Columbus Monthly - November 2022

FEATURES

24 10 BEST RESTAURANTS

Our list of the city’s finest eateries returns after a pandemic hiatus—with a bonus selection of 40 additional dining favorites.

38 WHEN HANIF MET ANN

The city’s two living MacArthur Fellows, writer Hanif Abdurraqib and artist Ann Hamilton, discuss craft, creativity, the grounding effect of Columbus and the myth of the singular genius.

44 OUR BODIES, OUR VOICES

In essays and stories, Central Ohio women reflect on what the fall of Roe v. Wade means to them. ON

by Tim Johnson

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Photo

Trio of ice creams at Chapman’s Eat Market

22 DATEBOOK

Sound in Frame, Handel’s “Messiah,” OSU-Michigan and more

Home & Style

82 Q&A Franklinton Press’ creative director on connecting with designers

84 HOME A Scioto River fishing cottage doubles in size.

91 TOP 25 REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

Food & Drink

94 INDUSTRY Women restaurateurs band together for post-pandemic support.

96 SHORT ORDER

North Market staple Hubert’s remains a rare spot for Polish fare in Columbus.

97 COPY & TASTE

Cobra cocktail bar will open in the Brewery District, while Motherwell Distilling Co. ramps up in Logan.

98 ON WINE

A look at Hausfrau Haven’s new bar, plus holiday wine recommendations

100 LET’S EAT

Special Ad Sections

57 DUBLIN

This energetic city is fast becoming a destination in its own right, thanks to strategic planning and robust amenities.

108 SIGNATURES

Peek behind the scenes and learn more about top talent at area restaurants.

PUBLISHER/GENERAL MANAGER

Ray Paprocki

EDITORIAL EDITOR

Dave Ghose

SENIOR EDITOR

Joel Oliphint

HOME & STYLE EDITOR

Sherry Beck Paprocki

DINING EDITOR

Erin Edwards

SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Emma Frankart Henterly INTERN

Kevin Capron

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION/DESIGN DIRECTOR

Betsy Becker

DIGITAL EDITOR

Julanne Hohbach

PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO EDITOR

Tim Johnson

ADVERTISING

MULTIMEDIA SALES EXECUTIVES

Michelle Crossman

Tia Hardman

Jackie Thiam

CLASSIFIED SALES

Amy Vidrick

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Rebecca Zimmer

MARKETING

MARKETING MANAGER

Lauren Reinhard

LETTERS: letters@columbusmonthly.com

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CONTRIBUTORS

Jeff Darbee writes the “Lost Columbus” column (Page 16), which appears in Front & Center every other month. He’s an author, historian and preservationist in Columbus.

Donna Marbury is a freelance writer and communications consultant. She profiled Let’s Talk Womxn Columbus, a food-centered networking organization (Page 94).

Nicholas Dekker contributed to our cover story, “10 Best Restaurants,” which appears on Page 24. Dekker is a Central Ohio-based food and travel writer who blogs at breakfastwithnick.com.

FROM LEFT, TESSA BERG; COURTESY DONNA MARBURY; SEEDLING PHOTOGRAPHY

Going the Extra Mile

The Columbus Monthly staff and I love all the elements of our publication, but I’d be lying if I said we don’t have favorites. The heart of the magazine is the “feature well”—the collection of longer stories in the middle of the issue—and every month, the top priority is to make sure we have a strong mix there.

dghose@columbusmonthly.com

With our November edition, we achieved that goal. Our three remarkable features are very different, but they all are original, surprising and insightful. And they all owe their existence to three people who pushed themselves, making the most of challenging assignments.

For our cover story, dining editor Erin Edwards took on the daunting task of ranking the city’s finest restaurants (“10 Best Restaurants,” Page 24). What’s more, Erin expanded this monster package, adding a new element, “Hot 40,” a lineup of indispensable (and often more affordable) restaurants that are part of our lively dining scene.

Meanwhile, senior editor Joel Oliphint executed an idea long in the works—bringing together the city’s two living MacArthur Fel-

COMMENTS

Feral Cat Fallout

Some readers took issue with Tom the Tabby, a feral cat and guest columnist (via writer Randy Edwards) who, in the August issue, defended his kind against a Licking County politician’s suggestion to hunt strays (“I’m Not the Invasive Species. You Are.”) “Responsible pet ownership and good stewardship of wildlife are not laughing matters, nor are the serious threats to biodiversity, of which domestic cats are one of the worst offenders,” Bill Anastasia commented on Facebook. In a letter, Columbus Audubon Board of Trustees member Hardy Kern said, “Cats are a major problem for native birds. … Somewhere between 1.3 and 4 billion birds every year are killed

lows, writer Hanif Abdurraqib and artist Ann Hamilton, for a conversation at the former home of the late artist Aminah Robinson, the city’s only other recipient of the prestigious honor (“ W hen Hanif Met Ann,” Page 38). It wasn’t easy to arrange this meetup, but Joel made it happen—and then moderated an inspiring joint interview of these extraordinarily accomplished individuals. “Not intimidating at all,” Joel joked in one of our staff meetings.

Finally, Home & Style editor Sherry Beck Paprocki, the editor of our former ancillary publication Columbus Monthly Health, compiled a feature package on abortion that, quite frankly, needed her perspective (“Our Bodies, Our Voices,” Page 44). This wrenching collection of essays and stories captures the rawness of our post-Roe moment—and it was a lot for Sherry to bear. One of the feature’s writers, a minister, offered to say a prayer for Sherry, a first in her career.

For me, this issue also inspired a prayer—a prayer of gratitude. I’m blessed to work with journalists willing to go the extra mile.

by domestic cats in the lower 48 states alone.” Kern advocated for keeping pet cats indoors: “Build a catio, put a leash on your feline friend or take them for a walk in a cat stroller.”

We gave Tom the Tabby a chance to respond to his critics. “Dang, claws out!” he wrote. “I’m glad one of the readers mentioned the study that estimates domestic cats kill 1.3 to 4 billion birds a year. Perhaps they read that in my modest commentary (fourth paragraph, final sentence)? Still, I always say, why walk when you can ride in a cat stroller? Can Uber provide that ride? And can it take me to a groomer? I could use a shampoo and a nail trim (said no feral cat ever).”

Send letters to: Editor, Columbus Monthly, 62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289, Columbus, OH 43216. Or email: letters@columbus monthly.com. A letter must include the writer’s name, address and daytime phone number. Letters will be edited for length and clarity. All letters sent to Columbus Monthly are considered for publication, either in print or online.

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PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON; ILLUSTRATION: CAT, GETTY IMAGES/GANNA BOZHKO; POSTER, GETTY IMAGES/BENNYB

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front & center

Blossoming Art

A wooden sculpture, Virginia Kistler’s “Fungi Gills, Kerfed 02,” inspired by the underside of a mushroom, hangs from the ceiling at the new Sarah Gormley Gallery, part of a growing Downtown gallery scene. Read more on Page 14.

Photo by Tim Johnson

Leading a New Wex

Incoming Wexner Center for the Arts director Gaëtane Verna inherits an institution altered by the pandemic.

By Dave Ghose

Gaëtane Verna got the hard sell. When she visited Columbus earlier this year for the first time, she met with Ohio State University officials, Wexner Center for the Arts staffers, community leaders and more. And no matter whom she spoke with—from civic leaders to Uber drivers—everyone expressed unreserved love for Columbus.

She even heard from a fellow Black Canadian museum director—COSI CEO Frederic Bertley, who grew up in Montreal, just like Verna. “He was saying so many great things about Columbus, saying he had lived in Canada. He’d lived in many other cities in the U.S. And by far, Columbus was his favorite,” she says. “He was like, ‘From a brother to a sister, this is a good place.’”

In November, Verna will begin her tenure as the next executive director of the Wexner Center for the Arts. And while that sales pitch from Bertley and others influenced Verna’s career shift, the biggest enticement was the actual job. Since its founding at Ohio State in 1989, the Wex has established itself as a unique cultural institution with a sterling reputation in modern art circles. The chance to lead such a place, Verna says, made it easier for her to leave her longtime leadership role at Toronto’s Power Plant, one of Canada’s premier contemporary art galleries, and move to the U.S.

As an example of the Wex’s vision, Verna points to a decision to establish a video artist residency early in the center’s history, embedding the practice alongside film, the visual arts and the performing arts. “When you go to any biennale now, artists have multidisciplinary practices, and visu-

al arts, video and film are the cornerstones of what you see in most contemporary art museums,” says Verna, speaking over the phone from her Toronto home in September. “So to put these practices under one roof together early on with performing arts shows why the Wexner always has had this great reputation.”

But the Wexner Center has suffered some wounds in recent years, from leadership instability and pandemic-induced financial struggles to the tarnished reputation of its founder, billionaire philanthropist Les Wexner, whose connections

to sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein have been the focus of intense media scrutiny. Verna says the Epstein scandal didn’t affect her decision to accept the Wexner Center job, saying that the university is a trustworthy and honorable organization. But there’s no doubt that Verna is inheriting an institution in flux, one that has been altered by the pandemic.

During the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, the university slashed the Wex’s budget by $2.5 million, which included staff reductions and furloughs. Since then, the university restored funding to

PHOTO: TYRELL GOUGH

Gaëtane Verna

the Wex, with the current $11.4 million budget above pre-pandemic levels, but the COVID crisis still inspired center employees to seek union representation with AFSCME Ohio Council 8, joining a wave of museum labor activism across North America. (In August, Columbus Museum of Art employees announced their own plans to form a union.)

Verna has experience with pandemic-inspired organizing efforts. Her employees at the Power Plant formed a union in 2021, and she says she supports workers’ right to organize. “We talk about

issues of diversity, equity and emerging social, political questions. This is what we showcase on the walls,” she says, referring to exhibitions. “So we also have a duty to take care of our people, the people who work in the institution.”

Still, Verna has much to learn about the Wex’s labor dynamics. Even though workers have filed a petition for a union vote, the y also continue to push university and Wexner Center leadership to voluntarily recognize the union. When asked if she supports voluntary recognition, she acknowledges ignorance of the request. “I

haven’t been briefed about any of this,” Verna says. “So I really can’t say anything about it.”

Indeed, Verna is holding off on making any grand assessments on the state of the Wexner Center. She praises the staff’s dedication and commitment, which, she says, “ bodes well for the future.” But until she learns more about the inner workings of the institution, “it would be unfair for me to pose judgment.”

Verna does have a track record of navigating difficult transitions. When she took over the Power Plant in 2012, The Globe and Mail in Toronto described the gallery as being in a “perpetual crisis.” Under Verna’s leadership, the Power Plant’s internal politics calmed down, and the institution grew its staff and budget, widened its audience by eliminating admission fees, hosted groundbreaking exhibitions and provided a platform for underrepresented artists.

Moreover, her 10-year directorship was the longest in the gallery’s history. Wexner Center supporters are looking for more stable leadership following the quick exit of Verna’s predecessor, Johanna Burton, who spent just 2½ years at the Wex. Verna, whose annual salary is $300,000, declines to predict how long she’ll be in Columbus, but she does point to her history at the Power Plant and her previous jobs at the Musée d’art de Joliette and the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University, where she stayed six and seven years, respectively. “I like to be invested in institutions,” she says. ◆

We talk about issues of diversity, equity and emerging social, political questions. This is what we showcase on the walls. So we also have a duty to take care of our people, the people who work in the institution.

Matt Reber and Jo Snyder of Wex Workers United

Not by the Book

Meet the social media wizard behind the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s creative and hilarious Instagram account.

If you follow the Columbus Metropolitan Library on Instagram (@columbuslibrary), you might have noticed that things have gotten a lot funnier. Nestled among mentions of upcoming events, staff profiles and pictures of kids with their first library cards is the kind of viral content one usually finds on the accounts of TikTok heavyweights.

As the digital storyteller specialist, Connor Dunwoodie oversees the library’s social media. Along with a team of staffers from several branches, Dunwoodie is finding new ways to tell the stories of a beloved city institution.

Columbus Monthly recently chatted with Dunwoodie, who broke down four of the library’s standout videos.

PARKOUR LIKE IT’S 2004

In this ode to The Office, librarians at the Hilliard branch jump, spin and roll around the library. Like the TV show, this version of parkour—the act of traversing obstacles by running, climbing or leaping—is all for

By Brittany Moseley

laughs. The staffers featured in the video— Carissa Whyte, Liz Bougher and Tim Pawlak—are regulars on the library’s social media feeds. “When I go to visit them at the branch, they are always plotting things out,” Dunwoodie says.

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

On RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Reading Challenge is a chance for contestants to “read” (i.e. throw shade) at each other. But at CML, the Summer Reading Challenge is about encouraging people of all ages to read during the summer. Wearing a pair of formidable heels and channeling Mama Ru, Adam Wheelbarger, a customer services specialist at the Hilliard branch, announces the start of the annual program. “ The library has some of the funniest people working for it,” Dunwoodie says.

WELCOME TO THE LIBRARY

Whether or not you’re familiar with the

Disney Channel show The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, you’ll still enjoy this video, which is built around a song from the series. The video was filmed at four branches and features an astounding number of staffers—and some impressive transitions. “That’s probably been our most elaborate one we’ve done,” Dunwoodie says.

A DINO-MITE JOB INTERVIEW

Before dinosaurs came to the Main Library branch in August for an interactive exhibit, Dunwoodie had to find out if one candidate was up for the job. During an interview with “Mrs. Rex,” he quizzed her on important questions, like what’s with the 150-some-million-year job gap?

Most impressive is Dunwoodie’s ability to remain composed in the face of his fellow co-worker wearing a large inflatable dinosaur costume. “Pay this man more money,” one person commented on Instagram. ◆

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Connor Dunwoodie helps create videos for social media for the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

OHIO ROOTS ROCKERS

Singer/guitarist Joe Walsh, best known for his work with the Eagles and James Gang, will bring an “all-Ohio bill” to Nationwide Arena on Nov. 13 for VetsAid, Walsh’s nonprofit that donates proceeds from huge concerts to veterans’ services charities. But some of the bands in this marquee show have more Ohio cred than others. Take a look at their buckeye bona fides.

—JOEL OLIPHINT

BUCKEYE BLUE BLOOD

The Black Keys  Akron natives

Dan Auerbach (above) and Patrick Carney recorded 2004 album Rubber Factory in an East Akron General Tire building.

The Breeders  Twin sisters Kim (above) and Kelley Deal remain rooted in Dayton, fully embodying “Ohio Till I Die.”

’Nuff said.  James Gang  Walsh spent some early years in Columbus before moving east, later returning to Ohio to attend Kent State and join James Gang in Cleveland.

Nine Inch Nails  PA native Trent Reznor moved to Cleveland in the mid-’80s, playing in local bands before forming NIN.

AM

To create the art of Nina West, Andrew knows that he sometimes needs to pull back and get exposure to different mediums and artists. He knows that Columbus fosters growth, and provides opportunity for collaboration and conversation. He loves creating Nina in a city that encourages and celebrates all art— regardless of medium. There’s no place he’d rather make his art.

Learn more about Andrew’s story and other Columbus artists, performances, exhibitions, concerts, public art and more at ColumbusMakesArt.com.

Dave Grohl  Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio, but grew up mostly in northern Virginia.

BUCKEYE BOGUS

Photo: Jennifer Englert | Design: Formation Studio

A Growing Gallery Scene

Sarah Gormley Gallery adds to an already robust, but somewhat overlooked, art hub Downtown.

By Joel Oliphint

When Sarah Gormley ran her gallery in the Short North, the same neighborhood she calls home, she rarely ventured Downtown. She didn’t even realize how many restaurants and businesses populated the area, but when a new space became available at 95 N. High St., Gormley decided to jump headfirst into an art scene beginning to coalesce Downtown. “It’s an entrepreneurial decision,” she says.

Gormley is certainly not the first to take advantage of Downtown’s gallery-friendly spaces. For years, art has found its way to the city center through the Columbus Museum of Art and mainstays like Hawk Galleries, Skylab Gallery and Ohio State’s Urban Arts Space, along with galleries at Columbus College of Art & Design, the Columbus Metropolitan Main Library branch, the Riffe Center and more. But recently, Downtown seems to be approaching a critical mass of galleries, undoubtedly tempting someone at Experience Columbus to designate the area an arts district.

Following the openings of Blockfort on Sixth Street in 2016, Rebecca Ibel’s Contemporary Art Matters on Fifth Street in 2017 and the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Loann Crane Gallery on Long Street in 2020, No Place Gallery moved Downtown to Gay Street from the South Side last year. In September, after three years in the Short North, Sarah Gormley worked with developer Jeff Edwards to take over the new High Street location. “This space is my dream gallery,” Gormley says. “This feels like an art gallery. It was built and designed to be an art gallery.”

Huge, street-facing windows allow lots of natural light to fill the minimalist space—a blank canvas, of sorts, with white walls and polished concrete floors. Gormley lobbied Edwards hard for a bathroom, and she wanted to be next door to her favorite restaurant, Speck, the forthcoming Italian eatery Veritas chef Josh Dalton relocated from downtown Delaware. “I

think there will be an intersection between the people who come to Speck and people who would like to buy art,” she says.

During her time in the Short North, which she describes as “the most amazing experience,” Gormley also learned that a neighborhood is only so important to success. Art galleries, she says, are destinations. “As long as there’s parking nearby, and you have great art and great artists, they will come,” she says.

Contemporary Art Matters’ Ibel, also a Short North alum, echoes the sentiment, citing differences between the retail and art worlds and emphasizing the energy

galleries inject into any area. “We bring the vibrancy. We bring the spice to the neighborhood. Wherever galleries go, people show up,” Ibel says.

More people are almost certainly coming. By 2040, the Columbus Downtown Development Corp. hopes to have 40,000 residents in the center city, adding more art collectors to a part of town that could use an energy injection after a pandemic lull.

“It’s scary, but it’s exhilarating,” Gormley says of the move Downtown. “I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but something’s happening, and I’m excited to be a part of it.” ◆

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Sarah Gormley

ART IN THE CITY’S CENTER

In addition to the Columbus Museum of Art, visit these Downtown galleries for fall and winter exhibitions.

PRIVATE

Blockfort

162 N. Sixth St., blockfortcolumbus.com

Contemporary Art Matters

243 N. Fifth St., Suite 110, contemporaryartmatters.com

Hawk Galleries

153 E. Main St., hawkgalleries.com

No Place Gallery

1 E. Gay St., noplacegallery.com

Sarah Gormley Gallery

95 N. High St., sarahgormleygallery.com

Skylab Gallery

57 E. Gay St., instagram.com/ skylabgallery

PUBLIC AND NONPROFIT

Beeler Gallery

Canzani Center, CCAD, 60 Cleveland Ave., beelergallery.org

Carnegie Gallery

Columbus Metropolitan Main Library branch, 96 S. Grant Ave., columbuslibrary.org/friends/ carnegie-gallery

Cultural Arts Center Main and Loft galleries

139 W. Main St., culturalarts centeronline.org

Fresh A.I.R. Gallery

During the pandemic, Southeast Healthcare’s gallery has temporarily relocated from 131 N. High St. to Seen Studios in Franklinton’s Chromedge building, 289 W. Walnut St., southeasthc.org/ services/freshairgallery

Loann Crane Gallery

Greater Columbus Arts Council, 182 E. Long St., gcacgallery.org

Ohio Arts Council Riffe Gallery

Vern Riffe Center, 77 S. High St., oac.ohio.gov/riffe-gallery

OSU Urban Arts Space

50 W. Town St., Suite 130, uas.osu.edu

THE START OF IT ALL

TWIG of Nationwide Children's Hospital presents November 13, 2022

10AM

Building Ohio Expo Center

Unique Handmade & Seasonal Items

Sweet Treats | Silent Auction | Raffles

Children's Activities

Proud Sponsor

Presented with support from: Patrick and Brenda Smith Wendel Family Fund of the Fairfield County Foundation

The South Side’s Industrial Hub

Steel Castings was the anchor of “Steelton.”

By Jeff Darbee

Even though it wasn’t an industrial power like Cleveland, Columbus did produce shoes, glass, railroad cars, grave vaults, caskets—and steel, in the form of Buckeye Steel Castings. Established near Downtown in 1881, the company made castiron farm tools but soon turned to rail car couplers. An 1894 merger created the Buckeye Malleable Iron and Coupler Co. on Russell Street close to North Fourth Street. Renamed Buckeye Steel Castings after it started making that essential metal, it moved to its Parsons Avenue site in 1902 and made both couplers and railroad trucks—the assemblies that hold a rail car’s wheels and bearings in place. Most have four wheels, but the company also produced a special six-wheel assembly—

the Buckeye Truck—for extra-heavy loads. In 1901, Buckeye Steel’s manager was Samuel Prescott Bush, a trained mechanic, railroad motive power superintendent and the grandfather and great-grandfather of two U.S. presidents. He was president of the company from 1908 to 1928.

As Buckeye grew, so did the neighborhood to its north across the railroad tracks, known as “Steelton.” Businesses set up along Parsons Avenue, and plentiful jobs drew immigrants from eastern, central and southern Europe. They filled areas like Hungarian Village west of Parsons and gave it a “melting pot” flavor. Today, many remember its salad days. One is Lou Varga, whose grandfather worked at the steel plant. Varga recalls the smell of the mill:

“A dark perfume filled the air,” but it mixed with the aroma of baking bread at the Omar Bakery, where the Kroger on Parsons Avenue is today. There was a constant rain of soot, but it also rained good-paying jobs. Buckeye employees patronized local taverns and had Nagy Brothers Shoe Repair at 1725 Parsons Ave. fix their work boots. (It’s now owned by Columbus Landmarks and available for redevelopment.)

Buckeye Steel Castings fell on hard times around the year 2000, a combination of shifting markets, competition and economic recession. After ownership changes and continued struggles, the plant closed in 2016. It has since been demolished, with only its empty site remaining—it, too, now awaiting redevelopment. ◆

abandonedonline.net; Lou Varga, writer and former Hungarian Village resident; Columbus Landmarks; Nagy Brothers Shoe Repair National Register of Historic Places nomination form

Buckeye

Buckeye Steel Castings workers in 1985

The Thomas Worthington Cardinals take the field prior to their football game against the Olentangy Braves at Thomas Worthington High School in September.

PHOTO BY ADAM CAIRNS

CCAD

Fashion Show

The Columbus College of Art & Design took its fashion show on the road this year, moving it to the 400 West Rich arts center in Franklinton. About 500 attended the show, which supports student scholarships and features designs from CCAD students and alumni.

1 Vicki Bowen Hewes, Jovanna Robinson, Alison Goldstein 2 Madison Dawson, Ridhima Batra 3 Serenity Strull, Harini Somasekhar, Ethan Donaldson, Rose White

Designing a Better World

About 100 attended the June 22 event, raising more than $6,400 to support the Central Ohio Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which is beginning an effort to help build a school in a small village in Guatemala. Franklin County Engineer Cornell Robertson spoke at the fundraiser.

PHOTOS: TOP, TY WRIGHT AND DESIRE REED; BOTTOM, STEVEN RHODES

1 Jim Barna, Kelly Scocco, James Young 2 Cornell Robertson, Darlene Magold, Robert Kirkley 3 Katherine Harris, Wrenn Bahn

GALLERY HOP IN THE SHORT NORTH ARTS DISTRICT

Art lovers are invited to Gallery Hop in the Short North Arts District, every first Saturday of the month!

Celebrate art throughout the day with new gallery exhibitions, street performers and vendors, special events, food, and drinks throughout the District. With dozens of galleries and non-traditional exhibit spaces, it’s Columbus’ favorite day of the month to celebrate art!

Visit shortnorth.org/galleryhop to learn more about upcoming exhibitions, events and more.

datebook

THROUGH NOV. 13 | Sound in Frame

This exhibition at the Mansion 731 in Olde Towne East features more than a decade of music portraiture from New York City photographer, CCAD grad and Marion native Alysse Gafkjen, whose striking images have appeared in Rolling Stone , The New York Times and many other publications. alyssegafkjen.com/ sound-in-frame

NOV. 11 | Veterans Day Ceremony

Honor our nation’s heroes with a ceremony at the country’s only memorial dedicated to veterans of every U.S. conflict and branch of service. Featured guest speaker David Kim, Military Times’ Veteran of the Year and CEO of the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, will discuss what inspired him to serve Gold Star children through his nonprofit. nationalvmm.org

NOV. 12–13 | Handel’s “Messiah”

Kick the holiday season off in style with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, an underappreciated local gem, as it performs the Baroque composer’s most popular oratorio. Joining the orchestra at the Southern Theatre are soloists Yulia Van Doren, Julie Miller, Daniel McGrew and Kevin Deas, as well as the LancasterChorale chamber choir. promusicacolumbus.org

NOV. 16 | Jorma Kaukonen

Following three October gigs at his Fur Peace Ranch guitar camp in Pomeroy, Ohio,

GIVE BACK

ONGOING

Faith Mission

Volunteer at the Downtown homeless shelter, which is looking for folks to help out in its kitchens, donation center and health center this Thanksgiving season. lssnetworkofhope. org/faithmission

NOV. 13

TWIG Bazaar

This Ohio Expo Center craft show, which supports Nationwide Children’s Hospital, will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year. nationwidechildrens. org/giving

NOV. 24

Chase Columbus Turkey Trot

the Jefferson Airplane guitarist will return to another favorite Ohio stop, Natalie’s Music Hall & Kitchen, for a performance with his longtime friend and musical collaborator John Hurlbut. nataliesgrandview.com

NOV. 26 | Ohio State vs. Michigan

After losing eight consec-

utive matchups—and 15 out the last 16—Michigan finally beat Ohio State in 2021. It was, to be honest, a welcome turn of events for stewards of The Game, adding some drama to the lopsided rivalry and making this year’s Ohio Stadium showdown more interesting. ohiostatebuck eyes.com

The Thanksgiving Day event benefits Easterseals Central & Southeast Ohio, with participants in the 5mile and 2.6-mile races receiving pumpkin pies after crossing the finish line. columbus turkeytrot.com

PHOTO: ADAM CAIRNS

A CURATED LIST OF THINGS TO SEE AND DO IN COLUMBUS

Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud

By G.A. Benton,

Best

Best

Restaur Restaur

Nicholas Dekker and Erin Edwards, with special thanks to Columbus Monthly’s team of eaters

Photos by Tim Johnson

Gazpacho at Veritas

ants ants

No matter when we decided to bring back our 10 Best Restaurants list after a twoyear, pandemic-forced hiatus, it was going to be, well, weird. Most restaurants are still facing challenges borne by COVID—hours have been pared down, prices are up, and once-consistent menus have been topsy-turvy. Several topnotch restaurants that once appeared in these pages have shuttered (miss you, G. Michael’s Bistro & Bar) or temporarily closed (Service Bar, which just reopened). As one of the restaurateurs featured in these pages says, “We’re not out of it.”

