Ice Cream Chronicles (Vol. 16): Sticks And Cones - Knight's Ice Cream (Westerville)

Knight's Ice Cream has been scooping its ice cream to Westerville natives since 1960

Long before the coffee shop became the preferred hangout joint of the neighborhood, that honor often belonged to a place that served ice cream. Whether the ice cream they served was handmade or the offerings of a major mass-produced variety, people would be guaranteed to visit if you would do them the favor of scooping it up into a bowl, mixing it into a shake, or piling it into a mini-mountain of sugar dairy decadence with a slight hint of something healthy like fruit and nuts. Operating since 1960, Knight's Ice Cream in Westerville seems to firmly qualify in this category.

I had always been curious about this place on South Cleveland Avenue when I spotted it during some of my early travels around the metro. Not only did it not seem to be mentioned in the pantheon of the usual suspects for great ice cream in the immediate area (typically Jeni's and Graeter's, and for me personally, Mardi Gras) but the history behind the place didn't seem to easy to find, at least via the Internet. I have found out since then that there was a Clintonville store with the same name, but I admit to having no knowledge to if they're at all related.

What I did know before my first visit was that, according to their website,  the business was under new management and the store had been freshly renovated. Not knowing what the building looked like prior to the change, I will say that the blue and white paint scheme with striped awnings on the exterior was nicely appealing to the eye. The inside, on the other hand, is neat but pretty utilitarian, sporting a few tables and chairs (more lie on the outside in a small fenced off area),freezer cases, dry-ink menu boards, and the usual equipment and food items associated with an ice cream joint.

Knight's ice creams may be a notch down from the very top echelon
of local purveyors, but their KinghtSticks are quite tasty

The ice cream, while not bad, is a notch down from the previously mentioned pantheon; it's not as smooth as Jeni's, as texturally pleasing as Graeter's, nor do the flavors range toward the exotic like Mardi Gras (though their mango was the best out of the three flavors, including Butter Pecan and Buckeye, that I sampled initially.) For Knight's, this seems to be a case of not everyone can be the best; however, I found the ice cream more than good enough to quell a hankering for a scoop or two for a frozen treat for most adults and kids.

Perhaps the most winning ice cream related item on their menu is their KnightStick. Coming in 8 different variations at $3.75 each, their take on the popular frozen confection Drumstick® strikes all the right notes with plenty of nuts and a nice crunchy chocolate top; my cone even avoided for the most part the stale sugar cone texture that its commercial cousin often suffers from.

If ice cream isn't your thing, Knight's also comes through with things like frozen bananas and Only 8 Frozen Yogurt, which is advertised as a Kosher-certified and gluten-free.

Knight's Ice Cream
596 S. Cleveland Ave,
Westerville, OH 43081
(614) 890-2353
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First Impressions: Winking Scotsman and Bentos

The Tartan panel on the side means meat pies are a cookin'

Winking Scotsman: From Honeykiss to Sassafras to Dough Mama and beyond, the Columbus area has more than its share of wonderful, generally sweet-ingredient pies from which to choose (I really don't know how I could possibly choose if they had a Columbus Underground-styled Best Bites: Pies event similar to their Best Bites: Dessert event held earlier year.)

Savory pies are a bit more of a challenge. Empanadas at the three El Arepazo locations are always an option, and Salam Market on Columbus' Northeast side has been heralded for its Middle Eastern meat pies, as noted in this Columbus Crave article.

It was about this time last year when I was getting my taste of a more English-style of savory pie in the pasties that are common through Northern Michigan. While that first tasting was decent enough, this year's take on the meat pie I've happened on this year is not only much tastier but much closer in the Winking Scotsman food truck.

I caught the this new food truck in the parking lot of Palmer's Beverage Center on Indianola Avenue in Clintonville a few times before I dropped by to sample their goods. The menu was very simple - the owner Scott, who was quite affable, said that his side items simply weren't selling, so he decided to pare it to the bare bones pies, chips and beverages. Interestingly, I had actually caught him in an unusual position: he had sold out of his original batch of pies for the night (his best sales day so far, he stated) but if I came back in a half-hour or so, he'd have some fresh baked ones and give me a pie for half-off.

