Java Broad-side: Bottoms Up and Third Way Cafe

Columbus's vigorous coffee scene has headed west in recent months
down Broad Street, one of the city's historically main thoroughfares

For those in the know, the Columbus coffee scene continues to steam as vigorously as milk for a latte drink, prior to and ever since the well-respected Sprudge Media Group's listing Ohio's capital city as one of its Five Underrated Coffee Cities. Just in the past several months alone, a bevy of local favorites, from Fox In The Snow, Roaming Goat Roasters, and Stauf's either opening new locations or on the verge of expansion.

Of course, the places to grab a lovely cup of java around here tend to be concentrated in select neighborhoods, with the Short North, German Village, and Downtown being prime hot spots. But I personally like to the opportunity for a good cup of joe filter out to lesser served parts of the metro, as I found out headed toward parts west on Broad Street during recent travels.

South x Southwest (Pt. 1): Bee Hives and Blitzes

The Big Room at local favorite/independent radio station CD102.5 in the
Brewery District, which provided a nice stopover point in my latest crawl

As it turned out, my cinnamon-quest food crawl turned out to be a wonderful experience for me, both in the treats I found and in the places in finding new places to explore. As I figured out shortly afterward, I enjoyed the experience so much that I wanted to repeat the quest to another part of the metro. On this latest journey, south and west were the watchwords, with a general goal of trying out the best that each of my destinations had to offer.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Yr. 4): All Aboard the SS Rotterdam

Earlier this year, I wrote about Clown Cones & Confections, a place in the Linden area that's been plying its trade for four decades. While that area in general is hardly a tourist magnet, it most certainly is a neighborhood magnet, a place that folks who grew up there probably frequently visited and have fond memories about.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the eatery in the very early steps of establishing themselves. Most folks know that the restaurant business is a tough thing to break into, and that all manner of places (innovative, mediocre, just plain awful, etc.) fall by the wayside. Out of that group, there are places and people you root for more than most, and such are the folks behind the very freshly minted Double Happy in the southwest part of the metro.

The Capsaicin Chronicles (Pt. 1): laa gòn and chôhk dee, Westgate Thai

Alas, the spicy and delicious concoctions of Westgate Thai are
soon to disappear to the public at large in a matter of days

As one may have figured out from other posts on this blog, my spouse and I do have an appreciation for hot and spicy foods. We feel fortunate that we have been able to seek and find plenty of opportunities in the Columbus area to push our abilities and test those tolerance levels. Even more rewarding is that many of the dishes we have sampled have not simply been one-note heat bombs but rather flavorful, well-made preparations.

Such is the case with Westgate Thai, a little eatery hidden in the back of a market which was written about just a few months ago in this blog post. Similar to Hot Chicken Takeover, a place also known for their spicy fried chicken (and written about in this blog post), Westgate Thai's dishes come at adjustable spice levels. Gary, the husband and co-owner of the restaurant, makes sure everyone knows that these levels go from one through twelve, and that most people find level four a bit too hot.

We had no such compunctions, so we asked for a nine on our dishes. However, we suspect that we may not have received that heat level based on some reader feedback which stated that Gary usually doesn't give you the requested burn level until he gets to know you better. Even with that possibility, the burn level on these dishes was still quite pleasant; however, the play of the heat with the sweet, sour and tangy profiles we received in our dishes was the real revelation here. These dishes were definitely a step up from dishes from other Thai restaurants we've tried so far here, thanks to the expert hand of Gary's wife, Westgate co-owner and chef Mali,

I figured I would be writing a revisit post a couple years from my original writeup, but alas, the march of time leaves no one behind, and Gary and Mali have announced their retirement from the restaurant business come the end of this week. We made sure to sneak down there at least once again on what seemed to be a sinfully slow Monday evening business-wise a week ago or so.

 

Perhaps the little insider's info we received about toning down spice levels was confirmed on this visit. Despite us saying we had done a level 9 on our first visit and were ready for the proverbial full monty of 12, Gary gave us a little bit of a wondering stare and marked down a level 10 on our orders of Pad Thai and Yum Woon Sen. Mali herself came out during the middle of our meal to check how we were doing, encouraging us to up the spice level with the assorted chili oils on our table if we felt like adding some heat (and who are we to say no to the chef?)