Like the restaurants we cover, Columbus Monthly is moving forward with the world we have now. We’re excited to reintroduce our 10 Best, selected using criteria based on the deliciousness and creativity of the food, yes, but also service, beverage programs, atmosphere and what we’ll call memorability—essentially, “Are we still dreaming of a dining experience the next day, the next week?”

We’re also thrilled to showcase our “Hot 40”—40 additional well-deserving restaurants that, while they may not have the service standard or the polished atmosphere of a 10 Best, contribute meaningfully to our collective enjoyment of food and drink in Columbus. Without these restaurants, the city would be a less vibrant place to live. We hope these 50 choices will stoke conversation, but more importantly, that you’ll support them all year long. That’s 4.17 restaurants a month. Totally doable, right?

Our list returns after a pandemic break— with a bonus selection of 40 additional dining favorites.

Sea Island red pea falafel salad at Chapman’s Eat Market

Comune

TO HEAR OWNER JOE GALATI tell it, the pandemic nearly did in Comune. “Hundred percent,” he says. “ We’re not out of it. Ask anyone about a small business, it’s like, dude, there’s no money—it’s just debt.”

Even before the pandemic, 4-yearold Comune was trying to do something admirably risky in cheeseburger-loving Central Ohio: daring to serve high-end, plant-based fare and funky wines on a corner that’s not in the heart of the Short North or Bridge Park. Which makes Comune’s survival and climb to No. 1 on our list all the more remarkable.

But along with Galati’s vision, stubborn determination and penny-pinching, he had a little luck when chef Matt Harper walked through the door.

Harper, who has been Comune’s executive chef for a little over a year, has an eyebrow-raising resume that includes four years at Atlanta’s Empire State South, where he rose to executive sous chef under James Beard Award-winning chef Hugh Acheson. In 2015, the Arkansas na-

tive moved to Philadelphia, where he immersed himself in Middle Eastern cuisine at Zahav, becoming the acclaimed restaurant’s chef de cuisine. Before his wife’s Ph.D. track brought them to Columbus, Harper was executive chef of Philly’s Kensington Quarters, which did its own butchery in-house and emphasized relationships with farmers. The latter has served Harper well at Comune, which works closely with pur veyors such as Three Creeks Produce and Hershberger’s Farm.

Indeed, the best dish we ate all year started as a watermelon from Hershberger’s, a summertime ingredient we thought we knew like an old pal until Harper got hold of it.

To make Comune’s watermelon carpaccio, Harper first removes the watermelon rind and reserves it— with an economical eye toward reducing kitchen waste. The rind itself will be cooked in water and sugar and then dehydrated, turning it into watermelon rind gummies destined to be the topping for a lovely watermelon granita dessert. For the car-

paccio, the watermelon flesh is lightly seasoned and slow-roasted in the oven for about 30 minutes, giving it a texture and look that quickly reads to omnivores: beef carpaccio. Crisp texture is added back to the dish in the form of sweet, diced green beans and marcona almonds. Finally, Harper adds house-made almond milk and harissa to the plate; the pair comingle beautifully for a dose of fat and heat that balances the dish.

The carpaccio is emblematic of what makes Comune special: Harper and team take high-quality produce and, using simple preparations, create dishes that surprise both vegetarians and omnivores alike. Comune does this while walking the flavor tightrope perfectly and without using meat substitutes, like seitan, as a crutch. Combine that with a hip, Scandinavian restaurant design, knowledgeable servers, thoughtful wine and cocktail menus and a great patio, and, well, you have a winner. 677 Parsons Ave., Schumacher Place, 614-947-1012

Left, hasselback beets; above, executive chef Matt Harper

HOT 40

SMALL PLATES & BIG SPREADS

Sometimes the most memorable meals come about when you order a ton of food and share. Fill up your table at the following spots.

Sharing is the order of business at Hamilton Road’s Lalibela, named for a World Heritage site in northern Ethiopia. Here, friends and family gather around a large platter of injera topped with tibs, sega wat, shiro, gomen and more for an authentic Ethiopian meal. Order: kitfo, doro wat

The casual, Campus-area standout N.E. Chinese—a contender for best Chinese food in the city—specializes in Northeastern Chinese cuisine. The house specialty, stewed pork ribs, comes with a large pancake to soak up all the flavor. Return visits are a must. Order: cumin potatoes, fern root noodles, twice-cooked spicy fish

For a totally different Chinese dining experience, head to Ty Ginger Asian Bistro in Dublin. Skip the very average Pan-Asian menu and go all-in on the bistro’s excellent Hong Kong dim sum, served daily. Order: scallion pancakes, shrimp dumplings, custard buns

For the best of traditional Korean fare, head to Min Ga on Bethel Road, where modest tables barely fit a variety of banchan plus huge portions of jjigae, kalbi, japchae and much more. Order: gamjatang, kimchi pancakes

Good luck eating your way through Yoshi’s 10-page menu. The primary order at this unassuming Japanese spot in Dublin is excellent sushi, but don’t skip the large variety of small plates and noodle dishes. Call ahead to reserve one of Yoshi’s private dining rooms. Order: Yoshi’s sashimi set, agedashi tofu, okonomiyaki

Grandview’s La Tavola, run by chef-owner Rick Lopez, remains a warm, welcoming neighborhood Italian spot that sticks to its values: house-made pastas complemented by fresh, local ingredients. An interesting Italian wine list and scratch desserts complete the package. Order: burrata, gnocchi pomodoro, fig pizza

At Lopez’s other neighborhood restaurant, Lupo in Upper Arlington, executive chef Todd Elder treats diners to a Spanish-influenced menu of pintxos and tapas, such as serrano and manchego fritters and gambas al ajillo. Large entrées range from a family-friendly burger to paella. Lupo’s cocktails are a must. Order: octopus a la plancha

Watermelon carpaccio

Veritas 2

JOSH DALTON—THE ADVENTUROUS restaurateur who launched edgy Veritas Tavern in Delaware a decade ago, where he employed a young Avishar Barua (long before Barua became a Top Chef contestant and red-hot restaurateur himself)—is not one to rest on his laurels.

Actually, Dalton—working with his brainy, talented team at the refined Downtown rebirth of modernist Veritas—is more liable to transform his laurels into a tincture emulsified in heritage pork fat that blots a reimagined pozole topped with crispy hominy flakes.

Put another way, even after receiving high praise for stellar dishes from his particular tasting menus, Dalton is inevitably drawn to do something different. In September, this took the form of Veritas’ Spanish Supper Club, featuring an unpublished

menu only available to diners after they’d finished its eight courses.

That same month, beneath a spiky canopy of dried herbs and fruits hanging vividly from the ceiling in starkly attractive Veritas, we found Dalton clad in a black T-shirt emblazoned with “Speck”—his forthcoming Downtown Italian restaurant, and one of his multiple projects. The restless chef, who expects to engineer seven to eight Veritas menu overhauls this year, passionately describes his tendency to take risks.

“Who wants to be boring and do the same thing every day? We work long, hard hours, and immersing ourselves in new projects reminds us why we fell in love with this tough industry in the first place,” Dalton says.

Dalton, who explains that the idea for presenting menus after the meal was

Pulpo a la Gallega

Escabeche

something he picked up from restaurants awarded two and three Michelin stars, is jazzed about the reception his Spanish Supper Club menu received.

Characteristically, that menu (and others exploring Mexican and Nordic cuisines) was preceded by targeted, spare-no-expense travel, intense study and kitchen experimentation. The resulting tour-of-Spain courses included a tapas smorgasbord; mango-happy gazpacho; an elegant escabeche variation with a dairy-enriched broth, mussels and pickled green apples; shellfish-forward paella undergirded by spreadable chorizo; and a Basque-echoing, goat cheese cheesecake with shaved truffles.

Don’t expect those dishes on upcoming v isits, though. Like an artist who completed a gallery show, Dalton will have moved on to his next proj-

HOT 40

TREAT YOURSELF

Impressing a date? Celebrating that the kids are with their grandparents? Here are our picks for a special night out.

Grab a hard-to-get reservation at Pelino’s Pasta → for a unique spin on Italian food: a three- or four-course meal showcasing house-made, regional pastas. Owners Christina and Vinny Pelino serve as gracious hosts who are happy to share insight into featured wines, pastas and desserts. The menu changes monthly. Order: any pasta with guanciale, Christina’s desserts

At classy Aangan India Bistro in Crosswoods, the dining room offers a dramatic vaulted ceiling, glass chandeliers and a mural of a Sikh soldier on horseback. Northern Indian dishes are the focus here, such as butter chicken (murgh makhani) and a range of tandoor-kissed dishes. Order: rogan josh, tandoori lamb chops

The newness of Cameron Mitchell’s Guild House has worn off some, but the bar and rustic chic dining room remain among the most inviting spaces in the Short North. Brunch and lunch are thankfully back after a pandemic pause. Order: the seasonal cocktail for two, sea bass with lobster broth

ect—new creations sculpted in the flavors of autumn.

Mirroring Dalton’s other seasonal menus, his five-course fall tasting menu—which will be in place through December, albeit frequently tweaked— is posted online. As usual, it can be enhanced by selections from an inventive cocktail lineup and inspired pairings from Veritas’ sophisticated wine list.

Interspersed among the seasonal menus will be more monthlong supper club events designed to transport diners to far-flung locales. Those destinations aren’t cemented yet. But anticipate deluxe ingredients, artful platings where richness often tangos with brightness, plus, as Dalton says, “an experience you’ll remember and a menu to take home as a scrapbook souvenir.”

11 W. Gay St., Downtown, 614-745-3864

Timeless Akai Hana has been serving up some of the best sushi and service in Columbus for more than 35 years. Nonsushi options include suki yaki, bento boxes, ramen bowls, katsu don and more. Order: the Party Boat with a variety of rolls, nigiri and sashimi

Cameron Mitchell’s gastropub The Pearl (with locations in the Short North and Dublin) remains a favorite where seafood and tavern fare collide. Here, fresh oysters and lobster tails are bedfellows with deep-fried PB&J bites, deviled eggs and juicy burgers. Somehow it works. Order: $3 oysters during happy hour, house-made pie

For something intimately lit, Third & Hollywood is the way to go. While it shares the same DNA as sibling Northstar Café (some dishes are served at both), the Grandview restaurant offers full service and a consistent polish—plus a fireplace. The addictive skillet biscuits are complimentary during happy hour.

Order: grilled artichokes, Niman Ranch filet

From left: Veritas general manager Mitchell Coale, bar manager Alisha Kaplan and executive chef Dan Kamel

Chapman’s Eat Market

WHEN THE NEW YORK TIMES AWARDED Chapman’s Eat Market a spot on its list of “the 50 places in America we’re most excited about” last year, people noticed. “FOMO’’ ran rampant. Consequently, Chapman’s became the toughest reservation to score in town.

Even in a pandemic-fraught era when countless eateries are struggling, tables are so in-demand at Chapman’s that reservations are released a month in advance for the entire following month—and many of the seats are immediately gobbled up. This can require harried planning from diners who want to see and taste what all the buzz is about.

Chapman’s is worth the fuss. By combining the breezy mood of a hip, nodress-code cocktail lounge with excellent service and “comfort foods from around the world” that arrive dressed-up but are far from dainty, Chapman’s specializes in a festive, widely approachable style of fine dining.

Yes, scrambling for rapidly dwindling reservations is hardly ideal. If you’re flexible, it’s possible to visit without reservations. Patio and bar seating are first come, first served. Show up right at 5 p.m. and you’ll have a reasonable shot at Chapman’s pleasant German Village patio. Securing a bar seat can be easier—try popping in as late as 7 p.m. on weekdays—plus eating at the bar is a fun, insidery experience.

You can peek into the kitchen from the roomy swivel chairs at the handsome bar while receiving expert suggestions and tag-team service from personable bartenders. These cushy perches also provide scenic immersions into Chapman’s interior: a refurbished vintage space with stained-glass windows, pretty floral wallpaper, abundant wood and old bones—it’s the original Max & Erma’s—enlivened by tones of green and dusty rose.

Red snapper Veracruz

This aesthetic is reflected on the eclectic menu. While rife with offerings rooted in classics, the eatery’s drink s and dishes are abloom with Chapman’s own style. Gin, aquavit and sake steer an Aperol spritz into something more austere, yet still refreshing. And who couldn’t use a Booster Shot—a margarita-adjacent, tequila-and-mezcal cocktail that ties Mexico to Southeast Asia with citrus, pineapple, banana and galangal?

Something similar happens with the pepita chile crisp animating Hershberger’s Farm green beans—an addictive, bartender-recommended dish— which exhibits Chapman’s knack for

HOT 40

CARRYOUT GEMS

The pandemic taught us to love carryout. Here are eight of the best to-go orders in town.

At the historic North Market, Hoyo’s Kitchen continues to teach Columbus about the joys of Somali cooking, with bowls piled high with basmati rice; tender goat, beef or chicken; and loads of chickpeas, lentils and veggies. Order: spicy rice, hilibari

Perfectly constructed smashburgers are the specialty at Preston’s: A Buger Joint, but its full menu shouldn’t be ignored: fries, fried dumplings, puddings and fried chicken tenders from sister biz Honey’s Fried Chicken. Order: Spicy Boi burger, pimento cheese dumplings

Since its humble beginnings in a grocery store, Momo Ghar in the North Market has grown into a city favorite for Himalayan cooking. Phuntso Lama’s handmade dumplings, stuffed with fillings like chicken or potato, remain a Columbus gem. Order: jhol momo, alu momo

If you stop through Budd Dairy Food Hall, Modern Southern Table is an absolute must. The tougher decision is whether you should order the gumbo or Alabama fried chicken; candied yams or collard greens? Order: Go on, order it all.

Bangkok Grocery & Restaurant, now operating as carryout-only, is a Columbus institution and the city’s best option for authentic Thai food. Order: pad hoi with mussels, pad kra pow

ushering potent flavors and chile heat into fine dining. Ditto for Chapman’s com tam, a spicy Vietnamese entrée enhanced by fish sauce and banh mistyle vegetables and upgraded by slabs of luscious pork.

Chapman’s likewise puts its stamp on chicken wings with kicky, chip-and-dip-style crusts, McDonald’s-style fries cooked in ghee and beef fat, handmade pasta with wonderful house meatballs and a zesty (family-recipe-based) sauce, worldclass ice creams in globetrotting flavors and, well, see you soon at the Chapman’s bar. 739 S. Third St., German Village, 614-444-0917

Tulip Café’s small storefront on the Northwest Side offers the chance to snag Turkish fare like lahmacun flatbreads, doner kebabs or bagel-like simit rolled in sesame seeds. Order: fillo-dough borek filled with potatoes or spinach

Sí Señor’s Peruvian handhelds always delight, like the Chicharron Peruano with roasted pork shoulder or the Jumping Beef topped with sauteed onions and peppers. Order: Latin-style turkey breast club, tres leches cake

Chef Stephan Madias’ Arena District sandwich shop, Wario’s Beef and Pork, earns rave reviews for its giant Philly cheesesteaks and chicken cutlet sandwiches on semolina rolls. Honestly, the menu has no weak links. Order: cold cut sandwich, smashed potatoes

Sea Island red pea falafel salad

The Refectory Restaurant and Wine Shop

GOOD LUCK TRYING TO NAME EVERY once-trendy restaurant that has come and gone since the Refectory became the top local destination for French food decades ago. Much easier to name: The one local restaurant with a link to Paul Bocuse, the colossus of French cooking whose name graces the de facto culinary Olympics, the Bocuse d’Or.

That’s the Refectory, whose longtime chef Richard Blondin—a native of Lyon, France—studied under Bocuse before moving to Ohio.

Blondin’s precise, technique-heavy creations and beautiful plate presentations decorated with haute-cuisine sauces are major reasons why the Refectory has been synonymous with fine dining in Columbus for more than 40 years. Other draws include impeccable service; a duly celebrated

wine selection; tasting menu and a la carte options; and the serene, sui generis setting of a converted 19th-century church with stained glass windows, exposed brick, soaring rafter beams and date-night lighting.

The menu is dotted with classics—several are hearty, divulging a French countryside provenance—like succulent veal tenderloin with rich whipped potatoes and a rosemary-inflected bordelaise sauce, and laboriously made with terrines with escargot or forcemeat.

Lighter, contemporary and multinational touches abound, too. The knockout rack of lamb is seaweed-encrusted; sashimi gets embellishments from eggplant marmalade and a yuzu vinaigrette; and the scallop brochette with seafood pastry entrée is leavened by a carrot-ginger wine sauce.

Don’t leave without dessert. Confections like the crème brûlée and belle Helene (poached pear) are so delicious they’d likely make Bocuse—and even Auguste Escoffier—proud. 1092 Bethel Road, Northwest Columbus, 614-451-9774

Wolf’s Ridge Brewing

SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 2013, Wolf’s Ridge Brewing has been a solid triple threat: an award-winning restaurant led by an accomplished culinary team; a taproom that’s constantly abuzz with live music, special beer releases and community fun; and a lauded brewery, led by head brewer Chris Davison, that nails style after style of brew. Roll all of this into a gorgeous Downtown location with polished wooden floors, exposed brick and a lush greenery wall, and it’s a destination that shows off what Columbus does best.

Wolf’s Ridge has also been a model for pandemic pivoting, closing up for service in early 2020 while retaining staff to help package beer, serve carryout and run deliveries across the city and beyond. They quickly took advantage of the city’s new outdoor dining program to create a long patio in the alley next to the restaurant.

The Downtown brewpub has crawled back to reopening, adding lunch, brunch and dinner service. They’ve expanded the pared-down menu and have revamped the layout of the dining room, focusing on individual tables instead of communal seating. The culinar y team, led by chef Seth Lassak, continues to transform their menu each season with hits like Chinese pork meatballs, braised rabbit leg and tomahawk pork chops. Meanwhile, the restaurant has added a fourth threat: a dynamic cocktail menu by beverage director Travis Owens of bygone Curio fame.

After weathering the pandemic, Wolf’s Ridge’s future again looks sunny, even expanding its citywide footprint with the stunning Understory cocktail bar and lounge in Old North. 215 N. Fourth St., Downtown, 614-429-3936

PHOTO: TOP, ROB HARDIN

Lamb brûlée

Tomahawk pork chop and mussels

HOT 40

PATIO ALL-STARS

Traditional patio season may be hibernating, but you can always start planning for the spring.

The brick-lined outdoor digs at Lindey’s are one of our longtime favorites, a cool and shaded spot for enjoying good company, a glass of wine and their easy-to-love American bistro menu. Order: nut-crusted chicken salad, carpaccio

Likewise, the patio at Basi Italia is one of the city’s beloved haunts for a quiet evening. Owners Johnny Dornback and Trish Gentile imbue the patio with the joy of a quiet escape. Lush greenery and a patio bar make it ideal for a spaghetti and meatball dinner with a bottle of wine. Order: mussels in tomato brodo, eggplant Parmesan

After establishing itself as a beloved outpost for rustic farmhouse cooking, Alqueria in the University District added a quaint patio where you can feast on farmhouse burgers or sip your way through the whiskey selection on a cool evening. Order: cured meat and cheese plate, fried chicken

Rooh

IT’S NO SECRET THAT a Eurocentric perspective has dominated Columbus’ fine-dining scene. Enter Rooh, offering self-described “progressive” Indian cuisine that playfully draws on tradition while creating something new.

While Columbus diners may be used to a certain kind of Indian fare, Rooh is shedding a whole new, contemporary light on the cuisine. A good example is the butter chicken. What has become a familiar part of lunch buffets and a staple served in Styrofoam carryout containers is given a new spin: delightfully tender chunks of chicken served in a red pepper makhani (a lentil-based sauce) w ith cashew, fenugreek and butter powder. Meanwhile, the lamb keema Hyderabadi, reminiscent of shepherd’s pie, layers a whipped potato mousse over green peas and tender lamb. It’s a must-

order served with house-made brioche for scooping.

Equally of note is the fantastic beverage program led by Genevieve Johnson. The rotating cocktail menu is grouped according to the six rasas, or tastes, of ancient ayurvedic wisdom: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Each drink, often served in fun glassware, is designed with the same care and attention as the food. For instance, in the sweet category, the Grass is Greener arrives in a decorative metal cup with Watershed’s Four Peel gin, Amaro, pistachio Orgeat, a melon blend and bitters topped with a corn meringue foam.

Take all of this and place it in the heart of the Short North, in a colorful and cleanly designed eatery with giant murals on the wall, and it’s a shoo-in as one of the city’s best offerings. 685 N. High St., Short North, 614-972-8678

The charm of The Top Steakhouse → is that not much has changed over the past 67 years, but we do welcome the addition of a large patio. A bit of fresh air, lovely greenery and a small fountain provides perfect ambiance for sipping an Old Fashioned. Order: center-cut New York strip, truffle mac ’n’ cheese

It’s also hard to beat the lure of beer and barbecue alfresco, so lucky for us Ray Ray’s Hog Pit has permanently parked his trucks at Franklinton’s Land-Grant Brewing and Powell’s Nocterra Brewing. Nothing like tender brisket or ribs to go with an Oh Sure IPA or Trail Break lager. Order: jerk chicken sandwich, dry-rubbed spareribs

PHOTO: RIGHT, KYLE ROBERTSON

Genevieve Johnson, bar manager at Rooh

Goodale Station 7

WE LOVE HOTEL RESTAURANTS, but they often ask chefs to play within the confines of a certain sandbox. Not so at Goodale Station, the independent rooftop restaurant and bar that tops the Canopy by Hilton hotel on Nationwide Boulevard. Here, veteran Columbus chef Jonathan Olson has the creative freedom to go where his imagination and seasonal ingredients take him.

There’s nowhere to hide on this super-tight, New American menu of five starters, six shareable plates and six mains, which is intentional. “The vast majority of our items, even some of the breads we’re making in-house, pretty much everything’s made from scratch. I’m really just tr ying to focus in on ingredients, locally as much as possible,” Olson says.

This fall, the menu includes a salmon tartare inspired by Olson’s Swedish heritage, featuring his mom’s limpa rye crisps.

But you’ll also find a Korean garlic bread, aloo masala with serrano naan and roasted XO pork belly, featuring Hong Kong’s beloved savory-spicy-sweet condiment, XO.

One fall standout is Goodale’s coffee-rubbed, braised short rib, which spends time wrapped in smoked tobacco leaves. The smoky, fall-apart short rib brings a tingling sensation to the tongue, thanks to the coffee-tobacco combo, and is enlivened further with a bright cauliflower tabbouleh.

And that’s just the food. Goodale could easily stand alone as a cocktail bar, boasting a sexy interior space, a rooftop patio w ith fire pits and excellent (if pricey) cocktails and wines by the glass. Better yet, pay a visit at happy hour, when a handful of cocktails, wines, draft beers and snacks are 40 percent off. Just be sure to save room for dinner. 77 E. Nationwide Blvd., Downtown, 614-227-9400

Clockwise from left, executive chef Jonathan Olson; salmon tartare with limpa rye crisps; short rib with cauliflower tabouleh

Novella Osteria

IN A CITY FLUSH WITH GREAT ITALIAN eateries, it takes a bit of craftsmanship and flair to stand out, and relative newcomer Novella Osteria offers just that. Open since the fall of 2020, chef Matthew Phelan’s Powell eatery blends classic Old World Italian flavors with modern techniques. The result is a veritable feast for pasta aficionados.

A Dublin native, Phelan returned to the region in 2018 after time at the Culinary Institute of America and then stints at upscale Italian and French restaurants in New York City. Diners have readily welcomed his menu, which balances care and attention to detail with a little bit of daring. Guests are best advised to work their way through his house-made pastas, although don’t ignore the specials. Start with the Novella meatballs, made with veal and ricotta, served in a rich pomodoro with basil leaves. Or the crispy pork

belly dunked in a butternut squash purée with apple butter.

Phelan showcases his talent through even the simplest of dishes. A classic rigatoni is given an upscale treatment with tender short ribs in a rich and delicate ragu. His cacio e pepe is crafted with linguine and generously dusted w ith black pepper and pecorino. Want to get a taste of it all? Make a reservation on Tuesday, when Phelan offers a special five-course pasta tasting menu. The modern restaurant space gets cacophonous when busy (which is most of the time), but its big windows, brick arches and wooden trellis-like ceiling features still provide the type of cozy and welcoming backdrop that’s ideal for feasting on fresh pastas, dynamic cocktails, a respectable wine list and desserts, like an unforgettable panna cotta. 170 W. Olentangy St., Powell, 614-389-6698

HOT 40

AN IDEAL MORNING

There are many ways to shape the perfect morning in Columbus, and most of them start with one of the following breakfast joints.

Fox in the Snow Café ↓ is too tempting to ignore, with its coffee bar, that ridiculously good egg sandwich and stunning displays loaded with everything from iced cinnamon rolls to tomato galettes to coffee cake. The low counters, communal tables and lack of Wi-Fi invite you to start the day connecting with others. Order: buttermilk biscuit and jam, blueberry galettes

Equally beautiful are the cases at Pistacia Vera in German Village, where visitors hungrily eye flaky rye croissants, apple galettes and colorful macarons. Looking for a heartier meal? The café offers a handful of brunch items and croissant sandwiches. Order: pain au chocolat, mushroom quiche

Speaking of ample breakfasts, the family-run Skillet won’t let you leave hungry. The Ohio-focused, ingredient-driven eatery continually impresses with its ever-shifting menu, and we’ve learned to trust the Caskey family with whatever they throw at us. Order: griddled cinnamon rolls, shrimp and grits, biscuits and gravy

We approach The Lox Bagel Shop with the same attitude, trusting owner Kevin Crowley, chef Silas Caeton and team to craft some of the city’s best bagels— which are a wood-fired, New York/ Montréal hybrid. The Lox uses them in towering breakfast and lunch sandwiches. Order: pastrami on sea salt and herb bagel, potatoes fried in chicken fat

Northstar Café is coming up on two decades of wowing us with its pleasing restaurant designs and consistently executed breakfast and brunch. That’s nearly 20 years of enjoying fluffy Cloud 9 pancakes and Northstar burgers. Order: rosemary-heavy sweet potato hash, mushroom frittata

Halibut with farro

Watershed Kitchen & Bar 9

WATERSHED DISTILLERY ELICITED plenty of smiles when the nascent company first released its terrific gins in 2010. Seven years later, sister concept Watershed K itchen & Bar gave us more reasons to grin when it began serving delicious meals in a lively, modern distillery setting that coheres with the restaurant’s stylish farmto-table cuisine.

In March 2020, though, the pandemic unleashed upheavals. Watershed’s kitchen closed for more than a year. A few months after reopening, the executive chef from day one, Jack Moore, left to focus on his Black Cap hot sauce business.

