Clattering forks and laughing voices fill the air at The Corner during a fish fry buffet. Plates are piled high with mashed potatoes, green beans and sweet corn. Kids stand on their tiptoes to pick a soda from a fridge in the back. People walk in and scout an empty table. As they make their way through the dining room they’re stopped several times by neighbors and friends.
The Corner is the town tavern and the social center of Rhineland. Ownership and location of the Corner has changed over the years, but the central role the tavern plays in Rhineland has stayed the same. Steve Wehrle owned The Corner in the 1980s and 90s.
“Friday night, Saturday night, after church on Sunday mornings,” Wehrle said. “It was a really community gathering place, you know, when the flood was going on we had a board, a chalkboard hanging on one of the posts in the tavern right as you come in the door and had the flood stages on there.”
Nowadays, The Corner is less of an information hub because people have cell phones and internet to communicate, but that doesn’t stop the tables from filling up on a Friday night.
Corynn Kuebler, 9, and her brother Connor Kuebler, 11, laugh and drink cream soda during dinner at The Corner Friday, December 6, 2019 in Rhineland, Missouri. Connor, Corynn and their younger brother Bennett each picked out a soda from the vending machine at The Corner before they sat down to eat with their parents and grandparents.
Almost every table is occupied during the dinner hours at The Corner Friday, December 6, 2019 in Rhineland, Missouri. Customers at The Corner are a combination of locals coming in for a routine meal and people passing through from Highway 94.
Photos of town during the 1993 flood decorate the walls of The Corner Friday, November 15, 2019 in Rhineland, Missouri. The building in the middle photo is where The Corner used to be located.
From left, Donny Hagedorn, Leon Englert and Steve Wehrle sit and catch up on a Friday night at The Corner on Friday, December 6, 2019 in Rhineland, Missouri. Before everyone had cell phones, The Corner was Rhineland’s main information hub. “If you wanted to know something you’d come there and somebody knew what was going on,” Wehrle said of those days.
From left, Jim Tapp looks at Wayne Hoener as the two drink beer at the bar Friday, December 6, 2019 at The Corner in Rhineland, Missouri. The following morning, Tapp would play the role of Santa Claus and visit with the children in town. Tapp has been the town Santa for the last twenty years.
Janet Wehrle picks up a tray of drinks Friday, December 6, 2019 at The Corner in Rhineland, Missouri. Wehrle also works at the bank in town. She picks up shifts at the tavern when they’re short-staffed or know they’re going to be busy.
Tickets with each tables’ order line the back of the bar Friday, December 6, 2019 at The Corner in Rhineland, Missouri. The Corner also has a reception hall connected to it for town gatherings, like when Santa comes to visit the children in town.
