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New Restaurant Ideas for Columbus

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Started 4 years ago by SteadyMix1
Latest reply from Drew

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SteadyMix1
Downtown Baby
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A question I often get from my friends and wonder to myself, "What new restaurant concepts or franchises would be great for Downtown Columbus?"
My friends tend to travel a bit, so we often see and experience concepts in other cities that might add value to the landscape here. Some ideas:
ESPNZone
An Emeril's Restaurant
Montgomery Inn Columbus
House of Blues
Authentic Cajun
Moroccan / African
"Russian Tea Room" Concept
A Pizza Kitchen that serves NY, Chicago and Tuscan Pizzas
Southern Fusion
A Restuarant with a view (a penthouse view concept)
Any other ideas?

Posted 4 years ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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I hate Emeril, I mean I think he would be a fine talk show host, but he is a terrible chef.
ESPN Zone would be fun, but personally I would rather have another Eddie Georges Grill or Buckeye Cafe in the Arena District.
Montgomery Inn is nice but boy a Memphis style rib restaurant that does a nice dry rub and a non tomato based sauce would blow Montgomery out of the water!!!
I would like a House of Blues.
We have a great Creole place already -- CREOLE KITCHEN- Go Now!!
Good call on the pizza place. I think Fabians could get there with a little encouragement.
We have had many restaurants with a view in the past (both the riffe center and nationwide had top level restaurants that went out of business. Once downtown revitalizes a bit more (2012) I think this should be plausible again.
In terms of Southern Fusion, ShaneÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Gourmet seems to meet the bill.
Overall, I think Columbus has a nice restaurant scene. I would love a restaurant week though!

Posted 4 years ago #
desecration
Harrison West
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Cafe Tu Tu Tango
http://www.cafetututango.com/
Colorado Fondue
http://www.coloradofondue.com/
Charley's Steakhouse
http://www.talkofthetownrestaurants.com/charleys.html
In-n-Out Burger
http://www.in-n-out.com/
Bahama Breeze
http://www.bahamabreeze.com/

Posted 4 years ago #
TBDFITL
'Burbs
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Seems there are two threads on this subject. Here's my repost for this one...
Affordable Vegan and Vegetarian
- I think we need something like The Chicago Diner on Halsted in Chicago. I know Dragonfly V is wonderful, but it's also wonderfully expensive. I could get a great meal at The Chicago Diner for under $12. I loved that place, and I'm not vegan/vegetarian.
Giordano's (or a good boost to Fabian's)
And I second the penthouse restaurant idea (once Downtown gets its act together)

Posted 4 years ago #
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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It's not so much concepts missing as entire swaths of cuisine have little good, or no representation. Good Latin American, Carribbean, and Southwestern cuisine are hard to come by here.
Concepts I like elsewhere include:
Frontera Grill (Chicago)
Louisianna Pizza Kitchen (New Orleans)
Urban Flats (Orlando) - which is currently looking for franchisees, btw
Black Bean Deli (Orlando)
Darden's Restaurants also has a chain they just started about 4 years ago called Season's 52 which has seasonal menus and a focus on low calorie dishes. They haven't opened one outside of FL or Atlanta yet, but I would like one of those here, plus, all their waiters carried PDAs to take orders, giving them the tech thumbs up.

Posted 4 years ago #
joev
Merion Village
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Le Pain Quotidien
Lui Lui
And a really good Thai place.
And a good Chinese place. There is a severe lack of good Chinese in Columbus.

Posted 4 years ago #
mh338498
Discovery District
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SteadyMix1 wrote
ESPNZone
An Emeril's Restaurant
Montgomery Inn Columbus
House of Blues
Authentic Cajun
Moroccan / African
"Russian Tea Room" Concept
A Pizza Kitchen that serves NY, Chicago and Tuscan Pizzas
Southern Fusion
A Restuarant with a view (a penthouse view concept)
I like those ideas. In the same line as ESPNZone/House Of Blues, a destination-type restaurant would be great, I would think, to bring in suburbanites and conference attendees.
Like a Rainforest Cafe, or, given our demographics, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville (but I will move out of the city if a NASCAR restaurant made its way downtown).
Thinking about a good pizza restaurant, I went to one in Chicago once that was phenomenal, but I can't remember the name. The way they operated is what impressed me most, though. They would take your pizza order while you waited for a table. And by the time a table became available, your pizza was ready. So you would literally sit down (with your drinks you ordered 45 minutes ago) and your pizza would arrive about 5 seconds later if it wasn't already waiting for you at your table.
A couple of other ideas that I'd love to see and would frequent (in addition to my own, unique wild ideas that I'm saving for myself in hopes of getting some funding soon):
Out of Cleveland: upscale, martini-bar & grill + bowling alley
The Corner Alley
http://www.thecorneralley.com/
Also out of Cleveland, and kicks the crap out of any Dave and Buster's you've ever been to (mainly because it has a whole separate room with a huge bar/huge stage for live acts). The website doesn't do it justice, but it is very cool:
The Boneyard
http://www.boneyardusa.com/

Posted 4 years ago #
Ltrgman
Columbus
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desecration wrote Cafe Tu Tu Tango
In-n-Out Burger
http://www.in-n-out.com/
+1 for In-n-Out.
Everytime I go back to LA I always hit up an In-n-Out.