Cheers, then, to Watershed for gaining altitude again with Matt Howes, a former sous chef now at the helm as executive chef.

Old favorites are back (if slightly altered), like the braised short rib with grilled oranges, saffron emulsion, chile marmalade and Amish farm-sourced squash; double-bone pork chop with strawberry tapenade and heirloom-corn grits; plus seemingly common dishes that blow most competitors away, like crispy fingerling potatoes and fried Brussels sprouts. Watershed has also resumed its tasting menu, a bargain for diners, bundling multiple a la carte items.

A retooling of the menu is forthcoming, and recent three-course Sunday Supper specials offer a preview of the new direction. These meals have alternatively partnered pork with ricotta gnudi or egg fried rice, and swordfish with Italian-style salsa verde or a sweet potato purée.

As always, Watershed’s lavish, well-designed cocktail menu is among the best in town. Rocking a vintage Life magazine look, the most recent cocktail booklet had a something-for-everyone selection and a back-to-the-future theme invitingly described as “a conversation between classic styles and new ingredients.” 1145 Chesapeake Ave., Fifth by Northwest, 614357-1936

PHOTOS: LEFT, JODI MILLER; RIGHT, FRED SQUILLANTE

Left, heritage pork chop; above, N/aked as a Jaybird nonalcoholic cocktail

Bonifacio 10

JUST BEFORE THE CITY’S first fullservice Filipino restaurant opened in 2016, chef MJ Hernandez says he met Bonifacio owner Krizzia Yanga and “offered my life and my soul, essentially.” Hernandez was tired of seeing Filipino restaurants in the U.S. close after just a year, he says, and he didn’t want to be stuck on the sidelines.

Bonifacio is going strong. Hernandez says 2018 to 2019 was a turning point, because it’s when the Grandview-area restaurant leaned into pre-colonial Filipino traditions. First, the restaurant began offering more regular kamayan dinners, a family-style feast served on banana leaves and eaten without utensils. Now held weekly on Thursdays and Sundays, Bonifacio's Boodle Nights (another name for kamayan)—where diners gather around a flavor-packed spread of garlic rice, lumpia, longganisa, skewered pork belly, bistek, grilled bok choy and a host of other items—are among the most enjoyable experiences in town, especially when accompanied by Bonifacio’s creative cocktails.

Most of the week, Bonifacio serves an a la carte menu, and the way in which Hernandez plates Bonifacio’s dishes—focusing on small plates and a natural presentation—has evolved. The message is intentional: Filipino food should be recognized for its complexity. “I didn’t want it to look like a

HOT 40

UNFUSSY YET SPECIAL

There’s no dressing up required at these nine, fantastic eateries, well, unless you want to. Most of our favorite tacos come from local food trucks (not included on our Hot 40 list). That said, with five locations around Central Ohio, Los Guachos is still the king of al pastor tacos. Order: gringas tacos, al pastor torta

Brooklyn-based Paulie Gee’s is known for wood-fired pizzas like the Hellboy, with hot soppressata, but also a fine selection of vegan pizzas. The addition of “squares,” Paulie Gee’s take on Detroit-style pies, was a game changer. Order: pepperoni square, any vegan pizza with cashew milk ricotta

Northland’s Huong Vietnamese Restaurant remains our favorite spot for steaming bowls of restorative pho, but it’s worth exploring the large menu over a sweet iced coffee. Order: banh xeo, pho dac biet

value meal, because there’s this expectation we’ve always faced for years that [Filipino food] had to be cheap,” Hernandez says. “If you put a lot of things on one plate, it’s very distracting from all the little things that we actually do in the kitchen. French cuisine and other cuisines get a lot of praise for how intricate their work is.”

Bonifacio continues to focus more on indigenous Filipino recipes and preparations, thanks in large part to Yanga’s mother, Lida, who collaborates closely with Hernandez. A good example is the restaurant’s stunning chicken P yanggang, which is marinated (ginger, lemongrass, garlic and Sprite are all there) and then rubbed with a mixture that includes ground burnt coconut, giving the chicken smokiness and its characteristic black exterior.

The dish is very specific to Mindanao, the predominantly Muslim island group in the Southern Philippines where Lida was born—a cuisine that Hernandez had not been exposed to growing up in Manila.

“Ultimately, what started out as a passion project became our top seller,” Hernandez says. “A lot of our decision-making process is now ‘listen to our heart’ and not to social constructs ... or what a Filipino menu should be.”

1577 King Ave., Fifth by Northwest, 614-914-8115

Jiu Thai Asian Café’s dining room has finally reopened after a long COVID closure. We’ll see you there soon for the Shaanxi-style, hand-pulled noodles, which appear on their own or in noodle soups. Order: biang biang noodles, Xi’an-style cold noodles

With the closing of Hong Kong House, the crown for best Sichuan fare likely goes to ChiliSpot. If you like heat of the numbing variety, ChiliSpot will bring it. Order: dry-fried green beans, Storm Fish

Yemeni home cooking is the focus of Najmeddine Gabbar’s Yemeni Restaurant Here, fall-off-the-bone lamb dishes, bubbling stews and house-made khubz bread make for an unforgettable feast. Order: lamb haneeth, hummus with lamb

Baba ghanoush, fattoush salad, chicken shawarma, falafel—they’re all here at chef-owner Maggie Ailabouni’s 13-year-old Mazah Mediterranean Eatery. The restaurant’s Lebanese night has become a monthly tradition. Order: shish tawook

At Riziki Swahili Grill, chef-owner Riziki Yussuf transports diners to her home island of Zanzibar, through fresh juices and flavor-packed dishes of kebabs, curry and whole fish. Order: tangawizi juice, chapati with curry

Ten years in, Columbus is still in love with Harvest Pizzeria’s wood-fired pies. The family of pizzerias also offers great sandwiches, pastas and excellent desserts. Order: Spicy Yuma pizza, butterscotch budino

Spread with grilled pork belly, bok choy and chicken inasal

When Hanif

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

It’s perhaps Columbus’ most exclusive creative club, and in early September, it held its first meeting. The city’s two living MacArthur Fellows, writer Hanif Abdurraqib and artist Ann Hamilton, gathered at the former home of the late artist Aminah Robinson, the city’s only other recipient of the prestigious honor. What followed was an extraordinary conversation about craft, creativity, the grounding effect of Columbus and the myth of the singular genius.

Met Ann

BY JOEL OLIPHINT

“I brought you some words.”

Halfway through an intimate, 70-minute conversation with Hanif Abdurraqib, Ann Hamilton takes out a gallon-size plastic bag containing bundled strips of paper covered in text, gifting words that can be touched and held. “If you have a book, and you slice it like bread, you get this. Isn’t that beautiful?” she says. “You may find that word you need.”

Seated on a couch next to Hamilton in the living room of Aminah Robinson’s former home, Abdurraqib grins and examines the book snippets with wide-eyed excitement, fanning them out in his hand while thanking his new friend. Hamilton, a world-renowned Columbus artist, has incorporated verbal and written language into installations across the globe for decades, weaving words throughout her work in ways that call back to her love of textiles. These gifted cross-sections of books are left over from “Human Carriage,” a 2009 project at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that found Hamilton reconstituting slices of text to form new meanings out of disparate fragments.

While representing the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1999, Hamilton whispered a coded excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address as fuchsia powder descended onto gallery walls covered in a Braille translation of a Charles Reznikoff poem. More recently, Hamilton, who retired from Ohio State University in 2021 after

20 years in the art department, created “Chorus,” a mosaic of historic texts on the walls of New York City’s Cortlandt Street subway station, which was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks. Her work is responsive, integrating whatever materials and mediums the site seems to require. Audio and video work coexist alongside projects with stacks of fabric and huge, billowing linens. Text and textiles intertwine.

“Ann Hamilton makes unfamiliar rooms, unfamiliar scenes, in familiar places,” Joan Simon wrote in her 2002 retrospective biography of the artist. “Hamilton is a storyteller, but one whose language is not necessarily verbal.”

Abdurraqib is a storyteller, too, and like Hamilton, he loves to play with form. While the Columbus writer has published works of poetry, music criticism, journalism and memoir, his writing is genre-fluid. In the 2017 essay collection “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us,” he weaves personal history and meditations on death into a chapter about rock band My Chemical Romance. In his 2016 poetry collection “The Crown Ain’t Worth Much,” he lets his barber’s words serve as poetry. In his latest book, “A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance,” Abdurraqib obsesses over dance marathons and S oul Train line dances “because of how many times I have leaned into someone or something and called

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Abdurraqib examines book slices gifted to him by Hamilton.

it love,” he writes. That collection also features multiple remembrances titled “On Times I Have Forced Myself to Dance,” a couple of which read as one breathless sentence littered with ampersands, like a cathartic journal entry elevated into a free-form poem. Regardless of genre, Abdurraqib’s writing is marked by a depth of feeling and a spirit of generosity that invites readers to plumb those depths along with him.

But Abdurraqib and Hamilton don’t merely share a hometown, a love of words and a penchant for pushing boundaries. They also share an honor bestowed by the MacArthur Foundation, which awarded the MacArthur Fellowship to Hamilton in 1993 and to Abdurraqib in 2021. Often referred to as the “genius grant,” the prestigious award comes with a no-strings-attached cash prize—$800,000 in 2022, paid in quarterly installments over five years. According to the foundation, the Fellows Program “is intended to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual and professional inclinations.”

It’s no coincidence Columbus Monthly invited Abdurraqib and Hamilton to the Shepard neighborhood house that once belonged to Robinson, the only other Columbus artist to get the MacArthur grant, which she received in 2004. Robinson left her home and its contents to the Columbus Museum of Art upon her death in 2015, and after preservation and renovation, the house now serves as the site of a residency that gives Black artists the opportunity to live and work in the late artist’s home. The museum’s Deidre Hamlar, director of the Aminah Robinson Legacy Project, and Anthony Peyton Young, the current artist resident, kindly let us make ourselves at home for an afternoon.

The house is easier to walk through today than it was during Robinson’s lifetime, when artwork spilled onto every surface, lining the hallways and covering the walls, upending any notion of separation between spaces for making and spaces for living. The home itself became her art, with carved and painted doors and a mosaic kitchen floor that feels less like a walking surface than a sacred mural. Notes from previous visitors still adorn the walls. Even the blankets covering the living room couch are the same ones Abdurraqib used to sit on when visiting Robinson, gleaning wisdom from his elder.

“She’s still here. She’s with us,” Abdurraqib says, putting words to a shared feeling on this early September afternoon, sunlight drenching the room where Robinson often slept, when she slept at all.

Abdurraqib and Hamilton had never met before this long-in-the-works discussion, but you wouldn’t know it. The two were fast friends, launching into conversation while still posing for photographs, before I’d even started my recorder. The camaraderie was quick and easy as they finished each other’s sentences. They spoke about past projects and cur-

rent work. They bonded over the grounding effect of working as an artist in Columbus. They shared a love of poets like Natalie Diaz and Susan Stewart. They assailed the myth of the singular genius. They remembered Aminah.

Hamilton began the conversation by talking about the day in 1993, before the ubiquity of cellphones, when the MacArthur Foundation tracked her down at an overseas airport to tell her about the fellowship.

Ann Hamilton: It was such a gift. I had left my teaching job.1 I was taking a dive, and something caught me. You must have been speechless, right?

Hanif Abdurraqib: I don’t pay a lot of attention to awards, so I actually didn’t know a lot about MacArthur. One of my mentors is the poet Terrance Hayes, and he’d won one, but it felt so far outside my orbit. Hamilton: I’m sure it was like that for Aminah— like it was from outer space.

Abdurraqib: It doesn’t feel real. I remember I got the call when I was in a coffee shop in Indiana. I was teaching a workshop at Butler University, and they’d tried calling me twice during the day. But a funny thing had happened the night before. I heard from Terrance Hayes. He’s someone I text with semi-regularly, and he sent me a text: “Hey, I’m just making sure this is still your number.” And I was like, “Yeah, of course.” The third time they called, I wondered if this was connected to that. So I picked up, and they’re like, “Are you alone? Are you in a private place?” And I looked around: I’m in this coffee shop, and I’m not moving. I just set down my computer! I’m not repacking my stuff! So I lied.

Joel Oliphint: Hanif, you’re a year out from the MacArthur Fellowship. Has it changed things for you?

Abdurraqib: I don’t know if it has yet, and I wonder if this is your experience, Ann. There’s the immediacy of financial change, but in terms of space to create...

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON; BOOK COVER: COURTESY RANDOM HOUSE

1 Before her time at Ohio State, Hamilton taught at the University of California in Santa Barbara from 1985 to 1991.

Aminah Robinson in her home in 2011

The cover of Abdurraqib’s 2021 book

Hamilton works on portrait project “ONEEVERYONE” at Ohio State’s Thompson Library in 2019.

Hamilton photographs community members through a semi-transparent membrane that registers in focus only what immediately touches the surface while rendering more softly the gesture or outline of the body.

Hamilton: It’s the same.

Abdurraqib: It’s about the same, yeah. I actually don’t know if I have any opportunities that I wouldn’t have had anyway. Maybe one or two. I’ve had to get better at saying no to things.

Hamilton: You’re probably doing the same work, but it has a broader audience, so the work amplifies in another way, and you can’t really measure that. But you still have to make the work.

Abdurraqib: You still have to make the work.

Hamilton: And the work comes from the work.

Oliphint: I’m curious about the impact of Aminah and her work on what you both do.

2 In 2021, “A Little Devil in America” was a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Award, and earlier this year it won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His 2019 book, “Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest,” was longlisted for the National Book Award.

3 Abdurraqib wrote the album biography for Baker’s 2021 record, Little Oblivions

4 Hamilton was born in Lima, Ohio, but moved to Columbus at age 2.

Abdurraqib: That’s it.

Hamilton: I think for a long time I felt like I should have a bigger idea or a better idea or some epiphany.

Abdurraqib: Last year was interesting for me, because all this stuff happened at once. The MacArthur happened and the National Book Award thing happened.2 But it was important for me to stay grounded, because this is all temporary. The work still has to get done. The day the MacArthur Fellowship was announced to the public, I was here, and I went to a Julien Baker concert.3 I had to pick up a friend, but I was late because the day was hectic. And it was so great to pull up to my friend’s spot and have him be like, “You’re late, man.” Here’s this friend who loves me and knows me well and is like, “I’m proud of you, but also, we’re gonna miss the concert.” Columbus doesn’t really stand on ceremony in that way. It helps me. It keeps me grounded.

Hamilton: That is so clearly in your writing. I always say I’m really from the Midwest. I’m really from here.4 When I moved back to Columbus after living in California, people were like, “You’re moving to Columbus, Ohio?” With a certain attitude in that question. But my family hugs me, no matter what happens. There’s something very grounding about that.

Hamilton: She was a maker and knew the power of making and transforming the materials at hand. And she didn’t stop. All of her work is just this flood that’s coming out, and whether you understand it or not, the tactile richness of it speaks to you, especially in a time when people so often aren’t growing up engaged with their hands in the same way. I grew up with a grandmother knitting and doing lap work. I was around all of that textile stuff. And when you look at Aminah’s work, it’s very intimate and domestic. So many people are on screens, but we are material. We think through our whole bodies and through touching things. And when that part of you is not getting fed in the same way, it changes how we think, how we make metaphors, everything about us.

Abdurraqib: If you were ever here at Aminah’s house before this, there was stuff everywhere, because nothing was disposable.5 And this is part of why, I imagine, she never slept, because when you are physically surrounded by vessels of possibility, the pursuit is ever-present. But also, there was such a rigorous and relentless care for her people and the places she loved, because much like no materials were disposable, she didn’t believe any geography or any people within those forgotten geographies were disposable. And that is why I’m really fortunate to have lived in an era where I could see neighborhoods in Columbus portrayed with the beauty that Aminah portrayed them. I saw Aminah’s stuff when I was a kid growing up on the East Side, and so, from a very young age, it presented to me the idea that the place I am is good enough. I can be proud of where my feet are planted, and I can learn

PHOTO: BARBARA J. PERENIC

to ascribe a certain beauty to the place my feet are planted, because no one here is disposable.

Oliphint: Aminah also had such an identifiable visual language that she developed. I wondered if we could talk about that with each of you, in terms of finding your language or voice as an artist.

Hamilton: My voice comes from my hands. I listen more to my hands and my feet than to my head. W hen you think about textiles and weaving, cloth is made up of many individual parts that have to do their work to hold together. There’s a reason that so many textile metaphors are used to describe our social relations. In my work, even if it might not appear like a weaving anymore, I think the underlayment of it is informed by that sensibility. If you have a piece of cloth on your lap, and you have a thread in your hand, you stick your needle down, and you can’t see the space where it is. It’s this invisible space. You might trust that it’s there, but then you’re bringing that thing you can’t see up to the surface to make something shareable and social. That is the basis of the work, and it takes many forms because I’m always responding to what I find.

Hanif, how do you decide what you’re going to write about? I might have an architecture to work with, so what’s your architecture?

Abdurraqib: The decisions I make in what I want to write about are, primarily, what will challenge me to think about something I once considered differently? Music, sports—all these things are at the center of it. Popular culture in general. But I’m so obsessed with correcting my past curiosities and rebuilding new ones.

Hamilton: Or judgments?

Abdurraqib: Yeah, judgments, too. Repetition is important to me. So many of my books have these callbacks. “A Fortune for Your Disaster” had 18 poems with the same title. “Little Devil” had all those “ Times I Forced Myself to Dance” sections. I like

5 Abdurraqib sought out Robinson in the early 2010s, when he was beginning his journey as a writer but before he’d published anything substantial. “I was just an eager person with questions,” he says. “She was so warm and giving.”

6 In 2016, Hamilton created an installation titled “Again, Still, Yet” in Wuzhen, China, a historic water town.

turning something over in my hand and asking myself, how can I look at this differently? How do I revisit judgments, opinions and curiosities and come out of it with a better understanding of myself in the process?

Hamilton: Because you return again and again, and it’s different each time.

Abdurraqib: Yeah. Criticism is an act of love. Early on I was more of a music critic than anything else, but I didn’t get into it because I wanted to be displeased or dissatisfied. I got into it because I wanted to expand my capacity for satisfaction, and if that meant spending time with an album that I would not normally love, that’s what it meant. But I wanted to expand my capacity for pleasure, because if I made the path of pleasure as wide as possible, then I could be more forgiving of the world, of myself, of my own histories that I’m laying out in my work.

Hamilton: There’s something in what you’re saying that makes me think about your willingness to go inside something—to be inside and actually have a relationship with it, to not stand outside.

Abdurraqib: Right. I want to be an active participant.

Oliphint: It sounds like there are multiple layers of discovery, as well. There’s this thing that you’re trying to understand, but along the way, there’s the discovery of self or the discovery of place, and those can all be layered into the same piece.

Abdurraqib: For me, so much of writing is not actually completing the pass. It’s teaching myself how to make the hard throw. So if I’m writing 10,000 words in a week, 100 of them, maybe, are the completion. But the other 9,900, that’s how you get there. I needed to write every single one of those words to say those 100 words. That is what makes writing exciting for me: How am I going to work my way out of this one? It’s a very Houdini-esque thing, where I begin at word one, and I’m in the safe, underwater, with my arms tied behind my back: How do I get out?

Hamilton: It’s also trusting the process, right?

Abdurraqib: Right. I had to train myself to surrender to the process and just say, I don’t know where it’s going to take me. Is it hard for you to do that still?

Hamilton: I think I just trust it. I was doing a project in China, and I had four students with me for se veral weeks.6 They were watching a process happen, and they kept saying, “You don’t know what you’re doing.” And not in a bad way! They were watching me and seeing that it was changing and responsive, and that it’s not all figured out. They talked to me afterward and said it was the most important thing about that trip—trusting that you will find it. But you have to be inside it. You can’t pull back and be afraid.

Abdurraqib: Sometimes the process supersedes your own intentions for what you thought the work would be, and that, to me, is a real magical experience.

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Why

OUR BODIES ,

The fall of Roe v. Wade has created a fury that is personal.

Where should abortion given legislature could rule out abortions duck session after

Essays and stories reflect how Central Ohio residents are feeling.

Edited by Sherry Beck Paprocki

Are my embryos safe in Will the health care plan at work change regarding reproductive health decisions-abortions and various methods of birth control such as pills and How can a law requiring a woman or a trans-man who is miscarrying (or carrying an fetus that likely will not survive),

PAGE 44

actively involved in campaigning against abortion? storage in Ohio? IUDs? survive), be forced to carry for the full nine months?

Why am I told by my employer that this is a private matter that I shouldn’t discuss, when the highest court in the country has made this public ruling and my employer provides my health insurance?

should I travel to get an given that the Ohio abortions during its lame after mid-term elections?

Inthe early morning of June 24, I was floating on a ferry in the Atlantic Ocean, watching the sun rise as I celebrated my birthday. It was an insignificant day other than I was older than I’d ever imagined being back when I was 14, the year the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision.

Before the sun went down, the highest court in the land officially released the Dobbs opinion, dismantling the landmark 1973 Roe ruling that marked my coming-of-age years and legalized abortion throughout the country. We people with uteruses, rights advocates, health care providers and policy wonks were expecting the opinion, officially called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, since a draft leaked several weeks earlier. The murmurs and concerns turned to shrieks and cries. With one swift action, the highest court in the land rolled back women’s rights by nearly 50 years, sending the question of abortion legalization back to the states.

When it comes to my health care rights, I am 14 again.

Since June 24, many of us have been mining our memories. We have been assessing the freedoms we’ve had and the freedoms we’ve lost regarding our reproductive health. While social media feeds filled with those mourning what they have known as a personal right, others celebrated their political victory; the polarization of America was shown in stark relief.

Privately, an avalanche of memories came for us all. They weren’t red and blue memories, though. They were gender-specific, and they were personal. The steamy fear of pregnancy that accompanies youthful sex, the roommate chats about birth control and the tentative plans made if we were to become pregnant. On the tail end of what had become known as the sexual revolution, in the ’70s we were inhibited only by the looming clouds of parents from a different era and religions that attempted to guide our decisions.

We have kept a lot of secrets for each other. They were about partners, abortions, adoptions, miscarriages and babies born “out of wedlock,” as they used to say. Since the release of the Dobbs decision, those secrets have hit us like a flash flood, requiring weeks to process and analyze and whisper among ourselves. Women of all ages, as well as nonbinary people and transgender men who still have uteruses, have recently shared secrets with friends and colleagues that we never felt we needed to reveal before.

Will the Ohio legislature pass a law requiring me to use all of the embryos (or fertilized eggs) being held for my IVF treatment, even if some show chromosomal abnomalies?

Here’s my story: I was 22, a recent college graduate with a serious boyfriend and a good newspaper reporter’s job, when I went to a Planned Parenthood clinic to find out if I was pregnant. (Over-the-counter tests weren’t widely available or trusted back then.)

OUR VOICES

“Your test is positive,” the nurse told me at the clinic where I was the only patient in the waiting room that afternoon. “Is there anything else we can help you with?”

“No,” I explained. “We plan to be married.”

There, all alone, I made the very personal decision to have a baby. Many times, I have told people: “You won’t know how you feel about abortion until you are in a room, alone, making that decision for yourself.” * * *

When I made my choice, I had a good life. My supportive partner had a job two hours away, but he likely would have gone with me to the clinic if I had asked him. My parents paid for a big wedding, and both of our families were enthusiastic about the arrival of our baby. Our marriage has grown over the decades and we have two adult children, their spouses and four awesome grandchildren.

I am lucky, I realize that.

How one feels about abortion often requires an arduous journey—months, even years, spent wading through the fog, sorting through personal choices and public policy. Sometimes, reproductive health decisions are overly influenced by a partner, a religion, a friend. Some who get abortions don’t have the financial wherewithal and the support of family, friends or even society to become parents. Still others have no clear choice in the matter due to the health consequences that a pregnancy and delivery would cause.

Today, after the fall of Roe, many basic, burning questions remain unanswered. There are uncertainties about oral contraceptives; Plan B pills and other emergency contraceptives; embryos fertilized through IVF; IUDs; ectopic pregnancies; and more.

Then there are the political fluctuations: Will the Ohio General Assembly pass a complete abortion ban during its upcoming lame duck session? Could personhood laws, which give fetuses full legal rights, spread throughout the country?

Will women rally during the November midterm elections, mirroring what occurred in the Republican stronghold of Kansas earlier this year when an overwhelming majority voted to keep abortion legal? Back in 1980, when I was 22, I covered the Ohio General Assembly for Thomas Roll Call Reports. There was one female in the Ohio Senate and nine women in the Ohio House of Representatives. Currently, seven of the 33 state senators are female. Thirty-three of the 99 representatives in the Ohio House are women. Progress toward equal representation is painfully slow.

Perhaps the biggest question hanging over people in this post-Roe world is this: Why do our daughters— many of whom are busy mothers with busy careers—

ABORTION BY AGE, 2021

Statistics are from the Ohio Department of Health’s Induced Abortions in Ohio 2021, the latest statistics available. Statistics for abortions include people who have received dilation extractions, dilation & evacuations, dilation & curretage and other surgical procedures. They also include statistics of those administered medication at a medical clinic. Statistics do not include numbers of those using medications such as Plan B and other over-the-counter emergency contraceptives.

need to worry about having access to birth control, a right that all people with uteruses have taken for granted for nearly five decades?

Thus, this feature is written with a heavy heart. But let me be clear: It isn’t about whether abortion should be legal in the United States. Rather, it’s about giving voice to those most affected by the monumental changes. In stories and essays in this feature package, a courageous group of women step forward to share their personal experiences with reproductive health. Why only women? Because people with uteruses are those who get pregnant, give birth, have miscarriages and have abortions. It’s as simple as that. And their stories reveal the complexities, emotions and rawness of the moment. —Sherry Beck

Paprocki

should I travel to get an abortion given that the Ohio legislature

‘I’m a Mother Who had to Make a Choice’

By Anonymous

On Nov. 10, 2021, I had an abortion. My fetus was diagnosed with trisomy 13, a genetic mutation that is “incompatible with life,” I was told. It would result in either miscarriage, stillbirth or death shortly after birth. It was a circumstance of nightmares.

My pregnancy had been normal until week 13, when it was time for a routine fetal ultrasound. The test began, and we saw that beautiful, now-baby-shaped fetus. Heart was beating, arms were moving. My heart stopped when I saw an area that was not present on my previous two babies’ ultrasounds. The room got quiet and tense. After the tech finished, and what felt like hours, the physician walked in. I could see it in her eyes and immediately knew things were not OK.

“I’m concerned,” she said, and my chest felt as if it were imploding.

