By Jordan Abbruzzese | Photos by Heidi Oliver | Design by Liann Trahey
C
hef Justin Wotring has been trained by culinary experts all over the world. He is experienced in French fine dining, was a former executive chef at The Crest, and is currently the Chief of Operations for COLO Market & Oyster Bar at The North Market Downtown. His latest move? Taking everything he has learned, and putting it in between two slices of bread. This summer, Wotring opened his newest venture: Caroline’s Sandwiches, a fine dining sandwich concept currently popping up every other week at Bears Bagels in Hilliard. While you may think that fine dining and sandwiches don’t usually belong together, there is a method to the madness. “In this city especially, you have to trickle in your food. You can’t just show up as a new restaurant,” said Wotring, based on his experience launching
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multiple restaurants with A&R (the group behind The Crest and The Market Italian Village). “People need an easier vessel to try new things,” he added. For Caroline’s, that vessel is creatively assembled gourmet sandwiches. Caroline’s is named for Wotring’s late niece, who passed at seven years old. Since then, he has aimed to open a restaurant in her memory– an aspiration since his college years training at a culinary school in Louisville, Kentucky. Caroline’s legacy has been at the core of this pop-up since before its inception, as a reminder to always put family first. For Wotring, his wife, and three kids, the timing for Caroline’s is now. “I got married, had three kids, worked as a chef, and I am ready now to open my own brand,” explained Wotring. “I want to do the register, and make the food. Raising our kids inside a restaurant is something me and my wife have always wanted.”