Columbus Monthly - February 2023

WHAT THE HELL

The dazzling rise and stunning fall of Ohio State president Kristina Johnson

20

FEATURES

20 PRESIDENT, INTERRUPTED

The dazzling rise and stunning fall of Ohio State’s Kristina Johnson

26 NATIONAL TREASURES

This year’s edition of Columbus Monthly’s Best Driving Vacations highlights four gorgeous national parks within a roughly six-hour drive of Central Ohio.

36 THE RESILIENCE OF MAXWELL WILLIAMS

In February 2022, a random act of violence at Old North bar Dick’s Den left a young man partially paralyzed. His remarkable response to the shooting made a lasting imprint.

ON THE COVER:

Photo by Tim Johnson

06 PRELUDE

72 MY NEIGHBORHOOD

Front & Center

08 TRAUMA AND SISTERHOOD

Tiffany McDaniel’s new novel is inspired by the true crime case of the Chillicothe Six.

10 WHEN BLACK POWER CAME TO LINDEN

A new documentary explores a largely forgotten fight for racial justice at LindenMcKinley High School.

12 SUBMERGED HISTORIES

Open family secrets inspire Columbus artist Sa’dia Rehman’s new body of work at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

14 IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

From carriage rides to tango opera, Columbus Monthly’s handy Valentine’s Day grid will help you navigate the sensual season with aplomb (and maybe a heart-shaped pizza).

16 IMAGE

18 PEOPLE

Shadowbox Live celebrates its 35th anniversary with friends and supporters.

19 DATEBOOK

Adam Sandler, a Ukrainian symphony, SZA’s tour kickoff and more

Home & Style

50 Q&A

Joshua Schottenstein heals through pottery.

52 HOME

A Granville couple finds an unexpected forever home.

57 REAL ESTATE NOTES

A buyer’s market may be around the corner in 2023.

58 TOP 25 REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

Food & Drink

60 CHEFS

Ray Ray’s in Granville has transformed into a supper club featuring private dinners and competitive “Chef Scraps.”

62 SHORT ORDER

Head to Tacos Don Deme on the West Side for authentic, hearty Mexican fare.

63 GLOBAL

Discover Columbus’ trove of creative spins on pizza, reflecting food traditions from Puerto Rico to India.

64 PRODUCT

Can the conservas trend catch on in Columbus? One local chef is doing his part.

66 COPY & TASTE

Hereinafter Cocktail Tavern opens near Buckeye Lake.

67 LET’S EAT

Special Ad Section

43 CLASS ACT

A guide to some of the region’s notable private education options

EDITORIAL EDITOR

Dave Ghose

SENIOR EDITOR

Joel Oliphint

FOOD & DRINK EDITOR

Erin Edwards

SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Emma Frankart Henterly

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION/DESIGN DIRECTOR

Betsy Becker

DIGITAL EDITOR

Julanne Hohbach

PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO EDITOR

Tim Johnson

Jill Span Hofbauer wrote about a Granville couple’s reimagined ranch and surprising forever home (Page 52). She’s a freelance writer and a former Columbus Monthly staffer.

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MULTIMEDIA SALES EXECUTIVES

Michelle Crossman

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Jackie Thiam

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Rebecca Zimmer

MARKETING MARKETING MANAGER

Lauren Reinhard

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CONTRIBUTORS

Steve Stephens is a lifelong Central Ohio resident, a former Columbus Dispatch reporter and a freelance travel writer. He contributed two stories to our annual Best Driving Vacations package (Page 26).

Bethia Woolf highlighted several Central Ohio restaurants that offer global spins on pizza (Page 63). She’s a freelance food writer and co-founder of Columbus Food Adventures.

FROM THE EDITOR

The Worst Job in Columbus

In two-and-a-half years, Kristina Johnson experienced a rise and fall for the ages. In 2021, she was one of Columbus’ emerging stars—a talented and ambitious leader who seemed poised to take Ohio State University to unprecedented heights. Then in late November 2022, the university announced that Johnson will resign at the end of the academic year—a stunning reversal of fortune. Our February cover story digs into this turn of events, examining the confusing circumstances and unanswered questions that surround her departure (“President, Interrupted,” Page 20).

dghose@columbusmonthly.com

estate developer Ron Pizzuti. “I personally believe that the presidency of a large public university like Ohio State is probably the toughest job in the world,” says Gil Cloyd, chair of the Ohio State Foundation Board and a former university trustee. “I don’t think they’ve printed enough money since the beginning of time to make me want the job of president of Ohio State,” says prominent OSU donor Stanley Ross.

Send letters to: Editor, Columbus Monthly, 62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289, Columbus, OH 43216. Or email: letters@columbus monthly.com. A letter must include the writer’s name, address and daytime phone number. Letters will be edited for length and clarity. All letters sent to Columbus Monthly are considered for publication, either in print or online.

Columbus Monthly

I wrote this story, and it was familiar terrain for me. I’m not sure how I became Columbus Monthly’s Bricker Hall correspondent, but I’ve written major features about every Ohio State president going back to Karen Holbrook in 2003. Each leader, of course, has been very different, but certain themes have run through every one of these stories. Chief among them is this: the profoundly challenging nature of being the president of Ohio State. “It may be the most difficult job in the country,” says real

COMMENTS

Run it Back

Freelance writer Chris DeVille’s oral history of the 2002 Ohio State football team, which went 14-0 and won a national championship (“The Underdog Juggernaut,” January), elicited welcome nostalgia from Buckeye fans. “One of the all-time great games!” Gary Allen commented on Facebook, referring to the national championship game against Miami. Ronald J. Lumbrezer agreed: “That was an awesome game plan, and the Bucks showed up big time.” Commenter Michael Wander had a slightly different take: “They didn’t overachieve.

Based on what I’ve seen and heard over the years, it’s hard to disagree with these sentiments. To succeed at Ohio State, a president needs to be a scholar, a diplomat, a politician, a lobbyist and a CEO. Does any single person meet all of those standards? Maybe not.

Which makes an idea floated by Cloyd intriguing. He suggests restructuring the job, creating a new position of “chief operating officer,” who would assume many of the president’s current duties. “I think that could be a very good model for these large public universities,” he says.

It’s worth considering.

They were under-expected. They had more first-team All-Americans in 2002 than anyone.” Ray Adkins III has trouble looking back fondly when the wound from the Buckeyes’ recent one-point loss to national champions Georgia in the Peach Bowl is still fresh: “Should have happened again this year.”

RIP Eastland Mall

In early January, Scott Woods, who pens a weekly column online at columbusmonthly. com, wrote about the demise of Eastland Mall (“We Killed Eastland Mall, and It’s OK”), which inspired nearly 200 comments on the magazine’s Facebook post. “Crime didn’t kill Eastland; Easton did,” commented Cj Kendricks. “If

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you had continued to support the local businesses … they might have tried harder to keep it afloat.” “Columbus was over-retailed by the late ’90s/early 2000s,” wrote Katie Moerch.

Correction

In a January Home & Style story about the Bexley home of Joe and Anna Gasbarro, the couple’s daughter, Gemma, was misidentified.

front & center

Artful Decay

Using dampened pieces of leftover rebar from a sculpture, Sa’dia Rehman creates rust patterns on watercolor paper. The artist’s solo show opens at the Wexner Center on Feb. 11. Read more on Page 12.

Photo by Tim Johnson

Trauma and Sisterhood

Early on in Tiffany McDaniel’s new novel, “On The Savage Side,” the character Mamaw Milkweed has a conversation with her two young granddaughters about witches. “A witch is merely a woman who is punished for being wiser than a man. That’s why they burned her,” she explains. “They tried to burn away her power because a woman who says more than she’s supposed to say, and does more than she’s supposed to do, is a woman they’ll try to silence and destroy.”

By Brittany Moseley

“On The Savage Side” is a book about women and the ways their lives are destroyed by addiction, violence and generational trauma. But it’s also a book about sisterhood and the relationships that keep people afloat in grim situations. The novel, which will be released on Feb. 14, is the Pickaway County author’s third after 2016’s “The Summer That Melted Everything” and 2020’s “Betty.”

The story centers on Arcade and Daffodil (Arc and Daffy for short), twin sisters

in Chillicothe who experience death, addiction and abuse in their childhood. As they grow up, the two struggle with the same issues that afflicted their parents, all while trying to create a space for themselves and their friends (the “Chillicothe Queens”) in the small Southern Ohio city.

“I’d grown up with kids like Arc and Daffy, and I saw these kids whose parents were addicts, and I saw how that affected them and the kind of abuse they suffered because of that,” McDaniel says. “I really

PHOTO: JENNIFER MCDANIEL

Tiffany McDaniel’s new novel is inspired by the true crime case of the Chillicothe Six.

wanted to infuse Arc and Daffy with those elements so that readers can see how those early years really shaped who they would become as adults.”

The book is inspired by the case of the Chillicothe Six. Between May 2014 and May 2015, six women went missing in the city. Four of them were later found dead, and two are still missing. Many of the women knew each other, and all struggled with addiction. A coroner ruled that one of the women, Tameka Lynch, died from a drug overdose, and another, Shasta Himelrick, died by suicide. (Himelrick’s family disputes this ruling.) In 2016, Jason McCrary was convicted of murdering one of the women, Timberly Claytor. No other arrests have been made in any of the cases. Some believe there are more missing and murdered women who can be linked to the Chillicothe Six. However, law enforcement has never said there is a connection between any of the cases.

For McDaniel, who grew up in Southern and Central Ohio, her decision to w rite the book came from a personal connection. While researching the case, she discovered she went to school with a missing woman linked by some to the Chillicothe murders.

Although McDaniel stresses that all the characters in the book are fictional, the real Chillicothe Six were never far from her mind during the writing process. “I really wanted to emphasize who these women might have been and to show that they were more than the victims behind the headlines,” she says. “When I first heard about the case, [the] community reaction from where I was, was that the women— because of their links to certain lifestyle choices and all of that—there was an idea that they had been active participants in their deaths. I really wanted to illustrate the opposite of that and hopefully capture the spirit of who they were and to help people identify with them a little more. Because I think when you see those headlines, it causes readers and the audience to have a certain idea about who those women might have been.”

In many ways, the city of Chillicothe is another character in the book. It’s a city of contradictions, both beautiful and stark, lush and ravaged. The smoke from the town’s paper mill is described as the dust kicked up by galloping horses underground. The river is referred to as a woman who holds the bodies of the victims, as well as their hopes and secrets. “Some-

times I thought the whole of Chillicothe on a map would be but a bruised mark, like it’d come into contact with a difficult thing,” the character Arc says.

