PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2023

Patrick and Carol Haynes, owners of Haynes on Main in Mackinaw

Diners enjoy the day outside Haynes on Main in Mackinaw

Customers browse at the Mackinaw Depot Tea Room

Mackinaw Depot Tea Room

for reasons that many can’t (or won’t) explain, the town remained dry — no alcohol sales within village limits — for another 79 years. To be clear, residents who were inclined to imbibe could still get a beer and a bump at several taverns just outside the village limits. But when the ban was lifted, Carol and Patrick Haynes said they thought, “Maybe we should do something before someone else does.” That something was the now decade old establishment offering what Carol Haynes calls “upscale pub food … better than what you could get at your average small-town pub.” Fourteen tap handles dispense a variety of brews. Wine and liquor are also available. Last year’s addition of

The store specializes in quality meats “and we have a very good deli,” he said. Space was given over to basic hardware supplies — electrical, plumbing, nuts and bolts, furnace filters — after the local hardware store closed. Zehr said his first job in fifth grade was stocking shelves for $1.85 an hour at an earlier iteration of the store. “I’d love to work until I’m 70,” he said with a laugh. AN END TO PROHIBITION … FINALLY It wasn’t until Prohibition ended in Mackinaw in 2012 that the popular Haynes on Main restaurant could open shop in a former drugstore on Main Street. Of course, Prohibition ended elsewhere in the country in 1933, but

a four-season beer garden greatly expanded the seating area. Live music is featured most Sunday afternoons. On any given night, Carol said only about 25% of customers are local, the rest from surrounding towns as far away as 30 miles. With nearly 30 full and part-time workers, Haynes on Main could be con sidered a major employer. “We’re super happy with where we are now,” Carol Haynes said. Mackinaw supports other eateries within shouting distance of each other, namely Mackinaw Family Restaurant, Eddy’s Kitchen near downtown, and Pub 52 in the Mackinaw Industrial Park. Eli’s Coffee occupies a former bank building on Main Street.

JUNE 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE 55