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The meat smoker located next to the usual location of Ray Ray's Hog Pit,
named "Best Food Truck" in Columbus Alive's 2019 "Best Of" poll |
Last July, I wrote a
series of blogposts examining Columbus's tendency to vote national restaurant chains in at the top in various local-media-sponsored "Best Of" polling events. One of the earlier polls in the cycle is the version hosted by
Columbus Alive, which I found fared well in terms of local restaurant representation compared to other local media brethren. I thought it would be worth a look to see how the recently released 2019 edition fared compared to 2018.
The two outsider chains (Five Guys and Cooper's Hawk) which earned top spots last year held serve in "Best Fries" and "Best Wine List", respectively. However, local representation actually went up via a few simple and welcome tweaks, namely to the "Ethnic Eats" categories. The best tweak in my opinion banished the outdated "Best Asian" category: separate categories for Korean, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Ramen join Sushi to offer a more comprehensive view at this aspect of the area's culinary scene.
Similarly, the splitting of the Indian/Nepalese category into two separate categories (a reflection of the continued growth of the latter) proved to be a positive change, as well as the addition of the African Restaurant category. The promotion of this latter, very under-the-radar segment I feel is vital in lifting Columbus's culinary profile to never-before-seen heights.