She explained there was a “septated cystic hygroma” at the base of the neck, whatever that meant. Many words were spoken, and I tried to stay focused while my body wanted to run away. I asked what she would do in this situation. She immediately recommended a biopsy of the placenta to diagnose chromosomal abnormalities.

We were then escorted to the genetic counselor. She and her trainee explained what this anomaly could mean. It wasn’t good. There was a very high likelihood for either a genetic condition and/or severe structural abnormality of the cardiac, skeletal or nervous system. Some of these conditions were considered “not compatible with life,” I was told. In essence, we were given a 15 percent chance of a healthy, viable pregnancy based on ultrasound findings. In 30 minutes, we went from planning our nursery to an 85 percent chance of a serious abnormality with potentially severe and life-threatening conditions.

I held it together until the parking lot. The cry came from deep within my soul. I felt despair, anguish, terror. I’ve seen my husband cry maybe four times over the past decade. This was one of those times.

I had nearly lost a baby at birth, my oldest, our son. He almost died after getting stuck in the birth canal. He required 10 minutes of CPR to be resuscitated. Those 10 minutes were the most terrifying moments of my life. The thought of going through nine months of pregnancy and birth with no chance for survival is an unbearable trauma from which I don’t think I’d recover.

My small children need their mommy. My husband needs his wife.

I was denied insurance coverage for a hospital-based dilation and evacuation—called a D&E—

TERMS TO KNOW

Trisomy 13 or Patau syndrome

A congenital condition that is characterized especially by usually severe intellectual disability and by craniofacial, cardiac, ocular and cerebral abnormalities. It is caused by trisomy of the human chromosome numbered 13 and is typically fatal, especially within the first six months of life. —Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Trisomy 18 or Edwards syndrome

A congenital condition that is characterized especially by intellectual disability and by craniofacial, cardiac, gastrointestinal and genitourinary abnormalities. It is caused by trisomy of the human chromosome numbered 18 and is typically fatal, especially within the first year of life. —Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Trisomy 21

One cause of Down syndrome, which is a congenital condition characterized especially by developmental delays, usually mild to moderate impairment in cognitive functioning, short stature, upward slanting eyes, a flattened nasal bridge, broad hands with short fingers and decreased muscle tone, and by trisomy of the human chromosome numbered 21. —Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Septated cystic hygroma

Fetal cystic hygroma is a congenital malformation of the lymphatic system appearing as a single or multiloculated fluid-filled cavity, most often in the nuchal (back of the neck) region. The malformation is believed to arise from failure of the lymphatic system to communicate with the venous nuchal system. —American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

because this was not a “documented case of rape or incest,” and that my “life was not immediately at risk due to the presence of the fetus,” I was told. At baseline, pregnancy is medically risky. These risks continue to increase for someone, like me, who was 35 and had a history of C-section. Also, it is well-documented that the presence of a fetus with trisomy 13 can increase maternal risks, including preeclampsia, which involves high blood pressure that could result in possible kidney and liver damage during pregnancy or immediately after birth.

Let’s not forget the emotional and mental torture of carrying a nonviable fetus.

Ironically, I was not afforded health care access in the same hospital in which I personally provide care to patients as a nurse practitioner. I would have had to pay $8,100 out of pocket for my “elective termination,” I was told. I was denied by insurance as a woman needing basic medical care. I was rejected as a human being needing help. I was cast aside by the medical system, politics and bureaucracy.

Thanks to activists and the rights granted under Roe v. Wade, I was able to access an abortion clinic for my medical care. We drove 90 minutes for the only timely appointment we could get. After a four-hour appointment consisting of lab work, an ultrasound, videos and pamphlets discussing normal fetal development, I signed consent. The state of Ohio required at least 24 hours between signing consent and undergoing the abortion to allow time for a woman to change her mind. It was a 24-hour delay for me to continue to endure this torture, because unsurprisingly, I did not change my mind.

We were harassed and verbally assaulted by close to 20 protesters near the clinic. They were armed with signs, microphones, loudspeakers and their own small children.

“Turn back, this is an emergency!”

“Grab her hand and take her away!”

“We will help you raise your child!”

These are just some of the things I remember were shouted at us as we were rescued by the armed guard. I was not supposed to remember the actual procedure that day, having received sedation. But because I was in such emotional distress, despite being medicated, I was aware and remember the procedure in its entirety.

It felt like punishment, for somehow being responsible that this fetus would never be a thriving human being, punishment for this fetus having a lethal condition, punishment for simply being a woman.

A nother four hours and $1,300 later, we left, broken and shattered.

I was so lucky having had access to abortion. Being able to make this decision allowed for me to begin healing much sooner than if I were forced to continue six or seven more months with a doomed pregnancy. The thought of waking up every day, feeling the movement, watching my body change, knowing each day was riskier than the last, knowing any day I could bleed or miscarry, asking if it would happen while I was with my kids, if it would happen while I was at work, knowing strangers or patients (and friends and family) would happily ask about my belly and reach out to touch it. How would I explain this to them, and how could I possibly bear that torture?

There are countless other women with stories like mine, countless other women who need to make their

own choice. And there will continue to be women in situations where abortion is what they need to choose; situations that should be determined by that of the woman, with the help of her medical provider. Life can be messy, cruel, ruthless, and people can be disinterested in what laws are passed. These situations in which women will need abortion will happen, regardless of the current law. No one should have the right or authority to dictate someone else’s reproductive organs and bodily autonomy. No one should have the right to force me and my family to endure unbearable pain.

I’m a mother who had to make a choice for my children, to shield them from certain devastation and loss of innocence. That even if they didn’t physically lose their mommy (though that was a definite possibility), they would undoubtedly lose her in every other way.

I’m a human being who has worth and value, and I happen to have a uterus. I’m a woman who deserves understanding, and to not be so callously categorized. I have wishes, hopes, dreams, and I don’t want to be defined by this. Whoever needs to read this to realize there are real people behind abortions, here I am. I will continue to fight for this. And to fight for our daughters’ futures.

➾ The writer of this essay requested anonymity. She is a nurse practitioner working at one of Central Ohio’s largest health care facilities.

My Mind Changed in Increments’

By Emma Frankart Henterly

As an adolescent, I was an enthusiastic “pro-lifer.” On my winter coat, I proudly wore a lapel pin designated as Precious Feet, supposedly representing the size of a fetus’s feet at 10 to 12 weeks. I wrote a letter to President Bill Clinton, urging him to ban abortion. I was passionate about what I saw as my duty to protect every life in every uterus of every jezebel who would dare consider murdering her unborn baby, whether it had gestated for six weeks or 36.

Today, I believe that every person deserves equitable access to abortion, and that the government shouldn’t get to limit the medical decisions a person can make. What changed?

Are my embryos safe in storage in Ohio?

No, I didn’t need an abortion myself. In fact, when I had a pregnancy scare in college, I decided immediately that, while I had neither the desire nor the capacity to raise a child, I would prefer adoption to termination. (A belated period made the decision irrelevant.) Until very recently, the only person who I knew had an abortion needed to terminate an ectopic pregnancy that, left unchecked, could have killed her.

There was no huge revelation. My mind changed in increments, small realizations that ultimately led to this: Whatever my personal feelings are about abortion—or any issue affecting bodily autonomy that doesn’t also affect public health and safety—I don’t have the right to impose them on anyone else.

My opinion began changing with cases in which the pregnant person’s life was endangered by the pregnancy. These situations are heartbreaking, but you can’t call yourself “pro-life” if you’d rather see a person die than terminate their pregnancy.

In short order, my opinion on the acceptability of abortion then expanded to cases in which the fetus wasn’t viable, or when it was certain the newborn would have a short and painful existence before dying. Why force a person to carry a stillborn fetus, or go through the painful (and, I might add, expensive) process of carrying a fetus to term and giving birth, only to watch it suffer and die in their arms within hours or days?

How could forcing a person to go through that be considered the moral high ground?

I held out on cases of rape and incest until early adulthood. And then one night, I found myself alone in a room with a man who wanted something that I very much didn’t. I extricated myself from the situation, but not before he assaulted me. Later, as I grappled with the shame and guilt and countless other complex emotions that my not-quite-a-rape brought up, I realized how unethical it would be to force a person who had been violated even worse than I had to continue a pregnancy that had also been forced upon them.

Then, when I heard the following analogy, my opinion about abortion totally changed.

Say I had an identical twin sister, and she and I were in a bad car crash. What if she was declared brain dead and scheduled to be removed from life support, per her wishes? What if I had mortal wounds and was in desperate need of a vital organ? What if my braindead sister was an ideal candidate for donating a vital organ to me? What if she wasn’t a registered organ donor before the accident, though? In that case, taking her organs after her death—even to save my life— would be against the law, because she did not sign an agreement to be an organ donor. In that scenario, I would need to find another donor or die waiting.

ABORTIONS UNDER 18 IN OHIO (BY COUNTY)

It all became quite clear to me. I don’t think a corpse should have more bodily autonomy than a living, breathing person who happens to be pregnant. I now consider myself firmly pro-abortion. I believe it should be legal and accessible nationwide. I know it’s none of my business who gets one, and it’s not yours, either. The decision to have an abortion, whether it’s painful or easy, should be in the hands of the pregnant person (and in some cases, their partner) and their physician—not an affluent politician who has little to no practical knowledge of the human reproductive system.

➾ Emma Frankart Henterly is the special sections editor for Columbus Monthly.

Statistics are from the Ohio Department of Health’s Induced Abortions in Ohio 2021, the latest statistics available. Counties reporting more than 10 abortions performed for those under 18 are included.

‘As a Premedical Student, I Understood

By Natalie Lucas

I received a positive pregnancy test in November 2018. For many women, seeing a double line appear on that test is a joyous, triumphant occasion. For a 19-year-old university student using birth control, seeing it made my blood run cold. It threatened every aspect of my existence—my academics, my reputation, my relationship, even my life.

An IUD, or intrauterine device, is one of the most effective forms of birth control. Fewer than 1 percent of every 100 women using an IUD will become pregnant during the first year of use. I happened to be one of those unlucky few during my sophomore year at Ohio State.

As a premedical student, I immediately understood the direness of the situation. The rare pregnancies that occur with an IUD in place have a high chance of being ectopic, meaning fetal implantation occurs outside the uterus.

No ectopic pregnancy is viable. There is an increased risk of spontaneous abortion, which could be life-threatening for the mother. Left unchecked, an ectopic pregnancy will likely cause the fallopian tube to rupture and could also result in consequent death for the mother.

I was paralyzed with fear, shame, confusion, disbelief and despair. What would I tell my boyfriend? W hat would we do if the pregnancy wasn’t ectopic? How was I going to afford the medical care I needed? What was I going to do about finals? And why, in spite of astronomical odds, did it happen to me?

My boyfriend took the news as well as anyone could. We immediately went to the nearest Planned Parenthood office to confirm the result. It came back positive. Through mutual shock and sorrow, we agreed to terminate.

The peculiarity of my case meant I had to make four separate appointments at Planned Parenthood to accommodate my safety and the law: intake, IUD removal, ultrasound and, finally, the procedure. It was finals week, and I had no access to a car. To complicate matters further, they could not find the pregnancy with ultrasound, possibly indicating an ectopic placement.

At four weeks, a developing fetus is barely more than layers of cells organizing themselves along chemical concentration gradients. I was asked if I wanted to hear the beat of an organ that didn’t exist yet. I refused and was sent home to “fully consider my options” for a minimum of 24 hours. For me, that meant paying for another two trips from a rideshare, but for those with

more developed ectopic pregnancies, that mandatory waiting period could mean life or death.

I received a surgical abortion to ensure proper termination. I was awake the entire time on minimal sedation to mitigate costs. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt.

I left the clinic that morning in a daze. A group of protesters had gathered outside during my final visit. I stumbled through them, still in agony, as they shouted slogans and morally charged accusations at me. As I climbed into the Uber to head back to campus, I groggily mumbled: “My body, my choice.” An older woman lowered her sign to look at me and replied, “It’s not your choice, sweetheart. It’s not too late.”

I didn’t have long to linger on her words. I had an exam to take that afternoon.

In many ways, I was lucky. I became pregnant with an IUD, making the procedure arguably necessary for

TREATING AN ECTOPIC PREGNANCY

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends two ways to treat an ectopic pregnancy. Surgery may be used to remove the pregnancy from the fallopian tube. (If the tube has ruptured, it will also be removed.) If a medical professional does not believe surgery is required, the most commonly used medication in this case is called methotrexate, which stops cells from growing and ends the pregnancy. The pregnancy then is absorbed by the body over four to six weeks.

Fallopian Tube

Fallopian Tube

Ovary Ovary

Cervix

Vagina

Uterus

I be able to get oral contraceptives, or will my pills

the Direness of the Situation’

my survival and easing the guilt providers are legally required to confer on patients. I had a supportive partner that accompanied me to every appointment. I had a rainy-day fund that allowed me to afford care out-of-pocket, which totaled around $1,600, including travel expenses.

Despite the financial and emotional support, the trauma of undergoing an abortion haunts me to this day. Many women who face this situation do not have the privileges I have. Every other woman I encountered in that waiting room was a young person of color who was there alone.

Recently, I moved to Toronto, Canada, for a medical graduate program alongside the man who accompanied me to every appointment. The decision to move internationally was heavily influenced by this experience. If I ever find myself in such a situation again, I want a health care system that provides safe, affordable and guilt-free care.

I hope those who read my story understand that experiences with abortion are not rare. Anyone you know could have a narrative similar to mine. Access to abortion ensures the health and safety of women in Ohio and all over the world. Although I think about it often, I never regret my decision. My abortion allowed me to live.

IS BIRTH CONTROL UNDER ATTACK?

In July, immediately after the Supreme Court dismantled Roe v. Wade, legislation was introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to “codify” a person’s right to use contraception. The bill sponsors want to instill a constitutional right to birth control.

The conversation continues around both pieces of legislation—SB 4557, which languishes in a Senate committee, and HR 8373, which was passed by the House in July. Why is contraception at risk? U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion with the Dobbs decision, suggested that the court could reconsider past opinions related to contraception, same-sex marriage and other controversial topics.

One day after the draft opinion was leaked, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, tweeted: “The #SCOTUS opinion is not just about Roe. Your right to birth control is next. Your right to marry whomever you love is next. All of your rights to make your own decisions about how and when to raise your family are at stake.”

Most at risk for birth control, perhaps, are medications and devices that prevent a fertilized egg from being implanted into the uterus.

U.S. ABORTIONS BY RACE/ETHNICITY

Birth control pills contain either progestin, alone, or a combination of estrogen and progestin. In general, oral contraceptives can do three things: suppress ovulation, prevent the sperm from meeting the egg and cause a change in the uterine wall, making it less likely for a fertilized egg to attach.

However, not all oral contraceptives will prevent all three things from occurring. Any legislation developed around how birth control pills prevent a pregnancy will require legislators to delve deep into the science behind each complex method of oral contraception. A variety of brands and types of contraceptive pills are available.

Statistics are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Abortion Surveillance Report 2019, the most recent available. Data is from only 30 reporting areas. Information does not include Ohio and 21 other reporting areas due to either errors or failure to report.

IUDs (intrauterine devices) are T-shaped instruments that a physician inserts into a woman’s uterus. They are replaced anywhere from three to 10 years, depending on the type. An IUD releases progestin, which can prevent a person from getting pregnant, but IUDs can also prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus.

For further information about these and other methods of contraception, check out cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/ contraception. —Sherry Beck Paprocki

➾ Natalie Lucas is a first-year medical illustration student at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Science and Faith are Both Divine Gifts’

By the Rev. Deborah Countiss Lindsay

Women are capable of being good, moral decision-makers. It is that simple.

More than a few Americans are under the impression there is only one way to think about religion and abortion, but that could not be further from the truth. The often-expressed view is “all religious people” believe life begins at conception and are against abortion in all circumstances. Not true.

In fact, there are myriad faith traditions and communities with a common conviction that the right to terminate a pregnancy is a decision that should be made only by a woman, with counsel from her physician and others she chooses to lean on. As an individual created in the image of God, a woman has the moral capability, authority and autonomy to determine what is best for her body and pregnancy. My denomination, the United Church of Christ, affirms that “every woman must have the freedom of choice to follow her religious and moral convictions” regarding her reproductive health.

In the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, an amicus (friend of the court) brief was filed with the Supreme Court by 54 groups from a variety of faith traditions, including Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, African American ministers, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and others. The document outlines the broad spectrum of religious beliefs about when life begins, including a position that it is impossible to know at what moment a collection of cells becomes a human being. The entire brief is worth reading. (It can be found at bit.ly/scotusamicusbrief.)

While there are divergent views about when human life begins, the faith traditions represented in the brief agree it is a woman’s right “to make her own decisions about her pregnancy in accordance with her faith, beliefs, and conscience.” The critical takeaway is this: The person who claims “all religious people are against abortion” is seriously misinformed.

Some examples: Traditional Jewish teaching says a living being is born when the baby emerges from the mother’s body and draws its first breath. Breath—“ruach” in Hebrew—is a sacred element of both Judaism and Christianity. The prevailing view in Islam is the fetus becomes a person 120 days after conception. The notion that life begins at the moment of conception is one—and only one—of many Christian perspectives. How

can a law requiring a woman or a trans-man who is miscarrying (or carrying a

‘

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Deborah Countiss Lindsay, former pastor at First Community Church

It’s been said that religion cannot answer scientific questions and science cannot answer religious questions. True. It is my conviction that science and faith are both divine gifts that contribute to deep understanding and human flourishing. They are interconnected; science requires curiosity, determination, intelligence and creativity, which are all gifts of God.

Both science and faith have a role in decision-making about how we live, love and take care of ourselves and each other. That would include a decision about abortion. Questions of what makes for an abundant, flourishing life are complex. The answers are not always obvious; they are profoundly personal, and always have an element of mystery.

In the Hebrew Bible, the prophet Micah says, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” When we differ in matters of faith and conscience, we can, and indeed must, approach with humility and respect the convictions of the other, even as we disagree.

To love one’s neighbor is foundational to virtually every world religion, which means to respect the neighbor, their faith and their tradition (or their adherence to no tradition). To impose one particular religious tenet on everyone is neither just, kind nor humble. It is a form of spiritual brutality.

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness,” said another prophet, Desmond Tutu, during the fight against apartheid in South Africa.

As devastating as the times are for advocates of choice (myself among them), I am hopeful. I am hopeful because I trust the sacred energy that animates the universe is working among us in ways we cannot see or understand. The man named Jesus practiced radical equality for all. He understood that life-affirming choices are different for different members of the human family. He respected women and viewed them as capable, autonomous people of faith, second to none in the eyes of God. To that, may people of all faiths—as well as uncertain faith and no faith—together say amen.

➾ The Rev. Deborah Countiss Lindsay is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. A former Columbus anchor with WSYX Channel 6 in Columbus, she now holds degrees in theology from Trinity Lutheran Seminary and New York Theological Seminary.

‘ Do I Want to be Pregnant While Living in Ohio?’

By Taylor Swope

I can say confidently that the only thing I have ever been certain about is wanting to be a mother. So when Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, and Ohio SB 23 (erroneously called the “heartbeat bill”) became law barely 12 hours later, I was frightened by the one thing I felt to be certain.

Do I want to be pregnant while living in Ohio? Is it safe?

Do I trust that I could receive care here that would save my life while pregnant?

What if I found out while pregnant that I would have to travel to a different state to have an abortion if medical testing revealed the baby would not live past birth?

I imagine there are a lot of nonmothers who hope to be mothers someday asking very similar questions right now as we plan our futures. For me, these questions are especially escalated because I will likely be considered a higher-risk pregnancy due to advanced maternal age. I am 36 now, likely two or three years away from a potential pregnancy.

I also wonder what will happen if my partner and I are not able to conceive a child and will require medical intervention. We don’t yet know the future of in vitro fertilization in Ohio, considering the conversation around “personhood,” the idea that a fetus is defined as a person while in utero and before the age of viability outside of the womb.

I’m aware of my privilege as a white woman, and I am deeply concerned about the possibility of laws being passed that will hurt so many who don’t have a voice or much of a choice.

I have more questions than answers right now. I don’t know how so many things will work out. Maybe I will have my own child someday. Maybe I will choose to adopt. Maybe I will decide to find happiness and peace as an aunt to my siblings’ and friends’ children. Maybe I will do nothing, because I am scared.

A ll I know with certainty is that I am far less safe as a person with a uterus than I was before June 24.

➾ Taylor Swope is a Central Ohio freelance writer.

fetus that likely will not survive), be forced to carry for the full nine months?

‘ Women Will Take Care of Things’

By Sherry Beck Paprocki

One day about 30 years ago, Emily Rutherford received a call from a divorced mother of a 2-year-old toddler. The woman was pregnant again, with her former husband, and she was deeply distressed about giving birth and caring for another child.

Rutherford told her she’d talk to some women she knew and get back to her. Instead, she quickly deducted $200 from her personal bank account, drove the woman to the abortion clinic in Columbus and entertained her toddler at COSI while the procedure was underway. Days later, with a friend, Rutherford gathered a group of other supportive Licking County women who eventually started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Women Have Options, which later became Women Have Options/Ohio.

The group of 10 or so women opened a help line and took turns volunteering to check its messages every day. Probably three women were served in its first year, Rutherford recalls. Uncomfortable being public with their names, the group’s leaders remained anonymous for many years. But they returned calls to women in need, met with women in distress, drove from Licking County to clinics in Columbus, paid for abortions, babysat children and helped in any way they could think. Some early participants have called the service an “Underground R ailroad” for women in need of abortions.

The women behind Women Have Options/Ohio were leery about revealing their identities, living in a largely conservative county. “We were afraid of what could happen,” Rutherford says.

Once, a letter filled with a white substance arrived at the group’s P.O. Box inside the Granville post office— and the entire building was shut down for an anthrax scare. Later, it was revealed that the envelope only contained some sort of harmless powder.

For Rutherford, who is now 88, the cause is important. After graduating from college and marrying in 1956, she gave birth to five children in six years. When she discovered she was pregnant a sixth time, she panicked. This was more than a decade before Roe v. Wade became law. Three of Rutherford’s children were still wearing cloth diapers, and she counted the time she spent hanging them on the clothesline outdoors as her one respite during a busy day of mothering small children.

“My husband hung a longer clothesline,” she says, a response she has likely used more than once in her

busy life, rearing five children and then as a professional and nonprofit founder.

Birth control pills, introduced in 1950, were first being marketed, and her male doctor would not prescribe them to her, citing her bad varicose veins as the reason why.

After discovering she was pregnant, Rutherford visited several doctors as it was her understanding that if you could find two who agreed that you needed an abortion, then you could receive one. Unsuccessful at finding even one doctor, she finally told her father—a real estate investor in Columbus—the challenge.

Through contacts and research, arrangements were made for her to fly to Puerto Rico to visit a doctor who would do the procedure. “I had to go two times,” she recalls, as there was a follow-up issue after the initial procedure. The second time, both of her parents flew with her.

Perhaps that’s why, today, Rutherford says, “Wealthy women will always be able to get abortions.” Others without money and resources, though, will be continually challenged.

Fast forward to the early 1990s. As Rutherford’s children grew older, she obtained two master’s degrees and worked for a while in social services at Moundbuilders Mental Health Center in Newark. It was a few years after she left that job that she received the call from a former client, the divorced mother of the 2-year-old.

Eventually, Rutherford and other founders wanted to retire from WHO, a volunteer gig, and two newcomers stepped in to take over the organization. A surprise $100,000 donation was given to the organization from the estate of a woman whom Rutherford didn’t even know. The organization, which started growing with grants and other funds, evolved into the Abortion Fund of Ohio, serving women throughout the state.

At the time that Rutherford and others were founding WHO, more grassroots organizations were growing in other states. Rutherford traveled to Bethesda, Mar yland, to attend the first meeting of the National Network of Abortion Funds. The existence of a national network will play an interesting role as laws change from state to state, and people needing abortions are forced to travel to get them.

“Abortions are going to continue, and groups like the [Abortion Fund of Ohio] will exist,” she says. “I just think that women will take care of things.”

Stories By Mariam Abaza

WE NEEDED THAT TYPE OF HEALTH CARE’

“Either the baby will die inside you at some point or it will die immediately after birth,” the doctor said. After much consideration, Central Ohio resident Kim Sproat decided to have the abortion.

Sixteen weeks into her pregnancy, doctors discovered that most of the fetal organs had developed outside of the chest cavity, a condition incompatible with life. Sproat was put into an impossible situation: Have an abortion or wait for the fetus to die. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Sproat is concerned that women will not have the same choice she did, instead being forced to carry the baby to full term despite medical issues.

Sproat had health insurance that covered the costs of the abortion, a surgical dilation and evacuation—also known has a D&E—procedure performed at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital. She and her husband are Muslim and they sought spiritual counseling before moving forward with the procedure.

Sproat, 41, was devastated after the Supreme Court overturned Roe because of her personal experiences with abortion. She experienced infertility issues for many years, suffering from four failed pregnancies before her firstborn child. The first time she was pregnant, her fetus had no heartbeat, and she decided to take abortion medication.

Due to the challenge of getting pregnant again, she and her husband decided to try in vitro fertilization. That’s when she suffered the loss of the fetus at 16 weeks. A second embryo was implanted, and it was unsuccessful, she says. The third time, she convinced her physician to implant two embryos. She miscarried one of the fetuses; the other survived. Her son is now 6 years old and has a brother who is 4. The youngest child was a surprise, and that left Sproat and her husband to decide the fate of four frozen embryos that remained from the IVF treatment. Eventually, they asked the facility where they were stored to discard them.

“I wanted a baby, a family, and that’s what we were trying to do,” Sproat explains. “We needed that type of health care [abortion] to proceed in our journey. If I didn’t have that health care, I would have had to carry that baby every day, wondering if it was still alive. I would have had hope. That was at 16 weeks; I would have had to go on more than 20 weeks. I would have had to think about going into my appointment

OHIO’S ABORTION LAW

Let the litigation begin. Ohio’s SB 23—erroneously titled the heartbeat bill—was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019. It, essentially, prohibits abortions after the first sign of fetal cardiac activity, usually around six weeks. Prior to the passage of this law, abortions were allowed in the state up to about 22 weeks of gestation.

Just a few months after DeWine signed the bill into law, U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett in Cincinnati issued a preliminary injunction against enforcing it. Barrett said the law imposed an unconstitutional “undue burden” on a woman’s right to obtain a pre-viability abortion.

The judge’s block was in effect early last summer, but the fall of Roe v. Wade reversed that block. SB 23 went into immediate effect when the Dobbs opinion came down in June.