This balance of dark and light is prevalent throughout “On The Savage Side.” Mama Milkweed explains to Arc and Daffy that knitted quilts, like life, have a beautiful side—“all the things that make you the happiest”—and a savage side—“the side kind to the mood of monsters and all the things they play with.” On one side are difficult-to-read scenes about addiction, death and child abuse. On the other side

“

I really wanted to emphasize who these women might have been and to show that they were more than the victims behind the headlines.

are beautifully crafted dialogue (“I wish they knew how hard it is to love a child you can’t find,” says one character) and vibrant moments of poetic imagery (“If it was dirt that sang to me, it was water that sang to Daffy,” Arc says).

“I really wanted to portray these characters in a way that you felt those moments of that beautiful side, but realized they were living on the savage side,” McDaniel says. “And through the smoke from the paper mill and through the grit and grime on the streets, that there was still singing among the characters.” ◆

PHOTOS: TIFFANY MCDANIEL

Above, the paper mill in Chillicothe; below, graffiti about Shasta Himelrick, one of the Chillicothe Six

When Black Power Came to Linden

A new documentary explores a largely forgotten fight for racial justice at LindenMcKinley High School.

By Dave Ghose

In May 1971, Black students at Linden-McKinley High School made a statement with their feet. To mark the birthday of Malcolm X, they walked about 4 miles from their school to Franklin Park, where they gathered for a celebration honoring the slain civil rights leader. Growing up in Linden, Simone Drake heard about the march from her parents, both Linden-McKinley students in the early ’70s. “It was still close to the civil rights era, and I thought it was sort of cool, like, ‘Wow, in Columbus, Ohio, they were marching, too,’” Drake recalls.

In fact, it was even more remarkable than she realized. Decades later, when her father, Edward Poindexter, decided to take a screenwriting class for fun, a fuller portrait emerged of this period. Drake learned that the march was part of a broader struggle for representation, education and equality at the school—one that culminated with Linden-McKinley closing for nearly a week following protests, police violence and arrests.

Poindexter considered writing a screenplay about this period for his class, but he ultimately went in another direction. Instead, he, his daughter and his screenwriting teacher, Celia Peters, joined forces to make a documentary film, “Shutdown,” about the tumultuous events of 1971, telling the story of this largely forgotten but important chapter in Columbus’ racial justice history.

The project proved challenging. The filmmakers started work on it in March 2020, as the pandemic hit Central Ohio. The documentary went forward, with in-

terviews conducted in 2020 and 2021, but the filmmakers needed to follow new safety guidelines. Some interviews were conducted over Zoom, while others were done in a studio at Ohio State University, generally with just the interview subject alone in a room. Peters would ask questions via Zoom from her base in Oakland, California, where she moved after her term as a visiting instructor at Ohio State ended.

Despite all these complications, the key figures were eager to participate. “It was

like they were waiting for somebody to ask them about this,” Peters says. In total, she conducted 17 interviews for the film, including with former Columbus City Schools superintendent Gene Harris, who, along with her husband, Stan, was a student at Linden-McKinley at the time.

The film focuses on a group called “the Black Student Union.” These teenagers— smart, dedicated and passionate activists, who drew inspiration from the civil rights and Black power movements—pushed

PHOTOS:

TOP, COLUMBUS DISPATCH FILE; BOTTOM, TIM JOHNSON

Top, police action at LindenMcKinley High School in 1971; bottom, Simone Drake and her father, Edward Poindexter, at the school, now called Linden-McKinley STEM Academy

school officials to change the curriculum at Linden-McKinley to better reflect their culture and history. Their campaign won over school administrators, but it also upset some white students. Tensions boiled over in May 1971, when two Black nationalist flags were displayed in an auditorium. Violence broke out, and police stormed the school, making arrests and beating students with billy clubs.

The trauma of the 1971 events scarred those involved, but their efforts did have an impact, focusing attention on racial injustice and inequities in schools. The unrest, in part, led to a class action lawsuit, Goss v. Lopez, that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, with the justices ruling in 1975 that school officials had violated students’ due process rights by suspending them without hearings. That was followed by another racial justice case, Columbus Board of Education v. Penick, in which the Supreme Court upheld in 1979 a lower court order demanding the desegregation of the district.

“Shutdown” offers lessons for our current moment, the filmmakers say. Drake, the executive producer, praises the Linden-McKinley students’ focus on Black studies and education, topics that she says many Black Lives Matter activists ignore— to their detriment. “My sense is, students then were more interested in learning what they didn’t know, and that’s not what I see now,” says Drake, an Ohio State English professor and a former chair of the university’s Department of African American and African Studies.

Peters hopes the film will inspire community engagement in Columbus and beyond. “I’m excited for this story to be told and for kids to see it and to understand that they do have agency, and they are empowered, and they are important,” she says. ◆

VIEWING THE FILM

No date is scheduled yet, but the filmmakers plan to host the premiere of “Shutdown” at Linden-McKinley STEM Academy early this year. After that, they expect to hold additional screenings at the Wexner Center for the Arts, as well as posting the documentary online.

Front & Center | Arts

Submerged Histories

Open family secrets inspire Columbus artist Sa’dia Rehman’s new body of work at the Wexner Center.

By Joel Oliphint

Growing up in Queens, Sa’dia Rehman would often hear their father talk about the family’s history in Pakistan in vague terms. “It was always, ‘We got displaced,’ and that’s it,” Rehman says. “We’ve known about this displacement for years, but I had not tapped into it. I wanted to see this place that my family continues to talk about but doesn’t really talk about.”

So in March of last year, before the summer monsoon season, Rehman visited an area near the Indus River in Pakistan where, between 1968 and 1976, villages were displaced during construction of the Tarbela Dam, the largest earth-filled dam in the world. Packed into a Suzuki with family members, Rehman went to a reservoir near the dam, taking video and photos along the way.

After boarding a boat, Rehman found several Qurans bound together and tied

to a rock—one method for respectful, underwater disposal of a damaged copy of the holy text. Receding waters had left the weathered, bundled pages resting at the shoreline, where arid land met the shallow, clay-filled waters. “I felt like it was a metaphor for many things,” Rehman says. “This stack was like a sculptural object containing all of these stories and histories that are passed down, but it was thrown in the water to be erased. And now it’s miraculously emerged from the water.”

The experience inspired Rehman, a local multidisciplinary artist, to create a sculptural object that will be submerged in water and on display with a new body of work at the Wexner Center for the Arts beginning Feb. 11. Over the course of the exhibition, which runs through early July, the object will change—fading, disintegrating, perhaps muddying the water

around it. “It’s an evolving kind of show. It changes as you go through space and time,” Rehman says.

In addition to multiple sculptures, the Wex exhibition will include prints, textiles, wall drawings and a 10-minute video that both documents and interprets Rehman’s time in Pakistan. Titled The River Runs Slow and Deep and All the Bones of My Ancestors Have Risen to the Surface to Knock and Click Like the Sounds of Trees in the Air, the show takes its name from a poem by Rehman’s sister, Bushra Rehman. Sa’dia spent two years in residence with the Wexner Center’s Learning and Public Practice team, headed by Dionne Custer Edwards, curator of this show.

This new body of work explores ideas of memory, grief, migration and the way a single event can trigger multigenerational trauma. While in Pakistan, Rehman re-

Sa’dia Rehman in their studio at the Fort

searched the displacement of their family by interviewing community members who lived through it. “[The government] threw fliers out of helicopters telling people, ‘You got to get out of here, because you’re going to be flooded,’” Rehman says. “My father’s village, all of them shifted to this one area 50 miles away. So that whole community is just swimming in PTSD and trauma.”

Rehman learned their grandfather refused to evacuate until their father and uncles dragged him away. Others told stories of villagers who chose to stay and drowned in their sleep. These histories added layers of meaning to graveyards near the Indus River that stay underwater nine months out of the year. When Rehman visited, white tombs poked through the water, inspiring the artist to make similarly shaped sculptures out of rebar—“the bones of a cement structure.”

In Pakistan, Rehman also saw a sign near a dam that had been painted with blue lettering on a white background. For the Wex show, Rehman copied the color scheme on wooden boards that resemble mounted protest signs, but with text taken from the artist’s own writings. “When you put Khar Kot into Google Maps/It shows up in blue,” one sign reads. “So soft that your feet could sink to mid-calf,” reads another.

“I see these as stanzas in a poem,” Rehman says. “I see the whole show, actually, as a poem. The takeaway that I would hope for the show is just a feeling—the feeling of grief and loss and emptiness that could be filled.” ◆

Rehman uses materials that change over time, like cracked clay and burnt wood.

In the Mood for Love

Looking for a Valentine’s Day outing? There’s no shortage of options in Columbus, though what constitutes a fun or romantic experience is in the eye of the beholder. From carriage rides to tango opera to stylish staycations, our handy grid will help you navigate Central Ohio’s sensual season with aplomb (and maybe a heart-shaped pizza). —DAVE GHOSE

FANCY

Sensual tango opera: “Maria de Buenos Aires,” Feb. 24 & 26, $28–$108, operacolumbus.org

Stylish staycations: Valentine’s Day packages at AC Columbus Dublin, Feb. 14, $350–$850, ac-hotels.marriott.com

Artsy happy hour: Valentine’s Day at CMA Cocktail Celebration, Feb. 10, $50, columbusmuseum.org

Love in the kitchen: Romantic cooking classes at the Seasoned Farmhouse, Feb. 3–14, $35–$220 (wait list for most), theseasoned farmhouse.com

Painting and wine: Date-night classes at Pinot’s Palette, Feb. 6–14, $37-$42, pinotspalette.com/ shortnorth

Passionate power play: Valentine’s Day with the Columbus Blue Jackets (stop by the Hall of Hockey for a Valentine’s treat), Feb. 14 (CBJ vs. New Jersey Devils), $20–$300 (game tickets), nhl.com/bluejackets

Make a personalized valentine: Art class at Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, Feb. 9, $40–$48, fpconservatory.org

Fox trot lessons and Italian food: Valentine’s Dinner & Dance at the Farm at Harvest Hills (operated by Harvest Hills Ministries), Feb. 11, $100, harvesthills ministries.org Breakup song bonanza: Danceville U.S.A.’s 10th annual AntiValentine’s Day Party, Feb. 14, $50, dancevilleusa.com

Horsing around: Carriage rides at Easton, Feb. 10-12 & 14, $10 per adult (cash only), eastontowncenter.com

Riot grrrls forever: Punk Rock Prom at Natalie’s Grandview, Feb. 25–26, $25–$35 tickets and $10 prom photos, nataliesgrandview.com

Lovin’, touchin’, learnin’: COSI After Dark: Science, Love and Rock ’n’ Roll, Feb. 9, $20–$30, cosi.org

My funny valentine:

St. James Tavern Valentine’s Day Theatre Shorts Festival, Feb. 14 (St. James Tavern) & Feb. 16 (Spires Social), free admission (but not drinks), facebook.com/OGPColumbus

A haunted Valentine’s Day: Fear Columbus’ “Love is in the Scare,” Feb. 10–12, $29.99–$39.99 (wait list), fearcolumbus.com

Order a heartshaped pizza: Donatos, Feb. 6–14, $13.79 (pepperoni), donatos.com

Romance with a side of fries: The return of White Castle’s Valentine’s Day dinners, Feb. 14, regular menu, whitecastle.com

PHOTO BY KYLE ROBERTSON

A European starling eats a berry in Hilliard while ice forms underneath its beak in December 2022.

