Quadruple Hamburger - Circleville Roadtrip, Part 1

The Original Hamburger Inn
125 Watt Street
Circleville, Ohio
740 747 1233
Closed Sunday

I heard about the Original Hamburger Inn in Circleville for a couple years. I was passing through town one afternoon while coming back to Columbus after doing some work for “the man”. I popped in for a quick hamburger and found it to be very tasty. While I was there I noticed a little sign titled Josh Dares You. I am all about dares - they typically get me into a lot of trouble.

In case you can not read the bottom line - it says - Don’t be a pansy, no sharing please!

As it turns out, for $10, Josh dares you to eat a quadruple hamburger - with cheese if you like, unlimited fries and free refills on Pepsi. Um….duh, how could I not want to do that - it is a bargain. I was determined to come back and get my ten dollars worth.

A few weeks later I was back with two friends in tow. The Quadruple hamburger was really good and not so big as to cause illness. There is no way Josh is making any money on this ten dollar steal. Josh is the owner, he dropped by about every 5 minutes refilling my fries. There was almost a sense of panic if my beverage was less than 3/4 full. My non foodie friend Chris had a quad burger as well and thought it was great.

Josh reports that the “Josh Challenge” is popular on the weekends, 3-6 people will come in for the dare and most usually finish their burger. During the Circleville Pumpkin Festival 10 or more quadruple burgers are ordered each day. The most memorable consumption was two quadruple burgers, a load of fries and a piece of pie by an out of town visitor during a past Pumpkin Festival. There are also Pumpkin Burgers for the festival. Really!

The Original Hamburger Inn has been around since 1930. Josh has owned and operated it with his family for about 6 years. It is a Circleville local landmark and worth the drive for the experience of eating in a small town eatery where everyone knows everyone by name. This would be a good summer or fall adventure. Circleville is about 30 minutes from Columbus depending on where you hail from. There are several farmers markets along Route 23 you can check out on your way there or back to mix up the drive.

Josh dares you, so do I - hit the road and get that hamburger.

Wittich’s - Amercia’s Oldest Confectioner? - Circleville Roadtrip Part 2

Wittich’s

117 West High Street

Circleville, OH

740 474 3313

After my run to the Original Hamburger Inn, I drove a block or so to the northwest for a visit to what may be the nations oldest confectionary - Wittich’s. This chocolate and candy shop has been operated by the same family since 1840. It is currently run by Fred Wittich the great grandson of the founder. I did some quick research on confectionaries in the country. I am not sure it is the oldest - but it probably is the oldest run by the same family (I am still researching this).

My party sampled the candy selections with a venegence and found all to be very good. I really enjoyed the dark chocolate covered peanut brittle. Wittich’s is overflowing with character, charm and history - I felt good walking through the door and those feelings just continued to get better.

What really caught my eye was the 1930’s era soda fountain/counter. Some people know that I am an ice cream lover. One or two people know my first job was at Knight’s Ice Cream in Columbus and because of that I am a big fan of ice cream lore. There are just a handful operating of soda fountains in the country and I had accidently stumbled upon one.

 

As I sat there on one of the twirling counter seats, I was thinking of memories of a soda fountain in the the part of Columbus I grew up in. At about that moment, a small sign caught my eye. It explained the soda fountain I was sitting at was purchased from the former Beechwold Pharmacy in 1997. Guess where I used to go as a child….. yep!

CMH Podcast….unleashed!

OK - the new podcasts are a little rough and certainly no Splendid Table or This American Life - but for the sake of learning about technology….. a Podcast was born. I think each one gets better. I finally broke down and bought a nice USB headset to improve my sound quality which I hope you can hear in episode 5 <the Beer Episode>.

Columbus Food

We open to harsh criticism or nice feedback because we aim to improve. The mission of Columbus Food is to learn about podcasting and to have fun. Trust me - I can not stand the sound of my voice so I know this is not a star vehicle for me. Heck, you can hear my dog Toby barking in episode 4. If you want to be a guest star or contributor - let me know - the more - the merrier. If you have an idea about a topic for an upcoming foodcast - e-mail away!

Episode 4 is the best of the bunch, my friend Kevin Cordi, a professional storyteller tells a tale of a restaurant we hit very late at night in his hometown of Akron, intertwined with our collective memories of food. Kind of a “This American….Lunch”.

We are listed in iTunes. Search for Columbus Foodcast in the iTunes music store or follow this link:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=274971060

Chicago Tribune on Cleveland, let’s get Columbus on the List!

Linked below is a recent article on Cleveland from the Chicago Tribune. This is worth a read for anyone, especially Mike Symon and Michael Ruhlman fans. Cleveland is getting recognition as a culinary city….hmm, recall my earlier post on Columbus vs. Cleveland.

