Popular restaurant & bar announces opening time frame of new third location with secret speakeasy

Last spring, one of Columbus’ most popular distilleries unveiled that they’re opening a third location – and the wait is finally almost over.

High Bank Co.’s newest Westerville location, in a historic post office at 28 South State St., pays homage to the Prohibition Era and Westerville’s rich, yet complicated, history with alcohol – and of course, that means a secret speakeasy hidden away somewhere in the building. 

While the High Bank Co. restaurant space is planning on opening in early August (stay tuned for the exact date) with the same food & cocktail menu we all know and love from their Grandview & Gahanna locations, the opening of the speakeasy, named P.O. Box 21’s (a play on the fact it’s located in a post office, plus the 21st amendment) opening date won’t really be announced, in true Prohibition-era fashion. “You’ll just have to find out about it through word of mouth,” said Hines.

P.O. Box 21 will feature a specialty cocktail menu in a sophisticated, intimate space will propel you back into the times of the Whiskey Wars in the late 1800s, where opening a bar or even consuming alcohol could mean putting yourself, and your saloon, in danger. In fact, actual Prohibition, Anti-Saloon League propaganda was mailed out from this exact Post Office. Westerville was known as “The Dry Capital of the World;” the community used to vehemently oppose the consumption of distilled spirits, to the point where Westerville saloons, like the ones owned by Henry Corbin, were blown to bits. Undeterred by diversity, Corbin established his own clandestine speakeasy in his downtown Westerville pool hall, selling beer and spirits. Adam Hines definitely wants to play off of that history.

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“When you go down in the speakeasy, it will still feel like a 90s post office,” Hines laughed. “White walls, blue and red trim, a drop ceiling, and fluorescent lighting. But when you find the hidden door, you’ll enter a dark and smoky room (from smoked drinks; not cigars) and jazz music.”

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