To paraphrase an oft-repeated movie line, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

Meat pies = yummy + filling. And a lucky bonus half-off for coming back

I decided to give both pies a try, and like the Northern Michigan pastie, these pies did the trick of providing some portable, filling food. These pies were much tastier than their pasty cousins we sampled up north as well, sporting a pleasant wheaty crust and fillings that were neither too drippy or dried out. While both were good solid creations, my spouse and I gave the nod to the poultry side, with a juicy chicken interior backed up with tasty mushrooms, the light tang of feta and a touch of bacon goodness..

The latest whereabouts of the Winking Scotsman can be found on their feed on Street Food Finder.

Winking Scotsman Food Truck
Various locations around the Columbus Metro
(614) 556-1190
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Bentos Food Cart offers freshly made, modestly-sized meals
with an eco-friendly touch

Bentos: my experience with the bento box is fairly limted, ranging from a fairly traditional culinary version (those offered by the Japacurry Food Truck in San Francisco) as well as an athletics-related food version (in triathlon terms, the bento box is a little bicycle case where I would keep those nasty tasting gels and other energy supplements in triathlon-style events.)

In terms of the Columbus food cart Bentos, owner Shannon Bowman offers an American take on the traditional type of Bento Box, providing freshly made, organic-when-possible meals that can be catered to various dietary needs (paleo, vegan, etc.) Bentos even sports a eco-friendly aspect to its meals, as the containers and eating utensils are composed of biodegradable materials.

In many ways, the boxes sold from the food cart would be a perfect side item for another food truck's entree dish, or a perfectly-portioned side dish for a midday bite. Prices all are fairly reasonable, with everything we saw priced at $4.

The Peanut Thai Noodle Salad with salted Edmame sported some overly chewy noodles but otherwise was pleasantly tasty . The Dueling Salads, a newer item, was a better creation, with a zingy yogurt dressing to link the coconut rice salad and raw carrot salad (while some may prefer to keep the salads apart, the two dueling entities mixed together proved to be a winning combo for my palate.)

A selection of more comprehensive catered lunch items can be ordered through the Bentos website. Those who order 10 or more of these can receive free shipping of their orders depending on the zip code provided or may be picked up at their 231 E. Livingston Street location (Bentos uses the facilities found at The Kitchen to prepare their meals.) These lunches also generally include their pecan rum cake, a decadent creation I had the fortune to sample at a recent event of theirs.

Whereabouts of the Bentos Food Cart can be found on their website.

Bentos Food Cart
Various locations around the Columbus Metro
(614) 715-4515
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Fried Chicken Bender (Pt. 4): The Greenhouse Tavern

Greenhouse Tavern is one of Chef Jonathan Sawyer's
quadfecta of Cleveland-based culinary delights

Recent James Beard Award winner Jonathon Sawyer and, more specifically, his culinary ventures have been on the radar of many Columbus-area food-oriented folks for quite awhile. Tavern Vinegar Company, a collaboration with Columbus-based Middle West Spirits, has produced a well-received line of craft vinegars. Also, Sawyer's popular American take on Japanese Ramen, Noodlecat, has after much speculation announced its arrival into the Columbus market, hopefully set for the start of 2016 at the latest, per this Columbus Crave interview with the chef himself.

Of course, a roughly three-hour drive north on I-71 will bring you into the Cleveland city limits where Team Sawyer's eateries are located. Other than the previously mentioned Noodlecat, diners have the Northern Italian-based Trentina and his flagship eatery, the eco-friendly Greenhouse Tavern, to choose from. On recent travels up to this area, I had the chance to drop by the latter for a quick fried-chicken oriented dinner.

Cleveland's East 4th Street Neighborhood reminds me a bit of a more modern, fashionable combination of San Francisco's Maiden Lane and Belden Place, both pedestrian-oriented streets lined with restaurants and shopping. Greenhouse Tavern, which has no lack of hip flair within its space, lies more or less smack dab in the middle of this corridor.

Dining at the bar gives you a good look at the bicycles, burgundy
walls, and bustling space at the tavern while you
choose from a base menu of gastropub-style items.

Solo dining does have its advantages in that it's often fairly easy to grab a seat at the bar when its crowded (as was the case this day) and people who work the bar are generally pretty good about getting food and drinks to you. This turned out to be the case with my visit: my orders were handled pretty quickly and the light conversation with the bar staff was a pleasant distraction in what was overall a very bustling and sometimes noisy space.