Again, we received a pleasant burn with these two dishes, and the fresh ingredients and seesaw of flavor profiles that were evident on our previous visit's dishes were present here as well. My spouse's Yum Woon Sen, with its bean thread noodles and hunks of protein (here, beautifully cooked shrimp and ground pork) reminding a bit of the mish-mash of ingredients that go into Filipino pancit and its bihon noodle base. The Thai fried egg rolls we ordered as an appetizer also reminded me quite a bit of the Filipino renditions, save for the nicely spicy dipping sauce.

It may have been a brief flirtation (we ourselves will try to get down there one more time), but it was a fruitful one for us with Westgate Thai. We both wish Gary and Mali the very best, and encourage anyone who can to make that trek down to their back-of-the-market eatery to pay them one more visit for delicious Thai eats.

Westgate Thai
3201 Sullivant Ave (Westgate/Hilltop)
Columbus, OH 43204
(614) 725-5660
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Goes Up To 12: Westgate Thai

Within this unassuming market front lies some seriously
delicious Thai home cooking

While my spouse and I have been seriously upping our tolerance for heat-laden foods, we both acknowledge the king of this particular culinary talent in either of our immediate families lies with my Thai brother-in-law. One of these days on a return trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, we vow to go out to a Thai restaurant of his choosing to see whether we've moved to at least a stone's throw of his ability to handle the heat (not to mention grab some very tasty Thai eats to boot.)

Were he to venture out here to Columbus, there was a time we weren't sure we could find a Thai restaurant that could meet his standards based on our experience...that is, until we found ourselves on Columbus' west side one weekend and walked into the Westgate Import Market.

Westgate Market is truly a mom and pop business, owned by a Vietnam-era veteran and his Thai-born wife. Like many of its fellow smaller Asian markets in the Columbus area, this market stocks items centered toward a particular country or select set of countries. Not surprisingly, Westgate's products are geared toward the country of Thailand, from music CDs to household products to culinary staples and more.  If you can't find a particular Thai-oriented product here, you may not be able to find it elsewhere in the area.

The bonus aspect of this market, however, lies toward the back where you'll find a small collection of tables and chairs and a picture menu of various Thai dishes. Yes, Westgate Market also has a small restaurant space that serves up Thai specialties.

Westgate Market provides the customer not only a plethora of Thai-oriented
products, but also a menu of that country's dishes.

The "pop" portion of the market's ownership duo takes your orders, while the "mom" cooks the dishes back in the kitchen. He warned us, along with another group that had wandered in just after us, that they served their dishes on a spice scale from 1 and 12, and that most typical Americans would feel uncomfortable with anything 4 and over. Our fellow diners took that advice to heart, keeping the spice levels pretty low, but we were game for something more. Perhaps with a little wary eye from our host, we ordered our dishes at a good solid 9 on their spice scale to test the waters.

Pictures of Thai dishes also dot the paper menus at Westgate and
include such dishes like the Khao Kaphrao Khai Dao (upper left),
Spring Rolls, and the Pad Prik Khing

We started off with some nicely prepared spring rolls and then proceeded to the mains. My go-to choice at Thai restaurants is generally the Pad Prik Khing, which Westgate happily had on their menu and who am I to break with tradition? My spouse, on the other hand, took the advice of Alt Eats Columbus in their writeup of this restaurant and went with Khao Kaphrao Khai Dao, a dish we never recalled seeing at other Thai places.

As promised, our food came out with the requested heat quotient, giving us a pleasing burn that many other claimed "Thai spicy" dishes at other restaurants failed to deliver. But these creations weren't just pure heat bombs: both dishes were scrumptious, with hints of garlic, fish sauce, basil and other flavors darting within and among the dominant veggie and meat taste profiles.

Westgate's version of Pad Prik Khing was the best I've had at least in recent memory; with that said, I think my spouse's dish was actually better.

The topper to the experience are the prices, which were quite inexpensive for both the quantity and the sheer taste factor of the dishes we ordered. Our only regret at this point is now we live farther away from this part of Columbus after our recent move. Perhaps this just means my spouse and I will have to find more excuses to get down to this part of the city more often.

(Note: Westgate Market is actually owned by a Cambodian couple, who had run the uniquely combined Cambodian-Mexican eatery Lindo (the sign for which was still viewable at the time of our visit) at a prior time. The market's kitchen space has since been leased to the couple who runs Westgate Thai. Thanks to the folks at Alt Eats Columbus for the clarification!)

Westgate Thai
3201 Sullivant Ave (Westgate/Hilltop)
Columbus, OH 43204
(614) 725-5660
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