Posted 4 years ago #
Lorence
Westgate
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[quote="mh338498"]
SteadyMix1 wrote
Thinking about a good pizza restaurant, I went to one in Chicago once that was phenomenal, but I can't remember the name. The way they operated is what impressed me most, though. They would take your pizza order while you waited for a table. And by the time a table became available, your pizza was ready. So you would literally sit down (with your drinks you ordered 45 minutes ago) and your pizza would arrive about 5 seconds later if it wasn't already waiting for you at your table.
That could have been the original Pizzeria Uno (way better than the same-named imposters that made their way to Columbus) or Giordanos - oh, god, do I love me some Giordanos!
Frankly, I'd settle for some decent genuine NY pizza by the slice. Closest I've had is Sarafinos in the North Market and a place up inside Easton (Not Sbarro, though it's not too bad either, but near that god-awful cv wrappers) a few years back - is it still there?

Posted 4 years ago #
mh338498
Discovery District
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Lorence wrote
That could have been the original Pizzeria Uno (way better than the same-named imposters that made their way to Columbus) or Giordanos - oh, god, do I love me some Giordanos!
Giordanos... that's it, thank you! I could NOT remember for the life of me. Some of the best pizza I've ever had and I can't even remember it's stinkin' name.

Posted 4 years ago #
Columbusite
Minneapolis
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Oh, I like Frontera Grill, but I doubt Rick would open one in Columbus. A copycat operation though, if itÃ‚Â´s good IÃ‚Â´d go.
I'd also like to see a Au Pain DorÃƒÂ©.
http://www.aupaindore.com/

Posted 4 years ago #
KSquared
Literally Hell
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Oh, please give us an In-and-Out Burger. Mmmmmm, a double double animal style.....

Posted 4 years ago #
HeySquare
German Village
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Just please no ESPN Zone or House of Blues. I don't care if it would make the tourists comfortable.
Yucka :)

Posted 4 years ago #
Brewmaster
Portland, OR
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I think a moderately priced French place would do really, really well here. I went to this spot in NYC and LOVED it... http://www.pigallenyc.com/
I also think we need more locally owned ethnic places downtown. Aside from the North Market, and El Arepazao, we don't have much. How about a real chinese restaurant moves into Ho Toy and starts pushing the dim sum carts around? I could also use a turkish place, a cheap indian place (like Venky's), a cheap mexican place, and a southern bbq place.

Posted 4 years ago #
Cyclist
Peach District (State of Mind)
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Jack in the Box
Pizza Real- its this sweet pizza franchise in Morelia, Mexico. They had this great shrimp, lime, and serrano pepper pizza that was amazing. And they only served Mexican beer, probably cuz it was in Mexico. Plus they deliver pizzas on motorcycles.

Posted 4 years ago #
Cyclist
Peach District (State of Mind)
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Or the foreign version of our pre-existing fast food places.
Like a Japanese McDonalds,
or a Mexican KFC
or a Turkish Burger King.
or a Chinese Subway

Posted 4 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Here's an old thread (somewhat relevant) that highlights all the fast food chains we are missing:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6636

Posted 4 years ago #
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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Cyclist wrote Jack in the Box
Crack in the Box? Really? Haven't enough people died from their food... :wink:
House of Blues ins't a bad concept, but I'd like them more as a show venue than ever wanting to eat there. Rainforest Cafe was better before they were bought up by that seafood corp a number of years ago.
I think someone should open up an place called 8-Bit Cafe, old skool free play games and good food and it'd be a gaurranteed hit.

Posted 4 years ago #
Lorence
Westgate
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mh338498 wrote
Lorence wrote
That could have been the original Pizzeria Uno (way better than the same-named imposters that made their way to Columbus) or Giordanos - oh, god, do I love me some Giordanos!
Giordanos... that's it, thank you! I could NOT remember for the life of me. Some of the best pizza I've ever had and I can't even remember it's stinkin' name.
If you're willing to pay the price (a big one!), you can get it delivered to Columbus - but not with any meat fillings.

Posted 4 years ago #
joev
Merion Village
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Brewmaster wrote I think a moderately priced French place would do really, really well here. I went to this spot in NYC and LOVED it... http://www.pigallenyc.com/
I also think we need more locally owned ethnic places downtown. Aside from the North Market, and El Arepazao, we don't have much. How about a real chinese restaurant moves into Ho Toy and starts pushing the dim sum carts around? I could also use a turkish place, a cheap indian place (like Venky's), a cheap mexican place, and a southern bbq place.
For awesome, authentic Turkish, try Cafe Shish Kebab off Bethel Road. They catered our wedding and everyone raved. Cafe Istanbul at Easton isn't nearly as good IMO.

Posted 4 years ago #