New specialty groceries and return of Columbus' only Kenyan restaurant highlight December
The world of dining in Columbus expanded a bit further in December with the opening of new Syrian and Kenyan restaurants.
Halab Cafe has a traditional Middle Eastern menu, while Wycliff’s Kitchen is the only local restaurant specializing in the food of Kenya. It’s one of a growing number of African restaurants in Columbus and across the country.
Also of note for the month was the debut of three new specialty grocery markets: Bakaro International Grocery in Northland, Littleton’s Market in Upper Arlington and Norwich Grocery in Hilliard.
Here’s a rundown of restaurant openings and closings that closed out 2023.
More: 2023 was a year well-eaten for Columbus foodies. Here are my favorites
Halab Cafe
Halab Cafe, 2550 Bethel Road on the Northwest Side, offers a Middle Eastern menu that includes Syrian and Iraqi kebabs, Lebanese meat pies, grilled half-chickens, falafel, grape leaves and more.
A breakfast menu includes eggs and pastirma, which is a seasoned, cured beef. The restaurant opens at 10 a.m. on Fridays and weekends. Halab Cafe had a grand opening on Dec. 8.
Chuan Jiang Hao Zi
There’s a new dim sum option in town. Chuan Jiang Hao Zi, 496 Ackerman Road near the University District, serves more than two dozen dim sum items (off the menu, not carts), including shrimp shumai, soup dumplings, chicken feet and stuffed eggplant.
The rest of the menu leans more Szechuan, with dishes such as fish filets in hot chili oil and Chengdu Spicy Roast Duck. Although there are traditional American Chinese restaurant dishes such as beef with broccoli and sweet and sour chicken, Chuan Jiang Hao Zi also offers less ubiquitous Chinese dishes such as rabbit tripe and stir-fried chicken gizzards.
Wycliff’s Kitchen
Columbus Food Adventures reported Dec. 7 that Wycliff’s Kitchen, the city’s only Kenyan restaurant, had reopened after a “lengthy hiatus.” It’s located at 2492 Home Acre Drive in Northland.
The restaurant has regularly been at or near the top of best-of-Columbus surveys for African restaurants.
Aangan India Bistro
Aangan India Bistro also celebrated a reopening this month. The Indian restaurant, which opened on the Far North Side in 2019, has moved to 5855 Frantz Road on the Northwest Side near Dublin. It hosted a grand-reopening dinner on Dec. 24.
Aangan serves vegetarian and nonvegetarian entrees and is open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant also offers catering services.
Victor’s Taco Shop
Dayton-based Victor’s Taco Shop opened its first Columbus location on Dec. 29 in a former Rally’s at 2110 Morse Road in Northland.
Victor’s, which has restaurants in Powell and Delaware, serves soft tacos, crispy tacos and taquitos, burritos, quesadillas and other staples, as well as breakfast burritos and Papa Fries. The latter can be ordered topped with grilled chicken or steak, salsa or guacamole, cheese dip and jack cheese.
Still hungry? Wario's Beef and Pork will open a second sandwich restaurant in Clintonville
Torchy’s Tacos
Another taco chain, Austin, Texas-based Torchy’s Tacos, opened its third central Ohio restaurant on Dec. 13 at 6042 N. Hamilton Road, on the Northeast Side near New Albany. It’s part of the Hamilton Quarter shopping center.
Torchy’s serves tacos (options include blackened salmon, jerk chicken, and fried avocado), burritos, bowls and margaritas.
Charleys Cheesesteaks
Homegrown Charleys Cheesesteaks, founded near the OSU campus in 1986 by Charley Shin, opened its latest restaurant on Dec. 21 at 1777 Hilliard Rome Road on the Far West Side.
Charleys, which serves chicken, steak and veggie subs, as well as chicken wings, now has more than 700 restaurants in 46 states and 17 countries.
