Last year, Milestone 229 was voted Best New Restaurant by ColumbusUnderground.com, and for good reason. The friendly service greets you right at the door, offering up your choice of indoor or outdoor seating. Outside, Milestone’s full outdoor bar allows patrons to enjoy the beautiful view overlooking the fountain, park, and amphitheater without missing a thing. For those who don’t necessarily enjoy the scorching heat of summer’s sun, Milestone’s all-window-paneled interior provides the same gorgeous outlook with the added benefit of air conditioning.
With seven offerings each of beers, appetizers, and drinks and wines, there’s no shortage of satisfying combinations on Milestone’s “4-5-6 at 229” happy hour menu. As the name so cleverly alludes, beers are $4, drinks and wines are $5, and appetizers are $6.
I headed straight for the drink menu and chose the 229 Cosmo. It’s one of the more popular drinks at Milestone, and it took no time at all to figure out why. Its fruity blend of cranberry and lime juices perfectly complements the Cointreau triple sec and Finlandia vodka. I have to take a moment to talk about this vodka for a second. At the end of the bar, they have an entire container of Finlandia with large—no, massive—chunks of pineapple just marinating in it. The fruit-infused vodka really goes hand in hand with the cranberry and lime juices, and the result is a great blend of fruity goodness to appease your taste buds on a summer evening. The chilled martini glass keeps this cosmo cool while you sip, but the coolest part about the drink is the chunk of pineapple garnishing it. The first bite of that fresh fruit pleasantly surprised me with a mouthful of Finlandia, along with its own sweet pineapple juice. Save it to enjoy for last; it’s the perfect end to a perfect summer drink.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of blueberries, but even I was impressed with Milestone’s Blueberry Hill. It’s an ideal summer cocktail for the blueberry lover, but is still a great choice even if you’re not the biggest fan of them. Real muddled blueberries are squeezed into the bottom of the glass, followed by house honey lemonade and a generous amount of blueberry Stolichnaya. The honey lemonade helps balance the heavy blueberry taste with its tangy sweetness. The real blueberries give the drink a nice flavor and add a pretty purplish color to it as well, but the small skins and chunks of them are sometimes a bit annoying when trying to drink through the straw. The combination of its sweet flavors blends to create a delicious daytime drink; you can’t tell where the blueberries end and the drink begins.
When hunger struck, I took advantage of the food portion of their happy hour menu and opted for the 229 Margherita Pie. This simple woodfired pizza was anything but basic when it came to flavor. Fresh mozzarella cheese crumbled atop both fresh and sundried tomatoes, covered with torn basil leaves on a tomato based sauce made for a savory dish worth every dollar. Normally it’s $12.99, but its flavorful array of ingredients, as well as its generous size make getting it at the happy hour price of $6 practically a steal.
The star of the pizza has to be the crust. Crisply browned but not burnt, the thin crust on the bottom had a nice saltiness to it and contrasted well with the thick-edged crust. Normally I never eat the crust on any pizza. However, this time I found myself returning to my uneaten stockpile of edges and almost finishing them. A bit of willpower kept me from actually polishing off the plate (okay, I was just full), but trust me; the end pieces were definitely worth finishing, and this is coming from one of the pickiest pizza people around.
With all the exciting events at the Scioto Mile this summer, Milestone 229 is the perfect place to start your evening with a great meal before the festivities, or cap your night off with a great drink or two.
More information can be found online at www.Milestone229.com.
