Big Horn Cafe

5-7-9 North 4th Street was operating a bar by 1936, when it was known as the Big Horn Cafe. Antonio Panetta, of 1200 Jackson Street, Camden, was the proprietor. It was named for a pair of longhorn steer horns which hung in the bar. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the Big Horn Cafe was the first bar to be licensed.

Antonio Panetta was born in Italy around 1887. He had come to America in 1900. Married to his wife Mary around 1909, he was working as a waiter in a cafe at the time of the 1920 Census. At that time Antonio and Mary Panetta were living at 1200 Van Hook Street in Camden’s Whitman Park section with their six children.

By 1947 Antonio Panetta had passed away. The bar was then being run by his widow, Mary Panetta. A son, Leonard, worked at the bar, and son Antonio Jr., who lived in the Delair section of Pennsauken, NJ, also tended the bar, as did a third son, Gus. By 1954 the family had incorporated as Len Ton Inc. and renamed the bar the Center Tavern. The Center Tavern remained open on North 4th Street through 1966. The bar is not listed in the 1970 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory, and the building in which it stood has been gone for many years. The family sold the bar to the City of Camden, and it was razed as part of an urban renewal project.

Antonio Panetta, 52, proprietor of the Big Horn Grille, Fourth and Arch streets, was arrested yesterday on a warrant by Patrolman John V. Wilkie. Panetta was charged with violating the city ordinance forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors. Wilkie said the warrant was based on statements obtained from several persons less than 21 years of age.

Girl Tells in Court of Twice Buying Beer But He Assails Her Story

Arrested on a charge of violating the city ordinance forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors, Antonio Panetta, 52, proprietor of a cafe at Fourth and Arch streets, was found not guilty by Police Judge Mariano.

Panetta was arrested by Patrolman John V. Wilkie after Wilkie said he acted on a statement made to him by Nora Williams, 18, of 625 North Front street. The girl testified she and several other girls bought beer in the place last Christmas night and again on New Year’s Eve, from two waitresses whom she described as “Betty” and “Harriet.” She declared she had bought beer on several previous occasions at the cafe, and identified Elizabeth Matlack, 1287 Thurman street, as “Betty.”

Panetta testified he “keeps a strict watch” on his place and that the girl could not have been served without him knowing it. He said whenever he thinks a customer is under age, he gets the suspected person to sign a card. He said he was in his establishment on both nights when the girl alleged she got beer, but had not seen her there. Mrs. Panetta corroborated her husband’s testimony and the waitress denied serving the girl.