The Ohio Eatery Famously Decorated With Chewed Gum

In downtown Greenville, Ohio, a city of around 12,000 people northwest of Dayton, an innocuous sandwich shop draws customers who are arguably there for the restaurant's walls as much as they are for its food. It's called the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe, and it's been around since 1934. And for much of that time, locals and visitors alike have been pressing their used chewing gum into the exterior brick, creating a colorful mosaic now known simply as the "Gum-Wall." 

The wall's origins are a bit hazy, and it's unclear who exactly started it. Rather, the restaurant's owner told Ohio Magazine that people started putting gum on the restaurant's rear wall not long after it opened. Over time, the gum has transitioned to the other red brick walls of the restaurant, with customers sometimes sticking extra items in their gum, like coins or even love notes. Now, it's inseparable from the restaurant's identity, and what might look like vandalism elsewhere is treated here as community folk art — a sticky, if abstract, scrapbook of the restaurant's visitors.

Of course, this is a restaurant, not a public art piece, so what do people actually eat at Maid-Rite? The star is the Maid-Rite Sandwich, a so-called "loose meat sandwich" that's also very popular in Iowa. It's comparable to a pickle-enhanced sloppy joe without sauce, featuring ground beef on a hamburger bun, dressed with onion, mustard, and, of course, pickles. You can also get versions with cheese or ham, plus some other deli staples like chicken or egg salad sandwiches.

In terms of food, the appeal of Maid-Rite seems to be its simplicity and nostalgia: Locals keep coming back, and it's known for having long lines of customers. But the wall itself is arguably an attraction in its own right, drawing people for photo ops as they stick their gum on there. This is a key reason that the owners haven't eliminated the gum wall: Customers have fond memories of sticking their own piece of gum there, perhaps with a loved one, so scraping it all away would be a knife to the heart of sorts.

Of course, this leaves one obvious question: Is a wall covered in chewed gum actually safe to have around? In Seattle, a similar gum wall on the city's famed Pike Place Market, a must-stop spot if you only have a day to eat in Seattle, gets pressure washed clean every few years. All the gum is removed with each cleaning, but it quickly gets put back. While some people find the wall disgusting, city officials don't seem particularly bothered by the phenomenon. In fact, the reason for the cleanings is more because the gum can damage the brick wall, rather than any hygiene concern.

In Greenville, cleanings are less common, with the owners only cleaning the wall alongside the drive-thru in order to prevent bees hanging around (although it's a losing battle, as the gum quickly reappears). In any case, there doesn't appear to be any evidence of people getting sick from such a gum wall, in Seattle, Greenville, or elsewhere. But it may be wise to use common sense: Enjoy the view, but don't touch.