Weeks after the six-week law took effect, at the bequest of abortion-rights groups that were witnessing life-and-death situations among pregnant individuals, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian A. Jenkins granted a temporary restraining order against the law, allowing abortions up to about 22 weeks gestation to continue. At press time, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas granted a request for a preliminary injunction against SB 23, in essence allowing abortions in the state to be performed through the 22nd week of pregnancy while the case is in litigation. Just a few days later, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost appealed the decision. The result: Pregnant people in dire circumstances— for health and safety issues—need to continually check the status of the Ohio law.

—Sherry Beck Paprocki

wondering if it was dead. That would be horrible. And my social circle would see me getting bigger. They would ask me what I was having, if I was excited. That’s just mentally taxing. Why do I have to put myself through that?”

Sproat strongly believes the Dobbs decision will lead to a higher rate of abortion-related deaths. Those without money are not able to travel to another state to receive care, especially if they need to pay for child care. They will either not receive the health care they need or they will seek unprofessional care, which she believes will lead to extreme complications.

Ashley Covitz, 19, reacted differently to the decision overturning Roe v. Wade. She is a graduate of Dublin Jerome High School and is currently a sophomore at Virginia Tech. As a freshman in high school she was more abortion-rights, but has gradually become anti-abortion. A large basis of her beliefs is her religion. She is a nondenominational Christian. There have been many examples of unborn children having life and spirit in the Bible, she says. In addition to her religion, a key factor in her morals is her political stance. She serves as secretary of the College Republicans at Virginia Tech and the executive secretary of College Republican Federation of Virginia, and she has aided with multiple Republican campaigns. These factors have greatly contributed to her strong anti-abortion stance, she explains.

Upon hearing the news of the Dobbs decision, she felt “proud but apprehensive,” she says. “I was very happy that it was no longer a federal mandate and that it returned power back to the state level.” Voices of the people are more heard at the state level than at the federal level, she says. Despite this pride, she was apprehensive that “with the change there would come much misinformation and many broken relationships, because people are so polarized one way or another.”

She experienced unexpected backlash from family and friends, especially after posting in support of the Roe v. Wade reversal on social media. While she felt worried about the backlash, she strongly believes this is a large step in the right direction for the United States. However, she believes that there is still work to be done.

“There needs to be a culture change,” Covitz says. “There needs to be more of a change in promoting life in everybody. I think we’ve seen improvement in blatant racism and discrimination, but I also think there needs to be a culture shift. Yes, your baby is born, but you also need to provide for it.”

There should be a revamping of the adoption system, because there are so many families that are waiting for kids and so many kids that are struggling in the foster system, she says. “I am very happy about where Ohio is at this time, but I do think there needs to be more involvement at the federal level, not just focusing on the birth but focusing on the life.”

As for Ohio SB 23, “I agree with the bill because I do believe in pro-life,” Covitz says. While she does think that there should be some exceptions in extreme cases, she believes that this law will prevent excess elective abortions.

Nazek Hapasha, policy affairs manager for the League of Women Voters of Ohio, explains that Ohio closes a two-year General Assembly period at the end of this year; yet, there is still potential for more restrictive legislation to pass before the end of the year regarding abortions.

Any bills that were proposed in this General Assembly that are not passed by the end of the year die, and they will need to be reintroduced in 2023. There are bills that have been proposed during this General Assembly that would completely outlaw abortion after conception. It is expected that some laws may pass in Ohio restricting abortion access during the legislature’s lame duck session after midterm elections, she explains.

“ The laws passed by the legislature often affect the most vulnerable of people: women that were raped, girls who have been victims of human trafficking, women in abusive relationships,” Hapasha says.

Whoever still wants to get an abortion and has the resources to do so is going to get an abortion, she continues. People who are the most disadvantaged might seek out unsafe ways to either self-perform an abortion or get an abortion from someone who is not certified, putting their lives at risk.

“Do we really want children coming into the world when the intention of the mother was to have an abortion?” says Hapasha. “Nobody has an abortion unless the y’re in pretty desperate circumstances to not have a baby. I think it will cause a lot of harm to women, physically, emotionally and socially.”

Despite the harm that may ensue from unsafe abortions, Hapasha believes there is a bright side. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, she has seen an increasing number of women advocating for their rights.

“ This may be the flame we needed to move people to vote, protest, talk to their legislators, and to be more civically engaged on an issue that they see is vital to their lives,” she says. “I truly think that Ohio legislators did not realize how much people, women especially, across Ohio would be enraged by this. I have seen so many diverse women—rich, poor, Black, white, brown, Republican, Democrat—absolutely enraged by this and willing to do something to make change. If that’s the one positive thing that came out of this, then maybe this is the incubator for change that we needed.”

➾ Mar iam Abaza is a senior at Dublin Jerome High School.

‘ MAYBE THIS IS THE INCUB ATOR FOR CHANGE’

‘ THERE NEEDS TO BE A CULTURE CHANGE’

Will the Ohio legislature pass a law requiring me to use all of the embryos (or fertilized eggs) being held for my IVF treatment, even if some show chromosomal abnomalies?

WELCOME TO DUBLIN!

THE CITY OF DUBLIN has a long history of strategic thinking and planning; it’s what has shaped our energetic, fiscally sound and healthy community that you see today. Visionary leadership—both former and present City Councils and staff—brought forth the ideas and community amenities we all enjoy. These innovations include developing 64 city parks and more than 140 miles of shared-use paths; providing infrastructure to attract corporate headquarters and small businesses alike; building and connecting walkable neighborhoods; preserving the historic district while making way for the more urban Bridge Park development; and achieving the goals of being a place where people want to live, work, learn, visit and retire.

I am pleased to say that our residents have affirmed their satisfaction with the direction of our city. In a 2022 Community Attitudes Survey, conducted by Saperstein Associates, 99 percent of residents said Dublin is an excellent or good place to live. Martin Saperstein, president of Saperstein Associates, noted that of all the cities his business has surveyed, “There isn’t anyone we work with that has numbers like this and has had them for the past decade.” He called it “remarkable” that Dublin could sustain that level.

Yet, despite these high marks, Dublin is not a city that rests on its laurels. We continuously press forward with bold visions for the future. Each year, at Dublin City Council’s retreat, we discuss our goals for the city, determining which ones have been met and which ones we want to continue to strive to attain. In February 2020, we established a goal to develop a visionary framework to lead our efforts through the next decade and beyond. As a result of these discussions, this year, Dublin City Council adopted a new vision: to be a global city of choice that is the most sustainable, connected and resilient.

On the following pages, you’ll read many stories about the people, places and initiatives that make Dublin the thriving community it is today. It makes me proud to live in a place that creates an environment that takes care of its people—sustaining them, connecting them and helping them to be resilient. I think you’ll agree that, together with the community, we are well on our way to making our vision a reality.

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INSIDE

4 CASE STUDY

The Bridge Park development creates opportunities for all.

10 BUSINESS Focus on supporting the biomed sector leads to healthy outcomes.

14 LIFESTYLES

A robust parks department keeps residents happy and engaged.

16 HOUSING

Diverse stock lets families and individuals grow in the city.

19 EDUCATION

Dublin students have unique learning opportunities at the Emerald Campus.

Dublin: A Columbus Monthly Suburban Section is published by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2022, all rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials.

ON THE COVER: The Dublin Link bridge between Historic Dublin and Bridge Park | Photo courtesy City of Dublin

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CASE STUDY

BRIDGE PARK IS BOOMING

The housing, dining, retail and office spaces of Dublin’s newest development are injecting life into the city in myriad ways.

By Mandy Shunnarah

THE SECRET IS OUT: Dublin is booming.

The popularity of Bridge Park’s office and residential spaces have brought many new visitors, residents and businesses to town, all of which have contributed to the vibrancy of the city. More and more people are realizing what longtime Dubliners have known for a while: The city is an ideal place to live and work. The proof is in the Irish pudding, as city leaders say developers can hardly build fast enough to keep up with the growing demand for the Dublin lifestyle.

“We have seen an increase in development interest and activity in Dublin, particularly in our Metro Center and Blazer Research districts, West Innovation District, and Bridge Park,” says city manager Megan O’Callaghan.

Michaela Grandey, founder of real estate agency the Grandey Group with Rolls Realty, agrees.

“The addition of Bridge Park has been a game-changer for residents of all ages. The bridge itself is amazing, and the shopping and dining, as well as businesses that are a part of Bridge Park, make Dublin a destination,” she says. “There is something for everyone to enjoy. Watching young kids and families at the library interact with a young professional grabbing coffee is fun. My office is in downtown Dublin, and it’s fantastic to connect with clients and show them all that they can enjoy within a short walk or bike ride.”

A BIT OF MAGIC

Whether you’re young or young at heart, everyone loves a little magic in the air—and you’re sure to find it on Dublin’s Irish Fairy Door Trail. Take a walk through Historic Dublin and Bridge Park to find 11 tiny, fairy-sized doors at area businesses. Begin your journey at the Dublin Information and Visitor Center to pick up your map, then travel through the walkable neighborhood spots like Johnson’s Real Ice Cream, Paris 75, Our CupCakery, Winans Chocolates + Coffees, Extravagifts, Dublin Toy Emporium, Boho 72 Boutique, North Market Bridge Park, Kilwins and The Cheesecake Girl (the latter of which offers a special, free treat). Write down the name of each fairy you encounter on this family-friendly activity, then return to the Visitor Center with your completed map for a free T-shirt.

The Dublin Link pedestrian bridge connects Dublin’s historic downtown to the new Bridge Park development.

Dublin’s dining scene is thriving so much that local restaurateur Cameron Mitchell is opening his fourth restaurant within a half-mile radius in the city.

“Bridge Park appeals to us because it has something to offer for everyone. It’s a great, active community that boasts a strong mix of residential, office and retail. With easy parking and the pedestrian bridge, it provides easy access and connectivity to downtown Dublin, as well,” says Steve Weis, vice president of development for Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. “The city of Dublin and developer Crawford Hoying have done an incredible job with creating an authentic neighborhood that people love to enjoy.”

That fourth restaurant, Valentina’s, is projected to open in spring 2023. “The 6,200-square-foot space will include a large patio overlooking the new pedestrian bridge linking Bridge Park with downtown Dublin,” Weis notes. “Valentina’s will offer guests the genuine hospitality for which we are known and will feature Northern Italian-inspired cuisine, fine wines and specialty cocktails.”

Cameron Mitchell Restaurants aren’t the only excellent food options at Bridge Park, as longtime resident Lara Leach knows firsthand. “North Market has some great independent, local and unique restaurants and vendors and a great vibe to it,” she says.

When North Market, a public market-style food hall that focuses on

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF DUBLIN

Dublin boasts a walkable downtown with ample dining and retail.

supporting diverse local restaurateurs, was looking to add its second location in Central Ohio, choosing Bridge Park was a no-brainer. The Dublin location opened in November 2020.

“We are so thrilled to be part of the thriving Bridge Park community and Dublin as a whole,” says North Market communications and marketing director Meghan Brouillette. “This area has welcomed North Market with open arms and has been very supportive since we opened.”

North Market Bridge Park supports full-time merchants, temporary pop-up vendors, farmers and makers with taste influences from around the world, including Dos Hermanos Tacos, Falafel Kitchen, Hoyo’s Kitchen, Lan Viet and Bubbles Tea and Juice Co. Managed and operated by a not-forprofit organization, giving back to the community is baked into North Market’s business model.

“Our mission is to provide an authentic Central Ohio experience that

WE ALL SCREAM FOR …

Summer may have ended, but ice cream is a tasty year-round treat thanks to Dublin’s plentiful ice cream shops. There are half a dozen places to satisfy your sweet tooth, from regional behemoths like Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and Graeter’s Ice Cream to local favorites like Johnson’s Real Ice Cream in Historic Dublin, which has been a mainstay in Central Ohio for four generations—and counting. Meanwhile, Diamonds Ice Cream features artisan Mexican paletas and other frozen sweet treats in addition to ice cream for a combined 300-plus flavors. The newly opened Kilwins location in Bridge Park serves ice cream so good that you’ll want to grab a few pints from the Michigan-founded company even for The Big Game. Or if fro-yo is more to your liking, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt has dozens of flavors and can even make frozen yogurt cakes. Many of these locations have dairy-free options, so lactose-intolerant folks don’t have to miss out on the fun.

highlights the diversity and vibrancy of our community, both economically and culturally, by promoting and incubating best-in-class, local, independent businesses,” says Brouillette.

In addition to award-winning and international cuisine, Bridge Park is home to several unique service businesses, including Leading EDJE, a company of tech experts who solve tough problems

for businesses by putting technology to work. With Leading EDJE’s company culture, the development was an optimal location.

“Bridge Park is a great representation of our firm’s personality and core values by creating a positive, energetic atmosphere with an emphasis on quality, team, technology and fun,” says chief executive officer Joelle Brock.

For One Medical, a primary care office of family physicians, Bridge Park was an obvious choice, as well. Its stated goal is to ensure their offices are convenient to where people live, work, shop and play, including retail lifestyle centers, the ground floor of residential and office buildings, and in grocery store-anchored shopping centers—meaning Bridge Park fit the bill perfectly when they were considering a new location.

“We are thrilled to be established here in Central Ohio,” says Columbus district medical director Dr. Thomas Nguyen. “The response has been incredible—we knew that Columbus would be a perfect fit for our mission to transform health care for all by removing barriers. And providing easy access to four [Central Ohio] offices is definitely helping that mission.”

In addition to the amenities for those who call Dublin home, the city has become a destination next door for Central Ohioans, in part because the namesake bridge at Bridge Park is host to a variety of cultural events, including Pride, Juneteenth, Diwali and more.

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PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF DUBLIN

Bridge Park features a mix of apartments and condos above groundlevel retail and dining options, with office spaces scattered throughout.

Seated: William Cseplo, Stephanie McCurdy, William Grové.

Standing: Anthony Trocchio, Curtis Steube, Nichole Kirk, Elizabeth Rugg, Anthony Venetta, Edward Snyder, Jeb Slaven, Derek Hegarty, Colin Parks, Krista Byrd, Jessica Lonyo, Jodi Graney, Suzy Biehl, Joseph Trocchio.

“We are fortunate to have a diverse culture within Dublin. Our residents represent more than 100 countries and speak approximately 90 different languages, providing many opportunities to acknowledge, appreciate and uplift the many cultures that enrich our city,” O’Callaghan says. “These celebrations are important to help us understand the communal diversity we have within Dublin, while promoting a welcoming environment by building relationships and trust. As a city, we celebrate diversity, and we provide opportunities for residents, businesses and visitors to shape Dublin as a vibrant, inclusive city.”

The Dublin Link bridge, which connects Historic Dublin to Bridge Park, is a visual and literal connection between the city’s past and its exciting future, she adds.

“Dublin has a lot to offer everyone. It is very safe and family-friendly,” says Leach, who’s raising her family in Dublin. “It is international and inclusive. There

The city of Dublin recently purchased seven riverfront properties and put out requests for proposals, which can only mean one thing: more exciting developments coming to Dublin. While plans are still being considered, there’s cause for celebration. “This is an exciting project for the city and an opportunity to significantly improve the current North Riverview Street properties,” says city manager Megan O’Callaghan. “The RFP sought proposals for their rehabilitation, renovation and redevelopment, and we want to be sure that is done in a way that enhances the neighborhood while respecting the historic character of early Dublin and the properties themselves. It’s another step to ensure we’re celebrating our history while we build the future of Dublin.”

is a strong sense of community, and the city of Dublin does a great job putting on outdoor concerts, the Fourth of July parade and fireworks celebrations, the [Dublin] Irish Festival, the Memorial Tournament, the [Downtown Dublin] DORA, a farmers market in the summer, the [Halloween] Spooktacular … really, there is something for everyone!”

The inviting energy of Bridge Park has had an invigorating effect on Historic Dublin, as well, which is just a short walk over the Dublin Link

pedestrian bridge. Residents and visitors alike have more access to green spaces and activities on the river, like kayak rentals. With options for living, working, dining, shopping, nightlife and regularly scheduled events—such as the new pop-up shop on High Street just south of Bridge Street, which will run through December—it’s no wonder that the popularity of Bridge Park continues to rise.

Carrie Everingham, a local real estate agent and longtime Dublin resident,

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says it best: “Bridge Park has certainly been a great new addition for Dublin. We have top-notch restaurants, entertainment, farmers markets—and we don’t have to drive downtown to Columbus to find it anymore.”

As for Everingham’s favorite thing to do at Bridge Park, she recommends biking to North Market and playing a few rounds of pinball or “Ms. PacMan” at 16Bit Bar + Arcade, which has family-friendly hours where children are welcome.

Whether you have ancestors from the Emerald Isle or just love a good drink, the luck of the Irish is on your side thanks to Dublin’s Celtic Cocktail Trail. Participants can take up to 30 days to sample libations at any of the 19 participating spots throughout town. Enjoy craft cocktails—and yummy plates of food to balance them out—at six locations for a commemorative koozie, or visit 12 locations to claim a souvenir T-shirt. Choose from Getaway Brewing Co., 1487 Brewery, Kona Craft Kitchen, Fado Pub & Kitchen, Vaso Rooftop Lounge, Café Istanbul, 101 Beer Kitchen, Market Bar at North Market Bridge Park, North High Brewing, Coast Wine House, Frank & Carl’s, Tucci’s, Beer Barrel, Dublin Village Tavern, J. Liu, Urban Meyer’s Pint House, The Pint Room, Matt the Miller’s and Z Cucina di Spirito.

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF DUBLIN

2022 Columbus Duck Race at Riverside Crossing Park, next to Bridge Park

A HEALTHY COMMUNITY

By Jennifer Wray

DUBLIN, OHIO, IS NO SLEEPY SUBURB. This community is dynamic—and growing. It’s home to more than 4,300 businesses, roughly 50,000 residents and a daily workforce of more than 70,000, and it boasts ample green space, a top-tier school district and an impressive broadband infrastructure. Dublin upgraded from “village” to “city” status in 1987 and is the most populous of Columbus’ suburbs. Within the city’s business districts are four highway interchanges, making it easy to navigate in, out and around town. Businesses looking to locate in Dublin will find a portfolio that includes more than 9.3 million square feet of Class A and Class B space, more than 2 million square feet of industrial properties, more than 1 million square feet of

medical office facilities, and more than 1,500 acres of undeveloped or infill opportunities, according to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

Once a farming community, the city’s current infrastructure is designed to meet modern demands. For instance, Dublin backed Dublink Transport, a 125-mile, 100-gigabit broadband network that’s 100 times faster than Google Fiber—and it’s available to all employers in the city, free. That fiber connects office buildings to data centers, giving businesses an array of choices when it comes to networks, speed, services and cost. (And, notes Dublin economic development director Jennifer Klus, Dublin City Council is exploring options to bring fiber connectivity to Dublin residents, too.)

Total economic activity from Dublin employers exceeds $7.8 billion per year—that’s about 8.7 percent of the Columbus area’s $90 billion gross metropolitan product. That success has gotten attention. In October 2021, the city’s Division of Economic Development was named “Economic Development Organization of the Year” by the International Economic Development Council. Also in 2022, Columbus CEO readers voted Dublin “Best Suburb for Doing Business”—for the 12th year in a row. And Dublin’s coffers show its work is paying off: Last year, the city took in more than $101 million in income taxes, helping fund municipal services, pay for capital improvement projects and maintain existing public infrastructure.

The city’s development of the biomed sector improves well-being of the business community and the city’s residents alike.

OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital

Among Dublin’s corporate base are a substantial proportion of enterprises working in the medical biosciences and health care industries, from pharmaceutical companies to testing labs, medical claims processing to biotech research, health care IT to direct patient care. In fact, a 2021 accounting of Dublin’s top 45 employers shows that fully one-third are in health care or adjacent industries, including No. 1 Cardinal Health Inc., which had 4,800 full-time equivalent employees and ranks No. 15 on the Fortune 500 list. Second on Dublin’s list of top employers is another health care entity: OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, with 2,000 FTEs as of March 2021.

Here, you’ll find hospital systems— presently, that’s OhioHealth and the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, with Mount Carmel working on plans for its own facility—as well as startups such as gene therapy company Andelyn Biosciences, which was spun out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital; Nurx, a San Francisco-based telemedicine company that selected Dublin for its second location; and Updox, a health care communications platform that was purchased by Denver-based EverCommerce Inc. for $143 million in late 2020. There’s seemingly endless activity happening in the sector. For instance:

• In early August, the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center opened Outpatient Care Dublin, a $161.2 million project near State Route 161, U.S. Route 33 and Shier Rings Road that offers patients advanced health care in a community setting. The project was made possible in part thanks to an economic development agreement between Dublin and Ohio State.

• Also in August, Dublin inked an economic development agreement with pharmacy and hospital services provider CPS Solutions, LLC. The proposed CPS Azina Patient Care Services Center would be CPS’s second location in Dublin and is expected to more than double its number of employees in Dublin, for a total of 90 workers.

• In July, Dublin par tnered with job-fair platform Chatstrike for an online recruiting event focusing on the health care and bioscience sector. The event connected more than 250 employees with potential employers, says Klus.

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“Dublin’s success in the medical biosciences and health care services industry has opened up many opportunities for the community,” Klus says. Those opportunities include initiatives such as “Forever Dublin,” which supports residents aging in place, as well as overall higher-quality health care offerings to residents and people who work in Dublin.

“Good economic development includes a mix of large and small businesses,” Klus says. “Both drive economic stability and growth by providing valuable services, products and tax dollars that directly contribute to the health of the community. Dublin fosters all business development with resources like the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center and the Small Business Development Center, partnerships with Rev1 and the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, and workforce initiatives that companies can use to their benefit.”

DASI Simulations uses cloud-based artificial intelligence and computer vision software to help doctors deploy artificial heart valves. The company was spun out of research by Lakshmi Dasi, Ph.D., at Ohio State. DASI Simulations moved to Dublin from Rev1 Ventures’ startup studio in January 2022. Founder and CEO Teri Sirset says Dublin’s convenient freeway access and broadband capabilities were attractive, but so was the critical mass of other health care tech entities already present in Dublin. “It’s an amazing, growing city, and we knew that it was a tech hub and that we wanted to be near other like-minded companies,” she says.

It didn’t hurt that most of DASI Simulations’ 15 full-time employees, including COO Sean McKibben (a former top Mount Carmel Health exec) and Dasi, its cofounder, live in Dublin—the latter doing so even though he’s now a Georgia Tech faculty member. “This is a great place for young talent to live and have a family,” says Sirset, who splits her time between Central Ohio and Los Angeles.

Dublin native and Chatstrike founder Cameron Levy has lived in New York City, São Paulo, Shanghai, Moscow, London, Boston and, most recently, San Francisco. He returned to the Columbus area for a visit and connected with “founders, investors and folks in the tech space,” he says. “I was blown away

by the ecosystem here and wanted to be a part of the community and contribute to it.” So he brought Chatstrike, the world’s first asynchronous hiring events platform, to Dublin. The city “goes above and beyond to support their employers to create an amazing community,” Levy says, noting that the city’s hosting of the Chatstrike hiring event in July is a testament to its commitment.

“The ability to hire and fill open jobs quickly is a cornerstone for any thriving community,” he adds. “With each hiring event it hosts, Dublin can help all of its employers at once. These companies attract candidates that they simply wouldn’t be able to without Dublin’s support.”

Dan Like, chief administrative officer of ambulatory services at the Wexner Medical Center, says that when Ohio State set out to expand its presence with Outpatient Care Dublin, it sought a highly accessible, highly visible location that would enable it to offer services it hadn’t previously offered in the community, such as advanced immediate care, surgery facilities, CT and MRI equipment, and more—and to have it all in one site, instead of scattered citywide. They eventually landed on a 35-acre site that, in its first phase, has a 272,000-square-foot building (with plenty of room to grow) and 450 employees. As of late August, the location was seeing 900 patients daily—“which is quite exceptional,” Like says.

Like not only helped lead the Outpatient Care Dublin project, he’s also lived in Dublin since 1982. The city has “done a good job of bringing in new businesses and retaining existing businesses,” he says. “The residents, the employers, the school base were all important factors in terms of why Dublin was part of our strategic plan and an area we wanted to invest in.”

Klus says the city is ready to take on whatever comes next. “As the modern workplace continues to change, Dublin is well-positioned to be the global community of choice for prospective residents and businesses alike,” she says. And folks like Sirset, of DASI Simulations, are on board. She anticipates that DASI Simulations will remain in Dublin for many years to come. “We want to be part of something bigger than us. … Dublin is growing, and we want to be part of that growth,” she says.

A PARK FOR EVERY PURPOSE

Dublin’s robust parks and recreation system offers something for everyone.

By Peter Tonguette

DUBLIN RESIDENT Neha Dadhich makes ample use of her city’s parks system.

Dadhich, an artist who moved from California to the city about a decade ago, spends a lot of time outdoors with her two children, ages 2 and 8.

“My kids love the nature trails and using the playgrounds,” Dadhich says. “We also participate in some events, like the concerts in Scioto Park. … We really do enjoy having long walks in all the neighborhood parks.”

Dadhich says that the parks system is a boon for health and wellness— and, important for her profession, an aid in artistic inspiration, too. “While we’re visiting those parks and spending some time, I do some sketching,” she says.

Even those less artistically inclined, though, find plenty to appreciate in one of Central Ohio’s most robust parks and recreation departments, which oversees 64 parks, including Amberleigh Community Park, Coffman Park, Indian Run Meadows Park and Scioto Park; 140 miles of paved multiuse paths; and countless other ways to stay active and have fun in the process.

Just ask the city’s residents, who, in a recent community survey, were overwhelmingly enthusiastic in their assessment: 99 percent of residents expressed satisfaction with the parks and recreation department.

“We continue to seek their input and look for ways to enhance our parks

and recreation services to meet their needs,” says director of parks and recreation Matt Earman. “There’s something for everyone to enjoy, and we’re thrilled that they do.”

Resident input continues to be solicited for the soon-to-be-published 2022 Master Plan, which will incorporate feedback on parks, pools, amenities, programming at the Dublin Community

Recreation Center and more. “Dublin is well-known for its comprehensive parks and recreation system that is a result of past planning and visioning efforts,” says Earman, noting that changing city demographics and needs will impact planning going forward.

“This plan will assess Dublin’s current state and ultimately be a roadmap for the next five to 10 years to ensure

Clockwise from above, the playground and basketball and tennis courts at Donegal Cliffs Park; a family enjoys Dublin Community Recreation Center programming; pickleball is a popular sport in the city

the community’s needs continue to be met,” he says.

Notwithstanding future additions and improvements to its parks and recreation system, Dublin rightly takes pride in its present offerings. Let’s start with the parks themselves, which not only allow residents to soak in the natural splendor of the area, but to partake in a plethora of activities, too.

