A Case Study: Bareburger Clintonville

Bareburger, a modest-sized chain of now 40+ locations in 9 states and a smattering of international countries, arrived on the Columbus scene in spring of 2014 in what seemed to be a mini-wave of gourmet burger places such as Easton's Flip Side and Gahanna's B Spot.  Bareburger differentiated itself by promising a more esoteric take on the standard burger via the use of organic ingredients, vegan options, as well as grass-fed beef and other exotic meats such as elk and ostrich. This combination, plus their creative take on the old downtown Yankee Trader space, was good enough to earn it a Best New Restaurant of 2014 nod by the readers of Columbus Underground.

When the eatery decided to open up a second Clintonville location, their general food philosophies seemed initially to me at least to be a perfect fit for the area. Interestingly enough, as time has gone on, this branch has become for me one of the more interesting eateries operating at this time within the Columbus metro, mainly for how the food scene has developed around this location.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Year 3): In Search of Liquid Cold

In one of my favorite science-fiction/action movies ever in Terminator 2, liquid nitrogen played a positively shattering role in what turned out to be the penultimate scene before the finale. The film's antagonist, the experimental T-1000 shape-shifting, liquid-metal Terminator (played menacingly by Robert Patrick), unrelenting in his pursuit to kill the movie's young hero John Connor (Edward Furlong), gets a tanker truck's worth (a postively frozen -320.44°F degrees worth, that is) of this unique substance, which figuratively paralyzes it from moving farther.

The older Terminator model reprogrammed and sent back to protect Connor, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, takes aim at his now frozen-in-place nemesis with his gun and utters perhaps the most famous line in the movie, "Hasta la vista, baby." One big kablam! later, the T-1000 blows apart into hundreds of little pieces.

Little did I know then at the time of the movie's release in 1991, however, that liquid nitrogen could do far more tastier tricks. This chilly fluid helps the folks who run Piccadilly Artisan Creamery in the Cleveland area create some of the more unique ice cream in the state.