Asylum Restaurant, a Romantic Dinner in an Old West Arizona Ghost Town of Sedona

On a trip to Sedona, Arizona, we were blown away by the red rock landscape that evokes the planet Mars and surrounds this wealthy tourist city. Unfortunately, we were less than impressed by the expensive yuppified restaurants and stores. After only a day in Sedona, we took a day trip in search of a more authentic Arizona old west experience, and we found small town of Jerome hidden in the mountain region halfway between Sedona and Prescott.

Jerome, Arizona is a beautifully restored copper mining town once abandoned and restored by artists and hippies in the 1960s. Back when it was a boomtown at the beginning of the 20th century, Jerome was the fourth largest town in Arizona, teeming with whorehouses, saloons, gambling joints, and even opium dens. By the 1950's the town's population had dwindled to around 100 people. In the sixties, hippy squatters found the almost abandoned town and they moved in, restoring the seedy old buildings and turning them into galleries, artist and craftsman studios, and living spaces.

The few remaining pre-hippy locals, about 400 of them, are keepers of Jerome's history. They talk of the gunfights, the colorful characters, and the ghosts of prostitutes and bandits that still haunt the town.

We walked up and down the hills and around the town's narrow streets chatting with locals, peeking inside artist studios, and reliving old west history. Around dinnertime, a local suggested that the best romantic dinner to be found in Jerome is at the Asylum Restaurant in the venerable Jerome Grand Hotel.