“No matter what your interests are, you’ll find something in one of our Dublin parks,” says Earman, pointing to fishing, canoeing, kayaking and ice-skating among the activities one can participate in at particular parks. Public art, rental areas and natural play spaces are also in abundance throughout the parks, he adds. “I think we offer depth and breadth of recreation options that can’t be found anywhere else,” he says.

Providing the glue that connects the parks—and enables residents to easily travel from one to the next—is a network of multiuse paths. “This continuous path system connects all 64 parks, every subdivision development, retail stores and office buildings,” Earman says.

Recreation opportunities are in evidence throughout the community.

In 2021, the Dublin Community Pool North, in Earlington Park, received a renovation. “The pool features a 25yard competition lap pool, a 9-meter dive platform, a climbing wall, two water slides, a leisure pool and a baby pool,” Earman says. The Community Pool South offers another outdoor option. For those who crave some splashing in the off-season, indoor leisure and lap pools are part of the recreation center.

Leaders try to keep residents of multiple age groups and athletic interests active with offerings including the Dublin Skate Park on Commerce Parkway. Built in 2016, the park supplanted an earlier skate park on Coffman Park Drive that was more than a decade-anda-half old. Designed to accommodate both skateboarding and rollerblading, the park welcomes newbies and pros alike. “It’s great to see the variety of people who use the park, show off their skills and learn new ones,” Earman says. “It’s also fun to watch the skaters teach each other.”

These days, it seems everybody is trying their hand at pickleball, and Dublin has taken notice of enthusiasm for what might be called a trending

GETTING AROUND TOWN

“Dublin is committed to having options for folks who either don’t want to be in a car … or they don’t have access to a car,” says Jeannie Willis, director of transportation and mobility. In May, the city launched the pilot for its e-scooter program. Those 18 and older can rent e-scooters at stations, predominantly located in the Bridge Park and Historic Dublin areas, and use them within designated boundaries. An app allows users to unlock the vehicle and pay for time to use it. “Then you are ready to roll,” says Willis, adding that residents are not only using them for recreation but as a form of transportation.

To provide additional transportation sans auto, a bike-share program, encompassing e-bikes and traditional bikes, is planned for later this year, and a mobility hub at the Dublin Community Recreation Center is in the works.

Also helping to keep the city moving is the Dublin Connector shuttle service, which provides fare-free rides for residents 55 and older, those with disabilities and workers employed in Dublin. “You can get a ride to where you need to go,” Willis says. To disseminate information about the shuttle service and other mobility options, the Dublin Mobility Concierge sets up a station on the east plaza of Riverside Crossing Park on select Fridays.

sport: The Dublin Pickleball Courts, also on Commerce Parkway, offer eight outdoor courts, while the recreation center boasts an additional six. “The fastest-growing sport in America is truly popular in Dublin as well,” Earman says. “Dublin loves pickleball!”

And Dublin residents love their parks right back.

Says Dadhich: “We had some friends coming from out of the state …. and we took them to visit the parks first, before visiting [other] places.”

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF DUBLIN

Dublin Community Pool North

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

Apartments, condos, single-family homes and senior living options allow residents to call Dublin home for life.

By Mandy Shunnarah

YOUR HOME SHOULD make you feel like the best version of yourself, especially while you’re in the community with your neighbors. With the housing shortage in the Columbus metro area, it can feel daunting to find that special place where you can be at home. Yet many people have found that Dublin has something for everyone.

If you haven’t visited in a while, today’s Dublin is bigger and better than ever. Cathy Kuhn grew up in Dublin and continues to live there with her family—with good reason.

“Dublin has changed a lot since I was a kid,” Kuhn says. “I really appreciate that Dublin, as a community, continues to thrive and is responsive to the needs of the residents.”

With various amenities throughout the area, anyone can find something to love.

Whether you’re a single young professional, a couple with a growing family, an empty nester or a senior looking to enjoy the golden years, there are new developments to fit a variety of lifestyles and living situations, even in the current housing market.

While many areas in and around Columbus are experiencing a shortage of available homes, Dublin is thriving.

“Dublin is one of the few areas of Columbus that can still offer fresh, newly built homes, because there is still land to build on,” says Carrie Everingham, a real estate agent and longtime Dublin resident. “A lot of the other popular areas are more land-

locked and therefore have fewer areas available for new construction.”

No matter what type of home you’re looking for, there’s a development to suit your needs.

“I see buyers of all sorts moving into Dublin new builds,” Everingham says. “Everyone from young professionals at Bridge Park to families in Jerome Village—and more empty nesters are deciding to stay in Dublin as well.”

One element boosting Dublin’s desirability is the supportive environment for businesses. That means job opportunities, as well as a diverse community of neighbors.

“We have many corporations headquartered in and around Dublin, and those businesses pull employees from around the country,” says Michaela

PHOTO: THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH FILE

Dublin is known for grand homes, but other options are growing fast.

Grandey, a Dublin resident and founder of real estate team the Grandey Group with Rolls Realty.

On top of that, the city is responsive to the needs of the community by assessing residents’ highest priorities.

“Dublin contracted with Urban Partners to conduct the Dublin Area Housing Study in late 2021, and we’re still in the process of completing this two-phase study,” says Jennifer Rauch, the city’s director of planning. “The study will provide data, analysis and strategies to help inform Dublin’s role in addressing the housing needs within Central Ohio. Results from the study will be used to inform the upcoming update to the Dublin Community Plan and other associated city plans and policies.”

If you’re looking for apartments and condos, look no further than Bridge Park, a newer development that intermixes luxury living with nightlife, dining, retail, and health and wellness facilities.

“Young professionals will appreciate the amenities of Bridge Park and Historic Dublin,” Everingham says. “They can grab groceries at the North

Market to make a quick dinner, visit coffee shops [and] the library, all within walking distance of each other.”

If a larger standalone home is your style—especially if you have children— check out Jerome Village.

“Growing families are always looking for top-rated schools, and we have

them here in Dublin. They will also enjoy the parks, the Dublin recreation center, two public swimming pools, and all of the planned festivities—including our Dublin Irish Festival and the parades downtown,” Grandey says. “There’s always something to do in Dublin throughout all seasons!”

For Kuhn, a new home in one of Dublin’s many premier subdivisions was the perfect choice for her family.

“We live in Riviera,” she says. “I love our community because it is located by three excellent schools, has mature greens and is fairly central. … It is easy to get anywhere.” Featuring three- and four-bedroom homes starting in the $400,000s, this community on the north side of town was built on the site of a former golf course.

If you’re an empty nester who wants to live alongside other people at a similar stage in life and have some fun now that the kids have moved out, Dublin offers a variety of options.

“I see more and more empty nesters deciding to stay in Dublin,” Everingham says. “Whether it’s to keep close to

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF DUBLIN

Tree-lined streets give neighborhoods character.

family or just wanting to keep enjoying their Dublin lifestyle, they’re sure to find housing to suit their needs. They can get that downtown feel in a mid-rise condo, or simply move to a smaller, maintenance-free version of their beloved suburban home.”

“I think it says a lot about the community when our empty nesters sell their homes to families looking to raise their young children, and then those empty nesters remain in Dublin,” Grandey adds.

For nature lovers of all ages, Dublin does not disappoint. Filled with oldgrowth trees, the city lends itself to outdoor adventures.

“Dublin is friendly to those who love the outdoors with its many parks and green spaces and more than 135 miles of connected bike paths,” Grandey says.

Everingham couldn’t agree more. New residents are wowed by the easily accessible natural amenities and the ease of commuting on foot or by bike.

“More than 50,000 residents and 4,300 businesses call Dublin home,” Rauch

says. “In our 2022 Community Attitudes Survey, 99 percent of residents said Dublin is an excellent or good place to live, which was up from 98 percent in 2016.”

City leaders aren’t content to rest on those laurels, however.

“We’re focused on achieving balance for all the needs of our diverse community,” Rauch says. “We have nationally

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BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

By Kevin Capron

STUDENTS AT DUBLIN City Schools’

Emerald Campus have access to something that many other public school students in the area don’t: an external campus with nontraditional learning environments that equip them with divergent educational opportunities and enriching experiences.

Formerly a corporate Verizon building across from Dublin Coffman High School, the structure that now houses the Emerald Campus has been renovated and transformed into a cutting-edge learning facility in response to student needs. Its mission is to provide each student with the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue a vocation or profession and succeed in life, regardless of the obstacles they may face.

In 2017, Dublin City Schools paid $9.4 million to acquire the 118,000-square-

foot structure before investing an additional $10 million in refurbishments for the first two levels of the property.

The Emerald Campus Design Team was led by campus director Kristy Venne, alumni director Keyburn Grady and facility operations director Chelena McConnell.

A significant portion of the collaboration spaces seen throughout Emerald Campus can be directly attributed to the involvement of students. “Gathering student input was a top priority,” says Venne. “We heard many young people comment about the need for flexible learning spaces that encourage collaboration, are comfortable and include natural lighting.” During the winters of 2017 and 2018, students shared their thoughts and ambitions with the design team, resulting in the growth of con-

cept walls and collaborative thought webs mounted on them.

“Students requested a Starbucks or similar café space, which we provided,” Venne says. “They also desired a more colorful space with technology incorporated in a meaningful way, and in response to this, we matched bright wall colors to way-finding and color-coded common spaces on each floor.”

Many elements distinguish Emerald Campus from traditional schools, particularly its 12 experiential learning academies that enable students to explore areas of interest and assess prospective career paths.

“When we thought about what new academies would be introduced, we were thinking about several things: student interest, workforce demand, how we can prepare students for their next

PHOTO: COURTESY DUBLIN CITY SCHOOLS

An experiential learning campus paves pathways to prosperity with alternative programming.

The Emerald Campus of Dublin City Schools

step, what they are interested in and making sure there is access for any student who wants to participate,” says Lori Mesi, Emerald Campus administrator and coordinator of career academies.

Dublin Business Academy, Cyber Academy, BioMed Academy and Digital Media Academy are just a few exemplary educational opportunities available to the 600 to 700 students participating each year. “Allowing students access to this content is about the pathway mindset,” Mesi says. “We always try to maintain an aspect of agility and flexibility, and we really want to make sure students have access to opportunities that are going to best prepare them for postsecondary pathways.”

Dublin City Schools is dedicated to offering specialized educational programs that address the requirements of students who might succeed more when exposed to nontraditional learning environments. Two alternative learning programs, the Bridge and PATHS (Postsecondary Access to Transition after High School), are offered at Emerald Campus by educator Mark Eatherton.

The Bridge is an online credit-recovery program that utilizes a low student-to-teacher ratio to increase engagement and success. “Most of the students who attend the Bridge still attend their home high school,” says Eatherton. “It’s similar to the experiential learning academies in that sense; [students] only come to the Bridge for a block of time.” Students typically spend one year at the Bridge; throughout that time, they are assessed for their overall achievement and where they are with their course credit recovery.

“We have visual and wellness activities, service-learning components and career readiness activities,” says Eatherton. “Those are some of the ways we’re able to pull students into experiences where they’re not just exclusively working on online curriculum.”

PATHS was developed for individuals ages 18 to 22 with special needs who have already met their graduation requirements. “The families have chosen to defer that diploma so they can exercise their right to have school programming continue with that student until they reach the age of 22,” says Eath-

erton. Three different classrooms utilize three intervention specialists with their own teams. “Those classrooms are based upon the level of independence, vocational and employability skills, and the needs the student has,” Eatherton says.

Several homegrown businesses have been established within the PATHS program, including the Dublin Barkery, an on-site work-study where students make and sell dog treats. Between vocational activities, such as selling PATHS products like scented candles or sugar hand scrubs, and community job placements involving job coaching, students learn many job and life skills.

“Every student has transition goals,” Eatherton says. “Now that they’ve met their academic goals, let’s find those transitional goals which will help that student transition into their next phase of life.”

AFTER THE DIPLOMA

For students who opt to attend college, two programs offer local options.

OU Dublin Extension Campus

Ohio University ventured north in 2011 with the Dublin Extension Campus. Onsite graduate programs are offered through the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Health Sciences and Professions, College of Business, College of Fine Arts and George V. Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service. The latter four programs comprise the 86,000-square-foot Dublin Integrated Education Center, which opened in 2015 and partners with area high schools and colleges, including Columbus State Community College. The OU Dublin campus was established in collaboration with the city of Dublin, with support from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation and OhioHealth, the Heritage College’s major education partner. The 15-acre campus was part of a larger commitment of 96.5 acres in Dublin’s West Innovation District, where the city and university intend to facilitate a community with office, research and manufacturing space.

CSCC Dublin Center

The Dublin Center of Columbus State Community College opened in 1979 on Shamrock Court and, in 2015, relocated to the Dublin Integrated Education Center in a partnership with Ohio University. The Dublin Center offers more than a dozen certificate and associate degree programs, all of which may be completed on campus or online. Its College Credit Plus program helps seventh-grade students through high school seniors save money on their future higher education pursuits. These courses are offered at the student’s home school, on Columbus State’s campus or online. The tuition-free courses meet high school requirements and allow students to earn college credit before graduating high school.

PHOTO: COURTESY DUBLIN CITY SCHOOLS

Hands-on classes at the Emerald Campus

home & style

Seeing Nature

A former fishing cottage on the Scioto River grows into a home large enough for family and friends. Read more on Page 84.

Photo by Tim Johnson

A Creative Hive

Franklinton Press reaches out to designers.

By Sherry Beck Paprocki

Franklinton Press has been a busy little shop doing screenprinting and graphics in Franklinton. A year ago, Jillian Ross joined the team as Franklinton Press ventures into new territory—which includes both a fashion incubator called FRNK and a nonprofit called the Frank Project for marginalized youth working in the fashion space.

R oss, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in fashion design, is the creative director working with both. In her daily work, Ross collaborates with fashion designers and others who want to do anything from creating branding materials to making dress patterns.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she says.

What is FRNK? FRNK is a startup collective of ours that will reside in the building ne xt to Franklinton Press. We reach out to established designers wanting to expand their business and products into the cutand-sew and unique realm. Eventually, we will have machinery and services available at the collective space. It is currently under construction.

Specifically what can FRNK help with? We help jump-start your brand. We are looking for creatives that have their brand established, but need help with specialty services such as sewing, patternmaking, tech packs, marketing and more.

You’ve mentioned that there will be a retail space in the new building. The retail space will be designated for Franklinton Press’ in-house brand that we are currently creating and for the designers in the incubator space. We are hoping that having a retail space for our designers will help create customer loyalty.

What is the Frank Project, is that something different from FRNK? The Frank Project is our nonprofit that helps margin-

alized youth learn screenprinting, design and business in a 10-week foundational class as well as a yearlong class for a few individuals. More information is available at theFrankproject.org.

Can you give us three tips that startups need to know before they launch a fashion brand?

• It ’s OK to ask for help. You don’t know what you don’t know, and getting help isn’t a sign of weakness.

• Focus on your business plus brand before you start designing products. People are going to buy who you are before they buy your product.

• Have fun designing. Think big and then

hone in on those big ideas once you start ideating.

Tell us a little bit about Verity, the brand you’re currently working with, which debuted at Fashion Week Columbus in October. Verity is the brand I have helped build up through the Frank Project for the past year. Two young and smart, determined women had a vision for an inclusive fashion brand that creates a sense of community.

What’s the best part of your job? I am never bored. I am constantly meeting new people and problem-solving, which keeps me inspired. ◆

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

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A Home for Family and Friends

An expanded Scioto River fishing cottage with good ‘juju’ doubles in size.

By Nancy Richison | Photos by Tim Johnson

Matt and Annie Kentris Arthur repurposed a former greenhouse and sunroom to make it a dining room large enough for extended family gatherings.

2017 while looking for a new home, Matt and Annie Kentris Arthur gave their real estate agent a couple of non-negotiable constraints. “I told her I was not moving from Upper Arlington, and I don’t want to live on the river,” Annie recalls.

“She sent me [a notice about] this house,” Annie says of the Norwich Township home on the Scioto River that the couple eventually bought. Although the Arthurs had plans for Matt’s birthday dinner that night, they didn’t want to miss out on what might be their dream house. They stepped inside and Annie proclaimed: “This is it.”

She had broken through both constraints they had given to their real estate agent. “It was such an awesome house,” says Annie. “It had good juju. Everything about it, I loved.”

It didn’t take long, though, to envision the renovations that would soon begin. The home was originally built in 1947 as a 980-square-foot fishing cabin. Since that time, each of the four previous owners have added square footage making the home suitable to their style and needs. The Arthurs were no different; they’ve transformed the home—nearly doubling it by adding 4,000 square feet, and turning the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home into an eight-bedroom house with fiveand-a-half baths. A pool and a pool house have been added to the backyard that overlooks the Scioto.

“We need a big space,” Matt says. The couple, who have two boys, 13-year-old Abbott and 11-year-old Arlo, and a threeyear-old Labrador mix named Moose, are frequent entertainers and often open their home for extended family gatherings. For Thanksgiving, it’s not uncommon to have 45 people for dinner with out-of-town family members encamping in the Arthurs’ three guest suites.

“A ll the cousins want to stay with their cousins,” Annie says. “We fill these rooms.”

Opposite page, homeowners Annie and Matt Arthur are in their dining room. This page, clockwise from top left, the backyard of the Arthur home is on the Scioto River; a former mudroom is now an open pantry; the Officine Gullo stove and hood were Annie Kentris Arthur's inspiration for the design of the home.

Renovations are nothing new for the Arthurs, especially Annie. Her parents lived in 17 homes over 35 years. After meeting at Miami University in Oxford, Annie and Matt graduated from Seattle University Law School. When they returned to Ohio, they practiced law with A nnie’s father and one of her sisters. They then took over the family business as Taco Bell franchisees. During their marriage, they have renovated four homes in Ohio, two in South Carolina and one in California. “It’s normal for me to go into a house and totally rehab it and make it our own,” Annie says.

Throughout the downstairs, she used a black-and-white palette adding touches of color and accenting the rooms with tile work from Classico Tile and Marble, including custom black, white and gold tile on the floor of the downstairs’ owners’ bathroom—one of two owners’ suites in the home. In the kitchen pantry, the black and white penny tiles spell out “Ciao,” a nod to Annie’s part-Italian ancestry. She says Classico owner Jan Cahill was “a driving factor in how I styled the house.”

The kitchen is one of the home’s showstoppers designed around the Officine

Home & Style | Home

Gullo stove and hood, which Annie says, “came on a boat from Italy in a big shipping crate.” She says the stove is where she ty pically begins when designing her houses. In this case, she chose a butcher block island, white marble countertops, white cabinets and brass drawer pulls. The True refrigerator in white and brass features a glass door. Whimsical metal pigs float high above on the walls of the room.

Annie has incorporated nature and animal themes as a nod to the home’s setting on 1.5 acres. In the first-floor half bath, the wallpaper features colorful deer, frogs and butterflies in stark contrast to its black background.

Classic black-and-white checkerboard tile flooring in the dining room, which the Arthurs transformed from a former sunroom, highlights a custom, reclaimed wood table that was built for the room by Edgework Creative. Annie says the large table, which measures 8-by-12 feet, can seat 28 guests. Black Windsor dining chairs that her mother had for more than 40 years are placed around it. Edgework also designed a custom table in the kitchen along with a mirror, mantle, island and bar countertops, and even the front porch swing.

Just off the dining room is the gentlemen’s lounge with Wedgewood blue walls and a black-and-white striped ceiling. The room also houses a bar, four cognac leather chairs and antique pictures of men and one “hen,” Annie points out.

The couple each have a home office. Matt’s is connected to part of their favorite room in the home, a cozy space that has numerous windows on every wall to draw in the outdoors. Dubbed the “brick room” by their youngest son, it is located at the back of the home and features water views of both the pool and river, cedar walls and beams, and stonework where it adjoins the original fishing cabin. The brick flooring and fireplace inspired its name.

“It’s the only room I didn’t touch,” Annie says. “We’re in here all the time.”

Annie’s office toward the front of the home is a flash of color compared to the neutrals and farmhouse style seen throughout the first floor. The walls are painted teal and feature colorful artwork including a Robert Mars portrait of Audrey Hepburn.

The Highland Group did the construction on the home and architect Juliet Bullock was an integral part of the process. “She’s done every job for us and for

The brick room is the only space of the house left unchanged by the new owners.

Clockwise from top left: The men's lounge features one of the home's five fireplaces; the wallpaper in the main floor guest bathroom gives a nod to Annie Kentris Arthur's love of animals; the second floor master bath's wet room sits above the treetops; Annie's office provides a splash of color and a Robert Mars' portrait of Audrey Hepburn.

my mom and sister [who live nearby],” Annie says.

Bullock connected the roof lines of the new two-story addition and three-car garage. Upstairs is the couple’s bedroom suite, as well as the boys’ rooms, and two guest suites, one of which includes a sitting room and access to the second set of stairs in the new addition. One of the bedrooms, added by a previous owner, houses the family’s workout room.

The large second-floor owners’ bedroom features views of the river and pool, and a stone fireplace. The vaulted ceiling is covered in shiplap. An adjoining bathroom features a wet room with a clawfoot tub, shower and arched glass doors. The closet was expanded by taking a couple hundred square feet from the original owners’ bedroom.

Matt credits Annie with having the idea of making this house their “forever” home. The two say they have no plans to move and even added a first-floor owners’ suite in the new addition. It’s a room that they may someday move into but, for now, they keep it ready for when Matt’s mother visits from Findlay.

Home & Style | Home

The boys’ bedrooms are connected by a Jack-and-Jill bathroom that includes its own urinal. They also share a playroom, which is all part of the new addition.

“I don’t like a lot of clutter,” Annie adds. This home is designed to be lived in,

where no rooms are formal and unused, and their sons can bring their friends over and feel at home. “It was comfortable and casual when we moved in here,” she explains. “I wanted that. It’s a pretty well lived-in house.” ◆

The couple's second-floor master bedroom offers views of the backyard pool and Scioto River.

Home & Style | Real Estate

Top 25 Real Estate Transactions

Aug. 1–Aug. 31, 2022

PRICEADDRESS BUYER/SELLER

$2,900,0006880 Chiswick Ct., New Albany

$2,750,000 3989 Stannage Pass, New Albany

$2,700,000 7 New Albany Farms, New Albany

$1,900, 000 2600 Deseret Dr., Powell

$1,841,100 4130 Daventry Rd., Upper Arlington

$1,825,000 4181 Kenny Rd., Upper Arlington

$1,708,0007202 Biddick, New Albany

$1,650,000 1814 Roxbury Rd., Upper Arlington

$1,625,000 250 W. Spring St., Unit 205, Columbus

$1,595,00017 Parkview Ave., Bexley

$1,595,000 4532 Hull Farm Ln., Upper Arlington

$1,494,0003818 Purdey Ct., New Albany

$1,426,699 250 Eastcleft Dr., Upper Arlington

$1,400,000 6960 Clivdon Mews, New Albany

Michael C. and Tara Ann O’Brien Wu from Katherine A. Mabe, trustee

Jonathan Joel Runion and Samantha Palmer from Gregory J. and Holly E. Cush

Richard M. Seils Jr., trustee, from Amy E. Hauk

Stacy Michelle Swinsinski from Patrick J. and Shelley R. Eckhert

Erik Gudbranson from George A. Bavelis

Bruce Allen Carter and David Allen Jenkins from Daniel and Monique Sierzputowski

Zachary Werenski from Lukas Peter and Kara Marie Szot

Charles H. and Anne French, trustees, from Brian A. and Natalie R. Boe

250 W. Spring St. #1017 LLC from Eva Morrow

Malinda L. Susalla and Laurian M. Dean from Patricia R. Hatler and Howard A. Coffin

Audrey J. and Brett W. Sleesman from Byron T. and Stacy S. Henry

Katherine Cohen and Patrick Williams from Meyer J. and Beverly J. Benzakein

Eric A. and Kathryn Singer from The Tuckerman Home Group

Peter and Karen Ann Constant from Candice M. Nowinski

$1,375,000992 Jaeger St., ColumbusPatricia M. Ziegler from Melinda M. Sadar

$1,320,0004280 Abbey Chase Ct., Hilliard Hind Almiqdad from Chuck and Josephine Strickler

$1,305,00 2627 Haverford Rd., Upper Arlington

$1,275,000291 Beck St., Columbus

$1,252,700 2777 S. Dorchester Rd., Upper Arlington

$1,225,0002389 Bryden Rd., Bexley

$1,200,0007275 Clark State Rd., Blacklick

$1,150,0001170 Lincoln Rd., Grandview

$1,100,000 3895 Fairlington Dr., Upper Arlington

$1,100,000 7540 Alpath Rd., New Albany

$1,075,000 2115 Waltham Rd., Upper Arlington

Michael Edwards Building & Design Inc. from Patricia W. Kozersky, trustee

Byron T. and Stacy S. Henry from Irving G. III and Celia A. Latz

Erik Evans from Hope L. Buergenthal

Pietro Mazzoni, trustee, and Toni S. Pearson from Carolyn Koetje

Chad Schellenger and Jennifer Glonek from Greg and Elizabeth Knoob

Tricia and Matthew S. Cunningham from Alexandria P. Konstantinos and Courtney J. Miller

Michelle A. Wedemeyer from Jon M. and Kristie E. Kramer

Christopher and Julie Carter from Katherine Cohen and Patrick Williams

Evan and Emily Jackson from Steven and Deborah Rogers

As provided by The Columbus Dispatch. Statistics are gathered from the greater Columbus area, including Franklin and parts of other surrounding counties.

7000 Oxford Loop Offered at $1,595,000

2 New Albany Farms Road Offered at $2,595,000

7590 Brandon Crescent Offered at $2,750,000

food & drink

Photo by Tim Johnson

Let’s Talk

Women restaurateurs band together for post-pandemic support.

By Donna Marbury

The Kitchen’s Anne Boninsegna and her business partner, Jen Lindsey, run an atypical restaurant. During The Kitchen’s participatory dining experiences in G erman Village, patrons work together to prepare that night’s feast. Guests chop, stir and sauté together before sitting down to the meal they created. Cultivating teamwork is key.

But on March 15, 2020, The Kitchen’s communal dinners came to a halt.

“It still brings tears to my eyes. I remember watching TV, texting with my business partner, and I said, ‘What’s going to happen?’” Boninsegna says, recalling the moment that March day when Gov. Mike DeWine announced that all Ohio bars and restaurants would close to in-person patrons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I let about three minutes go by, took a big, deep breath. And we just set out to use the business model we had in the best possible way we could,” Boninsegna says. She and Lindsey pivoted to delivering at-home meal kits to their customers.

Since 2020, it has been a sink-or-swim environment for many restaurant owners, as the effects of the pandemic continue to hit the industry. Many restaurants have struggled to return to pre-pandemic sales numbers, even as diners are excited to eat out again. The James Beard Foundation found that 1 percent of restaurants closed indefinitely due to pandemic pressures— nearly 5,000 restaurants nationwide.