Shadowbox Live’s 365

The Oct. 12 program kicked off a yearlong celebration of Shadowbox’s 35th anniversary. About 150 people attended the event at the theater company’s Brewery District venue, raising $215,000 in support of the nonprofit performing arts organization’s programming and operations.

1 Chantel Morgan, Abby Morrison 2 Kathy Kerr, Carol McGuire, Nichole Dunn, Betsy Blake

3 Bruce Garfield, Beth Jackson 4 Vidal and Lana Cruz 5 Kalia Ivery, Brionna Rivers 6 Linda Woggon, Julie and Jim Henahan 7 Maxine Williams, Evan Williams 8 Tom Katzenmeyer, Stacie Boord, Emily Toney 9 Tom Cardinal, Joe Knapik 10 Chris Washington, David Staley

FEBRUARY 2023

datebook

FEB. 2 | Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine

Denison University’s Vail Series, now in its 44th year, aims to bring the world to the Granville campus. This month, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine will stop at Denison’s Swasey Chapel, with principal conductor Theodore Kuchar leading the orchestra. Tickets will be limited. denison.edu/series/vail

FEB. 7 | Adam Sandler

The comic star returns to Columbus on the heels of another surprising dramatic performance (“Hustle”) and ahead of his Mark Twain Prize ceremony in March. At this Nationwide Arena show, expect more goofy charm than gravitas, of course—and perhaps a few tears courtesy of the “Chris Farley Song.” nationwidearena.com

FEB. 7 | Jamila Minnicks

Gramercy Books, in partnership with the King Arts Complex and Ohio State University’s Department of History, brings Jamila Minnicks, award-winning author of the novel Moonrise Over New Jessup, to its Bexley bookshop for a conversation with OSU historian and civil rights scholar Hasan Jeffries. gramercybooksbexley.com/ events

FEB. 18–26 | Home & Garden Show

The Columbus Dispatch Spring Home & Garden Show returns to the Ohio Expo Center. The 67th annual extravaganza will include the ever-popular landscaping installations, this year with an

A CURATED LIST OF THINGS TO SEE AND DO IN COLUMBUS

“enchanted garden” theme, as well as an Art Park feature, 250-plus local businesses and more. dispatchhome andgardenshow.com

FEB. 21 | SZA

Following up on her groundbreaking 2017 debut, CTRL, SZA issued blockbuster

sophomore album SOS in December, which landed the singer her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart and the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album. Columbus is fortunate to host this pop star’s tour kickoff at the Schottenstein Center. schottensteincenter.com

GIVE BACK

FEB. 25

WesterBall 2023

The cultural gala, featuring arts and music programming at Otterbein University’s the Point, raises money for the Arts Council of Westerville and its goal of establishing a cultural arts center in the suburb. artscouncil ofwesterville.com

FEB. 27–MARCH 6

Buckeye Cruise for Cancer

Supporting the Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital, this seven-night cruise begins in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with stops at St. Kitts, St. Lucia and other Caribbean locales. buckeyecruise.com

ONGOING

The Period Pantry

This nonprofit, which focuses on eradicating “period poverty,” is looking for volunteers to host online fundraisers, sort menstruation products into supply kits and deliver those kits to people in need. theperiodpantryproject. org/get-involved

SZA

PRESIDENT,

The dazzling rise and stunning fall of Ohio State’s Kristina Johnson

BY DAVE GHOSE

Kristina Johnson was different. Tanny Crane recognized that right away.

Shortly after Ohio State University appointed Johnson its 16th president in June 2020, the new leader contacted both Crane and her mother, Loann, asking them to meet for lunch. This wasn’t surprising. Every new OSU president wants to talk to the Crane family, the owners of the Crane Group and major donors to several Central Ohio institutions, including Ohio State. But what was surprising was how quickly the call came—even before Johnson officially started at OSU—and how warm, approachable and considerate she was.

Sharing a meal of quiche, salad, croissants and macarons from German Village’s Pistacia Vera, the trio met at the 95-year-old Loann Crane’s Miranova condo. One of the city’s great arts patrons, Loann gave Johnson a tour of her personal collection, while the president shared tidbits about her first few days in Columbus. After the lunch, Johnson followed up with personal calls and thank-you notes. “Just all the things that you checkmark, ‘That’s lovely,’” Tanny says.

Johnson continued to stay in touch. When Loann Crane died in November 2021, Johnson dropped off a care package at Tanny’s home—the exact same Pistacia Vera meal they shared during their first lunch together. “I was so struck by her thoughtfulness and how in the world she remembered that,” Tanny says.

Johnson’s leadership also inspired Crane. At Johnson’s pandemic-delayed investiture (also in November 2021), she outlined an initiative, called the Scarlet & Gray Advantage, with an ambitious goal of creating a debt-free degree within a decade at Ohio State. The moonshot proposal so inspired Crane that she decided to rejoin the Ohio State Foundation Board after recently dropping off. “I was really enamored with [the plan],” Crane says. “I just thought, ‘Wow, what can I do to help?’” What’s more, Crane believed in Johnson, a new kind of Ohio State leader. “She had unique qualities we just hadn’t seen in a president before,” Crane says.

That’s why Johnson’s stunning reversal of fortune is so hard to understand. On Nov. 28, 2022, just a year after Crane and other community leaders celebrated Johnson at that investiture in Mershon Auditorium, Ohio State announced that Johnson will step down as president at end of the academic year—a bombshell that came with no explanation, fueling rumors and speculation. A year ago, Johnson was a rising star, with seemingly all of Columbus swooning over her. Today, she’s a lame duck whose 33-month OSU presidency will be the shortest in 140 years when it ends in May. What happened? How did she fall so far, so fast? And if someone like her can’t make it in Bricker Hall, who can?

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

NTERRUPTED

Kristina Johnson in her Bricker Hall office in April 2021

The reactions were pretty much the same. When news broke about Johnson’s resignation, her admirers responded similarly. “Surprise is an understatement,” says real estate developer Ron Pizzuti, whose former Bexley home, Pizzuti House, is the university’s presidential residence.

“Nobody had an inkling of it,” says Stanley Ross, a prominent Ohio State donor. “It was just a bolt from the blue,” says Gil Cloyd, chair of the Ohio State Foundation Board and a former university trustee.

The news didn’t make sense. Johnson was finishing up her second year of a five-year contract. She was developing relationships with critical Ohio State stakeholders. She was talking about huge, long-term goals around research, fundraising, student debt and more. “I know she really intended to be here for a decade,” Cloyd says.

In a statement provided to The Columbus Dispatch in November, University Senate Faculty Council chair Caroline Clark called Johnson “one of our best university leaders in recent times,” a comment echoed by others both on campus and in the broader Columbus community. “An excellent president,” says Brian Perera, Ohio State’s recently retired associate vice president for state relations. “A very effective president—probably the most effective of my time here,” says Keith Myers, the university’s former vice president of planning, architecture and real estate, who also served under Johnson predecessors Michael Drake and Gordon Gee and interim president Joseph Alutto. “A superstar,” says Columbus attorney and civic leader Larry James, who befriended Johnson and her wife, Veronica Meinhard.

These rave reviews, of course, don’t correlate with her presidency’s abrupt and confusing denouement, a state of affairs the university seems unwilling to clear up. Senior university leaders declined to be interviewed for this story. Johnson also declined to comment through her attorney, R ex Elliott, who said university officials asked her to turn down the request. Johnson previously had spoken with The Dispatch, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed, though she offered no additional information about why she was resigning. Citing anonymous sources, The Dispatch reported in early December that trustees asked Johnson to resign following a review by an outside consultant. The review uncovered claims from staffers about a hostile work environment,

The Dispatch reported, as well as concerns about dishonesty in Johnson’s interactions with trustees.

In addition, university officials are being cagey with public documents. The consultant, Richard Chait, an emeritus professor with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, was hired to assist with Johnson’s 2022 performance review. He spoke with members of the university community and summarized those conversations verbally with board members, says OSU spokesman Benjamin Johnson (no relation). University trustees also didn’t complete a 2022 performance review for Johnson because they knew in advance of their November board meeting her intent to resign, Benjamin Johnson says. Those actions avoided creating written documents that might be accessible via public records requests.

This opacity has frustrated some. “The public deserves to know why Johnson is departing the university after such a short time,” wrote Jessica Langer, the editor of The Lantern student newspaper in a Dec. 1 column. “Ohio State is a public institution, and that requires transparency. The Ohio State community isn’t getting that from Johnson, Ohio State or the board of trustees.”

“Just because a body or committee is empowered to make certain decisions without having to explain its actions does not mean it should,” wrote Ohio State professor Judson Jeffries in a Dec. 2 Dispatch op-ed about Johnson’s resignation, also calling for more transparency. In an interview with Columbus Monthly, Jeffries elaborated on why he spoke out. “Someone on the faculty had to raise this issue

Johnson leads OSU’s commencement ceremony in May 2021.

At Ohio State, there’s the president, and then there’s the “owner.” Presidents come and go, the joke goes, but the “owner,” Les Wexner, never leaves.

[to get] people talking about it publicly,” says the professor of African American and African studies.

It’s hard to believe that Johnson’s presidency has gotten to this point. When she was hired, she seemed like an ideal candidate on paper. She’s an academic, an entrepreneur, an inventor, a scientist, even a former collegiate field hockey athlete whose grandfather played football at Ohio State. She also showed decisive leadership from the start, taking aggressive actions to control COVID on the Ohio State campus (even before her official first day) while also launching an ambitious agenda that includes doubling research spending, expanding faculty and staff, and eliminating student debt through the Scarlet & Gray Advantage initiative. Though her tenure has been short, she’s made progress on those goals, bringing down COVID positivity rates during her first few months on campus, setting a new record for research expenditures in 2021 and surpassing initial Scarlet & Gray fundraising targets.

Johnson’s admirers lament the loss of such a dynamic leader. “Everyone who cares about academic excellence was very disappointed at this turn of events,” says Robert Holub, chair of the Germanic Languages and Literatures Department and a member of the President’s and Provost’s Advisory Committee.

