Weidmann’s restaurant closes with no fanfare

MERIDIAN — Weidmann’s, a famed landmark restaurant in downtown Meridian for 140 years, has closed its doors.

WTOK-TV reports the restaurant closed April 26 with no fanfare and owners won’t say right now why it has closed. City officials hope a new owner will reopen the restaurant.

Weidmann’s first opened in 1870 as a restaurant-hotel called the European House. It was owned by the Weidmann family, beginning with Felix Weidmann, for generations. It was sold to new owners in 2001 who kept the name.

The restaurant moved around in its early days to several downtown locations before finally settling in on 22nd Avenue in 1923.

Weidmann’s was open around-the-clock until it began closing at night in the 1960s. It later resumed serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Weidmann’s lunch counter, once a fixture at many restaurants and cafes in Meridian and other cities, had been in place since the business opened on 22nd Avenue.

Besides the lunch counter, another longtime fixture is a “treasure chest” filled with candy and goodies, which the late Henry Weidmann used the chest to reward children with good manners.

The restaurant was famous for peanut butter crocks that sat on the tables for so many years, its garlic boiled shrimp and the special black bottom pie.

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3 Responses to “Weidmann’s restaurant closes with no fanfare”

1. Elie Robinson Says:
   April 30th, 2010 at 9:55 am

   Ohh, and the prime rib.

2. Penny Schooler Says:
   April 30th, 2010 at 10:52 am

   As a child, we drove to Meridian to eat there after church on Sundays for years. Saddened by the closing but remember what happend to our trusted McRaes Department Stores or the Jitney Jungles when they were sold to “outsiders”.

3. Marvin D. Gray Says:
   May 3rd, 2010 at 6:44 am

   Sad to learn of the news. A personal favorite for delicious food and some of the best memorabilia in the South! “Mr. Shorty Mac” was the one of my all time favorites! Gone, but never forgotten. Count me in when it reopens as a patron!

   Marvin D. Gray