Prison Break-fast

The Provost a year ago

A year ago, I did a photo essay on some interesting buildings on the Rhodes University campus and one of my favourites was the Old Provost, a prison that remained from Grahamstown's military days. Well a week ago that prison re-opened as a coffee shop! How's that for an out-of-the-ordinary culinary experience?

I popped in to The Provost Cafe last week after oversleeping and missing breakfast (which happens more often than it should) for a quick coffee but ended up staying for one of their savoury muffins. What a good life choice! It was a simple spinach, feta and pepperdew muffin but it was absolutely amazing. The filter coffee that I ordered, however, tasted pretty average. A friend of mine grabbed a cappuccino a few days later and said that it was really good, so I suggest you pay them a visit and decide for yourself because I am certainly no coffee expert.

The menu appears to be rather limited: just muffins, croissants and giant cookies but what is there is freshly made and wholesome. I do hope more food is added on soon though so I can say I know what prison food tastes like.

The Provost is on the outskirts of campus where it is much quieter, making it a great place to catch up on reading or meetings. I'm also pretty excited about using a landmark in such a way that tourists can do more than just have a look at the outside of the place. As you eat you are surrounded by the old jail rooms, which is possibly the strangest place I've ever had a meal at. Strange, but pretty darn awesome of course.

For more info on The Provost Cafe, this right here is their Facebook page. And if you don't already know that the Old Provost is a Panopticon (Panopti-whaaaat?) then do click here and be knowledged by the mighty wikipedia.

Happy coffee drinking!

Doors of the prison cells are now open for visitors to have a look around.

The view from inside the cells is now a much more pleasant sight.