California Christmas Goodies from Ohio: The List (Part 1)

Celebrate Local, located in the Easton Town Center, is one
of my favorite places for all things local

By now, you've seen a tons of articles and blog posts covering the gamut of great gift ideas for the now past Christmas holiday.  I admit I've read my share of them myself since I've moved to the Buckeye State, often just simply to familiarize myself with what's out there.

Another big reason lies in what turned out to be an ideal family setup with my spouse: as all her family gathers at Thanksgiving at her parents' place in Ohio, we always spend that holiday here. Meanwhile, Christmas Eve has traditionally been the realm where all my siblings and numerous relatives gather at my parents' place in California, so December has meant travel time over to the West Coast for us two.

That yearly trip, coupled with the fact that no one else in my immediate family lives outside of California, I've started a tradition of bringing back a little bit of Ohio back for my relatives in some form as a little gift from the Midwest.  This has, in turn, created its own unique challenges for me in that I had to find gifts that met these unique criteria:

1. Ohio-based products that weren't easily obtained in California
2. Ohio-based products that weren't necessarily "Ohio-centric" (things like "Columbus 'Til I Die" t-shirts really wouldn't have any real meaning for my family members)
3. Ohio-based products that would be mostly if not universally appreciated by all (that leaves out things like craft spirits and beer, for example)

With that in mind, I thought a summary of what I as a Buckeye State Santa Claus have toted to California would be both informative and a nice little plug for these Ohio-based makers:

Columbus Coffee Chronicles (Vol. 2): Boston Stoker

When Dayton-based Boston Stoker opened up their initial Columbus location just south of the Ohio State University campus on Neil Avenue in early 2013, it provided a wonderful opportunity for me personally. Whenever I had business on campus and I had time on my side, I fell into the very tasty habit of dropping by for a shot of espresso and snacking on the whatever Clintonville-based Pattycake Bakery sweet-tooth appealing treat they had on hand that day.

However, this location, which was something of an oasis of better coffee around the campus area, was not ideal as it was a shared space with a branch of the Credit Union of Ohio (it had been a McDonald's prior.)  The announced demolition of the building forced both tenants to relocate, with Boston Stoker finding a location down the street closer to the Thurber Village area of Victorian Village,

Warp Two And Flying Faster: Warped Wing Brewing (Dayton, OH)

A quick return from the West Coast for a slightly more local blogpost....

Being more or less locals in Central Ohio now, revisits to favorite places generally don't take terribly long, as they do now with our California travels (prime example: my last blogpost detailing our visit to Vallejo's Moschetti Coffee and Sonoma's El Molino Central.) However, a place does slip through every now and then, and in this case, it was fun to track the progress that the Warped Wing Brewery in Dayton, Ohio has made between our visits.

Warped Wing's big warehouse space holds plenty of people
and quite a few tasty brews, as we have found out