Columbus, OH Recommendations?

[Frank Smith]

I have an upcoming business trip to Columbus, OH (staying in Dublin). Any recommended restaurants, wine bars, LWS?

[Loren Sonkin]

You should PM Andrew Hall. Alaina's for a place to eat.

[John O'Sullivan]

1808 American Bistro in delaware.

[Mike DiSalvo]

In Dublin, Tucci's and Oscar's. In Northwest Columbus, The Refectory, Hyde Park (Steak house), and for Asian, Kihachi is fantastic but wine list is mediocre. For wine bars, The Wine Bistro in Upper Arlington.

I like 1808, have ate there a number of times but it's a truck from Dublin.

[Phillip Cobb]

While probably not quite what you had in mind...I would recommend finding a Jeni's ice cream. Lots of interesting flavors and they're generous with the samples.

http://jenisicecreams.com/categories/Flavors/

[Chris Presutti]

I live in Columbus. There are plenty of outstanding restaurants here. Alana's is very good. Depending on what you're in the mood for and how far you're willing to drive, I recommend that you also consider Barcelona, Rigsby's, The Refectory, Lindey's. I can give more recs if needed. Unfortunately, no BYO though which really sucks.

[J Diven]

Disclaimer: I only visit Columbus/Dublin once a year. My sister lives there and we visit over Thanksgiving. So I do not pretend to be very knowledgeable. I just know what I know.

Last year we went for a very casual dinner to a place not far from Dublin called The Wine Bistro. (I think the one we went to was in Worthington, not Upper Arlington). The food was so-so to ok depending on your perspective. They had a fair number of by the glass and decent number of bottles to choose from. This may be better or worse depending on your preferences - seemed slanted to Cali and WA bordeaux style wines. But the reason I bring it up is they DO allow BYO. $8 corkage, and I think Mon & Tues are no corkage nights.

EDIT: upon closer inspection, there is no BYO. 'Corkage' is actually an $8 fee on top of the cost of any wine you buy there. That fee is waived on Mon & Tues (we went on a Tuesday). So it may prove to be a decent option on one of those nights, and you can take an unfinished bottle with you.

Since most of our meals over thanksgiving are home w/ family, I do shop for wine there. Mostly I have been buying wine at The Andersons over off of Sawmill - in or close to Dublin. Fairly wide selection, a small number of older wines. So I would also be curious as to whether there are better LWS options in the area.

[David_T]

I was born & raised in Columbus, and am there every other month or so to visit my parents. From a wine standpoint, The Wine Guy is a fairly popular though slightly overpriced local chain, though they're all on the opposite side of town from Dublin. Retail +$5 to have any bottle off the shelf with dinner. As far as LWS, the best selection I've found is at The Andersons which is a large general merchandise store in Dublin. Though due to state mandated markups, retail prices tend to be higher than pretty much anywhere else in the county. If you're in the mood for something a little less fancy than some of the other restaurants mentioned, Thurman Cafe possibly has (IMO) the best burgers ever, and of course Schmidt's Sausage Haus is classic. Both in German Village, so again a bit away from Dublin. Huge +1 to the Jenny's suggestion.

[SteveG]

For a combination of excellent food, wine selection and decent wine pricing, the best is far and away Alana's (just north of OSU campus). Real delicious local creative food, funky atmosphere and the wine list is the stock list of the tiny attached wine store. Prices are "Ohio minimum" (not particularly cheap, but so it goes) plus I believe $5-10 for service. Relatively Euro-oriented selection. The is also Spagio in Grandview, food is Alsation/Euro/Mediterranean...whatever, it is very good, and similarly you can shop at the somewhat larger attached wine shop. Corkage is higher ($15-20), but given that you can buy some semblance of what you actually want at state minimum (& given the local restaurant practice of doubling or tripling the retail price for distributor-selected wines) quite reasonable. The Refectory is a near-world-class French/Euro formal place which actually has a wine cellar...and cellared wines. If you want and can afford old Bordeaux (and I think also Burgundy and red California, it's just been a while), the prices are variable but often very fair.

(I may have missed some others) but there are lots of other fine places to eat, some with thoughtful wine lists, most without, and almost all (wine-wise) overpriced.

[Andrew Hall]

PM me. Let me know when. There is a chance it could coincide with a wine dinner a friend and I are thinking about. Prob Alana's.

Somali food. We have one of the largest Somali communities in the US and a bunch of restaurants with food you won't find too many other places. Not proximate to Dublin, alas.

Jeni's is a must. There is one in Dublin.

Kihachi is excellent. Japanese food. Make a rez to sit at the bar and have the chef cook for you.

State min pricing is mostly a pain, but sometimes you find stuff where min is less than open market pricing and you can capitalize. Less often than it used to be. What we have available is mostly less than what you have in KC.

In Dublin (Muirfield), there is a wine bar called Tutto Vino. The owner Raj is a great guy. The selection is typical mid-level wine bar, but the scene is nice. It would be a good place to have a relaxing bite and a glass on a workday.

The best wine bar is called House Wine. It is in Worthington which is an adjacent suburb to Dublin. Donnie has a very good btg selection with a range of wines.

A.

[Jeff Fish]

From Dublin you can drive almost anywhere in Columbus in 30 minutes or so on most days. Andrew's restaurant recs are right on. I'm not a fan of the wine bars in town or the food they serve.
If you're here between Tuesday and Saturday, I generally recommend Alana's for food and wine. In the Short North area near downtown, Rigsby's (an Italian slant) and The Rossi (really good bar food and a decent wine selection) are good choices. Also downtown, in the German Village area is G. Michaels. All have websites with their current menus (except Alana's because she changes weekly if not more frequently).
If your looking for something out of the ordinary (for most mid-westerners), there are several great Korean restaurants on the northwest side of Columbus (not far from Dublin, on Bethel Road). The Refectory is also on Bethel Road and can be very good.
In addition to The Andersons, another wineshop that has some bottles open for tasting is The Twisted Vine in the Grandview area (south of Dublin).

[Brian Gilp]

and of course Schmidt's Sausage Haus is classic. .

+1. I use to plan travel plans around dinner at Schmidt's when my parents lived in Dayton.

[Frank Smith]

Looks like I'll have some great places to choose from. Thanks all!

[T. Schaffler]

Not the wine scene but The Thurman Cafe if you want a killer burger or Yanni's for killer greek. Just saying the word Yanni's makes my stomach ache for some of their killer garlic sauce.

[Chris Presutti]

It's a shame that there are so many Columbus area Berserkers yet some of us hardly know each other.

[David_T]

Let's set something up in the offline planner. I would be happy to drive down any time.

[Loren Sonkin]

Let's set something up in the offline planner. I would be happy to drive down any time.

+1

[N. Stambaugh]

Let's set something up in the offline planner. I would be happy to drive down any time.

+1

+2

[B Martin]

another columbus native. Agree with Alanas, food is usually good and the wine prices are by far the best in the city. Ask Kevin, the somm., for other wines not on the list. If you are on an expense account The Refectory has the best list of older vintages by far. Pricing is reasonable and the food is usually very good. If you want to stay in Dublin go to Oscar's or Tucci's and walk to Jeni's ice cream for dessert.

Bob

[David_T]

Bimping this thread because this forum gets more traffic- it's last minute but there's a Columbus offline in the works for this coming Tuesday- thread here forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=63203