My recent experience on Columbus Food Adventures' Coffee Tour made me realize that with a couple of notable exceptions (Cafe Brioso and One Line Coffee), I've probably covered more out-of-the-area coffee houses than the locally-based ones on this blog. I figure this time is as good a time to catch up a bit with a mini-series of blog posts, and the first one ought to be my very first encounter with the city's coffee scene. As it turned out, it was also my first encounter with the city's music scene.
Back in the day, my pursuit of my running passion was just starting to mature. The combination of the love of this hobby that most people think of as punishment brought me into contact via the Internet with a group of fellow runners and friends from around the country. Aside from our online exchanges, we arranged meetups around the country for some in-person camaraderie, running, and good food and libations throughout. This included a meetup in Cincinnati, which hosts the well organized and festive Flying Pig Marathon every May.
Despite never having traveled within the Buckeye State's borders ever before, I was tasked with driving from Cincinnati to pick up my roommate for the weekend from the Columbus airport (the cost of flying into Cincy for him was cost-prohibitive; I was only able to do it myself by using frequent flyer miles.) As it turned out, the trip to pick him up was fairly easy enough (mostly Interstate routes) but my trip back would end up with an added destination.
One of our running colleagues bragged of an incredible musician in the Columbus area named Colin Gawel, whose band she would always go to see whenever they toured around her part of the country. She added that he owned a coffee store in the area, and that I should drop by and visit him. Moreover, she claimed Gawel had an incredible memory, and that he would recognize her should I drop her name to him.
Back in those days, I was not anywhere close to being a regular coffee drinker, but her story was too good not to check out.
