Taverns fuel owner’s love: civic involvement
The Dispatch wrote
Taverns fuel owner’s love: civic involvement
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
BY BILL CHRONISTER
The thing about Elizabeth Lessner is, she cares. And when she cares, she acts. Lessner has three successful restaurants: She started with Betty’s Fine Food and Spirits in 2001, and followed up with the Surly Girl Saloon in 2005 and the Tip Top Kitchen and Cocktails in 2007.
She just took possession of the former Queen Bee Restaurant, 248 S. 4th St., and plans to turn it into Dirty Frank’s Hot Dogs by mid-July.
And she’s putting together the Ohioanna All-Star Market, an Ohio-only convenience store that is expected to open later this year two doors north of the Surly Girl in the Short North.
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Related Tags: betty's • bill chronister • dirty frank's • downtown • elizabeth lessner • gay street • surly girl saloon • the dispatch • tip top kitchen & cocktails
May 13th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Fantastic!
I was bumming after hearing about another void appearing downtown with Queen Bee closing shop. Here comes Dirty Franks taking the over that location.
The corn on the cob with chipotle butter and the spicy mac ‘n cheese sound so good! Is it time for lunch yet?
May 13th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Man, I’m hungry.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am
You had me at sriracha coleslaw…I likey the spicy!!!
May 14th, 2008 at 12:50 am
lolwut?
I though 680 N. High was the old Lost Planet space and that the Galaxy Cafe was in Grandview where Old Bag o’ Nails is now.
mmm?
May 14th, 2008 at 3:23 am
That’s why I timed the announcement of the Bee’s closing the way I did (well to be fari I only found out Saturday myself). Didn’t want people to get too down for too long since I knew good news was coming, but I wanted the Bee to get a proper goodbye and not just be a footnote of the awesomeness to come :)
May 14th, 2008 at 10:08 am
when Lost Planet closed it briefly (6mos, yr?) became Ricky’s Galaxy.
Liz has a nice knack for filling holes and keeping neighborhood venues going. i only slightly wish though that we still had Betty’s and Lost Planet, Grapevine and Tip-Top, & Queen Bee and Frank’s.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Liz gets my vote for Entrepreneur of the Year here in Columbus. Great to see entrepreneurs in this city being recognized. Especially Liz.
Entrepreneurship is an artform and I can see it as part of the Indie Arts platform. I hope this city will do more to elevate the profiles of entrepreneurs, which could help inspire others.
Congrats Liz.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
In case nobody else mentioned it, that is SUCH a cute picture of Liz.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Yeah what a cutie, the red hair, the blue eyes… is Liz married :)
July 14th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
sooo… its mid-july. whats the status?
July 16th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I emailed Liz, and she said:
We are securing permits as I type. More work than we initially anticipated needs to be done. We have gut the kitchen to bring it to code…argh…updates soon.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Liz deserves every bit of praise in the story and some much more for her efforts. recently work closely with her on the haiku help agenda i was more than amazed at her ability to focus, prioritize, complete, and flat out make stuff happen. She is amazing simply put……
July 16th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Shucks, nice people! I am blushing.
Regarding hot dogs, I have a question for all of you hot dog fans (and I promise I’m not being dirty), how big do you like your wieners?
Vienna Beef hot dogs come in many sizes, some very small, some very big (up to one pound, it’s obscene and embarrassing even to look at, I can’t in good conscious carry it!).
Hot dogs can be really, really tiny like Skyline Chili hot dogs or kinda jumbo like a fat brat and then everything in-between.
We will have lots of very delicious and fresh toppings and twists to our dogs. If the dog is too big, the toppings won’t all fit. And then when you eat a delicious Vienna frank, you don’t want the delicious beefy goodness to interfere with the toppings too much. It’s a tough one but we are hard at work on these major hot dog decisions.
We think we will likely serve a small and a large dog. I like to eat one dog but I notice that guys like to eat things in pairs. Anyway, these are the great things we are working on. In addition, we have found a wonderful Polish Sausage as well as a delicious Kielbasa.
Our saurkraut needs are more than fulfilled, a lovely product that is produced locally (while we perfect our housemade recipe, saurkraut is hard!).
