The Wonder Bar/MOB Roadhouse/Bar Next Door

                                                                      Wonder Bar Haunted?
222 E. Olin Ave.     Built 1930     Craftsman
1930 – Opened as the “Wonder Bar” – Owners include: Eddie Touhy, Dick Whalen
1993 – Name changed to “MOB Roadhouse” – Owner Mike O’Brien
???? – Name changed to “Capone's Bar Next Door”
2009 – Name returned to “Wonder Bar” – Owner Jim Luedtke

When Eddie Touhy opened Eddie's Wonder Bar the money was fronted by Eddie's brother, Roger “The Terrible” Touhy. The Touhy’s were an Irish family from Chicago's Northwest side. Roger was competing with Al Capone for control of the illegal booze trade in the Midwest during Prohibition. Capone was too powerful so Tuohey opened up roadhouses away from Chicago to distribute his beer. The Wonder Bar served as a beer distribution center for much of Wisconsin.

The bar was a safe-house for gangsters traveling through Madison. Built like a fortress, with turreted booths in which no one's back was to the front door, it was bullet-proof with hidden compartments(under the windowsill, just the right size to hold a Thompson submachine gun). A secret tunnel was put in underground for a fast getaway if needed.

Wonder Bar Painting
Above the big stone fireplace “A busty, beautiful, semi-nude, ‘60s pinup’” by Holland-born portraitist Leo Jansen was loaned to former owner Dick Whalen by Jim Meier. The painting was sold and not on site for some years before Jim Luedtke tracked it down and brought it back. The identity of the woman in the painting is unknown.