Frank Navara, [Coffee Pot Restaurant, Bremen, Indiana], 1939
Inspired by a picture of a building in Popular Mechanics, Elmer Laudeman turned a wooden silo into the Coffee Pot Restaurant in 1932. Ideally situated on U.S. 6 between Ohio and Illinois, outside of Bremen, Indiana, the quirky building was visited by truckers as well as roadtripping families. Travelers could enjoy a meal at the round counter inside the 18-foot-diameter building. The restaurant attracted so many diners that an addition was built in 1949 or 1950. After the building fell into disrepair, the state purchased it and demolished the local landmark to make way for the Bremen bypass.
Tammy Sue Venable, Bremen and North Central Indiana (Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Acadia Publishing, 2001), p. 70
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As a young child we used to drive frequently between my home town, South Bend, IN to visit my grandparents in Lima, OH. This was certainly a landmark for us and from time to time we would stop there. I wondered what happened to it after all these years. A shame they couldn’t preserve it.
I remember another coffee pot-shaped building in the Bremen area in the early 1970s but can’t find any information or photos. I remember it being just a house, not a restaurant. Any info?
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