Not to bad of a place. Beer is pretty decent if you buy there own brewed ales. Food menu looks and sounds good. Most item's are as stated. Overall to me it's a small town pub trying to hard to be a big time 5 star restaurant. Need to tone it down a notch and not try so hard.
Generic brew-pub with like $3 beers. The brown ale is good, but the hefeweizen is my favorite by far. Burgers are good. The steak is hella expensive. The fries are nothing to write home about. But the best part is...
They have two Bocce ball courts. Gettin all spry on hefeweizen while pretending to be an old italian man (or a hipster) is a simple pleasure you should treat yourself to.
Interesting decor, you eat in cubbies resembling jail cells. Â Casual pub atmosphere with a good selection of hand crafted beers and pub grub food. Â Wood fired pizza looked great, hamburgers were overlooked, but came in a variety of favors. Â Prices are very reasonable. Â A good place to grab a quick filling meal.
Review Source:I give it 2 stars because the food was OK not great but OK.  I arrive at about 630 with two other friends we were told it would be a 45 min wait unless we had reservations.  A couple of large tables were already set up.  We all know in restaurant time 45 mins mean 1 hour plus.  I was surprised when we did get sat in about 40 mins.  The place very small and cramped tables sitting on top of each other.  A live band setting up and we were just dreading the band and noise was going to be so loud we couldn't talk to each other.  The waitress took our drink order and the band started to play so we had to scream the last of the order to the waitress.  The drinks and apps came in a reasonable time. Me and my friends just looked at each other because we got tried of screaming to talk over the band.  The band being in such a cramped place and crowed was sitting right on top of the tables.  It took about an hour to get our food and by the time it arrive none of us were even hungry any longer.  I had one of the homemade pizzas and it was pretty good.  Good size and had a lots of flavor but I only felt like eating a couple of pieces.  I order another drink but never received it and couldn't enjoy my friends company.  By that time it was getting stuffy and hot inside the place.  We asked for our check and we paid to get out as fast as we could.  My ears were ringing with the band playing in my ear and I was so hot I could have stood in an ice box.  Seemed to me the band which the music wasn't bad was causing more issues then helping.  People were eating and staying around to finish their drinks and nursing what they had in front of them.  But the front door was turning away customers because of the extended wait time.  Seemed me the place was loosing money with people at the table not buying anything and customers wanting to get in to buy food were being turned away.  I suggest either put the band downstairs or expand your location.  I will think twice before I go back and the food was just not worth the noise, heat, sitting on top of people and all the wait times.  Two stars for the food everything else for get about it go somewhere else and enjoy your  friends.  If you come for the band buy stuff don't just take up space or get out.
Review Source:Beer is horrid. Protip: if a beer has accents of banana, it's not finished - its not a good thing. Seriously, worst microbrews I've ever had, mediocre burgers, nice bartender. May try the pizza, but I'd rather give my money to Arris' or Kate & Allies and leave this dive to the tourists.
Review Source:The beer is great here and I love coming here just for that. Â The food is also very good. Â It's solid bar and grill food to go with beer. Â The atmosphere is fun and is definitely unique. Â It's a good place to grab a bite and try all the beers on tap. Â
They have an outside patio for dining and bocce ball courts. Â I've never seen that before and thought it was cool. Â The night we went, there was a bocce tournament outside with the bocce ball leagues. Â Their website says they also have live bands play there on some nights. Â Will definitely be back.
Honestly I didn't expect to find a hip sort of micro-brew joint that I might actually frequent--if it were closer to home--in Jefferson City, MO. They took a portion of a closed-down jail and converted it into a nice little place serving pizza and bar food with a fairly complete set of local brews.
The atmosphere is kitschy and fun, with enough of the caging left in and thematic artwork hung to get the point across without feeling claustrophobic. The service was semi-friendly and reasonably quick during a recent visit with my wife, brother and sister-in-law. We came in close to the end of the lunch rush and ordered a salad for the sister-in-law, a pulled pork pizza for my brother and I to split and a burger for my wife. By the time we finished our leisurely meal the place had pretty much emptied but I didn't notice a significant lack of service quality from the start to the end of the meal which is to the waitress' credit.
The pizza was very tasty, east coast style with a thin cornmeal crust, brick oven blackened and they even heeded my request to go light on the cilantro (something many places can't seem to manage, regardless of cuisine style). My wife's burger was pretty disappointing, but I guess that just shows you should stick to the strengths of an establishment.