While the Tavern does have a few craft beer choices, adult beverage choices lean more toward wine and the harder spirits, with a single malt whiskey and scotch menu. A separate menu contains coffee beverage selections from Cleveland-based Phoenix Coffee as well as options from their rare tea cellar.

Greenhouse Tavern's Barrel-Aged Tabasco Fried Chicken

While the Crispy Chicken Wings Confit (served with roasted jalapeño, lemon juice, scallions and garlic) had initially grabbed my attention, Greenhouse Tavern's Barrel-Aged Tabasco Fried Chicken eventually got the call on this night. As has been said, butter makes everything better, and a large gob of it was slathered on the two pieces of fried chicken on my platter, melting quite temptingly over both pieces. Suffice it to say, the butter only accentuated moist meat within; meanwhile, the Tabasco gave just a light tinge of heat to the crispy exterior. While some may think a double-digit price tag is a bit much for the dish (in general, Greenhouse Tavern's prices do range on the higher end of scale for their respective items) it was nevertheless a tasty rendition of the fried bird.

The base model Pommes Frites were a treat

I couldn't not say anything about the frites; apparently none other than Cleveland-based chef Michael Symon gave his "Best Thing I Ever Ate: Guilty Pleasures" designation to Greenhouse Tavern's Gravy Frites. That was not in the cards for me this night (my arteries were clogging from just thinking of topping my fried chicken off with this dish) but it didn't mean I couldn't NOT try the base model of their frites. Not that their Pommes Frites, fried in duck fat and coated with rosemary and raw garlic with a side of aioli, were that much healthier, but I at least felt mentally more relieved from a health standpoint as I consumed this delicious dish.

Greenhouse Tavern
2038 East Fourth Street
Cleveland, OH 44115
(216) 443-0511
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Breakfast Via The 415: Tasi Cafe

Being nestled off the main traffic pathways of the Short North
hasn't hurt Tasi Cafe's popularity one bit

Living three decades in the San Francisco Bay Area, I've grown attuned to people in this area who have connections to my former stomping grounds. On one of my early visits to the Columbus, a brunch date with my spouse brought me (unknowingly at the time) to a Short North institution whose origins more or less came from the city by the bay..

As detailed in this Short North Gazette article, Anastasia Rigsby (or Tasi for short) spent her childhood years growing up in San Francisco. Her experiences as a youth with her restaurant-owner father gave her a feeling she would go into the restaurant business long before a chance meeting with her future husband Kent at his pioneering Short North restaurant Rigsby's Cafe gave her a channel to bring that notion to life in her namesake cafe, Tasi. The pair has expanded their eateries since the cafe's opening in 2008, adding the Short North-based Eleni-Christina Bakery (which provides all the pastries to the cafe) as well as their newest venture, the Bexley-based Zoe Cafe.

Interestingly enough, this somewhat off-the-main-drag location in the Short North at the corner of Brickel and Pearl gave me the vibe of a neighborhood-type place I might find in San Francisco during my first dining experience there. In terms of a local comparison, I found Tasi eventually reminding me as a slightly less expensive but slightly more conventional take on what Northstar Cafe brings to their diners.

Not much has changed with Tasi's general interior atmosphere,
operations, or popularity since my spouse and I made our first visit here

Despite new eateries arriving in the neighborhood since Tasi's opening and the general increase in brunch/breakfast service by area restaurants in general, Tasi has remained popular with neighborhood denizens. This fact, along with the rather cozy quarters within this brick-lined space (warning: the practice of diners "reserving" seats at empty tables before they place their orders at the counter is really frowned upon) makes having time to burn, a willingness/ability to go during off-peak hours, or a desire to take something to go a must for non-neighborhood visitors.

Not much has changed either with the ordering process: diners queue up at the counter (on our latest visit, staff seemed to be making a conscious effort to take no new orders until seats open up, which wasn't always the case on earlier visits) to place their orders. When things are busy, visitors to Tasi have plenty of time to peruse the length-of-the-room breakfast and lunch chalkboard menu above. Once an order is placed for those dining in-house, Tasi adds a colorful touch by giving you a placard representing a particular dog breed to place on your table instead of the usual numbered tiles.

