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Columbus, Ohio: The New Foodie Mecca

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Started 8 months ago by Walker
Latest reply from rus

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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Columbus, Ohio: The New Foodie Mecca
By Tamar Fleishman | Published Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011

I didn’t know until I stepped foot in Columbus, Ohio, that it had become a foodie mecca. Sure, I knew they’re near some of the most valued farmland in the US. But I didn’t realize that Ohio’s capital was so gourmet.

Pistacia Vera serves in a bright café atmosphere some of the most exquisite macaroons and sweets – as written about in Destinations Magazine – in the world. Their drinks are made with Valrhona chocolate. I had a food epiphany with their orange brioche: with its rock sugar coat and subtle flavor, it would be a perfect foil for fois gras.

READ MORE: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/aug/25/travel-columbus-ohio-new-foodie-mecca/

Posted 8 months ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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I must have missed the Columbus Michelin Restaurant Guide. They did a nice job of highlighting much of what we do right - but we still have a ways to go before I'd consider us a 'foodie mecca.'

If we were to have a Columbus Michelin Guide, do you think we would have any 2 star (or above) restaurants?

Posted 8 months ago #
joev
Merion Village
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I think there's a major difference between being a foodie mecca and having restaurants with a lot of Michelin stars. Fine dining is a "fun" experience for a relatively small number of people. But there's no doubt people who like good food, that's unique, locally sourced, etc., will find a lot to love about Columbus.

Posted 8 months ago #
Stefanie
OSU Campus
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I'm in need of another restaurant week after this article. :) I love some of the ways Columbus and local businesses have been innovating. I feel like that work has built a better sense of community and the national recognition is nice!

Posted 8 months ago #
th0m
Beechwold
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I think with the technical understanding that is achievable by laymen these days is astounding. This this is amateurs discussing the media criticism of specific world relative food ratings.

I read an article the other day about how "virtuoso" musicians are now a dime a dozen. I am so lame about food you don't understand, but damn you all for hipping me to these joints. "Virtuoso" chefs I think are now a dime a dozen, so the real secret is that we'd probably have more five-star dining per capita in parts around here than many parts of the larger metro areas for sure.

I of course attribute this to information technology. What chef couldn't play this afternoon with molecular gastronomy by digging around on YouTube? Sous vide with a beer locker.

Posted 8 months ago #
aaminian
Short North
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Mercurius <a

If we were to have a Columbus Michelin Guide, do you think we would have any 2 star (or above) restaurants?

Kihachi would probably be our only shot at 2 stars, but even that's a BIG stretch. I was recently at Longman & Eagle and Graham Elliot, and less recently at Schwa and Tru, and each of them, with 1 star apiece, are doing things that are leaps and bounds ahead of anything here.

Posted 8 months ago #
aaminian
Short North
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I agree with joev, though, in that a bunch of stars do not a foodie mecca make. I routinely have more fun ordering and eating at Dirty Franks than I've had at some of the fancy-pants places I've been.

Posted 8 months ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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joev said:
I think there's a major difference between being a foodie mecca and having restaurants with a lot of Michelin stars.

What exactly is that difference? Michelin also has the 'bib guide' for good value too?

joev said:Fine dining is a "fun" experience for a relatively small number of people.
Yes, to an extent, that is the difference between a gourmet and a foodie. I guess I see gourmet as a subset of foodies in that refinement matters?

joev said:
But there's no doubt people who like good food, that's unique, locally sourced, etc., will find a lot to love about Columbus.

...and they will also find that ubiquitously in nearly every other city of our size with a simple perusing through sites like Chowhound. In my experience, we are behind the curve in unique and local, not that we don't have any -- but no where close to what I've experienced in other 'foodie meccas.'

Posted 8 months ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
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Mercurius said:
I must have missed the Columbus Michelin Restaurant Guide. They did a nice job of highlighting much of what we do right - but we still have a ways to go before I'd consider us a 'foodie mecca.'

If we were to have a Columbus Michelin Guide, do you think we would have any 2 star (or above) restaurants?

Why so negative? We get some good press about something we do well locally and all you can do is bitch about how no local restaurant gets Michelin stars?

Posted 8 months ago #
aaminian
Short North
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ChrisSunami said:
Why so negative? We get some good press about something we do well locally and all you can do is bitch about how no local restaurant gets Michelin stars?

I don't think he's bitching- just pointing out that the title of "foodie mecca" is probably an outlandish overstatement since we, when compared to other cities, clearly don't have the level of culinary creativity/inventiveness (yet) that justifies that title (and that, by extension, would be deserving of Michelin recognition).

Said another way, nobody's coming to Columbus for the primary purpose of visiting a particular restaurant or restaurants. It is therefore not a "foodie mecca."