I had a Prison Town Brown and I also tried a few sips of my wife's I Ain't Your Honey Wheat. I found the brown to be a bit more stout than I expected (I was looking for something a bit more in the Newcastle vein) but still tasty and the Wheat was capable although unremarkable, bearing in mind that wheat beers are probably at or near the bottom of my list for types of beer I prefer.
A few minor nitpicks kept the experience from really rising above, one being that the location and parking situation were kind of awkward and, obviously, being an unused jail the exterior wasn't intended to be very inviting, it still seemed not much had been done to improve the outside aesthetic now that it ought to be attracting customers. Secondly is really picky but I can't help but be annoyed when establishments use cutesy names for dishes or drinks and yet the staff appear to be embarrassed by them. When I ordered the beers the server read them back as "The Brown" and "The Honey Wheat." If employees can't even have enough fun in their jobs and confidence in the products they offer to lose some self-consciousness and repeat a silly product name, maybe find some less uptight workers or lose the silly conventions altogether.
Personally, I think the beer is better than the food. I had the brown ale, which was smooth and delicious. I enjoyed the grilled portabella salad for lunch. It was pretty tasty, although nothing special. For our appetizer, our table shared the homemade beer bread and cheese. It was good beer bread made in their brick oven. I realized after dining here and driving around Jefferson City, that this is probably one of your best dining options. I don't think there are too many choices and I would recommend Prison Brews over most restaurants in town just judging by websites and appearance.
Review Source:I was hoping for more when I read about the prison theme. It could have been done better, but still an interesting concept nonetheless.
The names of the beers were pretty great. The beers themselves were just ok. All decent (and, admittedly, it can be difficult to have every single one of your beers rank as decent), but none particularly memorable.
The wings were quite good. Spicy with sweet and tangy elements. Good meatiness and size. Just the right amount of sauce. And the dipping sauce was particularly delicious. The menu just says blue cheese, but there is definitely more going on. Sorta like blue cheese mixed with a touch of ranch and sour cream, and then diced jalapenos and an element of tanginess added. Went so good with the wings.
The other food items we ordered were sorta blah.
The restaurant itself is on the small side and laid-out in a very open fashion, which I liked.
The service was good, especially considering that our waitress had a very large party to also deal with.
This was my second visit to Prison Brews. Â The beers are good, at least the two I tried. Â Kind of gimmicky names, I had a Deathrow Oatmeal Stout and an I Ain't Your Honey Wheat. Â The Oatmeal Stout had a bit more coffee flavor than I expected, but it did satisfy, the honey wheat was what I expected and had a nice refreshing flavor. Â The burger I had was at least okay. Â What caused me to give this such a high rating was the sweet potato fries. Â They were excellent. Â Lightly fried, liberally dusted with brown sugar and cinnamon. Â I added just a touch of salt to them and fell in love.
Review Source:I heard that Prison Brews had prison decor but I wouldn't know--my dining companion and I were shown the patio because of a large group that was scheduled to show up. Â
I had a grilled chicken salad. Â It was okay. Â My friend had the special which was a breaded tenderloin. Â Again, okay.
We ordered the buffalo chicken dip for an appetizer. Â The dip ingredient separated. Â Served with fairly stale chips.
Good little microbrewery in Jeff City. Â The food is pretty good bar food, nothing special. Â The sweet potato fries are pretty good. Â Appetizers are a little greasy/ salty (like what you expect at a bar). Â
I have enjoyed the steak sandwich here as well as some of their pizzas. Â The beer is pretty good. Â I like the Go to Jail Ale, not too bitter.
Well, wouldn't ya know it, Jeff City has a microbrewery. The place is annoyingly gimmiky with the prison theme. Prison Brews sits right next the old prison, which was conveniently located in the middle of the city.
The prison has been shut down, the inmates moved out of sight, but the concrete walls of the structure still sit stubbornly in the middle of the town.
They serve pretty typical brewery food that is generally sub par. The service has been good and friendly every time I've gone. The great thing about Prison Brews is their Milk Stout. It is creamy all the way down and sweet finished. In the summer time, they open a huge back patio where there is bocce ball and Jimmy Buffet-type bands. It's a pretty lively place if you can get into that.
While they miss the mark in some respects, there are some shining items that really take it to the hole.
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