi) Mahnovski (Sergej), Michael Hathazi (Lauren), Morgan and Julianna Lubbe, Ernest Palsho III and Hayley Palsho; as well as great-grandchildren, Katherine, Jack and Ava Warner, Micah Laborde Hipple, Henry, Faye and Benjamin Davall, and Adrian and Sebastian Mahnovski.
Visitation for family and friends will be held on Friday, November 22, 2019, from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at the Saul Colonial Home, 3795 Nottingham Way, Hamilton Square, NJ. Funeral services will be held Saturday, November 23, 2019, at 11 a.m. at the Saul Colonial Home, with interment following at Princeton Memorial Park, Robbinsville, NJ.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Ernest C. Palsho Memorial Fund online or mailed to the Ernest C. Palsho Memorial Fund, Community Foundation of New Jersey, Post Office Box 338, Morristown, NJ 07963-0338, www.cfnj.org/palsho. The fund provides scholarships to college-bound Robbinsville students.
The Community Foundation of New Jersey is an alliance of families, businesses and foundations that work together to create lasting differences in people's lives and communities.
09/18/2019
Come on in to Ernie's tonight for the holiday!
The ideal way to celebrate :D
09/10/2019
Join us Wednesday 9/11 when we re-open for back to school BURGERS!! 🍔🍔
Hope everyone had a wonderful summer!!
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In 1947, Ernie and Catherine Palsho set out to run the kind of tavern that wouldn’t interfere with their children’s homework.
They lived, worked and raised five children in one building, Ernie’s Tavern, and the attached liquor store, 9 Robbinsville-Allentown Road. At one time or another, all the children — Kathy, Joanne, Sandy, Susan, and Charles — worked in the tavern. Now, son-in-law John Hipple is behind the bar, having retired from a job with a local bank.
“We wanted it to be homey, comfortable. We didn’t want any problems, especially because we were raising a family here. We wanted our children to come home from school and do their homework here,” Palsho said, seated at one of the tables in the dining room, which has the atmosphere of a hunting lodge. Several rifles and trophy animals are on display.
In recent years, patrons who make off-color remarks are put in “Ernie’s Doghouse,” a decorative piece that hangs over the bar with different colored dogs named for likely suspects. When one is sent to “Ernie’s Doghouse,” he or she must buy drinks in order to be let out, Palsho said. A customer made the doghouse, Marvin “Woody” Woods, and his friend, Henry Wilbur, painted the dogs.
“It’s a Cheers bar. With the knotty pine walls and the kind of people who come in, it’s surprising how much it’s like the show,” she said. From about 2:30 until 5:30 on the day before Christmas, Ernie’s has a big party for its patrons, who sing and put on skits that have come to be known as “Ernie’s Christmas Show.” Whole families come out to celebrate and Wilbur plays tunes on his keyboard.
The Palshos traced the ownership of the building back as far as 1859 and found it had always been a tavern and inn, with sleeping quarters on the second floor. Catherine believes the building may have pre-dated the railroad that came through in the 1830s, because there are earlier references to it. She said the true front of the building faces the tracks, not Robbinsville-Allentown Road.
Catherine Palsho could not remember any nervousness about going into business with her husband, although they had to work hard in the early years to build up a clientele. Ernie, who had just come home from serving in the Seabees in World War II, continued to work as a ticket agent in the Trenton train station for the first few years they owned the bar. Catherine would tend bar during the day while he worked, and he would tend bar at night.
“You know, when you’re young, you don’t have fears,” Catherine said. “When you get older, you think about things like borrowing money and how you are going to pay it back.”
The Palshos met a lot of townspeople by sponsoring local sports teams. Currently, it sponsors a girls soccer team that is coached by Kathy’s husband, David Lubbe.
“I go to all the games and they had their end of the year party here. It’s on a Sunday and they bring their parents. We go through a lot of Coke and Shirley Temples that day, and a whole jar of cherries,” she said.
Ernie passed away Jan. 15, 1999, but reminders of his hobbies adorn the walls of the tavern. He shot a buck, whose head is mounted on the wall with a Guinness hat atop its antlers. Two ducks were fashioned into a lamp by a local taxidermist. Ernie didn’t shoot the fox who sports a red bow-tie. It was donated by a patron whose wife was tired of looking at it. Catherine was happy to learn the white marlin he caught could be cleaned. Years of hanging in a smoky tavern had discolored it. Now, that smoking is forbidden, the fish will stay white.
Catherine has no intention of retiring. Not even when she turns 84 on June 12.
“I think it’s helps my health,” she said. “I’m busy. I always have more to do than I actually get done,” she said. “I’m going to work here as long as I can.”
