Archive for the ‘Columbus, Ohio’ Category
July 8, 2011
Picnicking season is upon us! And with the onslaught of trucks and carts hitting the city (and country), the word can be loosely interpreted to include just about any outdoor eating. (Picnic purists, do not fret. Everyone knows nothing—not even a grilled cheese sandwich filled with Cincinnati-style chili cooked in four minutes and handed to you just a few feet from the blanket—can take the place of home prepared food, slathered with mayonnaise or mustard, tucked with fresh garden dill or basil, served alongside brownies and watermelon.) But for this post only, let’s broaden the definition so that we can “picnic” as often as possible.
1. Columbus Commons.
Picnic-related injuries are at an all-time low at one of the city’s newest parks, Columbus Commons: no splinters from these tables! And chances are, no matter what you bring to eat, it’ll be better than the Sbarro (and other City Center food vendors) that were the previous occupants of the space.
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Tags:Goodale Park Music Series, Hayden Falls, Hocking Hills, picnics, Wexner Center
Posted in Columbus, Ohio, Friday Five, In The Neighborhood | Leave a Comment »
June 30, 2011
This is a public service announcement brought to you by Itinerant Foodies: DeepWood has tots as big as your head.
And they’re served alongside the best meatloaf I’ve ever had in my life. Veal, I think, was made for meatloaf. Grab a seat at the bar and find out for yourself.
p.s. Yes, of course they make their own ketchup.
DeepWood
511 North High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
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Tags:Deepwood, tater tots
Posted in Bargain Bin, Columbus, Ohio, In The Neighborhood, Table Service | Leave a Comment »
June 17, 2011
Last fall, I went on the last Taco Truck Tour of the season hosted by Bethia of Columbus Food Adventures. A simple, yet lovely, part of the tour was the fact that I did not have to drive. The downside to this is that I paid absolutely no attention to where we were, at any point in time on the tour. Not only that, but I was so busy stuffing my face full of taco truck wares (that enhanced my perception of the genre by 150%) and trying to take pictures, that I didn’t write down any of the details. Although I showed up to class with enthusiasm, I would have failed a multiple choice test given at the end. The Taco Truck Tour is a course I’m going to have to retake. This week’s Friday Five are five images from the tour (ones that I’m hoping will earn me extra credit for the next time around). Captions are provided with the assistance of Professor Bethia Woolf.
1. La Popular, Wilson & Broad.
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Posted in Columbus, Ohio, Friday Five, In The Neighborhood, Shacks, Carts & Trucks, Table Service | 3 Comments »
June 3, 2011
I’ve spent some time being jealous of my friends who work downtown. First, they don’t have to drive. (I’ve been known to loudly chant encouraging words to myself when dealing with the 315 and 270 merge on my way home from work: “I hate to change lanes, but I can change lanes!”) I dream of a simple bus ride and the company of a book or Twitter on my commute. A second point of jealousy is their access to El Arepazo, one of the best (and busiest) lunch destinations in Columbus. I’ve only been able to visit a few times (thanks, jury duty!) but every time, I swoon over their patacon (a Venezuelan dish of fried plantains topped with tilapia, banana peppers, avocado, lettuce and cheese) and drool over their cilantro sauce (available in mild and spicy). Alas, my work in the grocery land doesn’t free me to leave for lunch and my opportunities to shove my face full of their deliciousness are few and far between.
Happy news! While Carlos and the folks from El Arepazo haven’t done anything about my (relatively short) commute, they have made it easier for me to enjoy their wares, via their new food truck, Yerba Buena Latin Grill, which is parked on High Street near Glenmont on the north end of Clintonville. I visited Saturday and sampled most of the menu. I will be back. Often. Today’s Friday Five is a small selection of my favorite items from the truck.
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Tags:Columbus, food trucks, Friday Five
Posted in Bargain Bin, Columbus, Ohio, Friday Five, In The Neighborhood, Shacks, Carts & Trucks | 2 Comments »
June 2, 2011
This winter, I took a few minutes to interview Peggy Yerkes from Bono Pizza for a series of interviews that I’ve sort of been afraid to publish. Procrastination, ya know. For months afterwards, I’d go into the restaurant and Bill would chastise me, “Every time I go to Itinerant Foodies, I don’t see my wife.” Thus, I came to a crossroads: either post the piece or avoid the restaurant. The latter seemed too ridiculous an option, so I present the first of our interview series: Behind The Scenes.
There are several reasons I love going to Bono Pizza. Their wood-fired pizzas are the best in Columbus and the BYOB policy is quite nice. But more and more, I find that I want to go see Peggy. It’s no secret that Bill and Peggy Yerkes are the incredible team holding Grandview’s pizza-shop-within-a-convenience-store together. While Bill works the back of house (in a figurative sense; the place is too small to have much of a conventional restaurant feel), Peggy takes charge of the front of house customer service operations. Her duties go far beyond the typical chores of taking orders, seating guests and making change; Peggy will also lend out books, introduce any unique or strange customer to everyone in the ten-seater restaurant, and has been known to chase down young ladies in her parking lot to procure phone numbers for (startled) gentlemen regulars. Peggy is the unconventional matron of this unconventional restaurant; in short, she fits in perfectly.
