Hometown Visit: North Market

One of the best things in Columbus is the North Market. It's been around for a very long time, but the current location opened in 1995 in a renovated warehouse. There are permanent stalls inside, and on summer weekends farmers set up outside.  The new building has a great rooster sign:

  

Jeni's Ice Cream is still there of course, and doing very well. After our trip I found out it's being distributed nationwide, including to Zupan's Markets here in Portland. I might have to check out if they carry any of the sorbets next time I'm near one. Her flavors are amazing and creative. She now has a case full of very fancy ice cream treats, pictured above, like ice cream sandwiches with macaroons, and terrine. Plus she came out with a cookbook recently. Very cool to see her doing so well.

 

It was delightful to find it hasn't changed much since we moved away. Most of the vendors I remember are still there, including Pastaria, with all the same dishes. I used to get the Pasta Arribiata, which has anise seeds in the sauce. It's very good. The day we visited we stopped for good coffee from A Touch of Earth and treats from a new booth, Expressly..., with vegan baked goods. 

One unfortunate change we did notice is that one of our favorite vegan friendly soup places, Benevolence, is no longer operating. They ran a small booth (where Expressly... is now, at least there are still vegan baked goods in the same spot!) in the market and a separate shop around the corner. Their soup was amazing and I'm sad that they are no longer around. We ended up eating at our other old standby in the area, Barley's Brewing Company. They have a really nice space with tin ceilings, and the veggie burger & fries are very good. Okay, now I'm hungry.

Hometown Visit: Clintonville & German Village

 

The German Village is a really pretty area south of Downtown Columbus. As a kid my family went to see all the plays at Schiller Park, usually two Shakespearean and a Musical every summer. We's take a picnic. In college my friends & I spent a lot of time at the Book Loft (above right) & the Cup of Joe next door. The Book Loft was just as I remembered, tons of rooms with different music playing in each, new and used books, and lots of fun to explore. And Cup of Joe was definately the best coffee we had while we were in Columbus. They even carry vegan treats from Pattycake. 

  

Actually, that might be the first place I knew of that had Patty Cake baked goods in Columbus. Their story says they started in 2003 in a Cup of Joe, and they didn't open their store front in Clintonville on North High street until 2005. This was the year after we moved away! Now it's an important place to stop when we visit, along with Whole World (though we missed that on this trip, since they were closed on Monday.)  I also noticed that Clintonville now has a vegan friendly hair salon in the same area. Not bad, nice to see vegan stuff doing well in the Midwest, especially in my hometown. Anyway, Pattycake Bakery has an adorable sign now, and was serving up these adorable cat cookies, aren't they great? 

Hometown Visit: Columbus Commons

Columbus, Ohio is my hometown. We were back for a visit last month to attend of my cousin's wedding. My parents moved to Chicago at almost the same time that I did a few years back. As a result I hadn't been back since around the time of that move. We were long overdue for the usually drive around town to  check out how things have changed. The Ohio State Campus always has so much construction going on, but on this trip there seemed to be more than usual throughout the city.

 

The demolition of City Center in 2009, Columbus's downtown shopping mall, is certainly the biggest change that has happened since we moved away. I remember when the mall was built in 1989. It was really big deal. Since Lex Wexner resides in Columbus Ohio, it of course had all the limited brand stores, including his recent acquisition an Henri Bendel. I still have a skirt I got there, which was probably deeply discounted, that I will likely never get rid of for nostalgia's sake. (A lot of development in Columbus involves Lex Wexner, they are currently building the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State, for example.)  The mall was in a state of decline for a long time, mainly due to the fact that several larger, suburban malls were constructed. City Center could no longer draw suburbanites into the somewhat neglected downtown. 

 

Shortly after the demolition was proposed, there was a plan to develop the site for a housing project. It looks like there has been some attempt to get some housing downtown since with left, with a few tower projects nearby. But in the end they have turned it into a large park called the "Columbus Commons." It has a carousel and amphitheater; both feel a bit small for such a large site. Also, unlike many good urban parks, the buildings surrounding the site are not much to look at. In the picture above you can see the old, no longer open, Lazarus Department store building. Either side of the park in the other direction has a view of parking garages. Occasionally there's still signage from the mall, and the covered connector space next to the Ohio Theater was maintained. Now it will take you between the Commons and the State House lawn.

Still,  The official grand opening is later this month, and it could be nice to have a downtown event space in the summer.