Dave’s Hot Chicken
Dave’s Hot Chicken, a Los Angeles-based chicken tenders chain that came to Columbus in 2022, opened a second location at 1828 N. High St. in the University District on Dec. 13. Dave's jumbo tenders come with seven choices of heat, from no spice and lite-mild to extra-hot and "reaper."
More: Dave's Hot Chicken's latest Columbus location on North High Street near Ohio State
Steph’s Way
After debuting a popup kitchen in late November, owner Steph'Von Covington opened Steph’s Way for good on Dec. 4 at 177 S. Cyprus Ave. in Franklinton.
The menu at Steph’s Way includes chicken wings (one option is a Grippo barbecue potato chip dry rub), burgers, tacos and a Nashville hot chicken sandwich.
WF Foods
Derrick Wilford Sr., his wife, Sabrina, and sons Isaiah and Malcolm have operated WF Foods since 2014 as a food truck. It’s now a restaurant at 1584 Kohr Place in South Linden. The brick-and-mortar WF Foods opened Dec. 5.
Wilford serves wings, burgers, cheesesteaks, omelets and other items at WF Foods, as well as fried fish and pork chops as sandwiches and combo meals.
Bakaro International Grocery
Bakaro International Grocery, 2600 E. Dublin-Granville Road, hosted a grand-opening celebration on Dec. 3 that was attended by state representatives and Somali community leaders. The grocery, with an inventory that includes halal meats and foods from Africa and the Middle East, is in Northland’s Columbus Square shopping center.
Bakaro also has stores in Seattle and Minneapolis.
Littleton’s Market
Whether you’re hungry for a bag of chips, a chocolate bar or caviar service, Littleton’s Market has it. The gourmet grocery and all-day cafe at 2140 Tremont Center in Upper Arlington opened on Dec. 9.
Littleton’s staff includes a chef, pastry chef, sommelier and certified cheese expert. Its lunch and dinner menus include a raw bar of stone crab, crudo, oysters and other items. Take-home prepared foods are made from ingredients available on its shelves.
More: Littleton's Market will offer gourmet groceries, wine, coffee, pastry and prepared foods
Norwich Grocery
Cubans and Reubens are among the sandwiches on the menu at Norwich Grocery, which opened Dec. 8 inside Hilliard’s Center Street Market, 5354 Center St. It’s in the space previously occupied by Al’s Delicious Popcorn.
Norwich Grocery also sells locally made snacks, including Al’s.
The Cheesecake Girl
Another Center Street Market vendor added a new location in December. The Cheesecake Girl opened at OSU Wexner Medical Center on Dec. 28.
“This location is in my dad’s honor,” owner Samantha Strange wrote on social media. Her father died of T-cell lymphoma at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
Strange started her business in her parents’ kitchen in 2016.
Pure Imagination Chocolatier
Pure Imagination Chocolatier, named by Yelp as Ohio’s best chocolate shop in 2022, expanded to Polaris Fashion Place with a grand opening on Dec. 1.
Pure Imagination, which specializes in decorative chocolate truffles, began as a stall at North Market and now operates out of a shop in Grandview Heights.
Toft’s Grand Scoop
Sandusky-based Toft Dairy is Ohio’s oldest operating dairy, but it has distributed its ice cream within only about 100 miles of its northern Ohio home. Toft’s Grand Scoop, which opened Nov. 29 at 1288 W. 5th Ave. near Grandview Heights, is its first shop outside a 20-mile stretch from Cedar Point to Port Clinton.
The local Toft’s serves 24 flavors of ice cream as well as other treats such as milkshakes and ice cream sandwiches.
Bambu Desserts & Drinks
Bambu Desserts & Drinks, 827 Bethel Road on the Northwest Side, is the latest Asian drinks franchise to open in Columbus, but its menu extends far beyond bubble tea.
The San Jose-based chain specializes in che, a Vietnamese cold, sweet drink that includes ingredients such as fresh coconut, coconut milk, sweetened beans, taro, jackfruit and red tapioca. Bambu also serves fruit and basil seed teas, iced coffee drinks, smoothies, Philippine halo halo, mochi and macarons.