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Tags:pizza
Posted in Bargain Bin, Behind The Scenes, Columbus, Ohio, In The Neighborhood | 9 Comments »
May 13, 2011
Last night, the Columbus chapter of Pecha Kucha presented the 17th incarnation of the Japanese-born event in a warehouse on the west side of the city. Pecha Kucha is a simple concept that is difficult to pronounce. In short, a dozen or so passionate people speak for 6 minutes and 40 seconds on a topic of their choice in front of a 20-slide powerpoint presentation they’ve prepared. Right now, Pecha Kucha exists in 412 cities throughout the world. (Maybe we can coerce Maya to present at the one in New York!) As someone who frequently misses being in school, I’ve fallen in love with the event; it’s like two hours of graduate school without the forms and work. As a semi-new member of the committee that puts the quarterly celebration of creativity together, I signed up to take pictures that document the event. I tried to get a variety of the goings-on of the evening, but it was (naturally) difficult for me to stray from the mobile food court set up in the parking lot.
For today’s Friday Five, I present: a few of my favorite food images from Pecha Kucha.
1. The Perfect Trio.
I spied a few fellow foodies tucked away in a corner, sampling the wares of Families Mobile Kitchen (the new chicken and waffles truck) and Mojo TaGo (a “gringo” taco truck specializing in Baja-style tacos).
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Tags:chicken and waffles, Pecha Kucha, street food, tacos
Posted in Columbus, Ohio, Friday Five, In The Neighborhood, Shacks, Carts & Trucks | 1 Comment »
May 9, 2011
When my friend Sarah and I used to play pool, our strategy was to divvy out two tasks: one of us would be “Trash Talk,” while the other ended up being responsible for “Skills.” We were mediocre, at best, and the trash talk definitely didn’t do much to help the game. In the food arena, it’s much easier for me to gain the ability to talk (in general) than it is to develop skills. I can read, taste and travel to be able to speak on a topic, but I lack the patience to actually make many of the things I love to eat. Ask me to steadily cut a crepe, dip anything into chocolate or pan fry something using only wooden skewers? No thank you. I’ll leave that to the professionals.
When I first learned of Freshstreet’s setting up shop inside of Mikey’s Late Night Slice to make takoyaki, I was bitter. Last summer, I’d grown accustomed to their food cart, bearing Japanese-style pork belly crepes, being within walking distance of my house on most Sunday afternoons. My inner trash talk was silenced this past Sunday when I encountered my first-ever taste of their takoyaki.
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Tags:Columbus, Japanese, shacks, squid, street food, takoyaki
Posted in Bargain Bin, Columbus, Ohio, In The Neighborhood, Shacks, Carts & Trucks | 3 Comments »
March 16, 2011
The nicest chefs in Columbus cook the best food. After five years of planning cooking classes with our cadre of culinary all-stars, I can say this with confidence. After having an opportunity to work alongside David MacLennan, the chef from Latitude 41 earlier this winter, I finally made it in to try his food on his terms, prompted by a tweet announcing their new happy hour. Half off appetizers (flatbreads and small plates) and $2.00 draft beers from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. This, friends, was no Applebee’s.
Ben and I shared five small plates, starting with chicken and waffles. I’m a sucker for chicken and waffles; any time I see it on a menu, I order. This version contained a waffle with a heavenly slab of butter spiked with chives. The chicken — deboned thigh and breast rolled together and pan fried — was served over braised greens and grilled corn, just off the cob. As someone who prefers savory over sweet, the combination was perfectly balanced and not at all cloying. The sweetest part of the dish was the corn. Brilliant.
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Tags:Columbus, happy hour, Latitude 41
Posted in Bargain Bin, Columbus, Ohio, In The Neighborhood, Table Service | 7 Comments »
January 26, 2011
This is heaven. This is what I thought two Sundays ago, as I sat at a giant wooden table surrounded by the smell of a wood-fueled fire and the sounds of Sigur Ros enveloping me. Directly in front of me were floor-to-ceiling paned glass doors that unearthed a view of snow-covered southeast Ohio while allowing in enough perfect mid-afternoon January light to make any photograph I took make me look ten times more talented than I actually am. Oh. And, I was surrounded by a small group of incredible people, including (but not limited to) Matthew Barbee of Rockmill Brewery. And he would not stop pouring his delicious organic Belgian-style ales into my glass. Definitely heaven.
Rockmill Brewery made its Columbus debut in September of 2010. I first saw their beers at an event at House Wine for Local Foods Week, and quickly started lobbying my own libations department to start carrying them. This lobbying was, it seems, to the detriment of both my checking account and my waistline, as ever since my dreamy Sunday afternoon, I cannot stop craving them.
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Tags:beer, farmhouse, Lancaster, Ohio, Rockmill Brewery, sigur ros
Posted in Columbus, Ohio, In The Neighborhood, Roots | 7 Comments »