I invited the Chicago Tribune writer to Columbus - hopefully your posts endorsing Columbus as a restaurant town will convince the Tribune to bankroll her trip here. If you were selling our city as a culinary hot spot - where would you take someone if you only had 48 hours……

Here is the article.

Chicago Tribune article - Cleveland?!?

Thanks to Saucisson (saw-SEE-sohn) ((is French for sausage)) Mac for passing this on.

Where would I take someone? - Graeters, Denise’s and Jeni’s - I am still pushing Columbus as Ice Cream Capital of the World (as cool as Indie Art Capital, right?). Pistachia Vera for some cookies. Breakfast at Starliner Diner and Banana Bean, lunch at Thurman’s or the North Market or Betty’s or Northstar, dinner at Alana’s, CBC, Rosendales or so many other choices. And a late night pizza at the Rossi. Hmm - I guess a visiting writer would need more time or at least an openness to doing some hobbit style second lunches.

Columbus vs. Cleveland; Zagat zips by Columbus

A little debate has popped up on Chowhound. Which city has better food - Columbus or Cleveland? I can name 20 places in either city that can hold their own against any east or west coast eatery. Columbus can be prone to strip mall chain restaurants and can fess up to a culinary disability in the burbs - but CMH is a great restaurant town. Go support your city and your state, speak up for Columbus without dissing Cleveland on Chowhound.

I received my 2008 Zagat America’s Top Restaurants in the mail recently. Zagat raters get rewarded  with a free guide from time to time in exchange for submitting restaurant rankings and pithy comments. The new guide covers 1,415 restaurants in 42 cities and metro areas. The guide lists pages of restaurants in Cleveland and Cincinnati but not a single Columbus restaurant.

Hmm…. Columbus is the 15th largest city. Columbus is larger than Cleveland and Cincinnati. And at least a few people outside of 270 have heard of Alana’s, Basi Italia, Handke’s, The Refectory, Rosendale’s, Rigsby’s and many more well known restaurants. How about local treats like Jeni’s Ice Cream, Denise’s, Just Pies, Pistacia Vera….

Mail Order Cheese, Chocolate and Brownies… oh my!

Dedicated readers may recall my run to Amish country a few months ago. I drove by a sign for Steiner Cheese (a place I had never sampled) but I did not have time to check out their store because I was trying to get to Pearl Valley Cheese before closing time. Shortly after this cheese trip, I read that Steiner won several awards at the Ohio State Fair for their cheeses….drat.

I could not let this missed opportunity slip by but alas, I had no time to drive back. I did some research and found I could order online.

Steiner Cheese

I ordered the Farmer’s Cheese, Aged Cheddar and Aged Swiss. All three were great. The pricing was reasonable even with shipping added in. The Aged Cheddar was my favorite and the two pounds I ordered did not last a week.

I should mention that Pearl Valley does mail order as well. I tried them out a couple years ago and they did a fine job. The only downside with them is they sell in gift packs online.

On a related note, at about the same time I ordered from Steiner, I ordered chocolate from my favorite mail order chocolate company - Bissingers.

The photo of the chocolate did not come out so well. However, this is a photo of 1 pound of chocolate. If you order from the catalog at select times of year, Bissingers will send you a free pound of chocolate - Milk or Dark. I have tried different things with this free chocolate over the years, but my favorite thing to do is break off a piece of dark chocolate (I don’t bother with milk chocolate) and spoon on some chunky peanut butter. The best regular catalog item is the Almond Nut Bark. Bissingers Chocolate is among the best dark chocolate I have tried anywhere. They are based in St. Louis (I discovered them while there for work) and trace their roots to French chocolate making in the 1600’s.

A final find. Dayton’s Dorothy Lane Market does mail order - which for me means mail order Killer Brownies. If you place an order, say Sandie - via the Gourmand sent you.

A Trip North - a cheesebarn, Westside Market, “Big Fun” in Coventry and more

I recently headed to the Greater Cleveland area for a social call. The weather was perfect and I had some spare time so some sumptuous culinary detours were incorporated into my journey.

For decades, the sign for Grandpas Cheesebarn on I 71 has taunted me. I never had time to stop to check the place out and I became convinced it was a tourist trap. Or so I told myself. It is at exit 186, near Ashtabula. The cheesebarn is a short 500 feet from the interstate so I figured I could drop in for a peek.

I loved it. Grandpa’s has all types of free samples of cheese as well as fudge, pickles, and other treats. They also serve sandwiches and such. They sell a vast array of trinkets and knicknacks. You should block out at least 30 minutes to look around and you might even want to grab lunch here. Grandpa’s has a wide variety of high quality cheese and other foodstuffs to purchase, so if you need a goumet gift on the fly - this is a good place to go.

