There were a lot of taverns in the early US circa 1830. To get any business , a tavern had to be by a road, at least, if not in a town. Roads were commonly bad, even turnpikes that had some fees collected for maintenance, and travel could be slow. With regular stops needed by teamsters with loaded wagons and horse-drawn coaches, drovers with herds of cattle, sheep, or pigs, on a main route like the National Road there'd be a public house every ten miles or so. In the older sections of the road, this tavern could be a pretty large, well-established building with stables, water and forage for teams, likely some sort of paddock for herds or at least a fenced-in area. In the well-established tavern, there might be a large number of beds, large menus, and not only waiters but grooms. The National Cottage and Stage House, east of Wheeling, even had a bath house and maintained a stock of ice.

But the simple one could be quite a contrast. Scottish traveler James Flint noted, "I have often laughed to see, fixed upon a miserable log cabin, a rough sign, on which has been painted 'Washington Hotel', or some such high-sounding name, though the house contained one, or at most only two rooms". In one of these the host might be manager, his wife the cook, and their children the waiters. One room might feed and sleep both guests and hosts.

There was also varying honesty in how the traveler was treated. There were tricks for selecting a tavern. A seasoned traveler would look for a well-fed dog, because if there were plenty of scraps for the dog, there'd be plenty of food for the guests. She'd look for a lot of hay scattered on the ground, which indicated that wagoners stayed there, professionals experienced in knowing when they were being cheated and appreciating good food. Some places had little trouble with dishonesty- Uniontown PA had several taverns, and the competition tended to keep them agreeable. But a cold traveler seeking shelter from the weather and no choice of a tavern out in the wilder areas might find bad food, watered booze and high prices.

Often the traveler embarked from the coach at the end of a day of hard knocks, and went to whatever passed for a bar, whether it was a row of decorative bottles on a handsome sideboard or just a single jug on a bench ( as De Tocqueville noted, Americans tended to make everything an occasion for a drink). While the guests were drinking, the host would have a table set with all the food. This could be quite a variety- not only were oysters and terrapins hauled in wagons from the Chesapeake, but the better taverns also had market hunters supplying them with not only wildfowl but racoon, and local farms that supplied honey, bacon, ham, mutton, chicken, eggs, sweet potatoes, green corn and other vegetables. Guests would stay out of the dining room until a bell was rung- often the second bell ( the first calling diners to assemble, the second, to enter). Diners would usually serve themselves, sit at the table, but would sometimes give requests for other things to the waiters ( milk, instead of coffee: cornmeal mush, instead of cornbread). Drinking of hard liquor would not be done over a meal. There seems to have been a point of honor in the better taverns to feed people well. In the competitive places on the road someone who stinted the guests didn't seem to survive long, but even sometimes-grumpy Fanny Trollope was surprised to find herself given a clean bed and a warm fire in a small isolated tavern in the mountains, and though the fare in such a place could be limited to bacon, eggs, chicken and cornbread it seems to have been pretty common to serve the guest a decent amount of it. But there were also times in which Flint came to a tavern and was told they had run out of food, and couldn't serve him.

There were state regulations for taverns- even in the 18th c. before Independence. Rates and prices for food, lodging, booze and stabling had to be posted. Dinner and supper on the National Road circa 1830 might be 50 cents, lodging 50 cents a night or $2 a week ( this at a time when a laborer could expect about 50 cents a day). Most states would fine a tavern if there was " disorder, drunkenness, or unlawful games", but a tavern could be the only source of amusement for the general area and drunken disorder was the commonest frontier recreation. Taverns also often posted their own rules, such as: guests had to identify themselves to the barkeeper, the doors were to be closed and locked at a given time of night- often around ten o'clock- unless there was a special occasion or a "public amusement", and guests were not allowed to gamble in the bedrooms.

The normal practice was for the host to add up charges ( sometimes, customers were expected to jot down how many drinks they'd poured themselves at the bar) and the traveler would pay. Precisely what would happen to someone incapable of paying his bill is hard to say, but Flint heard stories from various tavernkeepers of guests ( especially young men, and "Yankees") leaving without paying. You suspect that an experienced innkeeper would know when it was good to demand to see the guests' money before offering hospitality.

Kirkpatrick, J. E. (2015). Timothy Flint, Pioneer, Missionary, Author, Editor, 1780-1840; the Story of his Life Among the Pioneers and Frontiersmen in the Ohio and Mississippi Valley and in New England and the South. Palala Press.

Flint, Timothy. (1904). Flint's Letters from America 1818–1820. Cleveland, Ohio. The Arthur H. Clark Company

Trollope, F. Milton., Ducôté, A., Hervieu, A., Gilbert & Rivington., Whittaker, T. and Co.. Domestic manners of the Americans. London: Printed for Whittaker, Treacher & Co., Ave-Maria-Lane.

Jordan, P. D. (1948, repr. 2022). The National Road (The American trails series) (1st ed.). Bobbs-Merrill Co.