For my last three experiences my roommate, Dan, and I went to three more restaurants around Columbus. As the weather was deteriorating, we also went with my parents which made the experience quite a lot of fun. One of the places we went to was Katzinger’s Deli. Katzinger’s is a small deli which is light and inviting. The sandwich shop has that homey feeling that German village has. It’s amazing to walk in and see various items they have other than the items on their menu. They have a cheese cabinet with various gourmet cheeses and have a barrel for free pickles if you want to take one. I just love the place. There is something about it that makes you feel like you can sit down and have a nice, casual conversation with someone and just have a nice time. The food is tasty, and something about that atmosphere makes you feel like you are in a down to earth really sandwich shop. I would recommend the deli to anyone who wants a good sandwich. I even found out that their deserts are good too! I ended up eating a bit of carrot cake which was soft and had a nice carrot cake flavor and a turtle brownie which was sweet while not overwhelming you with sugar with the crunch of the nuts spread throughout the brownie. When I think of food in German village, Katzingers is one of the first places I think of.
Another place that Dan and I went to was Thurman cafe. We made a poor decision of eating at the restaurant on a Saturday, so the wait was horrendous. It took about an hour and a half to just get seated. The cafe, however, did have several things to entertain people waiting though like free popcorn, a pinball machine, and an arcade machine. Still, I would not recommend going there on a weekend especially an OSU Football game day weekend. The place was clearly popular from all the awards pinned on all its walls. There were even a few people that said they came from Pittsburgh (probably for the game) and decided to eat here. After finally getting our food, I realized that the burgers at this place were huge. I had heard that they had a massive burger called “The Thurmanator” which includes 1.5 pounds of hamburger, but I quickly found out that all their burgers were large. I had a Hawaiian Burger which had pineapple on because I thought that it sounded strange and want to try it. The pineapple added an interesting sweet aspect to a hamburger. It almost acted as a sweeter tomato on the burger. I do not know if I would recommend the hamburger to everyone, but its worth trying. If you ever plan on visiting, there prepare your stomach because it could be a two-meal burger. I would probably recommend the place the burger I had was good although large, but I am not a really big fan of the bar atmosphere of the place. It was loud, and sort of made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
The last place we went to was Harvest Pizza. The decor was a sort of modern rustic. There was interesting wallpaper around, and the atmosphere made you think of a harvest. We were seated quite promptly and feed at an equal speed. We ended up ordered 4 different pizzas and picking around at whichever pizza we wanted to. My favorite pizza turned out to be the one my dad order which was called Ohio double bacon. The pizza had a nice sweet tomato sauce, red bell papers, bacon and Canadian bacon on it, and just like all their pizzas the crust was thin and fluffy. I love pizza and this place had some good pizza. The pizzas, however, were quite pricey and if your someone like me that can eat a whole pizza by myself if I so will it then you may end up paying quite a bit for a pizza. With these kind of pizza places though the pizza tastes the about 8 dollars more than a chain pizza restaurant, and its clear they care about their food more than a chain ever would. I would like to maybe try some of their other pizzas or try some of their other things. If you like pizza I would recommend the place to you. It made me quite happy.
My favorite part of this whole project was just taking a break from college life for a bit. Being able to go out with a small group or people or just a friend and finding new places you have never been or showing your favorite spots to someone else is enjoyable. I loved being able to go out into Columbus and try new restaurants that I have not experienced even though I have lived in Columbus my whole life. I was already aware that Columbus was for some reason a city that has some pretty good food, but I think during this project I learned that I still have lots more of the cities culinary life to experience. As I get older, I hope I’m able to keep on going on to these small little restaurants around the city, and maybe in the future I’ll be able to do a food tour like this in a city somewhere else on the earth because I really enjoyed the experience. If someone else were to try to complete this challenge of going to 5 different restaurants in Columbus. I would say that you should look over the menu of the place because visiting because some of these places may be more expensive than you would expect. Looking over the menu also gives you an idea of what to expect of the food and for people with food restrictions or picky palettes it may be helpful to know there is something you could eat there. I would also recommend heading to Lavash on highstreet that place probably had my favorite food I had on this trip and Katzingers in German Village because the place is just a great sandwich shop. While you’re at it, even though it’s not on this list, it goes to Schmidt’s sausage haus too. The food in Columbus has made me grow up into a foodie and hope that everyone will be able to enjoy the great food in this city while they are here. In the same realm I hope that these sorts of adventures will inspire others to support these small restaurants everywhere because these are the spots where you can find the best food in any city.