BonoTOGO: New pizza joint in the Short North
This Week News wrote Pie-maker gets his pizza hand ready again
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
By Gary Seman Jr.
Bill Yerkes is at it again. After a brief hiatus from making traditional Napoli-style pizzas, Yerkes is again ready to put a pie in your face.
Yerkes is subletting Eleni-Christina Bakery in the evenings for his latest pizza enterprise, bonoTOGO (as in “to go”) — just in time for the Gallery Hop on Saturday. Although the place’s address is 641 N. High St., the storefront actually faces Russell Street, about 60 feet west of the main drag.
What a great idea- bakery during the morning/afternoon and pizza joint in the evening. Menus for this place were taped above the mailboxes where I live last night. Selection and prices look great. I hope it works out for them.
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Related Tags: bill yerkes • bonopizza • eleni-christina bakery • gallery hop • gary seman jr. • menu • pizza • Short North • this week news
June 6th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Care to share some of the menu info?
June 6th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Love to, but I’m at work and the menu’s at home. I’ll try to post some of the offerings this evening.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Yeah they were taped with blue 3M 1″ painter’s tape. Things must be going well so far to be using that to tape fliers up. It’s hard to find tape that is more expensive than that. I’ll still try it anyways.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hmmm….seeing as how they don’t open until tonight, I’m not so sure that the tape can be relied upon as an indicator of how well things have been going “so far.” :wink:
June 6th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
So, this place will have napoli style? I am always looking for new pizza places, but I am not really a fan of tha napoli style.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I wonder if he scrapped plans for the Grandview shop.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2006/04/25/20060425-C1-03.html
Or will there be two?
June 9th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Anybody get a chance to check this place out over the weekend?
June 9th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Napoli style? We used to just call them “squares”. :wink:
June 9th, 2008 at 10:08 am
i can’t quote the source, but i remember reading that he had finally given up on the grandview location. something about a grease trap issue the city wouldn’t budge on and was prohibitively expensive to fix.
i hope this is a successful venture for yerkes, bonopizza was like heaven on earth and i’ve been craving it ever since it closed.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:29 am
We stopped by our friend’s place, who lives directly above Elana Christina around 11PM, and saw the little tables outside were full of people eating, so it looked like it was going well.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am
everytime I read the headline i think bento gogo
June 9th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I think of “Pop”-era U2.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:50 am
The grease trap problem is the reason for now Grandview location.
From ThisWeekNews
June 10th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Or NO Grandview location, I mean.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
aaminian just emailed me the menu, and it can be found here:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/archives/bonoTOGOmenu.pdf (two page pdf)
$8 sounds like a great deal, and $20 for three is even better. Going to have to try this soon. Our old staple pizza at Minuteman has really been raising their prices lately.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
sounds awesome. eight bucks even!
June 11th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
yum! do they deliver? How late are they open?
June 11th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
They’re open Wed-Sun, 5pm-midnight. I don’t believe they deliver.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Anyone know what the name of this place is?
:P
http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/food/stories/2008/06/05/pizza.html?sid=104
June 11th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
GIANT CREAM PUFFS!!!!!!!!
June 11th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
:oops: I should be a better critical reader. . .
June 11th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Ha! Sorry, I had to give you a hard time. ;)
Let us know if you try out the pizza. I’m ready for some right now!
June 11th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Tried it tonight and thought it was just OK. I was hoping for a bit less generic tasting.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Just got done trying it out and overall I was a bit disappointed. I asked how large the pizzas were when I called (thankfully) and found out that they’re 8-10 inch pizzas. The woman on the phone said she ate a whole one herself for dinner, so I figured we should do the three for Anne & I if she wants to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I ordered the Margarita, Oahu (misspelled on the menu), and Pepperoni pizzas.
Drove over 20 minutes later, walked inside to find out they don’t take credit cards at all. Thankfully, Chase is my bank, and there’s an ATM around the corner. Let this be a warning for everyone else though. Bring cash.
Paid for the pizzas (I assume tax is included because $20 is all the nice lady there charged) and headed home.
The pizzas were all very thin. Crust was good although a bit chewy, but the sauce was sort of weak. Didn’t taste like there was any seasoning to it. The Margerita was a bit flavorless, the Oahu was a little better, and the Pepperoni was the best of the three. I use “best” as a relative term because I can think of at least 20 other places I could spend $20 on pizza and have enjoyed it more.
Anne ate a whole one herself and I had one and a half (I was fairly hungry though). Just one pizza from here may not fill up most people.
For those who live in walking distance, I can see this being a decent neighborhood option, and $8 for dinner isn’t really all that bad. For me though, it’s too far out of the way for something I’m not going to be fully satisfied with. I’ll hold out for other options and keep waiting for good pizza to come around on the Near East Side. Planks is only a short drive down Parsons anyway.
I’m curious to hear what other people think though. It sounds like some of their other specialty pizzas could be pretty good with the vast array of toppings they have, so if someone names one that really stands out I’d be willing to give it one more shot.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Well, the only thing is, there are so many options for pizza in the Short North that your review doesn’t give me much hope for the place considering all the competition there is at the other restaurants like Surly Girl, Press Grill, Marcella’s, etc.