Long Columbus’ most powerful leader, Wexner is no longer quite the civic force he once was in Central Ohio after his connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became a public scandal. But the 85-year-old billionaire philanthropist and L Brands founder remains a power player at Ohio State, where he continues to chair the OSU Wexner Medical Center Board, which oversees the $4.89 billion health care operation. And several of his allies (including his wife, Abigail) remain on the board of trustees, ensuring he retains influence there. So when intrigue occurs at Ohio State—like the sudden resignation of a seemingly popular president—all eyes turn to him.

Did Wexner push out Johnson? A knowledgeable community source says Johnson and Wexner did not have a strong relationship, with tensions developing over the management of the med center. But the source says the conflict wasn’t

“just with Wexner; it was with all the med center board members, along with university trustees.

These problems seemed to come to a head over Johnson’s handling of the search to replace Dr. Hal Paz, the med center CEO who left Ohio State in October 2021 to become the executive vice president for health sciences at Stony Brook University in New York. A pair of sources says Johnson pushed out Paz, even though he was admired by many trustees and university leaders. (Paz didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Then, as the search to replace Paz reached what was supposed to be the final stages in 2022, Johnson failed to share critical information with trustees and med center board members, two sources say. The university had zeroed in on a top candidate, Dr. Mark Anderson, then the director of the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. But Anderson ended up taking a job at the University of Chicago instead. Board members were surprised, wondering how they didn’t know about this competition for their prized recruit. It turned

Just because a body or committee is empowered to make certain decisions without having to explain its actions does not mean it should.”

▲ Left, Johnson with Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation (left), and Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (right) at the Intel groundbreaking ceremony; right, Johnson cheers on the OSU women’s basketball team.

JUDSON JEFFRIES, professor of African American and African studies at Ohio State University

out Johnson did know, the sources say, but she didn’t share that information with board members.

That incident fed into an already developing narrative about dishonesty and lack of transparency in Johnson’s decision-making and communications. “In fact, she was asked to come and tell the board how she was going to deal with those shortcomings,” one source says. In February 2021, Johnson made her first State of the University speech, revealing a slew of ambitious plans (hiring 350 additional faculty members, eradicating student debt, turning Ohio State into an anti-racist community). Johnson didn’t vet her ideas with the board, angering some trustees, a source says.

The first openly gay Ohio State president, Johnson also faced criticism that she was too “woke” for the university. In September 2020, she sent a campuswide email decrying authorities’ decision not to bring charges in the fatal Breonna Taylor police shooting in Kentucky, incorrectly saying that Taylor was asleep at the time and that police shootings of people of color wouldn’t stop “until we create an anti-racist world.” That statement drew complaints to the university Human Resources

Department, accusing Johnson of dividing the campus over issues of race, according to copies of the complaints obtained by Columbus Monthly through an open records request. Two sources say Johnson’s progressive views also caused friction between her and some trustees, particularly those appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in recent years.

But the turning point seems to have occurred in summer 2022, when trustees began to look into concerns that Johnson had created a hostile work environment for employees at Bricker Hall. As part of Johnson’s performance review, trustees decided to get feedback from her cabinet, the 15 senior leaders on campus who oversee such areas as athletics, academics, research and finances. A community leader says about two-thirds of the cabinet reported bullying behavior from Johnson, including people she recruited to the university.

The revelations became a “bridge too far,” the community leader says, leading to her departure. “There was a crescendoing effect as people kept bringing these forward, and there was no correction on her part,” the source says. “And then this whole staffing situation is where the house of cards comes falling down.”

Judith Wilde and James Finkelstein, researchers at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, call Johnson’s tenure a “failed presidency”— defined as a tenure that ends within the first two years of a contract. The characterization is not a judgment on Johnson’s or any other president’s accomplishments (and doesn’t take them into consideration, in fact). But as a matter of course, a short time in office makes it difficult to have lasting impact.

The average length of a university presidency has been trending downward. A 2017 American Council on Education study put the figure at 6.5 years, down from 7 in 2011 and 8.5 in 2006. Over the past 25 years at Ohio State, the longest presidential tenure has been Michael Drake’s six-year run from 2014 to 2020. OSU donor Tanny Crane fears this trend could damage the university. “I do believe that stability and continuity are critical right now, and we haven’t had it,” she says. “I’m a graduate. I’ve had many relatives who have attended Ohio State University, and we’re proud to be associated with it and have our name on some things there. So it really worries me about the stature and reputation of Ohio State University when we haven’t retained a president for a while.”

Johnson and her wife, Veronica Meinhard (red sweater), celebrate the 2022 homecoming court.

PHOTO: DORAL CHENOWETH III

Indeed, that history—and the Johnson episode, in particular—could affect the effort to replace her. Ohio State remains a strong institution, and its top leader will be compensated generously (Johnson’s annual base salary is $927,000). But the lack of clarity surrounding Johnson’s resignation may unnerve strong job candidates. “ They actually should be reticent about taking a job at an institution that operates in such opaque ways,” says Jeffries, the Ohio State professor.

Johnson’s abrupt departure inevitably focused attention on the OSU board and its role, both in her resignation and in the way she was hired. The university paid executive search firm Isaacson, Miller at least $420,000 to find Johnson, which didn’t include nearly $48,000 for flights, ground transportation and hotels for the presidential candidates who visited campus as part of the search. Even DeWine says he is concerned about what appears to be rapid presidential turnover, suggesting in mid-December that board trustees should be more involved. “I understand that boards of trustees now always get national search firms,” DeWine told reporters. “That’s OK, but I think there’s also people that might be available that the trustees collectively already know about.”

Wilde also recommends more local involvement. While she acknowledges that search firms are here to stay, she points out that many take too much control out of the hands of university boards. “When you read some of these contracts, the search firm has great power all the way up to the

final selection, and that’s where we start having some issues,” she says.

Ohio State trustees met on Dec. 19 to begin discussions about the next presidential search. The university will share additional details about the effort and how the community can participate in early 2023, says OSU spokesman Benjamin Johnson. Advice is already flowing in. Mark Kvamme, partner emeritus at the Columbus venture capital firm Drive Capital (of which Ohio State was an early investor), says the university should focus on recruiting a true nonacademic for the job. While Johnson had a more diverse background than previous presidents— starting her own tech company, serving as an undersecretary of energy in the Obama administration—she remained at heart an academic, Kvamme says. He thinks the university needs someone who’s been the CEO of a major corporation or the head of a large institution, like a governor or a mayor of a big city. He also recommends bringing in a known entity as an interim president to “steady the ship” following the recent upheaval. He floats such possibilities as former Columbus Partnership CEO Alex Fischer (a current member of the OSU board), former Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman, recently retired AEP CEO Nick Akins and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who brought Kvamme to Columbus to serve in his administration in 2011.

W hoever leads the university—whether it’s an interim or the permanent president—Kvamme says that person needs to better understand how Ohio State and

Columbus operate: the expectations, the power dynamics, the culture. “My fear is they’re going to do this big, long, expensive search again, and bring somebody from the outside who has the right resume, but they’re not going to know how to play the game,” Kvamme says.

For the next four months, Kristina Johnson will exist in a strange limbo. She will remain in office through May, until the spring commencement ceremony at the end of the academic year. “This will allow a search for the next president to proceed and adequate time for me to assist with a seamless transition,” she said in the Nov. 28 announcement.

The arrangement is puzzling. Why would trustees want to keep her around after all the tumult? And why would she want to stay? Regardless, Johnson is soldiering on. The day after her resignation announcement, she attended a previously scheduled President’s and Provost’s Advisory Committee luncheon in an Astronomy Department seminar room, as well as a reception later that day in the Ohio Union. On Dec. 18, she presided over winter graduation.

Perhaps the most awkward event occurred on Dec. 1, when Johnson and her wife, Veronica Meinhard, hosted the president’s annual holiday reception at Pizzuti House. In attendance were community, business and political leaders, including Gov. DeWine, as well as members of the media. Still, by all accounts, the event proceeded normally, with Johnson offering only guarded remarks on wishing she could continue in her position.

Her supporters say she’s taking the high road. “She’s not putting blame on anyone,” says Pizzuti, who’s spoken to her several times since the resignation and considers both Johnson and Meinhard “lifelong friends.” Crane also has spoken to the couple on multiple instances, and she says they’ve always delivered the same message. “They love Ohio State, love Columbus, would love to stay here, but they’re very respectful of leadership, and they want to do the right thing,” Crane says.

Freelance writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins contributed to this story.

 Johnson gives the 2022 State of the University address at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

BEST DRIVING VACATIONS

National Treasures

The crown jewels are west of the Mississippi, but you can still find stunning views, gorgeous beaches, fascinating history and more in national parks closer to home. In this year’s edition of our annual Best Driving Vacations feature, Columbus Monthly highlights four of these more accessible gems, all within a roughly six-hour drive of Central Ohio.

The view from Cliff Top on Mount Le Conte

BEFORE YOU GO

Weather can be unpredictable in the Smokies, and temperatures can vary by as much as 20 degrees from a mountain’s base to its top. It’s a good idea to have a poncho or rain jacket on hand, especially in the spring and summer. Reservations and permits are required for all of the 100-plus backcountry campsites and are strongly recommended or required for the 10 front country campgrounds, especially during peak season.

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS

Discover an iconic view atop Mount Le Conte amid the natural splendor of the country’s most popular national park.

By Emma Frankart Henterly

Quick, what’s America’s most visited national park? If you guessed Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, try again. Another park blows both out of the water, and it’s much closer—less than a day’s drive from Central Ohio.

Spanning more than half a million acres split almost evenly across North Carolina and Tennessee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park saw more than 14 million visitors in 2021—a record high in the park’s nearly 100-year history. This popularity may be due, in part, to its status as one of the few national parks without an entrance fee. (Though a new parking tag requirement goes into effect March 1.) Predictably, visitor traffic in the Smokies is highest from spring through early fall, with the biggest spikes in July and October. But with careful planning and a little flexibility, you can easily be one of the millions who will enjoy the beauty of these ancient mountains this year.

In early May last year, I hiked to the top of Mount Le Conte, the third-highest peak in the park at 6,593 feet. My companion and I made the most of our trip by hiking up the Rainbow

Falls Trail and down the Trillium Gap Trail, which connects to the parking lot at the Rainbow Falls trailhead via a half-mile side trail. The namesake feature on the Rainbow Falls Trail is about 2.7 miles in and well worth the effort of packing down for a short break. After another 2.3 miles or so, you’ll summit a ridge with fantastic, sweeping views to the north and west; on our hike, visibility extended well past Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. From there, it’s ridgeline hiking and one last push to LeConte Lodge and campsites, near the top of the peak.

Three key points are each less than a half-mile away: Myrtle Point faces east for a gorgeous sunrise, while Cliff Top is the place to watch the sunset. Get there early to claim a good spot on the rocky lookout, which offers the kind of stunning views you picture when you think of the Smokies. The third point of interest, High Top, is the peak’s true summit. You’ll find no views here, though; just a large cairn to mark the spot.