Along with regular menu items like the Pastrami Hash (upper left), Tasi's
specials like the Chorizo Frittata and Crabcake Benny with Asparagus
have provided us many tasty options to pair with our cup of java

Tasi's entree items for breakfast (which is served all day) and lunch are typically priced at $10 or less and cover the gamut of crowd-pleasing choices from Fish Tacos to Frittatas, Cubano Sandwiches to Challah French Toast, and so forth. We've learned that the specials often are quite good, such as the Crab Cake Benny we ordered on our last visit. Sides to supplement your meal are as varied as the entrees, ranging from the usual (sausage,bacon and fries) to the more novel (Potato Latkes and Zucchini a la Grecque, zucchini slices simmered with various herbs and spices.)

Beverages circulate around the usual coffee variations (Lavazza is Tasi's preferred coffee of choice), as well as pop, tea and water; a small selection of adult beverages (beer, wine and cocktails) is also available to diners. Tasi also makes a point of featuring local vendors, including some from the nearby North Market (North Market Spices and North Market Poultry) and milk shakes featuring Bexley-based Johnson's Ice Cream.

Tasi Cafe

680 N. Pearl Street (Short North)
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 222-0788

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Ice Cream Chronicles (Vol. 15): Todos Gritamos para el Helado - Diamonds Ice Cream

With a series like the Ice Cream Chonicles, you figure this blog would have a write-up on an ice cream experience on the proclaimed National Ice Cream Day, held on the third Sunday of July.

Never fear, because you've struck gold here...or would that be Diamonds?

In many ways, the feeling in visiting Diamonds is a lot like my last visit to Young's Ice Cream in Yellow Springs: in both places, I found out that there was a lot more to the place than just the ice cream.

In Diamonds' case however, the more proper term would nieves or helado, depending on whether they are water- or milk-based. Diamonds offers the Mexican-styled version of this frozen confection and offers a variety of flavors, from the standards (vanilla and strawberry) to more novel flavor variations like Piñon (Pine Nut), Queso (Cheese) and Tuna (Cactus Fruit.)

Diamonds throws south-of-the-border flavor combos into the
mix for their solidly made ice cream scoops

I started off with the standards for me: Mango and Nuez (Butter Pecan) - the flavors were both fine, with big chunks of nuts in the Butter Pecan and a pleasant fruit flavor in the mango (not quite enough to supplant Mardi Gras for my favorite mango in the area, however.) Both scoops had a chewy texture right out of the case, but acquired a more smooth mouthfeel once they warmed up.

You could go here strictly for the ice cream, but you would be missing a lot. In fact, this place reminds me of a place I liked to frequent back in California in Vallejo's La Michoacana.  This paleteria and panaderia (which is NOT related to the Columbus-area La Michoacana Markets or the paleta brand originating in Mexico (for a fascinating side story, this Wharton School of Business article has a nice summary on the attempts to trademark the brand name)), as detailed in this Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper story, offered delicious paleta popsicles that, similar to their ice cream, are both water- and milk-based. These paletas generally put most typical American-style popsicles to shame with their intriguing flavor profiles and combos and large and often visible ingredient chunks.

In Diamonds' case, we've had a chance to sample their Nuez, Fresa (Strawberry) and Mango con Chile paletas so far. Interestingly, as much as we like spicy items, the latter flavor turned out to be merely okay in our books with a one-note spicy heat and most of the mango fruit  chunks concentrated on the bottom. Much better were the Fresa (nice refreshing berry flavor) and the Nuez (big chunks of nuts in a creamy base.) Other than the plethora of flavors, a frequent buyer card should be more than incentive for anyone to continue exploring Diamonds' paleta inventory.

Diamonds matches its unique ice cream offerings with an equally
novel flavor collection in its paletas, a selection of aguas frescas
and horchatas, and other unique-sounding edibles.

While La Michoacana back in California had bakery goods (including excellent bolillo rolls) to complete its trifecta of offerings, Diamonds adds a trifecta of other product offerings to inspire future visits for us to their Northwest Columbus location. These items include various flavors of horchatas and agua frescas, elote (flavored grilled street corn) and a menu of fruit and vegetable-oriented "Specialties."These items basically consist of chip-based dishes (nachos and potato chips with hot sauce, for example) as well as intriguingly prepared fruit and vegetable salads that fuse sweet, sour and tangy profiles in various blends depending on the main focus of the dish, whether that be Piña (pineapple), Sandia (watermelon) and Pepino (cucumber.)

Diamonds Ice Cream
5461 Bethel Sawmill Center (Northwest)
Columbus, OH 43235
(614) 718-2980
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