The Introduction- aka, the culinarycolumbus manifesto

The culinarycolumbus manifesto, aka the reasons why this blog exists.

1. I love food.

There are those who are perfectly fine with eating mediocre food all their life, or the same food all their life. There are those who would, if they could, consume all their meals in pill form so they could get that extra time to do whatever they please (I was incredulous when I found this out). And then there are those who would bear the icy cold and the sweltering hot for a good meal, those who would do anything to find the hidden gem, the hole in the wall that is eye-opening, mouth-opening, and mind-opening. Consider me one of “those” people.

2. The food community in Columbus is underserved.

For a town that is around a million in size, what the heck are we doing without a legitimate group of people talking about it? Sure, there are a few blogs talking about restaurants, but when these are the most legitimate discussions of food in the city, it’s usually not a good sign. Ideally, there would be a forum for people interested in food in Columbus but unfortunately, my technological ability, resources and time greatly limit me. But when the city’s only major newspaper doesn’t publish a restaurant review in the food section, when the city’s biggest magazine publishes 18 straight three star reviews, when the city’s biggest alternative newspaper doesn’t even publish a weekly review, there is something amiss. Hopefully my few reviews will enlighten and bring attention to restaurants that no one is covering, or willing to cover.

3. These restaurants are virtually unknown.

Is there any way of knowing that these restaurants exist? It’s possible that there’s a single yelp review on the internet, or the publishing of the restaurant’s name in the yellow pages, but otherwise, there’s no way. I think of 7 Regiones, a restaurant just off of Broad St. in west Columbus, which, for one, is spelled incorrectly on every online listing, and only has one cryptic three-sentence review from 2006 going for it. The place has the best tortas in town, I’d be willing to wager, but it’s impossible to even find the place without the wrongly spelled name. So not only does culinarycolumbus aim to cover the culinary scene in Columbus, but in publishing some of these little known restaurants, it’s my hope that people may become “culinary Columbuses,” explorers of new worlds.

4. People don’t give good food credit in Columbus, or they give bad and mediocre food credit.

A surprising amount of people think that the Olive Garden is a great gourmet dinner. I don’t think that they necessarily have bad taste, per se; I think a lot of them aren’t aware. I have a lot of family in Chicago and have a pretty good grasp of food in the Windy City, and I’m always thinking to myself, “this place would make a killing if it was in Chicago…” So really, we don’t need to sell ourselves short—in realms Mexican, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese and Somali, Columbus restaurants compete if not excel.

I suppose it’s worth noting that this blog and the reviews on it are my “SIP,” or Senior Independent Project. I am a high school student whose graduation is fast-approaching, but I don’t find these truths to be very relevant to my exploration of restaurants. Other than, for the next two weeks, it’s my full time job. So let the eating begin!