Our hike out along the Trillium Gap Trail began when we were greeted by a train of llamas, who make the trek several times a week (usual-

SIDE TRIP

Often called the “gateway to the Smoky Mountains,” Gatlinburg offers much of the same kind of kitschy shopping, dining and entertainment as nearby Pigeon Forge, but with better scenery. Head 400 feet into the air via the Space Needle for sweeping views of the city and park, or ride the 2-mile Sky Lift cable car from downtown up to Ober Gatlinburg Adventure Park and Ski Area. Be ready to work out your wallet; prices are at a premium in this popular resort town. gatlinburg.com

ly Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) to bring supplies to the lodge. Though longer than Rainbow Falls, Trillium Gap felt a bit easier to hike, and we passed a few families with small children.

If you have time, head back to the Gatlinburg park entrance and jump on Newfound Gap Road to Newfound Gap, the lowest point in the park (elevation: 5,046 feet). Here you can park and take a day hike along the North Carolina/Tennessee border on the Appalachian Trail (Indian Gap is a 3.4-mile out-and-back hike), or take Clingmans Dome Road to the parking lot at its terminus. If you’re lucky enough to find a parking spot at this extremely popular site, take the half-mile path up to Clingmans Dome’s peak (the tallest in the park at 6,643 feet). An observation tower there offers 360-degree views of the park, weather permitting. The path is paved, but too steep to be considered wheelchair-accessible.

WHERE TO STAY

LeConte Lodge sits atop its namesake mountain and offers single- and multi-room cabins that sleep four to 13 guests each. They lack electricity, but include comforts like propane heat, kerosene lanterns, beds with linens and blankets, and covered porches with rocking chairs. A shared privy building has flush toilets. Reservations are required and include family-style breakfast and dinner in the dining hall; sack lunches and snacks are available in the gift shop, which also sells apparel, souvenir items and gear. lecontelodge.com

PHOTOS: TOP, EMMA FRANKART HENTERLY; BOTTOM, GETTY IMAGES/NATE CHESTER

Grotto Falls on the Trillium Gap Trail

INDIANA DUNES

Industry and nature coexist in a fascinating experiment along Lake Michigan.

By Steve Stephens

Like Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Indiana Dunes is located, in part, on land that once contained heavily polluted industrial sites. But the industry still remains at the national park along Lake Michigan, with some of the nation’s biggest steel mills interspersed with park property along the southern lakefront. The result is a fascinating experiment in coexistence: The wild, shifting dunes of the park, some more than 100 feet high, still wind around smokestacks, mills and several small lakeside towns, with the skyline of Chicago visible about 30 miles to the northwest across the water.

Named for the vast dunes left by melting Ice Age glaciers, the park was established as a national lakeshore in 1966 before becoming the 61st national park in in 2019; it’s now noted for the diversity of birds and plants found there. A national park was proposed to save the area’s unique dune ecosystem as early as 1899, but commercial interests hin-

dered preservation efforts. The biggest dune on Lake Michigan’s southern shore, the 200foot high Hoosier Slide, was actually trucked away for glassmaking. But scientists and conservationists were able to protect other dunes, such as 125-foot Mount Baldy, and natural features, even early on.

Today, the park comprises more than 15,000 acres in several noncontiguous chunks.

The biggest, easternmost parcel surrounds Indiana’s 2,000-acre Indiana Dunes State Park, created in 1925, the first natural area to be preserved in the region. And Indiana Dunes remains very much a cooperative federal and local effort, with the national park e ven sharing a visitors center with Indiana Dunes Tourism, a local tourism authority.

The state park is still the heart of the dunes region, featuring a historic pavilion with restrooms, shower houses and a snack bar for the thousands of sunbathers and swimmers

WHERE TO STAY

With several small towns and cities, the Indiana Dunes region offers plenty of nearby lodging options.

Name brand hotels and motels can be found across the lakefront. Also available are several charming, small inns, like the Dunes Walk Inn located in the 1881 Furness Mansion in Chesterton, and B&Bs like the verdant At Home in the Woods Bed and Breakfast in Chesterton.

duneswalkinn.com, athomeinthewoodsbb.com

who visit the park’s Lake Michigan beach each summer. Visitors will find eight other beaches in the national park, as well as 50 miles of hiking and walking trails. The trails take visitors through a variety of ecosystems, around and over dunes (including Mount Baldy), through 1,000 acres of oak savannah, across natural fens and marshes, and along Lake Michigan itself.

Visitors can also climb several of the large dunes, although some are off-limits in places with heavy erosion or where delicate native plants grow. Park development itself damaged several natural features at the dunes during the early 20th century. But in recent years, much of that unwise development has been undone, including a scenic and ecologically significant stretch of Dunes Creek that was restored in 2005 after once being covered by a state park parking lot. But industry was by far the biggest culprit in the harm done to the area’s unique lakeside ecology.

One of the best, and most unusual, walks within the park is at Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk, reclaimed from land once used by the former National Steel Co. to process industrial waste. An operating U.S. Steel plant can still be seen there, but so can migrating birds visiting the renaturalized wetlands along the site’s boardwalk.

In recent years, the remaining lakefront industries have done much to clean up their operations due to economic and regulatory incentives, as well as a growing awareness of the ecological significance. The beaches are still subject to occasional pollution alerts, however, so check the park’s website and beach signage for hazards before going in the water.

More examples of the clash between development and nature can be seen at the park’s historic Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm, which tell the story of changes people brought to the region even decades before industrialization. James Bailly was the first recorded nonnative resident of the area, setting up a fur-trading post in 1822. His descendants continued to live on the homestead until the early 20th century. The Chellberg family were Swedish immigrants, and their original, 19th-century brick farmhouse can now be toured by park visitors.

Another piece of history can be found at Beverly Shores, where park visitors can see a collection of five “Century of Progress” houses built for and displayed at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and floated by barge down Lake Michigan to their current sites.

SIDE TRIP

A number of charming lakeside towns can be found adjacent to Indiana Dunes National Park and close by. Michigan City, just east of the park, features a 1859 lighthouse and, for visitors looking for more modern action, a large casino. Other towns, such as Chesterton, Valparaiso and Porter, offer interesting galleries, shops, small museums and a number of good places to eat and drink. michigancitylaporte.com, southshorecva.com, indianadunes.com

A small waterfall along Canyon Run Trail

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ZRFPHOTO

SHENANDOAH

Explore this gorgeous oasis along the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

By Steve Stephens

Shenandoah National Park in northwestern Virginia hugs the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains like a lovely morning sunrise. About 350 miles from Columbus, the park’s 200,000 acres are stretched out along more than 100 miles of mountain crest from north to south, resulting in a long but narrow park bisected by Skyline Drive, one of America’s great scenic routes.

The road swings around curves both broad and sharp, cut to fit the undulations of the northern Blue Ridge Mountains. The 35-mph speed limit should be strictly heeded, if not for the S-curves and panoramic views, then for the abundant wildlife that’s liable to spring out from adjacent glades and woodlands, like the black bear cub I once encountered on the road as it scampered across the asphalt 30 yards ahead of me.

Skyline Drive is the only public road in the park, so it’s difficult to get lost, although I have done it. Just remember that the mileposts increase as you drive south, from 0 at the northern entrance in Front Royal near I-66 to 105 at the southern gate near Waynesboro at I-64. The park has two other entrances, off U.S. Route 33 near Elkton and off U.S. Route 211 near Luray.

WHERE TO STAY

Shenandoah features a variety of lodging options near the center of the park. Skyland, near milepost 42, and Big Meadows, at milepost 51, each offer rooms, suites, detached cabins and pet-friendly accommodations from $129 per night.

Lewis Mountain Cabins, at mile 57.5, has rustic, furnished cabins with private bathrooms and outdoor grilling areas from $48 per night. Visitors can also choose from four different campgrounds, and backcountry camping is allowed with a park permit. goshenandoah. com/lodging

Motoring nonstop from end to end takes about three hours, but even day-trippers will want to set aside plenty of time to pull off at some of the 75 scenic overlooks and many other points of interest. (A single vehicle pass to enter the park, good for seven consecutive days, is $30.)

The overlooks provide unforgettable panoramic views of the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west, or the rolling hills and fertile farmland of the Virginia piedmont to the east.

(And for those who want to continue on the scenic route, Skyline Drive connects at its southern end with the Blue Ridge Parkway, continuing another 469 miles south to and through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.)

Many visitors stop at Big Meadows, the largest developed area within Shenandoah, conveniently located near the center of the park at milepost 51. Big Meadows includes a lodge with a restaurant, serving, among other treats, a memorable blackberry pie. Visitors will also find a gas station and gift shop, picnic and campgrounds, and several trailheads at Big Meadows.

Across from the lodge is the Byrd Visitors Center, one of two park visitors centers.

The Byrd center features restrooms, a bookstore, information desk and theater with an introductory

PHOTO: EMMA FRANKART HENTERLY

movie. Visitors will also find exhibits about the history of the park and those who called the area home before the park’s establishment. Included are stories of some of the hundreds who were forced off their land, often unwillingly, by the government to make way for the park, created in 1935 in part because the Washington, D.C., crowd coveted a national park like those that had been established in America’s West.

President Herbert Hoover was wellacquainted with the area that was to become Shenandoah National Park. Rapidan Camp, Hoover’s summer presidential retreat, was located at the headwaters of the R apidan River, just a few miles from Big Meadows. Guided tours of the camp and Brown House, Hoover’s summer White House, reconstructed to appear as it did when Hoover used it from 1929 to 1932, begin at the Byrd center.

The Appalachian Trail also passes through Big Meadows just behind the lodge, giving visitors a great opportunity to hike the iconic trail, even if just for a few hundred yards and bragging rights. Hikers of all skill levels will find plenty of opportunities to explore Shenandoah, which is crisscrossed by more than 500 miles of well-marked trails.

During prime hiking weather, some of the more popular trails can become crowded. The park instituted limits on hiking Old Rag Mountain near Sperryville last year. Visitors who wanted to

SIDE TRIP

Shenandoah stretches more than 100 miles from north to south, so there are plenty of options for other things to see or do nearby. Consider stopping at historic Front Royal at the park’s northern entrance for dining, antique shops, several wineries and the Virginia Beer Museum. Charlottesville, about 25 miles east of the park’s southern entrance, is a must-visit destination, with historic homes like Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and James Monroe’s Highland, as well as the campus of the lovely University of Virginia with buildings designed by Jefferson. discoverfrontroyal. com, visitcharlottesville.org

use the ridge trail needed to obtain a dayuse ticket in advance. The park has not yet announced if the program will continue in 2023.

A lthough the Old Rag area trails are noted for their scenic beauty—and physical difficulty—many other less crowded and less rugged trails offer plenty of natural splendor within Shenandoah.

