The rumors forever linger.
The restaurant has been rumored by its staff and customers to be haunted. I could feel the almost paranormal atmosphere as I sat at a creaky wooden table to enjoy one of their locally famous charred burgers.
The waitress seemed comforted to see a warm face at one of her tables and started spilling to me all of the restaurant’s ghostly secrets. Alyssa Moloney always feels a sort of weird presence at work when she goes to the restaurant’s outdoor basement shed for supplies.
The rumors circulated. She heard from her coworkers and her managers that soldiers used to sleep down there during World War I. She’s even heard that George Washington has slept down there before. However, the sleeping is only half of it.
Moloney added, “Many of my coworkers have to go down there at night to get certain vegetables and ingredients since the freezer is down there and they have heard on multiple occasions children and men crying and a little girls voice singing.”
Intrigued with chills down my spine, I began to research and speak with local historians to discover that the chilling restaurant atmosphere may linger from the remnants of a battle of the American Revolutionary War that took place just down the road on Feb. 3, 1780.
The Battle of Youngs’ House.
Maybe she had a long shift. Maybe she had specters on the mind. Or maybe, the waitresses had felt the presence of Private Abraham Requa.
Requa was among 11 other Requas who served in the seven-year American Revolutionary War. He enlisted as a private in the military at 16 years old in 1776. The year the Revolutionary War led to a Declaration of Independence and the formation of the United States of America.
The Cabin Restaurant was established in 1937, almost 15 years after the Youngs’ Attack monument down the road was established. The Cabin’s atmosphere seems to ironically honor the battle that took place nearby with its classic American cuisine served amongst a bar and TVs for watching sports. From burgers to brick oven pizza within a cottage-like, rustic cabin-made restaurant.
Lauren L. from Yelp commented on the Cabin, “This place was a road house since the late 1940s or early 1950s. I grew up in the area, and went as a child.” She added, “It was great; a moose head on the wall, legit french onion soup, and great steak fries. The waitresses were regulars and called you “hon.” Yes, it was a little dirty, but all in all, a nice family place.”
The American vibe of the Cabin still canons out of its light wood log walls.
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The winter of 1779-1780 was grueling. The horrific snowstorms and frozen water paths had led to a vulnerable America.
Irvington Village Historian Erik Weiselberg found regarding American forces, including Requa, “Several of them were so severely frozen as to be totally unfit for duty.”
The American patriot force’s Lt. Col. Joseph Thompson and 250 men from Massachusetts attempted to recover that winter and warm up their frozen limbs in Joseph Young’s house, which was an American outpost. A safe haven for colonials battling the most veteran military force in the world.
The timing couldn’t be any worse and conditions colder as the British decided to harass American outposts. The area “no man’s land” was about to fulfill a dark meaning. The area that would later become Tarrytown and White Plains was a danger zone of isolation, raids and death.
A British force of over 500 men came to capture and destroy Young’s house after the American and British forces exchanged fire for 15 minutes. It was a bloody mess for the American patriots who saw 14 left for dead, a burned barn, 37 wounded and 76 captured prisoners. The Brits has lost five of their own with 18 wounded.
A snow once paper white turned wine red.
By the side of the road west of the Cabin, near the Sprain Parkway, the Daughters of the American Revolution implanted the memorial monument of the Battle of Young’s House in 1923, according to Weiselberg and photo provided by the Greenburgh Town Historian Riley Wentzler. A marker that serves as an invisible cemetery for the killed soldiers. However, this didn’t include Requa. He had previously quartered at Young’s House prior to the horrific battle.
Later on, he continued to live nearby with his parents where he fell witness to a British spy. His concern grew stronger for the local residents.
He eventually died at age 84 after falling off a wagon jerked aggressively by its overbearing horse.
The Cabin Restaurant may not be haunted by Requa or the soldiers who died just down the road many, many years ago. Yet, the surrounding atmosphere seems to almost unintentionally mimic the war’s mission of serving its country. Through the aging wooden logs and hot brick ovens that wait to serve its people. I come back regularly to order at my shaky table and wait for a waitress like Moloney to serve me another burger and spill more haunted rumors.
