Discover P.O. Box Twenty One Speakeasy in Westerville

It seems like a perfect full-circle moment: Uptown Westerville, the birthplace of Prohibition, is now home to a speakeasy. In late 2024, High Bank Distillery opened its third restaurant in the former Westerville post office, adding a subterranean cocktail bar called P.O. Box Twenty One as a nod to the 21st Amendment.

Co-founder and head distiller Adam Hines says the speakeasy fits perfectly with High Bank Distillery’s flagship spirit: Whiskey War. Its name recalls the story of Henry Corbin, whose Westerville saloon was blown up twice in the decades before Prohibition. P.O. Box Twenty One is accessible by a stairwell at the rear of the restaurant, although Hines recommends entering through the narrow stairs off the back parking lot. Before entering the bar, visitors are met by a lobby designed exactly like a 1990s post office, complete with shipping supplies hanging from horizontal slats on the walls. 

“It’s always funny that people think it’s actually the old post office,” Hines says. “They ask, ‘Did you keep it original downstairs?’ It hasn’t been a post office in decades.”

But once patrons step through the doors, the fluorescent lights fade away and visitors encounter a beautiful bar with cozy seating tucked into nooks and crannies. The space is decorated with artwork from local antique shops. Hines says they found old prescriptions written for whiskey during Prohibition, as well as hundreds of postcards mailed in Ohio during that era.

The cocktail menu features more than a dozen choices, ranging from whiskey drinks to gin-based concoctions to tequila and mezcal options. The Corbin’s Old Fashioned is a classic version of the drink, using barrel-proof Whiskey War, brown sugar and bitters. The French Connection blends High Bank’s Statehouse Gin with pineapple, tamarind shrub and brut. The menu is rounded out by a small selection of beer and wine, snacks like a house-made Chex mix and a handsome list of whiskeys.

“My favorite cocktail by far is the Havana Cabana,” Hines says. “It uses our Cigar Cask whiskey and includes pineapple juice and mixes. I like spirit-forward drinks; Cigar Cask is barrel-strength. It has tropical flavors ... it almost turns into a tiki cocktail.”

28 S. State St., Westerville 43081, 614/380-3130, poboxtwentyone.com

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