CUYAHOGA VALLEY

A magnificent restoration story attracts nature lovers to Northeast Ohio.

By Dave Ghose

Cuyahoga Valley has a tremendous capacity to delight and surprise. It’s a lesson that frequent visitors learn over and over—and one that hit me again during my last trip to Ohio’s only national park. In late November, my family and I spent the day hiking through the 33,000acre natural oasis between two of the state’s biggest cities, Cleveland and Akron. After hitting some favorite trails and attractions, we decided to try something different before beginning the two-hour drive back to Columbus. We went on a quick, quarter-mile walk to Beaver Marsh on the south end of the park. This 70-acre wetland, located along the popular Towpath Trail, is one of the park’s most vibrant areas—even on a bitterly cold, late fall day like this one. When we arrived at the marsh, we were surprised to spot two of its namesake rodents—a

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ASCHEN

beaver swimming to its dome-shaped den in the icy waters and another one lying on a nearby rock.

It’s glorious, of course, to see nature’s furriest engineers anywhere in Ohio, where they were wiped out in the 1800s before staging a comeback a century later. But seeing a beaver has special meaning in this spot, a place of extraordinary renewal. In the 1970s, the National Park Service took control of the property, a former auto salvage yard just west of the Cuyahoga River. A cleanup ensued, which then attracted beavers, who built dams that flooded the area, awakening dormant seeds of wetland plants and attracting even more wildlife, including bats, frogs, turtles, muskrats, herons and more.

Founded as a national recreation area in 1974 and elevated to national park status in 2000, Cuyahoga Valley has long stood out for its accessibility (no entrance fees), its location (within a one-hour drive of nearly 4 million people) and its rich history (the Ohio & Erie Canal once ran through it). But perhaps its most remarkable attribute is its restoration story, which can be seen in Beaver Marsh and other spots throughout the park.

In some ways, the genesis of the park occurred in 1969, when the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland, turning the city

The Ledges Trail

into an international punchline and helping create the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By conserving the river basin south of Cleveland, the park created a bulwark against further pollution while also giving Northeast Ohio a much-needed natural attraction. Today, that river—including its 22 miles inside the park—isn’t exactly pristine, but it is much healthier, with both paddlers and anglers enjoying its waters.

Perhaps the park’s most remarkable comeback story is the Krejci Dump. When the park was created, it included this 50-acre site, which was contaminated with paints, solvents, pesticides and cancer-causing chemicals like benzene, arsenic and lead. After the dump closed in 1980, the National Park Service spent decades cleaning the property, an effort that finally was completed in 2021. The park doesn’t provide public access to the former Krejci site yet, but indigenous plants have returned, creating habitats for turtles, birds and other wildlife. “ There’s a wetland that is really, really thriving and has come to life, and it’s beautiful with wildflowers in summer,” says Pamela Barnes, public information specialist for the park.

The diversity of experiences also makes Cuyahoga Valley unique. Natural beauty abounds, of course, from the sandstone cliffs of the Ledges to the majesty of Brandywine Falls (the tallest waterfall in Ohio). But you also can find within the park’s borders two ski resorts,

WHERE TO STAY

If you’re looking for accommodations within Cuyahoga Valley’s borders, the stalwarts are Stanford House, a remodeled historic home operated by the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and the Inn at Brandywine Falls, a bed-and-breakfast overlooking the waterfall. The inn offers six guest rooms with private bathrooms, while the nine-bedroom Stanford House, a former youth hostel, currently requires rental of the entire property. Though camping isn’t allowed in the park, Heritage Farms, a Peninsula Christmas tree farm, offers 12 tent and three shelter campsites from spring through fall on its private property. The farm also has a one-bedroom garden apartment available via Airbnb. conservancyforcvnp. org, innatbrandywinefalls. com, heritagefarms.com

PHOTO:

Brandywine Falls

SIDE TRIP

Cuyahoga Valley’s urban location means access to attractions and amenities in Cleveland, Akron and beyond.

What’s more, you can easily reach some of these destinations on two wheels, thanks to the 100-mile Towpath Trail, which extends from Cleveland to New Philadelphia. Hop on the beloved bike path, which runs the entire distance of the national park, and head north to Canal Basin Park, the trail’s northern terminus in the Flats neighborhood of Cleveland.

Grab a bite to eat in the bustling area, and if you’re not up for the 24-mile ride back to the valley, stay the night in downtown Cleveland, where there’s no shortage of things to do. canalwaypartners. com, thisiscleveland.com

the Blossom Music Center (the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra), a scenic railroad, the charming town of Peninsula and a dozen restored farms, which sell their produce at seasonal markets year-round.

Long beloved by locals, the park appears to be attracting more people from outside Ohio these days. The NPS’ last visitor study, conducted in 2015, showed that 21 percent of Cuyahoga Valley visitors came from out of state, up from 10 percent in 2005. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the non-Ohio percentage has continued to rise in recent years, Barnes notes. “If you come to the visitor center on a summer day, you will see license plates from all over the country,” she says.

Towpath Trail

THE RESILIENCE OF MAXWELL WILLIAMS

In February 2022, a random act of violence at Old North bar Dick’s Den left a young man partially paralyzed. His remarkable response to the shooting made a lasting imprint.

By Joel Oliphint

Photos by Tim Johnson

FEW THINGS ARE WHITE OR BRIGHT OR PLASTIC AT DICK’S DEN. It’s a warm, low-lit, lived-in space with antique ceiling tiles and weathered wood everywhere—walls, floors, frames. Black and white photo collages and vintage ads for Old Crow whiskey hang in a seating area three steps down from the pool room near the High Street bar’s small corner stage, where jazz musicians like Joe Diamond and Wally Mitchel became local legends.

In the last 20 years, tall cranes have turned countless properties around Ohio State University into shiny new structures. Former High Street dive bar Bernie’s Bagels & Deli/The Distillery is now a Target, for instance. But Dick’s Den has managed to elude the long arm of development, changing imperceptibly for nearly 60 years in the North Campus neighborhood that now goes by Old North.

Bluegrass jams and late-night jazz shows are a constant at Dick’s, attracting all types: undergrads and recent grads from campus-area rentals, crusty jazz heads, Old North neighbors, and the regulars, some of whom bring their own pool cues. The best seats to take in the music are along the built-in wooden bench that sits across the room from the stage, just below a big picture window that faces High Street and features the venue’s iconic neon sign that reads, “WHY NOT?” That’s where 24-yearold Maxwell Williams and two of his buddies, Dan Filler and Sera Kitchen, are sitting the night of Monday, Feb. 14, 2022.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and a jazz trio—guitarist Derek DiCenzo, drummer Maxwell Button and bassist Jeff Ciampa—starts its first set around 10 p.m. An hour in, DiCenzo performs a solo rendition of “My Funny Valentine,” but rather than end the set on a ballad, the band launches into an upbeat number. Button and Ciampa begin trading solos back and forth when an errant, slapping sound interrupts. At first, Button and Ciampa assume a pool cue or a music stand fell over. But then someone starts screaming obscenities, and a young man is on the ground. The music stops.

“Call 911! Oh, my God! Get a doctor! Is there a doctor?!”

“I’ve been shot. I’ve been shot. I’ve been shot,” Williams says from the floor, calmly but insistently, his half-finished beer on the table above. He asks a nearby patron to put a sweater over the wound on his back. But something else is wrong, too. “I can’t feel anything,” Williams says.

His friends notice a single, bullet-sized hole in the front window. The gravity of the situation begins to sink in. Patrons crouch down, wondering if more gunfire is coming—if they’re next. From the stage, Button dives to the ground, grabs his phone from his cymbal bag and calls 911 while curled in a corner.

As the threat of danger fades, Dick’s Den is quiet other than the low murmur of friends and strangers tending to Williams, who remains level-headed and stoic, occasionally mentioning that he can’t move his legs. For a gunshot wound, there’s a surprising lack of blood. Dick’s Den co-owner Tim Ackerman, who was behind the bar during the shooting, clears tables and chairs to make way for emergency personnel. Button, still in shock and feeling profoundly helpless, looks on from the pool room with the other musicians. Is this young man dying in front of his eyes? Should he turn away and let Williams have a more private, dignified death with his close friends? What’s the right thing to do?

Paramedics arrive within minutes and transport Williams, still lucid, to University Hospital at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Hours later, after patrons

have left and the police have taken witness statements, the bar is mostly empty other than a few emotionally shaken stragglers and co-owners Aaron Snyder and Ackerman, who asks Filler if he wants or needs a hug. “I’ll take one,” Filler tells Ackerman, “but I can’t give one back.”

News of the seemingly random drive-by shooting at Dick’s Den spreads quickly in Columbus, though not because gun incidents have been rare in recent years; the city recorded more than 200 homicides in 2021, 90 percent of which were shootings. But no one ever expected to hear “Dick’s Den” and “drive-by shooting” in the same sentence. Amid what felt like an endless string of senseless gun violence, the incident sent a jolt through neighborhoods where the veneer of relative safety began to crack.

But while this shooting ended in tragedy, it didn’t end in death. The bullet pierced Williams’ spine in between his shoulder blades, paralyzing him from the nipples down. Initial headlines focused on the unlikely setting of the shooting and the resulting paralysis of the victim, but the far-reaching, emotional resonance of the incident can be traced back to Williams’ response, which arrived the next morn-

ing in the form of posts on Reddit and the Dick’s Den Facebook page.

“Hey all. I’m writing this from my bed at OSU hospital now. The last 12 hours have been a whirlwind and the scariest time of my life. Just wanted to say that I’m OK, I’m in good hands, and Max Button was a fantastic drummer last night,” Williams posted to Reddit from his cellphone, detailing the bullet wound in his spine. “I was able to hold myself up with my arms (thank God I still have them), but the prognosis for any recovery of function in my legs is... well, the doctor didn’t say zero?”

“The love and support from strangers in this time is truly beautiful,” he wrote on Facebook, thanking Filler, Kitchen and random patrons who used their clothes to cover his wound. “The only thing I can do moving forward is take life one leg, er, wheel at a time. While there are some hobbies like rock climbing that I’ll never be able to do like before, there are plenty of activities you can do with a good mind, some good arms and lots of patience. I’m looking forward to regaining as much independence as possible. Love you all.”

After a night out with two friends ended in a life-altering gunshot wound, Williams was filled with gratitude. He seemed

The timeless facade of Dick’s Den

to have reached a level of acceptance that most people would hope to achieve over the course of years, but this was the next day. Where did that resilience come from? How was he able to summon it so quickly? And now, a year later, when the reality of a lifelong, likely irreversible injury has sunk in, is Williams’ winsome outlook still intact?

LOTS OF

KIDS

LIKE TO

READ, but Maxwell Williams’ childhood curiosity was insatiable. No matter how many books he devoured, he could somehow recall every fact from every page. During Little League games, he had a habit of chatting up his first-base coach about the distance from Earth to the moon, the size of Pluto and anything else he’d learned that week.

