Going Off The Rails on the Wholesome Train: Acre

Looking back at that Columbus Underground "Best New Restaurants of 2014 List" that I had mentioned on a post last year on Bareburger, I noticed just how many of these restaurants have become or were regulars in our rotation.  Of course, there's local phenomenon Hot Chicken Takeover, but in addition I found the now (sadly) departed Double Comfort, the Brewery District hot spot Arepazo Latin Grill (I have blogged about their first two locations in Downtown and Gahanna), and Clintonville's Harvest Bar & Kitchen, an offshoot of the original Harvest Pizzeria in German Village.

Also on this list was an eatery that for some reason had for some reason slipped through the cracks in terms of a blog post in the locally-focused, fast-casual eatery known as Acre.

Columbus Coffee Chronicles (Vol. 4): Grandview Grind

It may not have been perceived as such at the time, but the closure of Caribou Coffee outlet in April of 2012 near Grandview Heights may have been a precursor to the (botched) conversion of all of the Buckeye State's Caribou Coffee locations into Peet's Coffee & Tea stores. While some people may say a chain restaurant is a chain restaurant is a chain restaurant, I knew there were enough differences in both the atmosphere and coffee drinks between Caribou and Peet's to distinguish the two in most people's minds. Also, you cannot discount brand loyalty, so it was no surprise to me that Peet's (a chain I had much experience with back in the Bay Area) didn't last too long after its somewhat forced entry into this market.

Caribou Coffee's Grandview-area fans, like other Ohio-located fans of the chain, may rue these events even now. But some solace exists in the coffee cafe which followed in the Grandview location's footsteps, the brainchild of none other than that store's displaced barista, Samantha DeMint.