Grandpas Cheesebarn

The next stop was Westside Market in downtown Cleveland.

Westside Market

The Westside Market is an old school market with about 100 vendors selling cheese, produce, pierogies, fresh meats, baked goods, ethnic specialities from around the world, and all types of artisan foods. This a must visit for people that are even mildly interested in food.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up having a great Cambodian meal next door (instead of feasting on the goodies inside the market) at:

Phnom Penh

1929 West 25th St

216.357.2951

Wandering across the street, I discovered -

The Bier Market

1948 West 25th St.

216.344.9944

 

This bar serves a huge variety of Belgian and other hard to find beers. In October, a restaurant will open in this building with a chef returning from Michael Symon‘s venture into NYC - expect great food and great beer from here in the near future!

My next stop was in Coventry for a very rushed reunion tour of the culinary, toy, book, and antique treasures located on the main drag in this little burg. The two highlights were Big Fun for cool retro toys and Tommy’s for cool veggie friendly food. Tommy’s has the bonus of having a small book store connecting to it.

Big Fun

1827 Coventry Rd

216.371.4386

For more info on things to do in Coventry, check out -

Coventry via Wiki

And for Cleveland fun, it really does ROCK….still…

Cleveland Resource for Fun - Scene Magazine

Fun at the Ohio State Fair.. In Search of the Perfect Lemon Shake Up

I made a sojourn to the Ohio State Fair, I try to go once per decade. I really enjoyed myself this year, so I may change up to once every five years. I am a sucker for fair fare - elephant ears, funnel cakes, fair fries, and deep fried anything (in particular snickers and twinkies) - the Ohio State Fair has plenty of all that. I spied several food vendors that had signs stating as seen on Food Network.  I’d love to see Nigella Lawson at the fair!

This year, I was on a quest for the perfect lemon shake up. I am a super sucker for shake ups in the summer so with the hot, hot heat of Saturday - I was on a mission, I could not sip enough of these.

The first sampled was at Big Jeff’s Original, billed (on their sign) as the best at the fair. The stand is strategically located near the center of the midway. The one I sampled was light on the ice.

Shake up number two was at the stand run by JP’s Ribs. This one was the cheapest - $1.50 compared to the $2.00 standard. The shake up I was served was a bit watery. This stand is to the east of the Coca Cola Coliseum.

My third for the day was the best. The Marshall family has a berry farm that keeps them busy all year long. Since 1969, they have come to the fair to peddle their shake ups with raspberry or strawberry added in for an extra 50 cents. I opted for the lemon shake up with a raspberry twist. I was a little disapponted that the raspberry component was a spoonful of raspberry preserves (from their farm) - what I was hoping for were some real raspberries - but it shook together well. It turned out the be the perfect mix of lemon, ice, sugar and water. This was my Lemon Shake Up Best of Show for this year. This stand is located near the 17th Street entrance. I counted about 15-20 Lemon Shake Up opportunities at the fair - so if I missed the mark - let me know.

Other items of note at the fair.

A must do at the fair is a journey to the Dairy Products building to see the Butter Cow and to get a big heaping serving of fresh ice cream in a bowl. Also of note, several awards for best Ohio cheese went to Guggisberg and Pearl Valley (both mentioned in an earlier post). The top winners were Ragersville Swiss Cheese and Steiner - so now I will be on a quest to find those out in Amish Country.

A quick shout out to the Tracey family. Their Coney stand has been at the fair for over 50 years now. I wrote a short article mentioning them in 1998 for Ohio Magazine so I am glad to see them going strong.

More Amish Cheese Please!!!!

I make a run to Amish Country at least once per year. My mission - cultural appreciation, nice scenery, antiques, fresher air… all possible reasons. I go for cheese, anything else is secondary. You can’t throw a cow without hitting a cheese factory in Amish Country. Here is my lowdown on three of the best.

This barn is in pre Amish country - in Utica, near Velvet Ice Cream.

First stop is Guggisberg Cheese Factory - which was my first taste of Amish cheese years ago. You can buy their rounds of baby swiss at most Kroger stores but this spot is still worth a visit. The factory is located in Charm which is quintessential Amish Country - buggies on the road and Amish peddling all kinds of things by the side of said road. You can get a variety of free samples at the cheese store. There are also good prices on popular Guggisberg cheeses. One of the best deals and the most adventuresome is the variety bag of different samples, usually including some of their less popular cheeses and bacon bit cheese. Mmmm - bacon. Guggisberg is small and a bit cramped. It usually is crowded - so plan on some extra time to maneuver through on the weekends.