“It’s so annoying,” says Max’s younger brother, Charlie Williams, laughing. “He’s the smartest guy in every room he’s ever been in.”

Growing up in the northeast Cincinnati suburbs of Loveland and Maineville, Tim and Lisa Williams’ middle child tried various sports, but they didn’t take. Once he started at St. Xavier High School, though, Maxwell zeroed in on other interests, like musical theater and choir. At the same time, he developed a love of computers, building his own at age 15.

After his 2016 graduation from St. X, Max followed his older sister, Claire (Williams) Georgin, to Ohio State. While studying data analytics, he also got into rock climbing when he went looking for a hobby after a breakup. “I’ve always been the kind of person who has a lot of interests that I dabble in, but climbing was one of the first times that I got really deep into something,” he says. “I found a lot of joy in climbing, especially because of the social aspect. It’s a great way to make friends.”

At Ohio State, Max lived with some buddies in an Old North house on Maynard Avenue they dubbed the Maynard Manor. He appreciated the area’s live music scene, with walkable venues like Dick’s Den and Spacebar. A year after his 2020 graduation, Maxwell moved a mile south to Chittenden Avenue while working as a data engineer for Nationwide Insurance, a job he loved. Midway through 2021, he also began chipping away at a master’s degree in computer science through an online program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Feb. 14, 2022, was Valentine’s Day, but to Max it was more notable as the day after

the Cincinnati Bengals lost the Super Bowl. “Talk about being kicked while you’re down. First the Bengals lose, and then you get shot,” Max quips. Going to Dick’s Den “was like therapy,” he says. “Dan and I would talk about what was going on in our lives, what was frustrating us.”

Charlie, who plays lacrosse at Cleveland State University, got the news first at 11:21 p.m. It was later than usual for Maxwell to call, given that Charlie wakes up around 5 a.m. for practice. But he picked up, and instead of his brother on the line, it was Filler telling him Max had been shot. Charlie called his big sister, who had just sat down to dinner in San Francisco, and Olivia Wade, Max’s girlfriend since 2019. (Wade, Filler and Kitchen declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Georgin was tasked with calling her parents. “It’s a parent’s worst nightmare,” Tim

says. “You always worry about that latenight phone call.” Lisa’s brother drove the couple to Columbus, and Charlie joined them the next morning. Despite COVID protocols, Max’s brother and parents were able to spend some time with him before the surgery to remove the bullet, which went smoothly. “If you’re going to get a complete spinal cord injury, you should get it my way instead of being in a horrific car accident,” Max says.

On one hand, Maxwell was in the exact wrong spot at precisely the wrong time. A single bullet, presumably fired from a moving car, pierced the window and severed his spine between his T5 and T6 vertebrae. (“T” stands for thoracic.) On the other hand, doctors told him that if the bullet had been half an inch to either side, or if it had penetrated any farther, he likely would have died.

Clockwise from top: Max on a college tour of Ohio State in 2015; a hiking trip to Sedona in 2019; the whole family—left to right, brother Charlie, dad Tim, sister Claire, mom Lisa and Max—at a 2021 Cincinnati Reds game; and Max with girlfriend Olivia Wade at another Reds game in 2021.

Online, Max’s Reddit and Facebook posts circulated far and wide. A family friend launched an online fundraiser to help cover medical costs, which led to more than $200,000 in GoFundMe donations. “The level of generosity that existed, I was absolutely blown away by it.

… But how many people with spinal cord injuries didn’t have that to help them out?” Maxwell says. “My experience with my spinal cord injury—you cannot separate that from the privilege that I also experience as someone who went to a high school that had a really strong alumni network and a university that had the same. When people use the phrase ‘white privilege,’ they don’t just mean that people are born with money. Part of that privilege is also [living in] communities that had the economic engine to support me through this.”

Maxwell stayed in the main hospital for about a month and spent around three weeks at Ohio State’s Dodd Rehabilitation Hospital. He learned how to transfer in and out of his wheelchair in various scenarios and acquired other skills he’d need to navigate life without any sensation in much of his body. Like anyone, Max had down moments during his physical therapy, but his family says he maintained a consistently positive outlook. “He’s always trying to pick up everyone around him,” Tim says.

“It helped that I only had the one injury. A lot of people, when they get a spinal cord

injury, they get a broken neck or several broken back spots. They have immediate, whole-body misery to contend with,” Max says, adding that all the climbing he’d done helped, too. “I had a really strong upper body going into it.”

In early April, Max moved into his parents’ home in Maineville, which Tim and Lisa renovated to accommodate his wheelchair. In June, Max turned 25 and gained some independence by getting his driver’s license, and his girlfriend also moved in over the summer. After a few months, he and Wade were ready to strike out on their own; in October, they leased a beautiful new apartment in Cincinnati’s Madisonville neighborhood. (He hasn’t been back to Dick’s Den since the shooting, but only for logistical reasons.)

Friends and strangers have followed Max’s journey through periodic updates on Facebook via the Maxwell Williams’ Recovery Page. Each post elicits dozens of supportive comments, which Max appreciates. But there’s a certain type of comment—online and in person—that gets under his skin. “A lot of people say, ‘It’s so inspiring that you’re able to live your life.’

And honestly, I want to tell them to shut up, because it’s not inspiring that I do basic things,” he says. “I don’t want to inspire people by surviving. I want to inspire people by thriving. It will be inspiring when I am able to do something like go on a bike ride across the state of Ohio. Which would be sick to do.”

ONE MORNING IN DECEMBER, Maxwell takes me on a tour of his Madisonville apartment, with natural light from huge windows streaming into the open living space. The shower still isn’t functional, though; a ramp is under construction. In the meantime, Max takes the elevator to the gym shower. But that is the least of his daily inconveniences.

Each morning starts with his bathroom routine, which involves catheterizing to release urine from his bladder—a process he repeats four to six times each day. Then he begins his bowel program. “If I don’t take care of whatever is coming down my bowels, it might make an appearance at some point on its own,” he says. “So every morning you try and get all of it out at once. It works reasonably well. I don’t have accidents very often anymore.”

In contrast, Max says the wheelchair isn’t as big of a problem. “If you look up what people with spinal cord injuries really want in terms of regaining function ... it’s not walking. We really don’t care that much about walking. It’s always bowels, bladder and sexual function,” he says. “You can do a lot in a wheelchair, but there is no fix for being able to pee when I want to. There’s no fix for being able to use the bathroom the way I want to. And there’s no fix for being able to orgasm.”

His siblings are in awe of Max’s ability to maintain the same hopeful outlook and sense of humor amid all that. “When I think about myself in his position, if I couldn’t do these things anymore, I’d feel

Max in and around his Madisonville apartment in Cincinnati, from left: an under-counter cutout enables easier kitchen sink access; the under-construction shower; navigating Madisonville sidewalks; working out at the apartment complex’s gym.

like a shell of myself. He’s amazing,” Charlie says. “You got to find a way to cope and get through it, and sometimes just being who you were before is the best way to do that.”

“Maybe it’s one of those things where you have this near-death experience, and you were able to come out on the other side and you’re just so happy to be here,” Georgin says.

Tim credits Lisa for Max’s kindness and his outward focus. “She’s always doing for others,” he says.

“For a lot of people [with spinal cord injuries], the first year is really rough. And it has been, don’t get me wrong. But over time, people get back to a baseline,” Maxwell says. “I can still do basically anything I want to in life. Yes, some things are harder. Some things are impossible. But the spinal cord injury is not what stops you from doing things.”

Max’s engineering brain has come in handy, too. He’s a practical, solution-oriented person, and for this injury, he quickly accepted that there is no current solution. “I am not going to recover function, so I might as well move on with my life,” he says.

Max also doesn’t spend much time thinking about the person who shot him, but his father still hopes to find the perp. In the aftermath of the shooting, the Columbus Division of Police said a witness saw someone fire a shot from an older model Lincoln LS. Dick’s Den co-owner Snyder helped collect surveillance video from neighboring businesses, which revealed a 2000-2003 gold Lincoln LS near the bar just after the shooting. Detective Randy VanVorhis says the case is still open, but “no new evidence has been located.”

(Anyone with info can contact CPD’s Felony Assault Unit at 614-645-4141 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.)

“Our community really rallied around us, and we all believe that this was a totally random act of violence,” says Dick’s Den co-owner Armstrong. “There have been some bands that took some time off before coming back, which is totally understandable.”

Button still plays regular gigs at Dick’s, though he hasn’t been quite the same since that night. “There’s a small amount of fear all the time that I’m going to get shot,” he says. But he’ll never forget the kindness Williams showed in his note the day after

the shooting, when he complimented Button’s drumming. “I’m just some guy who plays drums,” Button says. “But he took the time to take the spotlight off of him and put it on somebody else, and it happened to be me. It spoke to his character.”

Max doesn’t let the past haunt him; he keeps busy. “When I am bored is when my mind goes to places that I don’t like going to,” he says. He still works for Nationwide remotely, though part-time at the moment while he focuses on finishing grad school this year. He plays multiple instruments and keeps fit using the gym at his apartment complex. And he travels, too. Last year, Maxwell flew to Las Vegas for his brotherin-law’s bachelor party, and in the fall he went to California for his sister’s wedding.

As Max noted in his posts the day after the shooting, he can’t rock climb the way he used to, but that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing the hobby. In October, he went to the Adaptive Climber’s Fest in Red River Gorge, Kentucky, and in November he visited a guy in Joshua Tree who developed an adaptive climbing system. “It’s extremely dangerous and totally up my alley,” Max says. Thanks to a grant from the Kelly Brush Foundation, he also ordered a souped-up, all-terrain handcycle. “It’s going to be badass,” he says. “I’m excited for all of the outdoor activities that it’s going to enable.” An ultralight wheelchair is on the way, as well, which will make getting in and out of his car much easier.

“I’m firmly in the ‘this is my life now’ phase,” Maxwell says. “I don’t think I’m ever going to fully understand why it happened, but I don’t really need to understand it to be happy.” ◆

PHOTO: BOTTOM, NATALIE FOLCHIFOLCHI CREATIVE

Max and girlfriend Olivia Wade at his sister’s wedding last fall

We teach like his future depends on it. Because it does.

It’s our job to make sure he’s ready. We ignite curiosity, learn voraciously and live with intention so he can take the world head on.

We invite you to tour our world.

Ready to thrive.

Class Act

The area boasts a wide variety of private, independent schools, both parochial and secular.