And Veggies, don’t you fret, we are bringing in a very delcious meatless kielbasa for you. I am sampling veggie and tofu hot dogs and having trouble here but I promise I will work hard for your perfect vegetarian hot dog experience. In the meantime I want all of you to check out Rad Dogs Hot Dogs. I haven’t been but I cannot wait to try it.
Finally, we need to figure out our best style of french fry, anyone interested in tasting some different shaped and sized french fries with me? Maybe a tasting at Tip Top? I am seeking the perfect hot dog compliment.
Regarding construction, it sucks all around. We are working on it, slowly but surely. More permits are needed than we initially thought to complete our inspection process. I am hoping the next few weeks go by quickly and some work gets done.
Philly artist Thom Lessner has produced some amazing 1980s era portraits of old Clippers baseball greats. There is some fun Clippers memorobilia coming in and lots of great behind-the-scenes happenings on the decor. Expect some quirk and some fun.
Thanks everybody for your kind thoughts and words. We are anxious and proud to serve you. More updates soon!
Elizabeth
July 16th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
The 1/4 lb Vienna, pleeease.
Shoestring fries double pleeeeeease.
Also, please serve normal relish and not the fackin’ neon green carp of ol’ Chitown?
Finally; please open tomorrow. Thanks.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I can’t wait for this place to open!!! Another place downtown to visit for late night food? Amazing!
July 16th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Hi Liz,
About the smallest dog I like is around the size of a Ballpark Frank, and an ideal size is around a Bahama Mama. The concept of a hot dog that’s too large is alien to me, because it’s always possible to get a bigger bun.
That said, when Colleen and I did a hot dog taste-off recently (link), the winner was the dog with the best taste — the Hebrew National — which also happened to be the smallest. (I’ll confess to sticking a couple of the skinny little things in a single bun once or twice.)
July 16th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I smell what Bear’s cookin’…
July 17th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Quarter pounders are too big, IMO. I like a medium sized one. Larger than a coney dog but smaller than the 1/4 lb ones.
Paul
July 17th, 2008 at 7:20 am
I don’t mind a larger dog! I have always loved the chi-town style ones at best of the wurst. Not sure what size they are but some of the larger ones I have seen. LOL
as for open tomorrw! +ONE
July 17th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Is there a “standard size” for Chicago-style dogs? If so, I’d recommend going with that, since you’re using Vienna Beef anyway. Whatever the usual size is for carts?
Though offering a couple different size-options is great, so that people can narrow down what they want. For me, it usually depends on what toppings I’m going with. On a coney dog, for example, I like the footlong/skinny dogs, but for a Chicago-style, you need something thicker to stand up with all those toppings.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:48 am
As to hot dogs, a couple of sizes is great — I just want a real chicago dog
but please please have your sweet potato fries in addition to regular fries — :lol:
open soon!!!
July 17th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
The hot dogs they had at the parking lot blow out were HUGE!! I don’t like a lot of bun so that’s the only thing that concerned me with such a large dog, but they looked good and interesting. The Dube has those really big hot dogs, how big is that? I’d say too big for a place like this where I’m not sure I want to attack everything with a knife and fork.
As for a fry tasting, I don’t think you’ll have any problems getting taste testers :) I like a seasoned fry and no one seems to have those around here. Also, curly q’s are hard to find here as well, but there might be a reason for that!!
Can’t wait for the opening!! Yeah!!!
July 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
dogs, Ballpark size is fine
frys:
I’m not sure how the following are made, but possible something that is battered and seasoned alittle before fried is my preferrance ala Arepazo, Rallys, Arby’s curly fries.
but really when I think of a hot dog shoppe kinda of fry i think are the kind made ala charley’s steakery/steak Escape with salt and vinegar. (but keep the skin on and never frozen)and actually, i would eat fries made totally/mostly out of potato skin. so if you had some people that doesn’t like skin on fries, instead of throwing out the skin fries you could fry them up for people like me. like I’d eat the fries made from the outer edge of potato and the inside of the potato could be made into potato salad, mashed potatoes, or fries or whatever
shoestring would be great as well
also you need to consider the seasoned wedge, fried to be crispy(very) kinda like KFC, but crispier
July 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Yeah. Hurry Dirty Frank’s!!!
I need weenies!!!
July 17th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
that’s actually really what I wanted today.