Posted 8 months ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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ChrisSunami said:
Why so negative? We get some good press about something we do well locally and all you can do is bitch about how no local restaurant gets Michelin stars?

We have some good stuff, stuff that deserves to be nationally highlighted (which it is) -- but as a whole, it doesn't help us to think we are above the curve. If this would have said, "Columbus has alot to offer," I would have said plus one. If it's saying you should make a specific trip to Columbus for our food, a pilgrimage if you will, then you will be very disappointed.

Posted 8 months ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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This same article (shuffled, some editing for different focii) showed up in at least three different papers. The cynic in me thinks we are getting good value for money to get this splashed from coast-to-coast (literally - the author is not from San Diego.)

What Mercurius says is correct. Columbus is reflective of larger trends across the US and not leading in them. This is a pretty good thing as we used to lag significantly behind.

A.

Posted 8 months ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
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Since we've received a significant amount of press in national media recently around this same idea --that Columbus has become a food destination --it seems that some people do in fact think it's worth coming here to eat.

I don't think we have to be New York, San Francisco or Chicago --the only three US cities with Michelin guides --in order to be a leader in food culture, particularly as compared to our own region.

Posted 8 months ago #
Bear
The woods
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Trends articles like this often conflate the magnitude of recent changes with placement in an absolute sense. That is, when someplace is up-and-coming in a particular area, they tend to slip into language that suggests that it has already arrived. It's not the Next Big Thing, it's Already Big.

It sounds to me as though that's happened in this mashup family of articles. I'm on board with up-and-coming. I wouldn't be surprised if the city's record of food-related accomplishments more closely matches its potential before long.

Posted 8 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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ChrisSunami said:
Why so negative? We get some good press about something we do well locally and all you can do is bitch about how no local restaurant gets Michelin stars?

Because we'll never be a true "big city" until we ditch the "midwestern nice" and start getting a little more jaded about stuff. ;)

Posted 8 months ago #
rus

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Walker said:
Because we'll never be a true "big city" until we ditch the "midwestern nice" and start getting a little more jaded about stuff. ;)

Pshaw. That sounds like something a hipster from the coast would say.

/just trying to help ;-)

Posted 8 months ago #
Bear
The woods
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Walker said:
Because we'll never be a true "big city" until we ditch the "midwestern nice" and start getting a little more jaded about stuff. ;)

Y'know, you joke, but this thread did put me in mind of some comments that were made when Rosendales closed:

What concerns me more are the people who are arguing that he under-estimated the Columbus market or want to make comments that high-end restaurants, clubs, etc. are in some way unnecessary, unneeded or unwanted in our little area of the world. It is that mentally that is forcing outsiders to view Columbus as a college town full of corn-fed Midwest folks that care about nothing but Buckeye football and finding a cheap place to kick back bud lights; and as someone who relocated to this city for elsewhere, that is the common perception, if they even know anything about the city at all.

It's not exactly "Midwestern nice," per se, but there did seem to be an undercurrent of comments that suggested that there was something wrong with even the idea of high-end dining, just in principle. It did make me wonder at the time (and continues to make me wonder) about the extent to which that mentality creates a bit of a drag on the food scene.

Not that Rosendales didn't go down the crapper for at least a dozen other reasons.

Posted 8 months ago #
hungrywoolf
Victorian Village
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Some more great press for the Columbus food scene in the Chicago Tribune:
Columbus shows Ohio's adventurous side

Posted 8 months ago #
cc

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From the title I was thinking it was talking about food tourism, with foodies coming to Columbus just to eat. I have friends who travel to Chicago, NYC and New Orleans mostly for this reason - a nightlife and foodie vacation. I am not sure Columbus is there yet. I really think the options have expanded greatly in the last few years. I think a lot of this is due to the immigrant kitchens, food carts and taco trucks which are a growing trend in larger cities across the country. The food cart festival could not have happened 5 years ago.

Posted 8 months ago #
DavidF
Elysium Fields
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Mercurius said:
We have some good stuff, stuff that deserves to be nationally highlighted (which it is) -- but as a whole, it doesn't help us to think we are above the curve. If this would have said, "Columbus has alot to offer," I would have said plus one. If it's saying you should make a specific trip to Columbus for our food, a pilgrimage if you will, then you will be very disappointed.

I can't see too many people coming to Columbus specifically for a food pilgrimage, but I doubt anyone who did would go away disappointed as long as they did a little research.

Heck, I can come up with at least a half dozen pretty awesome different weekend trips for food here. (and that's not even counting any of the amazing Columbus Food Adventures tours).

It only takes an open mind to appreciate what we have here.

Posted 8 months ago #