Challenges created by the pandemic have often impacted women entrepreneurs even harder as a lack of financial, business and at-home support can leave women-owned establishments vulnerable.

“Most women owners of restaurants or food-centered businesses tend to be isolated. They don’t have an IT division, HR or legal counsel sometimes,” says Rohini Dey, owner of Vermilion in Chicago, a former World Bank economist and founder/ former trustee of the James Beard Foundation Women’s Leadership Program.

Dey can be seen at the judge’s table on many of Food Network’s competitions but also is an advocate for women in the restaurant industry. In 2020, she launched Let’s Talk Womxn to address the business and wellness issues that women-led food ventures have been facing due to the pandemic. “If you are wrestling with all these issues singlehandedly, it can be very terrifying, especially during that period,” she says.

“When the pandemic hit, we knew we had to pivot quickly, as closing was not an option for us,” says Wendy Miller Pugh, who owns Bake Me Happy with her wife, Letha Pugh. “The gluten-free community depends on us to feed them safely, and we knew we had to be there for them, at the very least.”

Paula Haines, CEO of Freedom a la Cart, can relate to Miller Pugh’s situation. The social enterprise was working to open its Downtown brick-and-mortar café when the pandemic hit. Foregoing in-person operations wasn’t a viable option, Haines says, as Freedom also serves as a training space for women who are survivors of sex trafficking.

“The community really supported us as a business and as an organization. So, I’m very grateful for that. But [before Let’s Talk Womxn,] there wasn’t a space for restaurant owners to talk to other restaurant owners,” Haines says.

Currently in 14 cities with nearly 600 members, Let’s Talk Womxn gathers non-male entrepreneurs to discuss topics ranging from employee wages and food supply shortages to funding and capital. Each city’s group is led locally, with Boninsegna, Haines and Miller Pugh serving as Columbus co-hosts. The trio leads monthly Zoom calls with a group of nearly 30 area entrepreneurs.

Haines says that the informal Zoom calls are important as restaurants continue to restabilize after the pandemic’s seismic changes. “One of our recent meetings, we talked transparently about what we’re paying staff. It’s not information that we’re

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

going to share beyond those who attended that meeting, but it was a safe place for discussion,” she says.

The road to entrepreneurship has always been tougher for women, but Dey says that in the restaurant industry, even the path to top roles is often exclusively paved for men.

Though women represent nearly half of workers in restaurants, only 20 percent of women in the industry rise to the top as chefs or head chefs, according to a 2021 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in Ohio, while nearly half of restaurants are run by women who own at least 50 percent of the business, only 34 percent are majority-owned by women, according to the National Restaurant Association—statistics that are in line with national figures.

Financial support is a huge barrier for women, Boninsegna says, including immigrant and minority women who want to take the leap into food entrepreneurship. “It’s a really risky business to get into if you don’t have any means or a business partner,” she says.

In September, Let’s Talk Womxn Columbus hosted a meetup as a part of Dey’s national tour to check the temperature on how women-led establishments are faring across the country. During her Columbus visit, women from all across Ohio attended the event, seeking camaraderie and advice for keeping their businesses afloat. Dey says she is hoping to see more women in leadership positions who have the capital and support to become owners if they choose.

“This is not just about women putting on aprons and cooking for you,” Dey says. “My mantra is all about ownership.”

Women-led eateries deserve more attention for their impact, Miller Pugh adds, which is another area where Let’s Talk Womxn may be able to help.

“I would love to see more of our Let’s Talk Womxn members get their stories out there so people can see these creative, passionate and amazing people who make chocolate, waffles, salsa, baked goods, coffee and delicious food; who have built these businesses from the ground up mostly by themselves,” Miller Pugh says. “That’s why I think [the organization] is important—we need each other to grow and succeed and help each other along the way. There is something special and very fierce about the bonds women can make with each other.” letstalkwomxn.com

Let’s Talk Womxn Columbus co-hosts (from left) Wendy Miller Pugh, Anne Boninsegna and Paula Haines at Bake Me Happy

Stew on This

A North Market staple, Hubert’s remains one of the only spots for traditional Polish fare in the city.

The owner of Hubert’s Polish Kitchen, Hubert Wilamowski, started working at the market 20 years ago, soon after arriving in Columbus from Poland, where he was both a farmer and a disco bar owner.

The first several years he was living in the United States, his daughter would visit him every summer and dreamed of opening a Polish restaurant with him. W hen she died at the age of 14, Wilamowski decided to open Hubert’s Polish Kitchen to carry on her memory. And for the past 14 years, Hubert’s has been serving classic Polish fare to North Market guests, making him one of the longest-running vendors in the market.

A side from portion sizes (which have grown over the years), Wilamowski says not much has changed with the appetites of his clientele. Most of his customers are friendly, he says, many of them regulars.

Open for lunch and early dinner six days a week, Hubert’s remains an excellent place to receive a hearty meal for a reasonable price.

By Bailey Trask

Most lunch entrées come with a generous side: one of two traditional tomato-based Polish stews that can double as a sauce. Bigos (translated as “hunter’s stew”) boasts organic turkey, sauerkraut and cabbage, while leczo is a spicier stew with pieces of sliced kielbasa, pickles and peppers.

Cheese lovers will enjoy mielone ($8), a sizable chicken, cheese and sauerkraut meatball that’s rolled in a layer of panko breadcrumbs before being pan-fried. W hile the dish itself is a little dry, the leczo helps round out the meal.

The cabbage roll ($11) is one of Hubert’s most popular offerings. Anise-kissed, tangy ground beef is mixed with basmati rice and wrapped in a few giant, soft cabbage leaves. Again, one of the stews poured over the roll completes the dish.

One of the easiest options to eat is the pork and beef kielbasa ($8). Served either on a bed of stew or in a bun (for an additional dollar), this large and savory sausage is incredibly satisfying. The kielbasa comes with a variety of options, including choices of unadorned sauerkraut and a tangy onion and tomato salad.

Finally, Hubert’s pierogi ($3 each) are not to be missed. The hand-folded dumplings, a Polish staple, are filled with peppered mashed potatoes and cream cheese, with a tiny hint of caramelized onion. They do beg for a side of sour cream, but again, the stew will do.

It’s possible that Hubert’s has been so long-lasting because he’s one of the only Polish games in town. Why is this niche so small? “It’s simple,” Wilamowski says. “There aren’t too many Polish people here. There are second- and third-generation Polish, and they don’t speak my language, but they remember our simple foods.” ◆

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Hubert’s Polish Kitchen

North Market, 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-220-8787

Hubert Wilamowski at his stall in the North Market on Spruce Street

Bar with LateNight Eats Coming to South High

By Erin Edwards

Openings & Announcements

We broke the news in early October that Cobra, an Asian-inspired cocktail bar and late-night food spot, is coming soon to the Brewery District. The 5,200-squarefoot neighborhood bar will fill the former Panera Bread space at 684 S. High St. (once home to The Clarmont). Cobra is expected to open before the end of the year. The project is the first brick-and-mortar bar from four Watershed Kitchen & Bar alums, with possibly more ventures down the road. The bar will feature a cocktail list inspired by Asian ingredients; the food menu will include handmade noodles and dumplings, plus steaks cooked on live-fire yakitori grills. The new South High haunt is expected to stay open until 2 a.m.

North Market Bridge Park (6750 Longshore St.) is adding Pablo’s Havana Café to its lineup of food merchants sometime this fall. Pablo’s first storefront opened in 2018 at 9685 Sawmill Road in Powell, where owner Pablo Taura serves authentic Cuban sandwiches and homemade Cuban dishes. At the market stall in Dublin, Pablo’s will offer its signature El Cubano sandwich, tostones, empanadas, homemade soups, traditional Cuban desserts and more.

At press time, the North Carolina-based Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar was nearing its October grand opening date in Upper Arlington. The new, 5,500-squarefoot eatery, located at 1678 W. Lane Ave., is part of the Westmont at the Lane development. Founded in downtown Asheville in 2000, Tupelo Honey offers a modern take on scratch-made Southern fare. Menu items include bone-in fried chicken, shrimp and grits, and four variations on

eggs Benedict, as well as cocktails featuring local spirits and 17 beers on tap.

Motherwell Distilling Co., Hocking County’s first high-end craft distillery, ramped up in September. The new distillery, named after Logan’s Motherwell Iron & Steel, is working on several spirits, including whiskey, rum, vodka, gin and a peach liquor dubbed the “Lubricator.” Motherwell is planning on a November release of its early spirits, with a full selection becoming available next year. Initially, Motherwell’s spirits will only be available at 58 West, a new restaurant coming soon to 58 W. Second St. in downtown Logan. Aaron Mercier, formerly of Watershed Kitchen & Bar, is 58 West’s opening executive chef.

The gluten-free bakery Bake Me Happy has completed its move from Merion Village to 500 E. Whittier St., a former post office building in Schumacher Place. Bake Me Happy operates a second location at North Market Bridge Park (6750 Longshore St.).

To keep up with the latest restaurant/bar openings and closings, visit columbusmonthly.com and subscribe to our food newsletter, Copy & Taste.

Closings

The coffee shop Boston Stoker is expected to close by the end of October at 771 Neil Ave. to make way for redevelopment of the Thurber Village shopping center. Never fear, the city’s other Boston Stoker location remains open in Grandview at 1101 W. First Ave., formerly Luck Bros. Coffee.

Events

The Taste of the Market Gala is returning to North Market Bridge Park in November, offering a chance to try multiple dishes prepared by the Dublin market’s vendors. Now in its second year, the fundraising event takes place 7–10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, at 6750 Longshore St. Other highlights include wine, beer and cocktails, live music and the chance to win prizes at the casino tables. General admission is $125 online or, if still available, $150 at the door. For more details, v isit northmarket.org.

PHOTO: JAKE HOLLER

From left: Cobra founders Josh Spiers, Jack Dale Bennett Jr., David Yee and Alex Chien, all Watershed Kitchen & Bar alums

Weekend Laundry

Fans of Hausfrau Haven in German Village have a convivial new wine bar to enjoy.

By Erin Edwards

On opening night at the Laundry, Hausfrau Haven’s neighboring wine bar spin-off, the conversation and bubbly were flowing liberally between its blue walls. By 6 p.m. that October evening, every single one of the bar’s 49 seats were filled. Though it’s early in this German Village bar’s tenure, the Laundry (765 S. Third St.) is already manifesting the atmosphere Hausfrau Haven’s owners, Julie D’Elia and Faye Muncie, had in mind.

“My neighborhood gathering place,” D’Elia says. Her business partner joins in: “And it’s all ages. It’s truly a mix from 25 to 85,” Muncie says.

“Everybody enjoys talking to each other, and it’s a really good gathering place. It ’s like Max & Erma’s used to be,” D’Elia says, referencing the original Max & Erma’s, which operated just down the street for 45 years until it closed in 2017. It’s now Chapman’s Eat Market.

It’s hard to believe this sophisticated, 1,500-square-foot wine bar—with its modern light fixtures and coolers stocked with rosé and sparkling wine—used to be one of the last coin-operated laundromats in the area.

It’s the laundromat that first piqued Muncie and D’Elia’s interest in the property. They ended up negotiating with then-owners Fred Holdridge and Howard Burns to buy the whole building, including upstairs apartments and the quirky sundry store that would evolve into a serious wine shop. They finalized the purchase on April Fool’s Day 1996.

“We were like, ‘What can we do to pay this massive mortgage payment?’” says Muncie, who had a career in the clothing business. “So, we just slowly started buying more wine. I just dived in headfirst, and found that I love, love, love the business. So, I read everything I could and tasted wine and visited wineries. That’s really how you learn.”

Sorry to Burst Your Bubble

Champagne drinkers will want to plan ahead before the bubbly supply goes, well, flat. The sparkling stuff may be hard to come by again this holiday season thanks to high demand mixed with a host of supply-chain issues.

According to the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, Champagne’s governing trade body, sales declined 18 percent by volume in 2020 as restaurants shut down and celebrations ceased amid the pandemic. Now, people are ready to party again, and demand for Champagne has accelerated. Here’s the problem: The French trade body, which controls how much Champagne is produced each year, cut production by 25 percent in 2020. Now, growers and Champagne houses may be short on product for several years to come.

Hausfrau Haven’s Faye Muncie fully expects there to be a scarcity of well-known names like Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon this season. The good news: Since the spring, Hausfrau Haven’s team has been squirreling away cases of Champagne, especially Veuve, in their impressive basement wine cellar.

PHOTOS: TIM JOHNSON

Julie D’Elia, left, and Faye Muncie at the Laundry, their new wine bar next to Hausfrau Haven

When the pandemic arrived, Hausfrau’s owners quickly shut down the laundry, and it became a staging area where they would sanitize every wine bottle that came through the door. The shop stayed open seven days a week, and during the worst months, they set up a table outside where customers could pick up their orders. Hausfrau was also doing around 30 deliveries a day at one point.

“ We have been very fortunate in that our business has increased pretty much every year since we’ve had the business, but since COVID, it has really skyrocketed,” Muncie says. “Wine is a recession-proof business.”

About a year and a half ago, D’Elia took the first step in transforming the laundry into the Laundry. “[Faye] came in one day, and all the washers were gone. That’s kinda how we think,” D’Elia says, laughing. Soon, D’Elia was jotting down ideas for the bar’s design on a napkin.

In addition to wines by the glass, the Laundry offers three beers on draft and food items like snack mix and charcuterie. The space already has a hard liquor license, so plans are in the works to serve a

Faye’s Picks

For an American holiday like Thanksgiving, Faye Muncie likes to serve American wine, with one exception: bubbly. She recommends light and fruity pinot noirs that can pair well with the flavors of Thanksgiving.

Lange Estate Winery and Vineyards Pinot Noir

(Willamette Valley, Oregon; $27.99) This light-to-medium bodied pinot noir from winemakers Don and Wendy Lange is a “beautifully balanced wine,” Muncie says. It hails from Oregon’s Dundee Hills, which is known for its rust-red volcanic soils.

Flowers Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, California; $55.99)

A bit heavier bodied than the Lange, Flowers is produced on the Sonoma Coast, an “up-and-coming wine region for pinot noir and chardonnay, especially,” Muncie says. “You get the coastal influence during the evening that comes in and cools down the vines.”

* * *

limited menu of cocktails. Customers can open a bottle from the neighboring wine shop for a corkage fee.

“We will [pour] some old favorites. But we’ll also throw in some esoteric varietals that maybe you wouldn’t try, but you will if you don’t have to buy a bottle,” Muncie says. “We’re definitely about exposing people to some fun and interesting wines.”

Much like Hausfrau Haven’s in-store wine bar that hosted popular happy hours for years, the Laundry will only pour from 4 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, in adherence with a “good neighbor” agreement with German Village. The owners may add Thursdays sometime next year, and the bar will host periodic tastings with winemakers and private events, as well.

Though its days hosting lively happy hours are over, the old in-store wine bar will remain, mainly because of the much-needed counter space it provides. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, you can find Muncie standing behind the bar while she meets with distributors, tasting their offerings.

“That’s her command center,” D’Elia says. ◆

Every holiday or “Monday night with chicken” deserves bubbles, Muncie says, so she breaks her Thanksgiving rule with two Champagne recommendations, one small-grower Champagne, another from a famed Champagne house.

Paul Launois Monochrome #1

(Champagne, France; $69.99)

This 100-percent Chardonnay, small-grower Champagne from Le Mesnil-Sur-Oger hails from the same Grand Cru village where grapes for Krug’s legendary Clos du Mesnil are grown.

Piper-Heidsieck Rare Millésime 2008 (Champagne, France; $249.99)

True to this Champagne’s name, the Piper-Heidsieck Champagne house in Reims has only released 11 vintages of Rare Champagne in the last four decades. The story goes that founder Florens-Louis Heidsieck offered his first cuvée of Rare to Queen Marie Antoinette back in the day.

A selection of wines from Hausfrau Haven, including a pinot noir from Oregon’s Lange Estate Winery and Vineyards

let’s eat

WHERE TO DINE THIS MONTH

Editor’s Note: Given the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, please call restaurants to check hours and menu availability.

$$$$ Very expensive, $26 and higher

$$$ Spendy, $16–$25

$$ Moderate, $11–$15

$ Affordable, under $10

NEW Restaurant has opened within the last few months.

Outdoor Seating

B Breakfast BR Brunch

L Lunch D Dinner

One of our 10 Best Restaurants

2022 Best New Restaurants

Let’s Eat comprises Columbus Monthly editors’ picks and is updated monthly based on available space. Send updates to eedwards@columbusmonthly.com.

AFRICAN

Drelyse African Restaurant

Authentic West African cuisine handed down from generation to generation, with offerings such as goat stew, jollof rice, grilled tilapia and okro stew. 1911 Tamarack Cir. N, North Side, 614-430-3350. LD $$$

Riziki Swahili Grill

There’s a lot to love about Riziki Yussuf’s charming spot, serving authentic Tanzanian fare. Don’t miss the excellent chapati platter with chicken curry, the tender mishkaki (beef kebabs) or the turmeric-scented urojo soup (served only on Sundays). 1872 Tamarack Cir. S, North Side, 614-547-7440. LD $$

Wycliff’s Kitchen

The gregarious and charming Wycliff Nduati is usually on hand to guide diners through the menu at his Kenyan eatery. Dishes such as the karanga mbuzi (goat stew) make Wycliff’s a worthy destination. Be sure to pair dinner with notable sides like pilau (seasoned rice with meat) and kabeji (cabbage). 2492 Home Acre Dr., North Side, 614-772-3461. LD $$

AMERICAN

Asterisk Supper Club

Owner Megan Ada offers teatime and sup-

pertime in a bibliophile’s dream atmosphere. Craft cocktails are served at a handsome bar, while the eclectic menu leans on comfort foods like grilled cheese, fried chicken and pork chops. 14 N. State St., Westerville, 614776-4633. LD $$

Cameron’s American Bistro

Open since 1993, Cameron’s is the flagship for Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. The restaurant’s chef-driven menu showcases the diversity of American cuisine with fresh seafood, pastas, steaks and chops. 2185 W. Dublin-Granville Rd., Northwest Side, 614885-3663. D $$$$

Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace

Hip hot dog joint with retro décor and oneof-a-kind wieners that can be topped with condiments such as sauerkraut, baked beans and Fritos. 248 S. Fourth St., Downtown, 614-824-4673. LD $

Kona Craft Kitchen + Bar

This handsome newcomer to Bridge Park pairs Kona coffee with a wide-ranging breakfast menu that roams from pastries and French toast to chicken chorizo hash and avocado toast. Lunch and dinner items include grilled clams, pan-seared salmon, smash burgers and coffee-rubbed strip steak. 6757 Longshore St., Dublin, 614-502-5400. BLD $$$

Lindey’s

A Columbus institution, this upscale German Village restaurant with Upper East Side New York flair is a diner favorite, no doubt due to its classic and consistently good fine-dining fare and lush patio. 169 E. Beck St., German Village, 614-228-4343. BRLD $$$$

Scotty’s Café

This family favorite on the East Side serves a full breakfast menu with specialty omelets, plus deli classics like excellent corned beef sandwiches on rye. 2980 E. Broad St., East Side, 614-237-1949. BL $

BAKERY

Bake Me Happy

This 100-percent gluten-free coffee shop and retail bakery is an extension of Bake Me Happy’s growing wholesale business. Offerings include scones, nostalgic treats, brownies, cakes and more. 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, 614683-8787; 500 E. Whittier St., Schumacher Place, 1614-477-3642. BL $

Belle’s Bread

Tucked away in the same complex as Akai

Visit columbus monthly.com to read about the latest restaurant openings.

Hana, this French-inspired Japanese bakery is known for its outstanding pastries, cakes and treats. 1168 Kenny Centre Mall, Upper Arlington, 614-451-7110. BL $

BARBECUE

The Pit BBQ Grille

The Pit serves Cleveland-style barbecue and sides, including St. Louis-cut spare ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, mac ’n’ cheese and candied yams. Don’t miss the award-winning Polish Girl sandwich. 4219 N. High St., Clintonville, 614-674-6991; 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, 614-683-8797. LD $$

Ray Ray’s Hog Pit

Since launching Ray Ray’s food truck at Ace of Cups, owner James Anderson has built a thriving barbecue business and snagged a James Beard nomination. Expect excellent barbecue fare, with ribs, pulled pork and beef brisket sandwiches, plus sides. 424 W. Town St., Franklinton, 614-404-9742; 1256 Columbus Rd. Granville, 740-920-9103; 2619 High St., Old North, 614-753-1191; 41 Depot St., Powell, 614-441-1065; 5755 Maxtown Rd., Westerville, 614-329-6654. LD $$

BAR FARE

Ash & Em

Housed inside Classics Sports Bar, this kitchen turns out above average game day fare such as pizzas, smashburgers, fried pickles and 24-hour brined wings. 541 S. High St., Brewery District, 614-697-1108 LD $$

Blackbird Kitchen

Located inside Woodlands Tavern, Blackbird Kitchen boasts an eclectic menu of appetizers, sandwiches and tacos, all made from scratch. You can enjoy mouthwatering birria tacos at the full bar which boasts over 30 taps. 1200 W. Third Ave., Fifth by Northwest, 614-266-8092. D $$

O’Reilly’s Pub

A casual, neighborhood Irish bar with a menu including the Pepper Burger, subs, sweet potato fries and wings. 2822 N. High St., Clintonville, 614-262-6343. LD $

BURGERS

Flavor 91 Bistro

This family-owned craft burger joint on the border of Whitehall and Reynoldsburg is dedicated to serving local, organic and fresh ingredients. Go for the flavorful salads, chicken wings with Ethiopian spice rub, the

Flavor Burger and the friendly atmosphere. 5186 E. Main St., Whitehall, 614-845-8840.

LD $$

Preston’s: A Burger Joint

Chef Matthew Heaggans of Muse Hospitality is serving some of the best burgers (and pudding) in the city at this North Market spot. Don’t overlook the fried chicken and biscuits from Preston’s sibling brand, Honey’s. 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-400-1675. LD $

Ringside Café

Dating back to 1897, this venerable Downtown spot has an old-school-tavern feel and specializes in burgers like the Jack Dempsey, the Ali and the Oscar De La Hoya. 19 N. Pearl St., Downtown, 614-228-7464. LD $$

CAJUN & CREOLE

Creole 2 Geaux

Located in the new East Market, this food vendor serves up Southern hospitality and comforting fare such as bourbon chicken, jambalaya mac ’n’ cheese and po’boys. 212 Kelton Ave., Franklin Park, 614-432-6226. LD $$

Way Down Yonder New Orleans Finest Restaurant

Chef Yonder Gordon offers home cooking straight from the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. You’ll find po’boys, gumbo and other Southern favorites at her homey restaurant. Down by the Bayou, composed of fried fish smothered in Louisiana crawfish étouffée, is not to miss. 3847 S. High St., South Side, 614662-8623. LD $$$

ChiliSpot

CHINESE

This casual restaurant in Kenny Centre is one of the city’s best options for authentic Sichuan cuisine. Think: mapo tofu, Chongqing popcorn chicken, cumin lamb, dry pot dishes and more. 1178 Kenny Rd., Northwest Side, 614-929-5565. LD $$$

Hunan Lion Chinese Restaurant

A longtime Columbus staple serving Hunan, Thai and Sichuan cuisines in a white-tablecloth setting, with spring rolls, pad thai, lo mein, Peking duck, Hunan beef and more. 2038 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-459-3933. LD $$$

Xi Xia Western Chinese Cuisine

Xi Xia offers an authentic tour of flavors from the Ningxia autonomous region in north-central China. Highlights include the chewy stirred noodles and rice pilaf with cubed lamb. 1140 Kenny Centre Mall, Northwest Side, 614-6707736. LD $$

COFFEE SHOP

Florin Coffee

The husband-and-wife duo behind this local coffee roasting outfit run this laid-back café offering Florin coffee, espresso drinks and breakfast pastries. 874 Oakland Park Ave., North Linden, 614-349-6220. BL $

Upper Cup Coffee Co.

This coffee shop started out in historic Olde Towne East and now offers a second location in Gahanna. A small menu of sandwiches complement its single-origin coffees that are roasted in-house. 121 Mill St., Gahanna, 614-383-7496; 79 Parsons Ave., Olde Towne East, 614-220-0206. BLD $

CONTEMPORARY

Chapman’s Eat Market

Chef BJ Lieberman’s debut on the local dining scene fills the original home of Max & Erma’s in German Village. The renovated space is fun and sophisticated, sporting a palette of bold wallpapers with rose pink and green accents. Diners can expect creative and ingredient-driven dishes, fine cocktails and homemade ice cream. 739 S. Third St., German Village, 614-444-0917. D $$$

Comune

Joe Galati’s restaurant and bar fills a void in Columbus with a plant-based approach to upscale dining. The seasonal menu includes shareable dishes like tahdig, house-made pita, tempura cauliflower and semolina cavatelli. 677 Parsons Ave., Schumacher Place, 614-947-1012 D $$$

Goodale Station

Topping Downtown’s Canopy by Hilton hotel is this rooftop restaurant, bar and patio led by executive chef Jonathan Olson. The restaurant’s city views are complemented by a large bar, high-end cocktails and sophisticated fare inspired by global cuisines. 77 E. Nationwide Blvd., Downtown, 614-227-9400.