It opened on Dec. 18.
Biggby Coffee
Biggby Coffee, which has shops in Lewis Center and Marysville, opened its first Columbus location on Dec. 26 at 1750 Hilliard Rome Road on the Far West Side.
Biggby began in East Lansing, Michigan, and now has 360 coffee shops, including more than two dozen in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas.
Saturn’s Sports Bar
The former North High Brewing Co. location in Weinland Park is now home to Saturn’s Sports Bar, which boasts of 14 65-inch TVs that allow customers to watch their game from any seat in the house.
The drink menu at Saturn’s, 1288 N. High St., includes $3 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, a basil-habanero margarita and seven beers on tap. Food includes wings, subs and flatbreads.
Ill Mannered Brewing Co.
Ill Mannered Brewing Co., an 8-year-old Powell craft brewery that tells customers, “We love to talk about beer, so come on in and let's geek it up,” opened its second taproom at 117 S. Main St. in Marysville on Dec. 15.
The new location features 20 Ill Mannered beers on tap.
West Church Social
West Church Social, at 1650 W. Church St. in Newark, offers 32 TVs, 16- to 20 craft-beer taps, arcade games, pool tables, ax-throwing, beer pong and live music in a 10,000-square-foot venue that previously was home to Bunky’s and The End Zone. The location opened on Dec. 15.
Its goal, according to owners Brian Hoy and Matt Maynard, is to “redefine what it means to have a good time in Newark.”
More: Generation later, West Church Social seeks repeat of Bunky's, End Zone success in Newark
Closings: Buzzsaw Brewing Co., Meshikou Chikin and more…
▪Buzzsaw Brewing, which opened at 951 Robinwood Ave. in Whitehall in February 2021, served its last beer on Dec. 2.
“It’s regrettable for me to have to say the business is not going to be strong enough to make it through this coming winter,” owner Quinn Bartlett said in a video posted to social media.
▪Shorty’s Pizza & Growl, 9721 Sawmill Road in Powell, closed on Dec. 2. The pizzeria’s other locations — on Henderson Road, in Delaware and at O’Nelly’s Sports Pub & Grill in Lewis Center — remain open. The location in Powell is set to become 1801 Tavern, which says it plans to open in February.
▪Pablo’s Havana Cafe closed its restaurant at 9685 Sawmill Road in Powell on Dec. 7. “It’s not a bad thing, though,” owner Pablo Taura said in a Facebook video. Pablo’s remains open at North Market Bridge Park in Dublin and plans to open in Grandview Heights in April.
▪Columbus Brewing Co. announced a temporary closure of its West Side taproom at 2555 Harrison Ave., for what it termed a “re-concept.” The location is set to reopen in the spring. The Columbus Brewing beer hall at East Market, 200 Kelton Ave. on the Near East Side, remains open.
▪ “We are taking a break,” the owners of E Burger announced via Instagram before closing on Dec. 17. The former Eden Burger served vegan burgers and shakes from its home at 1437 N. High St. in the University District.
▪ Citing a lack of business caused post-pandemic vacancies in nearby office space, Winking Lizard Tavern closed its restaurant at 496 Polaris Parkway in Westerville on Dec. 22. The northeastern Ohio chain has one central Ohio location left, at 7995 E. Broad St. in Reynoldsburg.
▪ Tudie’s Cookies & Sweets, which sold cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls and breakfast items at 3009 N. High St. in Clintonville, shut down on Dec. 31. The bakeshop opened in June 2022.
▪ Meshikou Chikin, 1504 Bethel Road on the Northwest Side, closed on Dec. 31. Its companion restaurant, Meshikou Ramen, remains open. “Stay tuned to see what exciting things we have planned for this space in the future,” owners said on Instagram.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: December 2023 restaurant openings and closings in Columbus
