It’s been a while since we’ve posted a ‘quick bites’ style blog entry, but next month’s bounty of opportunities makes for a great excuse to pick it back up! Kicking off the month is The Market to Market Bicycle Adventure on May 5th – a bike ride between the North Market and Hills Market (in either direction). Start off with breakfast at the market of your choice and then enjoy a leisurely cycle up (or down) the bike path to earn your reward of a scoop of Jeni’s ice cream at the end. There’s also a goodie bag with $50 [...]

Before there was Till, there was Dragonfly. Dragonfly was among the most widely acknowledged and awarded restaurant in Columbus. It’s chef, Magdiale Wolmark, was twice a Beard award nominee and inarguably recognized as a true innovator in the preparation of vegan cuisine. It would’ve been easy to assume that a national reputation for haute vegan would stand as Chef Wolmark’s legacy. And yet, I just polished off one of Chef Wolmark’s tongue, anchovy and vacheron pizzas and had his burger last week. You see, over a period of a couple of weeks around the new year, the owners of Dragonfly [...]

The spring Dine Originals week kicks off tomorrow and, as usual, there are plenty of great dining options for value seekers and thrill seekers alike. Dine Originals Columbus has 47 members and with many of them are offering two or three distinct menus at different price points, reading through all of the options can be a little overwhelming. It’s also likely to make you extremely hungry. We spent a couple of mouthwatering hours perusing the menus; what follows are a few of our thoughts and suggestions. Dine Originals welcomed four new members this winter: Babushka’s Kitchen, Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog [...]

When we started Columbus Food Adventures, it was a given that we’d do an alt.eats based tour – in no small part because we absolutely love to show off the surprising diversity of ethnic foods on offer in Columbus. That said, one tour can only show off so much (for now, anyway…), and we very often overhear, from people who participate in the tour, reminiscences about other great ethnic food experiences found in other cities. And, very often, when we hear them talking we think, “You can get that here!” So, without further delay, here’s our list of cuisines and [...]

Chat to someone in line at Thurn’s, and odds are you’ll find they’ve been visiting the store since they were a kid. Thurn’s has plenty of third generation customers and quite possibly the most fiercely loyal following of any food purveyor in the city. Owner, Albert Thurn, is of the forth generation of the family who started Thurn’s as a butcher’s shop in 1886. Due to the construction of I-71, the building was moved to its current location in 1958. Albert has been working in the store since he was 10 years old and knows most of his customers by name. He [...]

Purchase tickets and see full menu for this event here! This is a screaming deal, if we do say so ourselves, on an exciting event we’ve managed to pull together last-minute. Here’s the deal: Fresh Street is putting on a ‘pop-up restaurant’ evening that’ll be hosted by Iron Chef competitor Jonathan Sawyer at his newest restaurant, Noodlecat in Cleveland. On Feb. 2nd, from 6:30pm on, they’ll be serving Japanese crepes, takoyaki, and yakitori in the restaurant. The ticket price includes full access to all of these offerings. And, if you’ve ever experienced the creations of Fresh Street and their sister [...]

I’ll admit to a bit of discomfort with 10-best lists, and never more so than when restaurants are the subject. After all, what makes for a great restaurant? Is it the meticulous service, impeccable culinary technique, tremendous wine list and exceptional ambience found at places like The Refectory? Or, is it the straightforward pleasure of biting into a big pile of what may well be the best al pastor east of the Mississippi while sitting on a bar stool outside at Los Guachos? How do you reconcile an exceptional $100/person restaurant experience with what could legitimately be seen to be an equally [...]

Thanks to your support, the dinners that we organized in September to raise money for the famine in the Horn of Africa were very successful. We were able to send $2400 to the American Refugee Committee who are working on the ground in Somalia, we also introduced some new people to Somali food, connected with the Somali community and had wonderful feedback on Nadira’s delicious cooking. Sadly the famine continues to claim the lives of innocent children and we wanted to do more to support the victims of the famine. At this time of Thanksgiving when we give thanks for [...]

Columbus is a great city for the coffee-lover. The availability of well-sourced and meticulously roasted beans is impressive, and the deep knowledge of coffee preparation found at our better purveyors amounts a tremendous wealth of useful information waiting to be tapped. And so, with that, we are proud to present our newest event – the Coffee Tour. The format is simple: we’ll visit a roaster to learn about what goes into turning raw coffee beans into something exquisite, a top espresso bar to discuss turning those beans into top quality espresso drinks, and a premier coffee shop to learn about [...]

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the annual re-opening of the Bierberg Bakery. Ever since we started our German Village Walking tour in May, we’ve been walking past their location (at 729 South Fifth Street) every Saturday afternoon and stopping to talk to our tour guests about the history of this quirky little business that only opens for 2 months a year. And now, cookie-lovers, they’re open! Here’s what to look for: The business started in 1913, and was opened by Theresa Bierberg when her husband fell ill and she needed to support her family. The bakery’s original location was on S. [...]