BRD $$$

Joya’s Café

This casual Bengali-American café from chef Avishar Barua (Top Chef season 18) is one of the most exciting openings of 2022. Highlights include the excellent chai, Thai iced tea, fried rice and Cheesy Double

Crunch (Barua’s take on Taco Bell’s Cheesy Gordita Crunch). 657 High St., Worthington, 614-468-1232 BL $$$

Service Bar

Local distiller Middle West showcases its fine spirits at this on-site restaurant and bar led by executive chef Chris Connolly. Expect New American fare ranging from a wagyu beef burger to halibut with Kashmiri curry. 1230 Courtland Ave., Short North, 614-947-1231. D $$$

Veritas

Chef Josh Dalton’s modern, tastingmenu-style restaurant celebrates the art and science of cooking while offering one of the finest dining experiences in town. Located in the Citizens Building at Gay and High streets, Veritas prides itself on excellent service and exhilarating cocktail and wine lists. 11 W. Gay St., Downtown, 614-745-3864. D $$$$

Watershed Kitchen & Bar

Watershed complements its distillery with a handsome, proudly Midwestern restaurant and bar known for its chef-driven menu and locally sourced fare. The bar is a destination on its own, with classically inspired cocktails served by an industry-recognized bar staff. 1145 Chesapeake Ave., Fifth by Northwest, 614-357-1936 D $$$

Wolf’s Ridge Brewing

French- and California-cuisine-inspired Wolf’s Ridge is a truly delightful reflection of how we enjoy fine dining today—a happy marriage of high-end small plates, pints of house-crafted beer and craft cocktails. Don’t miss the brunch. 215 N. Fourth St., Downtown, 614-429-3936. BRLD $$$

ETHIOPIAN

Lalibela

Some of the city’s best Ethiopian food is served at this modest East Side spot where diners gather around large platters of gomen,

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Lalibela

doro wat, shiro, tibs and more--all served atop injera. 1111 S. Hamilton Rd., Whitehall, 614235-5355. LD $$

Nile Vegan

Vegan meets Ethiopian at this restaurant, where customers can expect affordable combination plates of stewed or puréed veggies on injera. Go for the mushroom combo, a mushroom stew with curry split peas, a beet medley and Puy lentils. Don’t forget the chai. 1479 Worthington St., Campus, 614-670-8171; 1223 Goodale Blvd., Grandview, 614-223-1288. BLD $$

FILIPINO

Bonifacio

Krizzia Yanga’s eatery offers a modern take on Filipino home cooking, with frequent kamayan-style dinners served on banana leaves. Try dishes like lumpia, lechon and chicken inasal. 1577 King Ave., Fifth by Northwest, 614-914-8115. LD $$

FRENCH

The Refectory Restaurant & Wine Shop

At this Columbus icon, chef Richard Blondin puts more effort into a single plate than an ordinary restaurant does into an entire menu. Inside this church-turned-fine-dining spot, expect impeccable service and a world-class wine cellar to pair with your meal. 1092 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-451-9774. D $$$$

GASTROPUB

Hoof Hearted Brewery and Kitchen

This collaboration between A&R Creative (The Crest, The Market: Food & Drink) and popular Marengo-based brewery Hoof Hearted represents all the good things happening in Columbus right now: lots of craft beer and locally sourced food in a cool, modern space.

850 N. Fourth St., Italian Village, 614-4014033. BRD $$

Rye River Social

A standout bourbon program complements the elevated gastropub fare at this popular brunch spot with ample TVs. Dinner offerings include a fancy grilled cheese, burger, scallops and fish ’n’ chips. 995 W. Fifth Ave., Grandview, 614-429-3835. BBRD $$$

GERMAN

Gemüt Biergarten

Housed in a renovated 1890s firehouse building, this locally owned brewery, beer garden and restaurant is a great neighborhood spot to enjoy German-style beers and food. 734 Oak St., Olde Towne East, 614-725-1725. LD $$$

INDIAN/PAKISTANI

Aab India

Aab India boasts a large menu of authentic Northern Indian-style curry offerings, plus papadi chaat, chicken tandoori and shrimp bhuna. 1470 Grandview Ave., Grandview, 614-486-2800. LD $$

Awadh India Restaurant

Chef Anand Kumar provides authentic Lucknowi cuisine with fresh ingredients. The ample menu includes kebabs, Awadhi-style biryani, a large variety of curries and Indian

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Fukuryu Ramen

breads. 2584 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-914-8884. LD $$

Dosa Corner

This affordable, family-owned South Indian spot specializes in expertly thin, pancake-like dosas, uthappam and vegetarian curries. 1077 Old Henderson Rd., Northwest Side, 614-459-5515. LD $

Basi Italia

ITALIAN

Nestled in the heart of Victorian Village, Basi Italia serves clean, simple Italian fare with innovative twists in a setting so intimate, you’ll feel like the chef invited you over for dinner. Basi offers one of the city’s best patios. 811 Highland St., Victorian Village, 614-2947383. D $$$

Lola and Giuseppe’s Trattoria

This quaint, husband-and-wife-owned bistro cooks up made-from-scratch Italian meals, with Italian wedding soup, chicken Marsala, Giuseppe’s Baked Rigatoni and meat lasagna. 100 Granville St., Gahanna, 614-473-9931. D $$$

Scali Ristorante

This strip mall gem opened by Frank and Judy Scali in 1993 pulls off sophisticated Italian-American fare with the genuine warmth of a neighborhood institution. The veal Parmesan and classic lasagna give red sauce a

good name. 1903 State Route 256, Reynoldsburg, 614-759-7764. D $$$

JAPANESE

The 1126 Restaurant

This cozy and chic sushi restaurant offers an assortment of appetizers, sushi, udon, hibachi and tempura entrées alongside plenty of Japanese whisky and sake options. 1126 N. High St., Short North, 614725-3435. LD $$$

Fukuryu Ramen

Jeff Tsao, whose family owned the Kahiki Supper Club, brings his Melbourne, Australia, ramen shop stateside. It’s quick, modern, bustling and adds a little rock ’n’ roll to traditional Japanese fare. The Signature Tonkotsu and Red Dragon ramens are standouts. 4540 Bridge Park Ave., Dublin, 614-553-7392; 1600 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington, 614929-5910. LD $$

Satori Ramen Bar

Tokyo native Seigo Nishimura runs this ramen spot in the North Market, serving a variety of Japanese ramen as well as gyoza, karaage, rice bowls and more. 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-914-8799. LD $$

KOREAN

Gogi Korean BBQ

Gogi means “meat” in Korean, and that’s

what you can expect (and lots of it) at this restaurant where diners can grill their own meat at the table. The expansive menu also includes bibimbap, grilled fish platters, soups and rice pancakes, plus Korean beers and liquors like makgeolli and soju. 1138 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-670-4790. LD $$

So Gong Dong Tofu & BBQ

This Korean restaurant chain offers authentic cuisine, including soondubu jjigae, a savory and spicy tofu soup. 2950 Hayden Rd., Dublin, 614-389-1050. LD $$

LATIN AMERICAN Arepazo

Owners Carlos and Carolina Gutierrez serve excellent Venezuelan and Colombian fare and cocktails in a hip atmosphere. Don’t miss the arepas, patacón and lomo saltado. 515 S. High St., Brewery District, 614-914-8878. LD $$$

Brazilian Grill & Bakery

A Brazilian market and restaurant specializing in prato feito (often abbreviated to PF), which are blue-plate specials with beans, rice, fries and salad, topped with traditional Brazilian meats. 5818 Columbus Sq., North Side, 614-394-9254. LD $$

Pablo’s Havana Café

This Cuban café serves authentic recipes made primarily with locally sourced ingredients. Be sure to try its signature El Cubano

sandwich. 9685 Sawmill Rd., Powell, 614389-4302. LD $$

MEDITERRANEAN

Brassica

Founded by the owners of Northstar Café, this build-it-yourself eatery focuses on fresh vegetables and proteins spiked with bold Middle Eastern and Mediterranean spices. 2212 E. Main St., Bexley, 614-929-9990; 4012 Townsfair Way, Easton, 614-532-6865; 680 N. High St., Short North, 614-867-5885; 1442 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington, 614-929-9997. LD $$

Lávash Café

This quick-service Middle Eastern eatery serves a mix of Mediterranean food, coffee and desserts. 2985 N. High St., Clintonville, 614-263-7777. LD $$

Opa Grill & Tavern

A traditional Mediterranean restaurant with a casual atmosphere and outstanding whiskey selection. The menu includes gyros, pastas, burgers and spicy chicken kopanisti. 18 S. Sandusky St., Delaware, 740-363-7283. LD $$

Zaytoon Mediterranean Grill

Like a Mediterranean Chipotle, at Zaytoon you can build your own salad, pita or rice bowl. The Hilliard Green eatery also offers traditional Mediterranean appetizers and desserts. 5450 Westpointe Plaza Dr., Hilliard, 614-363-4131. LD $$

Alebrijes

MEXICAN

This excellent Mexican food truck is family owned and operated across from Ohio State East Hospital. The menu features authentic tacos, tortas and flavorful grilled chicken. Food Truck, 1500 E. Long St., East Side, 614363-9979. LD $$

Charritos Mexican Grill

Authentic Mexican food is the focus at this small café, where the corn tortillas are made inhouse and the menu includes al pastor tacos, chile relleno and seafood soup. 4740 Reed Rd., Upper Arlington, 614-929-5866. BLD $$

Dos Hermanos

Dos Hermanos started out as a taco truck and now offers authentic street tacos and tamales in the North Market. 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, 614-683-8786; 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-226-5286; Food Truck, Citywide, 614-373-0379. LD $

La Super Torta

A strip-mall find that specializes in outstanding (and sizable) tortas. The no-frills eatery also serves tacos, gorditas and other authentic Mexican eats. 721 Georgesville Rd., West Side, 614-928-9079. BLD $

NEPALESE/TIBETAN

Namaste Indo-Nepali Cuisine

At humble Namaste you’ll taste Nepal via influential neighbors India and China. Familiar favorites like samosas, tandoori chicken and curries are all here, but the menu lets you know they’ve been seasoned Nepali style (think ginger, cumin, fenugreek, cardamom, coriander, cloves and mustard seeds). 1307 Stoneridge Dr., Gahanna, 614-705-6077; 1279 Morse Rd., Northeast Side, 614-2613636. LD $$

PROFESSIONAL

GoreMade Pizza

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

PIZZA

Fibonacci’s Pizzeria

Studio 35’s in-house pizzeria turns out Neapolitan-style, char-crusted pizzas that pair well with the theater’s outstanding cast of beers. 3055 Indianola Ave., Clintonville, 614262-7505. D $$$

Gatto’s Pizza

This family-owned pizza joint in Clintonville is truly old-school, serving homemade Italian favorites like pizza, subs, salads and pasta. 3420 Indianola Ave., Clintonville, 614-263-3737. D $$

GoreMade Pizza

It’s all about the pizza here at Nick Gore’s modest spot. Thin-crust pies are wood-fired in an oven imported from Italy, and seasonal toppings are locally sourced. Enjoy solid cocktails and salads while you wait. 936 N. Fourth St., Italian Village, 614-725-2115. D $$$

Plank’s Café & Pizzeria

Plank’s bakes some of the finest pies in the city with a notoriously sweet sauce and thin crust. 743 Parsons Ave., Schumacher Place, 614-445-7221. BLD $$

SEAFOOD

Coast to Local Market

In addition to fresh seafood for cooking at home, this North Market fishmonger offers lobster rolls, chowder, lobster poutine and

more. 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, 614-6838782; 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-9295701. LD $$

Kai’s Crab Boil

Kai’s brings a coastal tradition to Columbus that’s interactive, fun and messy. Choose from one of Kai’s Combos or pick your own seafood combination—from shrimp to snow crab legs to lobster—boiled in special spices. 839 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-8690652. LD $$$

Windward Passage Restaurant

This hoot of a retro restaurant has porthole windows and nautical décor, as well as some of the best fried fish in town. 4739 Reed Rd., Upper Arlington, 614-451-2497. LD $$

SMALL PLATES

Ginger Rabbit Jazz Lounge

Cocktails and conservas rule the night at this intimate jazz room from the owners of Chapman’s Eat Market. Small plate options include Iberico ham, Black Radish Creamery cheeses, Castelvetrano olives and high-quality tinned seafood with butter and crusty Dan the Baker bread. 17 Buttles Ave., Short North, 614-929-5298. D $$$

Lincoln Social Rooftop

Cameron Mitchell Restaurants’ first-ever rooftop lounge offers impressive views of the whole city from atop the Lincoln Build-

ing. Cocktails and socializing are the focus here, with a complementing menu of beach-y small plates and snacks. 9th Floor, 705 N. High St., Short North, 614-3009494. D $$

SOUTHERN

The Eagle

This Southern-style restaurant from the Cincinnati-based owners of Bakersfield features Amish fried chicken, spoonbread, craft beers and a large patio along High Street. 790 N. High St., Short North, 614-745-3397. LD $$

Subourbon Southern Kitchen & Spirits

At this Linworth spot, the owners of Alqueria Farmhouse Kitchen serve up Southern-style cuisine such as cast-iron cornbread, fried catfish po’boys and blackened redfish. As its name suggests, the restaurant offers an extensive whiskey list. 2234 W. Dublin-Granville Rd., Worthington, 614-505-0773. D $$$

STEAKHOUSE

The Avenue Steak Tavern

Cameron Mitchell’s homage to the steakhouses of yore. The restaurant’s retro design and clubby atmosphere are teamed with a menu boasting all the classics: oysters Rockefeller, beefsteak tomato salad, creamed spinach, potatoes in all the steakhouse ways and, of course, numerous cuts of

beef. 94 N. High St., Dublin, 614-591-9000; 1307 Grandview Ave., Grandview, 614-4859447. BRD $$$$

Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse

Prime beef and an extensive wine list are the highlights at this high-end restaurant. Choose from filet mignon, New York strip, seafood or surf-and-turf combinations. 6360 Frantz Rd., Dublin, 614-717-2828; 569 N. High St., Short North, 614-224-2204; 1615 Old Henderson Rd., Upper Arlington, 614-442-3310. D $$$$

Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse

A Cincinnati-based chain from restaurateur Jeff Ruby that offers top-flight steaks, à la carte sides, oysters and sushi in an over-thetop atmosphere. The wine list is extensive, and the service is formal, with flourishes like Bananas Foster served tableside. 89 E. Nationwide Blvd., Downtown, 614-686-7800.

D $$$$

THAI

Bamboo Thai Kitchen

This bright spot in a drab strip mall offers well-executed Thai staples like som tum (green papaya salad), flavorful green and red curries and pad thai, plus some Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese dishes. 774 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-326-1950. LD $$

Thai Grille

Savory Thai dishes made with organic or locally grown ingredients and free-range meats, with curry rolls, tofu satay, pad kee mao, tom kha gai and pad thai. 15 E. College Ave., Westerville, 614-865-4515. LD $$$

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN

4th & State

This vegan eatery for the Downtown crowd features meatless alternatives to American favorites like Crunchwraps, BLTs, pizzas and burgers. 152 E. State St., Downtown, 614-6365383. BL $$

Greenhouse Canteen & Bar

This franchise from Australia boasts a creative vegan and gluten-free menu, with cauliflower wings, Korean rice cakes, jackfruit enchiladas and craft cocktails. 1011 W. Fifth Ave., Fifth by Northwest, 614-525-0202. D $$$

VIETNAMESE

Huong Vietnamese Restaurant

Housed in a Northland-area strip mall, this bright and simply decorated restaurant turns out great Vietnamese fare such as pho, bahn xeo and bun nem nuong. 1270 Morse Rd., North Side, 614-825-0303. LD $

Lan Viet Market

Located in both North Market locations, family-run Lan Viet offers tried-and-true Vietnamese favorites, with pho, banh mi, bun thit bo xao and ca phe sua. 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, 614-683-8783; 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-227-4203. LD $$

Thank you to our sponsors, donors and friends for making this year’s Home in Ohio event an amazing success. Proceeds raised will be invested to support our frontline care providers and the well-being of the communities we serve.

SHAWN SHAHNAZI OWNER, CHOPHOUSE 614 + PRIVÉ LOUNGE

WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR START IN THE INDUSTRY? In Miami at a restaurant called Monty’s, owned by Monty Trainer. I started as a dishwasher, then worked my way up to prep then valet and finally bartender.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CULINARY STYLE? I like to design menus that put a twist on comfort food. One of the trends you see in the dishes at Chophouse 614 is that every bite tastes different. We choose our ingredients intentionally, so it feels like a different experience in every bite.

WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT THE COLUMBUS DINING SCENE? The food scene is really competitive, and competition makes everyone better. We all have to try harder and do our best in order to stay relevant.

WHAT DINING TRENDS DO YOU EXPECT TO SEE GROWING POPULAR IN THE FUTURE? I think there will be a trend toward more family-style. Dining now is a form of entertainment. The family-style serving really brings the whole table together in a different way. You get to taste everything.

Left to right, Shawn Shahnazi and operations manager CJ Amadi

SEAFOOD BUCATINI

Homemade bucatini tossed in scratchmade spicy tomato cream sauce with sautéed jumbo shrimp, New Zealand mussels, Maine lobster and chopped fresh asparagus, topped with grated pecorino and served with ciabatta crostini.

CHOPHOUSE 614 + PRIVÉ LOUNGE 1079 N. High St. Columbus, OH 43201 614-929-5430

chophouse614.com

When Hanif

Met Ann

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43

Hamilton: The poet Susan Stewart said to me, “Your work knows where you need to go before you do.”

Abdurraqib: I also just get excited about things I want to tell people about. In “Little Devil,” there’s a small part about Ellen Armstrong, who was the first Black woman magician to headline her own show in the United States. When I found out about her, I was like, everyone has to know this. I don’t care if it’s only two paragraphs. And if I’m at a concert that’s exciting, and you’re not here, I want you to be here. I want everyone to be in this place with me. It’s the act of asking, is what I was made to feel possible for you? So many music writers I grew up loving afforded me that opportunity.

Hamilton: That’s so interesting, Hanif, and it’s so beautiful, because it is about a feeling and a felt quality. But in visual arts—and maybe this is the academic part of things— people don’t want to talk about feeling.

Abdurraqib: Really? I feel like so much emotion comes through in your work, though.

Hamilton: Oh, I’m not afraid of it. Not at all. If information changed the world, the world would be different. It’s feelings that change the world. So how do we touch each other? And do you allow yourself to be touched? It is in the felt that it matters. My biggest fear is to become like a rock, to not feel anything. That’s a kind of death.

Abdurraqib: Absolutely. I’m going to quote that. That is a type of death. I sometimes don’t care if you are even interested in what I’m talking about. I care if we are mutually interested in the pursuit of feeling.

Hamilton: Can I quote you on that? That’s really good.

Abdurraqib: The book I just finished, initially it was loosely about basketball in this era of LeBron James in Ohio. And it’s not going to matter if someone has even seen a basketball game or cares about basketball or knows who LeBron James is, much like when I wrote the Tribe Called Quest book. The pursuit was never: You need to have intimate knowledge of what I am examining in order to enter this. That’s a surrendering

of ego, too—of not presenting myself as an expert who has to guide you through it, and instead saying, how can we use this as a vehicle to pursue a mutual feeling?

Hamilton: Yeah. It’s a vehicle, so while it matters completely, it also doesn’t matter at all. Susan Rothenberg was a wonderful painter, and she is known for her early paintings of these very large horses that went from one edge of the canvas to the next. And I remember asking her about her work. I was imagining what her process might be in the studio. And she said, “ The horse is just a way to get to the other side of the painting.”

Abdurraqib: That’s so great. One of my earliest mentors told me that poets make a living writing the same three poems. Or even songwriters. You think about Johnny Cash; his whole thing was God, love and murder. You have to find those three vehicles. Say I’m returning to death, or a curiosity about the impermanence of our lives—that affords me a lot of room to play. I can do that across many vehicles, and they matter, but they don’t define what the work becomes.

Hamilton: Sometimes your subject is not central to what you are doing at all. For me, because each project is so different, it brings me into totally different worlds, and those become landscapes that inform and shape the stuff I think about all the time. It takes you outside of yourself so that you lose that paralyzing self-consciousness that seems to be a human condition for a lot of people. Being an artist or a writer could make you hyper self-conscious. But for me, in the act of making, the goal is to lose myself completely.

Oliphint: I’m curious about your relationship to the idea of genius, and if that relationship has changed in the wake of the MacArthur Fellowship.

Abdurraqib: I’m from the Toni Morrison school of thought, which is that, even presenting the idea of genius summons a type of scarcity, and scarcity is a real enemy to a lot of things. It’s an enemy to artistic accountability and to exploration. And it presents this idea, especially with Black artists, that there’s a chosen few and nothing else. Particularly with Black artists in America, when there’s a chosen few, a great many get overlooked. My impulse is to search for brilliance everywhere.

Hamilton: It’s a mythology, the singular genius. That’s such a horrible myth.

Abdurraqib: Right. The other day I was on the East Side working with some young writers, and we were outside shooting basketball. It had just rained, so there were puddles on the court, and the sunlight was reflecting into one of the puddles, creating one of those mini rainbows on the ground. One of the kids, maybe 11 years old, looked down at that, and he was like, “That reminds me of my mother, because those are all the colors my mother loved.” That is a moment of genius, and I am grateful that I got to witness it. If you accumulate enough of those good moments, someone somewhere might call you a genius, but that doesn’t mean anything. We’re all capable of accessing these moments. I need to exist in a world outside the orbit of the mythology of genius and take in the quieter moments that are humming and vibrating with genius all around me. How can I seek out more young people who look at a rainbow and see their mothers? That’s what I want.

Hamilton: It’s a cultural habit of assigning value to something. So “genius” isn’t the right word, but it’s good in the sense of someone saying, this writing has value. It just comes with all this other baggage, unfortunately. To go back to the grant, the recognition is a gift, and the job is to give that gift away.

Oliphint: And as you’ve both said, you still gotta do the work.

Hamilton: You have to do the work.

Abdurraqib: You gotta show up. You can’t coast on other people’s imagination of what you’re capable of, because it’s fickle. People are always like, “Do you feel pressure now?” I don’t feel any pressure. Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up thinking I would be a writer. I didn’t start writing seriously until I was well into my 20s.

Hamilton: Well, you got to it, didn’t you?

Abdurraqib: I got pretty busy when I started! But there’s too much pleasure in the work for me to feel pressured. I don’t want to live a life where I’m hard on myself.

Hamilton: Yeah. Get rid of that judgmental voice.

Abdurraqib: Gotta get rid of it, because it doesn’t serve me, and it doesn’t serve anyone who might like anything I write, and it doesn’t serve that pleasureful view of the world that I’m always pursuing, because that allows for a generosity in my writing and in my living, and those things are intertwined. If there’s generosity in my living, there’s generosity in my writing, and vice versa.

T his interview has been edited and condensed. A longer version will be published at columbusmonthly.com.

Go to columbusmonthly.com to see a video of the conversation between Hamilton and Abdurraqib.

Jane Kessler Lennox

(614) 939-8938

janel@newalbanyrealty.com

17 HAWKSMOOR DRIVE, NEW ALBANY- Spectacular5BR,5Full/2 HalfBAEstateinNewAlbany'sUpscaleHawksmoor.Bright&NeutralOpen FloorPlanEnhancedByContemporaryDesign&theLatestFinishes. Spacious1stFlrOwner'sSuitehasSpaBathw/HeatedFloors.The2ndFlr has3BREnsuites.Fin.LLhasPlentyofEntertainmentSpace.Stunning OutdoorLivingAreaw/Fireplace&Built-inGrill.$3,000,000

RE/MAX ACHIEVERS

Joan King Denis King (614) 563-8740

joanking@joankinghomes.com

1903 STRATHSHIRE HALL LANE - Stunning Loch Lomond Home with Walkout LL & Guest House, situated on nearly 3 acres of breathtaking property. Extensive prof. landscaping, decking, patio, walk paths, Bocce Ball Court & framed by beautiful woodlands. Impeccably maintained with exceptional quality & detailing. 6 BRs, 5 full/2 half baths & att. 4-car garage. $2,847,000

RE/MAX PREMIER CHOICE

Kevin Sullivan (614) 419-2026 kevins@ columbus.rr.com

BREATHTAKING ONE-OF-A-KIND ESTATE HOME - on over 5 magnificent acres, lush Gardens, stocked Pond, 20x40 Pool & Pool House, Private Tennis Courts, updated Gourmet Kit, Eating Nook w/brick FP, a Solarium, Owner Wing & Butlers Storage/ Pantry, Walk-out LL w/Theater Rm, Fitness Facility, Mother-inlaw suite, 5BD, 6 Full BA, 2 Half BA. $1,750,000

Jane Kessler Lennox (614) 939-8938

janel@newalbanyrealty.com

282 MAIN STREET, NEW ALBANY - Our goal is to provide the most luxurious condominium homes in Central Ohio, in one of the best communities in the nation. Located within walking distance of many restaurants, gyms, coffee shops, theaters, health providers & civic amenities. This is the first of two structures that will be built, a total of 18 one-story floor plans with generous outdoor living spaces and 2-car garages.

DUNPHY REAL ESTATE

Sheila DunphyPallotta (937) 767-2100

Sheila@ dunphyrealestate.com

4129 CORTSVILLE RD., CEDARVILLE TOWNSHIP - Magnificent home on 60 acres. A very relaxing estate- Enjoy Dining Al Fresco in the vine wrapped Pergola on starlit evenings with friends & family overlooking rolling fields and Massie Creek. 1850’s farmhouse – high ceilings, hdwd floors, 3 BR (1 BR on 1st floor), 2.5 baths, Great Room, Library, 2 Offices, Sunroom with Hot Tub, fantastic huge back deck & barns. $999,974

RE/MAX PREMIER CHOICE

Kevin Sullivan (614) 419-2026 kevins@ columbus.rr.com

SOLD

AMAZING HOME IN TARTAN FIELDS - with beautiful views of the 4th Green & Fairway. 6BD, 5 Full BA, 2 Half BA, massive Owners Closet, 2 Story Office/Den, huge Florida Room and Walk out Lower-Level custom Home Theater and Wine Cellar that holds 800 bottles. $2,375,000

Johnny Riddle’s Artistic Oasis

Franklinton has become a magnet for artists and art, helping to kickstart the revitalization of this once-neglected section of the city. And who better to help us take an art-centric tour than Johnny Riddle, executive director of the Franklinton Arts District and a member of the Franklinton Area Commission? —STEVE WARTENBERG

400 West Rich

This old factory once produced refrigerated drinking fountains and porcelain toilets. Now, it produces art, and its mazelike halls and galleries feature established and up-andcoming local artists. “One of the hidden gems is the

[second-floor] WIT Gallery,” Riddle says. “It’s curated by Larry Robertson, a DJ and artist, and predominantly showcases BIPOC artists.”

Land-Grant Brewing Co. “This is where the members of the creative community go after [business] hours to hang out and explore ideas,” Riddle says, adding the brewery hosts a music series and invites local artists to create its distinctive label art. “I don’t drink, but they have a very nice, nonalcoholic ginger beer,” Riddle says.

Franklinton Fridays

On the second Friday of every month, the streets of Franklinton are filled

with hundreds of people celebrating art, watching performances and finding community. “We recently added an outdoor market with vendors,” Riddle says.

Public Art

“The giant slingshot really speaks to me,” Riddle says of the 20-foot-tall sculpture created by local artist Andrew Lundberg that was unveiled in May (pictured above). “It’s aimed right at the Columbus city skyline and speaks to our upward mobility and that mischievousness we have in Franklinton.”

Gladden Community House

This nonprofit settlement house offers a wide

range of services for local children, adults and families. “They do an endless amount of good with their youth programming and connect other nonprofits looking to do good work here in Franklinton,” Riddle says.

Columbus Idea Foundry

This well-known makerspace is a combination workshop, educational center and entrepreneurial launching pad. Riddle loves the work of the Columbus Fashion Alliance, which is housed in the foundry. The alliance provides resources for young fashion designers and works with Columbus schools.

FRANKLINTON