Silly Notions Negated Splendidly: Service Bar

The basic Hamburger Combo from In-N-Out was a go to in my later fast food days

Back in a seemingly more distant younger day, I justified my fast food leanings with a reason that sounded good at the time, if you were trying to pack on 5-10 pounds of weight per year (which, sadly, proved to be prophetic.)  I surmised that those fancy, visually stunning, incredible tasting, generally more reasonably portioned dishes from restaurants my family could never ever afford were a ripoff. I mean, when you could get a truly filling value meal of sandwich, side and soda pop for around $5, why would I want to spend dozens of dollars more on something that would require a trip to the local fast food place later to sate my hunger?

Ahh, you silly, misguided younger person. To paraphrase a quote from Red, the convict played by Morgan Freeman in one of my favorite movies ever in The Shawshank Redemption, "I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are." But thankfully in my case, I didn't need a meeting before a parole board to learn my lesson that there is a happy medium; I just needed a couple meals at Service Bar.

Black Friday Libations Tour: Columbus Edition (Pt. 2)

An older bottle of Scarlet Solstice from Brothers Drake Meadery, which
has been plying its trade in Columbus for nearly a decade.

One of the more unique aspects of our family tours lies in the fact that one of our party members who sports a severe gluten allergy (in fact, we tried to make a quick trip over to Merion Village's Bake Me Happy, but alas they were closed for the entire Thanksgiving Day weekend.)  That very fact makes our touring that much more interesting, as that puts destinations focusing on ciders, meads and spirits on our radar for possible visits. This was definitely the case when it came to Central Ohio's original meadery in the Short North's Brothers Drake.

The Smell of Success: Middle West Spirits

As I wandered deeper into the inner works of Columbus' Middle West Spirits distillery space, I fully expected the sight of shiny tanks and coppery stills, and the taste of sampled spirits, to be my prime attention-grabbers. Those did grab my attention indeed, but it was surprisingly my sense of smell which moved to the forefront of my thoughts.

"Mmmm, so nice....smells like a bakery," I mused, as did many fellow Columbus-area food bloggers who I had joined on this day to take this special tour.  We learned that the flour smell came from the ground wheat from around the town of Fostoria, Ohio, considered some of the finest in the country and just one of many signs of this distillery's local-when-possible focus. It was definitely not an experience I had anticipated for this particular tour, but it is this reaction that helps explain the passion behind and the evolution of the city's first micro-distiller.

The grinding of some of the finest Ohio wheat leads to the smell
of distilling success at Columbus' Middle West Spirits