While societies have been locking up those who violate its laws for the past few millennia, prisons do shut down from time to time and some communities find creative ways to repurpose the buildings. In New York state, one ex-prison now serves as a TV and movie studio, while another in Tennessee today serves as a whiskey distillery and campground. In Wooster, Ohio, however, a long-closed lockup has served as a restaurant since the 1980s.
The Olde Jaol Tavern, as its name makes (sort of) clear, is all about capitalizing on the building’s history, although a previous restaurant occupying the same premises downplayed it with the name Mr. Bill Restaurant. (We don’t know if this was a reference to the claymation character that SNL was constantly trying to kill off back in the day.) Before its 20th-century incarnation as an eatery, however, The Olde Jaol was an actual jail built in 1865, which also served as the Wayne County criminal justice center until 1977. While the original plan was to knock down the building, preservationists lobbied to have it declared a landmark and it was eventually granted this status in 1980.
While the restaurant pays homage to its grim past with iron bars around its patio, the exposed brick walls give it more of a trendy-cozy vibe, while the leather chairs and stemmed water goblets remind you this is an upscale dining experience. The menu prices, too, may have you feeling as if you’ve been on the wrong end of a robbery, although these days, you might say that of McDonald’s, as well…