Broad & Delicious: Our Dream Casual Columbus Culinary Street Corners

The Short North has many naturally occurring delicious culinary street corners
that threaten to increase your waistline more than you'd like

Back when my spouse and I were still officially in our long-distance dating phase, we would talk a lot about local neighborhoods and where ideally we'd like to settle down in, had we the choice. One of the common positive aspects to us were houses that were within easy distance of numerous instances of delicious eats (we also thought it would be a bit dangerous too, as the temptation would always be there to go forgo the kitchen and dine out again and again.)

Even though we've settled down (alas, nowhere near easy walking distance to culinary bliss), discussion on this "dream culinary street corner foursome" concept has continued to this very day, and across numerous categories (breweries, pizzerias, coffee cafes, etc.)  It was only recently, after a particularly long work day, that I figured out that this would make a fun topic for a blog post.

Firkin Awesome for 25 Years: Barley's Brewing Ale House

For both my spouse and I, the venerable Barley's Brewing Company, the oldest brewpub in the Columbus area, acted as a gateway into craft beer.  For me, this brewpub, which opened its doors in October of 1992, was my first real introduction to Columbus-area craft beer, when a growler of their Scottish Ale (an unusual beer in that they take pale malt and actually scorch it in the mash tun before brewing the beer to achieve the caramel notes) went up with us to take to my wife's family for Thanksgiving Day libations.

As for my spouse, her brother, who made the brewpub a regular destination when it opened its doors, introduced her to its craft beer charms. That very same Scottish Ale was also her first Barley's brew back in 1994, followed by a brew she thought she would never enjoy in the future in the Alexander's Russian Imperial Stout (this notion was proven to be quite wrong, as we shall detail later.)

Sneak Peek: Brewcadia

This might will date me, but my first angels-singing-from-the-heavens experience I had with an arcade game was with Midway's "Sea Wolf". Peering my eyes through a fairly realistic (to a pre-teen kid, anyway) periscope sighting, my pulse hastened with each whoosh of the launched torpedo, the rhythmic tolling of sea bells (well, electronic pulses anyway) and the "thoom" that meant another sunken surface ship. I took pride in knocking off the speedy and tiny PT boat at its farthest distance, whipping my scope around to the other side with a loud thunk to get ahead of it and shooting blindly. More often than not, that marauding pest would hurtle smack dab into my LCD-enhanced streak of death.

That game was one of many in this era of modern-day arcade games. Starting with the groundbreaking "Pong" in 1972, these machines have become more sophisticated over the years, and are now in their fourth decade of providing entertainment to several generations of fun-seekers. Brewcadia, the bar/arcade hybrid that started by venerable Columbus brewpub Barley's Brewing Company, is the latest Columbus-area venue to offer this option to the public at large.