In many ways, Clink restaurant, which Wales Today reports will soon open in Cardiff, Wales, will be like any other fine dining establishment. It will have white tablecloths, fine silverware and serve intricately-plated dishes made -- whenever possible -- from locally-sourced ingredients.
But in other ways, Clink will be unlike almost any other restaurant in the world. The main difference? The 100-seat restaurant will be located in a prison, and it will be staffed mostly by convicts.
The new restaurant, which will soon open in the Category-B correctional facility HMP Cardiff, will be the second outpost of the Clink concept. The first opened in 2009 at HMP High Down, a prison in Sutton, England and was the subject of a documentary ("The Prison Restaurant") on the BBC.
Both Clinks are headed by chef Al Crisci, who has been campaigning for better food in British prisons for years. The goal of Clink (which is named after the most famous prison of medieval and early modern Europe) is to provide convicts with the skills they need to find jobs once they leave prison, and thereby help cut down on recidivism.
But the people who eat at Clink aren't doing it just out of the good of their hearts. According to an early review of the Sutton branch in the Independent, the food, service and decor are all exemplary.