This is the cuckoo clock tower at the Guggisberg factory - part of the Swiss aura you will find throughout this part of Amish Country.

 

Continuing with the Swiss motiff here is one of the murals at Heini’s Cheese Chalet.

 

Heini’s has the largest selection of cheese and the largest number of free samples - probably about 60 types. There are three freezer rows to walk through and all of the sampling is self service using toothpicks. It can feel a little bit like you are part of a herd of cattle, but the variety is good and during the week - there is not much of a crowd. You can also sample a variety of fudges and other products here as well. Don’t get discouraged when you see the line - not everyone is standing in line for the cash register - most are just stocking up on free cheese.

Heini’s large complex also has a store with all types of food and food related products as well as a deli/sandwich counter. This is a little off the beaten path in Millersburg but worth the effort. If you use back roads when leaving - you can avoid most of the backlogged traffic in the center of town (on Saturday and Sunday). Hey English, if you are looking for cookie cutters shaped like the 50 states - this is where to find them.

 

Kauffmann’s Country Bakery

Kauffman’s Country Bakery is located across the road from Heini’s. It is stocked with excellent breads, cookies, cakes, pies, and all kinds of fresh Amish foodstuffs. If you need bread to go with your cheese - this is the place to get it.

 

Pearl Valley Cheese Factory

Pearl Valley is my favorite place of the three. Pearl is not always on the map and it is very off the beaten path (on SR 93 between Baltic and Fresno) for most of Amish Country. This is a very plain operation - nothing fancy - no costumes, no Swiss towers, and no flash like their competition. It is all about the cheese here. The staff are friendly and they do not hold back on the samples or sage cheese advice. You can usually expect to find a charity bake sale going on here during the summer to support a local school or organization. On my last trip here (July 2007) - I arrived 10 minutes after closing and they still let me in and offered samples even though they had put everything away for the day. That was impressive even after a long day of cheese chewing. They do a good mail order business as well. I really like their aged Cheddar and Colby cheeses.

 

Sundae Drives - Three Ice Cream Road Trips

Spring and summer inspire road trips on hot days. Here are three great ice cream shops within a one-hour drive of the capital city in case you need some fresh scenery and cold ice cream.

Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl
532 McIntire Avenue, Zanesville
740.452.5267
www.tomsicecreambowl.com
(Closed every Monday)

(70 E to the State Street Exit in Zanesville)

Tom’s is tucked away in a residential neighborhood. The staff is decked out in white hats, white aprons and black bow ties. The interior looks untouched since it opened at the current location in 1950. Tom’s feels like a Soda fountain from the past. Bill Sullivan bought the business from original owner Tom Mirgon in 1984. A portrait of Tom still watches over the business from a spot just above the soda counter. You can also get a good sandwich, Ben Heggy’s chocolates and Tom’s famous roasted redskin peanuts to go with your ice cream (which is often served in a big soup bowl). In 1998,Tom’s was listed as one of the nation’s 10 best ice cream spots in USA Today.

 

Velvet Ice Cream, Ye Olde Mill
11324 Mount Vernon Road, Utica
1.800.589.5000
www.velveticecream.com
(SR 62 N to SR 13)

Since 1817, several different mills have stood in the stone foundation of Ye Olde Mill. (One downside to the location, the Mill has a tendency to burn to the ground most recently in 1986 and 2004). The Mill has always served as a meeting place for friends and families in the area. The Dager family understands the importance of tradition; they have been making ice cream since 1914. Velvet chose the Mill to be the symbol of their company. You can see the mill on each container of Velvet makes. The Ye Olde Mill is open from May to October. Tours of the ice cream factory are from 11 AM to 3 PM. The Mill also serves as the hub for the annual Utica Old Fashioned Ice Cream Festival which is Memorial Day Weekend.

Young’s Jersey Dairy
6880 Springfield-Xenia Road, Yellow Springs
937.325.0629
www.youngsdairy.com

(I 70 W to SR 68 S)

Young’s is a family entertainment destination, which would have made P.T. Barnum a bit jealous. The cornucopia of attractions includes: a farm-themed eighteen hole miniature golf course, a driving range, batting cages, farm animal petting barn, a full service restaurant, bakery, gift shop, and a corn maze. However the biggest attraction is ice cream, sometimes more than 3000 gallons per week is served. Much of the ice cream ends up in the Moovelous Milkshakes that consist of two to five dips of rich French Vanilla. All of the standard flavors are available as well as some farm themed creations such as Cow Patty - chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and other goodies mixed in. Considering Young’s started as a 10 x 10 room for selling milk to the public in 1958 – no need to cry over spilt milk at Youngs…but a dropped scoop of ice cream - would be a very sad event.