Moore's Bar & Grill
Small Business Spotlight
Walk into Moore's Bar & Grill on South Indiana Street and you're stepping into 75 years of Greencastle history. Known affectionately as "The Cheers of Greencastle," Moore's has been a fixture of downtown since 1950, though its roots stretch back even further, to 1934, when it opened as Hoffman's Bar. It became Dutch Carlin's Bar in 1944, then passed to the Moore family in the 1950s, where Roy and Inez Moore and their daughters ran it for the next six decades.
Today it's owned by Pete and Julie Meyer, Greencastle natives who purchased Moore's in 2019. Their path back to town has its own hometown story: the two grew up in Greencastle, later reconnected and kindled a romance at their high school reunion, and though they'd been living in Florida, their roots never really left. A 2018 stop at Moore's for a meal, while renovating Pete's childhood home, turned into their way of making a mark on the community they'd come back to.
"We came back with the goal to give back to Greencastle," Pete and Julie both said. They are proud to offer a place where DePauw students and alumni can come back to, as well as Greencastle alumni, past residents and where current community members can enjoy a good meal and a cold beer.
Moore's is best known for its "Hangover Tenderloin," a hand-breaded pork tenderloin famous for hanging well past the edges of the bun, a staple of Indiana pub fare and a rite of passage for locals and visitors alike. Their vast menu also features favorites like the Billy Burger and loaded fries, all served up alongside cold local beers in a "quaint and quirky" dive-bar atmosphere that regulars have loved for generations. In fact, Moore’s Bar & Grill was voted as the Best Lunch, Best Burger, Best Tenderloin and Best Value in 2025. Two newer additions to the beer list, The Duke and King Corn Creme Ale, come from Lost Hollow Beer Company, friends of Pete and Julie's and fellow Greencastle business owners. They have also coordinated with Sippindippity, another small local business, to offer their late-night menu from 9pm to 12am inside Moore’s. It’s a small but visible example of how downtown businesses support each other.
The bar has long been a gathering place for DePauw University alumni and Greencastle locals alike, functioning almost like a reunion spot where generations of students and residents cross paths. Moore's is also a regular presence at First Friday, setting up an outside band for the downtown crowd.
Returning to their hometown gave Pete and Julie the opportunity to give back to the community where they were raised. They award three scholarships annually to Greencastle High School student-athletes, named in honor of Pete's parents, their niece MacKenzie, and his brother Mike, a longtime English teacher and football coach at GHS. Moore’s Bar also raises money to give two scholarships for Northview High School student-athletes in memory of Corporal Greg Stultz, son of Moore's longtime bartender Kim, who was lost in action as a member of the US Marines in Afghanistan. Anyone interested in contributing to the scholarship funds can reach out to Pete or Julie directly.
Earlier this year, Moore's took on a renovation project backed by two grants. The first came from the Business Development Grant, administered by Main Street Greencastle and funded through Growing Green and Gold Together, a partnership between the City of Greencastle and DePauw University. The second came from the Main Street Development Grant program, which helps improve the appearance and property values of commercial buildings in the Courthouse Square National Register Historic District. With this funding, Moore's refreshed its back entrance off the Vine Street Parking Lot, adding new siding, updated signage, fresh paint, and resurfaced flooring. It's the latest improvement since Pete and Julie took over, and the change has drawn praise from patrons and community members alike.
Pete and Julie also took part in the Growing Green and Gold Together cohort programming, where they had the chance to sit down with other local business owners, trade ideas, and lean on each other for support. The program also introduced them to ways they could use AI tools in their own business development, skills they've since put to work at Moore's.
For a bar that has weathered Prohibition's aftermath, multiple ownership changes, and 75 years of Greencastle history, Pete and Julie have made clear that Moore's isn't just holding onto the past, it's actively investing in the community's future, one scholarship, one collaboration, and one renovation at a time.
To learn more about Moore's Bar & Grill, visit mooresbarandgrill.com.
This article is part of the "Small Business Spotlight" series, highlighting local businesses supported by the Growing Green and Gold Together initiative, a partnership between the City of Greencastle and DePauw University.