By Tatyana Tandanpolie

Central Ohio is home to a remarkable variety of private and independent schools, whether you’re looking for a facility with a religious program, one that serves students with disabilities, one with a rigorous academic curriculum or something else entirely. The following is a curated selection of noteworthy options in the area; most offer tuition assistance, scholarships and/or financial aid options. You can learn more about individual, nonpublic schools by searching that category in the Ohio Department of Education’s Ohio Educational Directory System, a database in which users maintain their own data, at oeds.ode.state.oh.us. Data in the following pages are for the 2022–23 school year unless otherwise noted.

Bishop Watterson High School

With 98 to 99 percent of its graduates going on to college and members of the 2022 class receiving $36 million in college merit scholarships, this Catholic high school takes pride in its results. A broad array of extracurricular activities, athletic programs and community service opportunities bolster an experience firmly rooted in faith. “Bishop Watterson educates the whole person in body, mind and spirit, with a goal of producing self-disciplined young men and women who have a commitment to Gospel values,” says deacon Chris Campbell, the school’s principal and a 1977 graduate. 99 E. Cooke Road, Columbus; 614-2688671; bishopwatterson.com

Grades: 9–12

Enrollment: 911

Tuition: $10,475–$12,465

Student-teacher ratio: 11:1

Bridgeway Academy

Founded in 2005 by a speech pathologist and a music therapist, Bridgeway Academy is a nonprofit education center for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. The school offers music, occupational, physical and speech therapy and aims to “provide a centered, holistic approach to children’s education and therapeutic needs,” says Janelle Maur, Bridgeway’s director of advancement. The hallmark of its education center is the low student-teacher ratio at every grade level. Additionally, the academy is able to evaluate children for autism spectrum disorder through a partnership with the Bridgeway Therapy Center. 1350 Alum Creek Dr., Columbus; 614-262-7520; bridgewayohio.org

Grades: Preschool–age 21

Enrollment: 220

Tuition: $32,000–$38,000

Student-teacher ratio: 3:1

Columbus Academy

This independent, college preparatory school in Gahanna features a challenging academic curriculum, advanced STEM offerings (including computer science and robotics), a strong emphasis on arts and athletics, and a focus on character development. “Our students are invited to challenge themselves academically while working for the good of the community and developing sound skills in ethics and

character,” says head of school Melissa Soderberg. The expansive campus covers 231 acres (including renovated arts spaces designed to invite exploration, creativity and action) and serves children as young as age 3. 4300 Cherry Bottom Road, Gahanna; 614-475-2311; columbusacademy.org

Grades: Pre-K–12

Enrollment: 1,170

Tuition: $14,000–$32,200

Student-teacher ratio: 7:1 (lower school), 17:1 (middle school), 14:1 (high school)

Columbus Jewish Day School

Columbus Jewish Day School is a private elementary school that blends secular subjects with Jewish studies. “A child never sees themselves compartmentalized, but rather sees themselves as a thriving human being who is full of wonder,” says Rabbi Morris Allen, the transitional head of school. Founded in 1998, the school sits on 7 acres of meadow, creek, pond and woodlands with six outdoor classrooms that students learn in yearround. CJDS also places an emphasis on service learning, teaching students how to tend to the school’s garden and donating the vegetables they grow to local food banks. 150 E. Granville Road, New Albany; 614-939-5311; cjds.org

Grades: K–5

Enrollment: 61

Tuition: $18,000

Student-teacher ratio: 10:1

Columbus Montessori Education Center

This private, independent school teaches children from six weeks to sixth grade using the Montessori method, which nurtures academic and personal growth through a focus on individuality, child-led learning and multi-age classrooms. The school’s core elementary curriculum includes art, music, physical education and online language instruction. “We’re strengthening the skill set, equipping children to have a global perspective and be able to function and be successful,” says executive director Jamie Gottesman. The 7-acre location features thoughtfully planned indoor classrooms and outdoor learning spaces, with students learning in three agebased part- or full-day settings. 979 S. James Road, Columbus; 614-231-3790; columbusmontessori.org

Grades: Pre-K–6

Enrollment: 250

Tuition: $11,700–$20,300

Student-teacher ratio: 12:1

Columbus School For Girls

Founded in 1898 and located just east of Downtown Columbus in Bexley, Columbus School for Girls is an independent, college preparatory day school with the mission of empowering girls to discover their distinct potential as learners and leaders. CSG has three campuses: a state-of-the-art main campus (featuring advanced classrooms, an indoor pool, yoga room,

PHOTO: CYNTHIA WILSON

Columbus Academy

fitness center and theater), a 100-acre nature preserve and 80-acre outdoor athletics complex, both located nearby. Highlights of CSG’s challenging curriculum include a robust computer science program, leading-edge visual and performing arts opportunities, social-emotional development and leadership programming for all students. 65 S. Drexel Ave., Bexley; 614-252-0781; columbusschoolforgirls.org

Grades: Pre-K–12

Enrollment: 503

Tuition: $12,150–$30,095

Student-teacher ratio: 8:1

Columbus Torah Academy

Columbus Torah Academy is an Orthodox Jewish school providing comprehensive college preparatory and Judaic studies education. Committed to providing an intellectually stimulating and academically progressive learning environment, the CTA facilities are equipped with state-of-the-art chemistry, biology and computer labs, as well as two libraries, a gymnasium and a chapel. “CTA meets and exceeds learning standards that will prepare students to continue their education and become successful in their chosen fields,” says development and marketing coordinator Shari Herszage. The campus is situated on 22 wooded acres, and students study hands-on science in the school’s 20-acre “land lab.” 181 Noe Bixby Road, Columbus; 614-864-0299; torahacademy.org

Grades: K–12

Enrollment: 212

Tuition: $12,680–$20,993

Student-teacher ratio: 11:1 (lower school), 8:1 (upper school)

The Juniper School

This school aims to guide students through a nature- and arts-based curriculum, including classes in earth cycles, movement and cooking. The school’s teaching model draws from Rudolf Steiner methods, which emphasize a holistic education based in imagination, creativity, love and reverence.

“We value the wisdom of children, but we’re also, as teachers, empowered to lead them,” says Kate Curlis, a lead fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Juniper. In addition to general subjects, all students learn through unstructured play; those in grade one and higher can

partake in special subjects, such as handwork, foreign language and music. 76 Charleston Ave., Columbus; 614-2331755; thejuniperschool.org

Grades: Preschool–6

Enrollment: 100

Tuition: $2,205–$8,378

Student-teacher ratio: 7:1 (early childhood), 16:1 (grade school)

Mansion Day School

Located minutes from Downtown Columbus, Mansion Day School has a mission to educate children regardless of race or religion, though it is an affinity space for its currently 100 percent Black student body. The coeducational school provides a well-rounded curriculum, including fine arts and foreign language education throughout the lower grades. “We have a rigorous curriculum taught in a disciplined but nurturing environment by teachers who love our students and love teaching,” says head of school Dee James. In addition to typical courses, Mansion Day School offers after-school enrichment classes on topics such as woodworking, chess and robotics. 72 Woodland Ave., Columbus; 614-2584449; mansiondayschool.org

Grades: Preschool–5

Enrollment: 65

Tuition: $10,634–$12,703

Student-teacher ratio: 10:1

Marburn Academy

Marburn Academy is exclusively devoted to students with learning differences such as dyslexia, ADHD or other executive function issues. The curriculum focuses on using assistive technology and multiple teaching modalities to help every student reach their potential. “We do everything we can in our power as education specialists to meet the students where they are and provide them the education they so richly deserve,” says head of school Eldrich Carr. The academy’s innovative arts, athletics and tutoring programs, as well as its engineering, robotics and technology courses, continue to develop after its 2017 move into a larger facility. 9555 Johnstown Road, New Albany; 614-4330822; marburnacademy.org

Grades: 1–12

Enrollment: 241

Tuition: $30,390–$31,640

Student-teacher ratio: 8:1 (grades 1–8), 16:1 (grades 9–12)

Oakstone Academy

This immersion school weaves academic rigor, leadership and character development into an individualized curriculum for students with and without autism spectrum disorders. Oakstone Academy aims to educate the whole student, offering college-level courses and an array of enriching after-school programs in sports and the arts for middle and high schoolers. “Our focus is not on society as a whole, but it’s on the individual student and what’s best for each one of them,” says executive director Nikki Kerns. The school also boasts a chartered, student-run theater troupe, an Olympic-sized indoor pool, and soccer and baseball fields. 900 Club Drive, Westerville; 614-899-2838; oakstoneacademy.org

Grades: Pre-K–12

Enrollment: 547

Tuition: $1,900–$5,700

Student-teacher ratio: 7:1 (elementary school), 10:1 (high school)

Shekinah Christian School

Founded in 1978 by two congregations, this independent Christian school molds students into lifelong learners and Christlike community servants.

Its conventional curriculum uses BJU Press textbooks, which base core values on biblical teachings, and incorporates weekly chapel services. “We really care about our students, and through that caring of them and for them, we are able to provide them with the guidance that they need to really succeed in life,” says interim head of school Lynne Wolfe. Students can participate in various after-school activities, from sports to worship team and biannual dramatic performances. To accommodate growing enrollment, the school opened a new, four-room modular addition for the 2022–23 academic year. 10040 Lafayette Plain City Road, Plain City; 614873-3130; shekinahchristian.org

Grades: K–12

Enrollment: 142

Tuition: $2,010–$7,452

Student-teacher ratio: 12:1

St. Charles Preparatory School

Students at this all-male Catholic high school are steeped in tradition from the moment they arrive: The school, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, is not only situated on a historic 26-acre campus in Bexley, but also has requirements not routinely encountered

The Juniper School

Our secret ingredient is fun.

At Wellington, joy is the catalyst to learning that lasts. Preschoolers to seniors are given the freedom to delve into interests that spark their curiosity, all while building a solid academic foundation to power their next steps.

Now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year. Learn more at wellington.org/admissions

Helping students in preschool through grade 12 find their purpose and realize their potential for tomorrow’s world.

elsewhere, including two years of Latin. Other fundamentals are taught in depth, including mathematics, science, English and religion. These are supplemented by character-building programs, such as robotics, quiz and engineering teams. “We welcome students from 56 different ZIP codes and foster an environment that creates an enduring brotherhood for our students,” says principal James Lower. 2010 E. Broad St., Bexley; 380-209-2222; stcharlesprep.org

Grades: 9–12

Enrollment: 505

Tuition: $12,925–$13,625

Student-teacher ratio: 14:1

The Wellington School

Wellington’s philosophy encourages students to delve into the independent coed school’s research-based curriculum. The individualized passion projects and deep-dive electives students take on in the lower and middle schools culminate in the upper school’s “Wonderlab,” a program that pulls this prior experience into a personalized research project. Co-curricular activities are also important; around 75 percent of students participate in athletics, and 100 percent participate in visual or performing arts. “We’re a school that really focuses on an educational model that is authentic and relevant, that helps every student feel like they are known and that their voice matters,” says head of school Jeff Terwin. 3650 Reed Road, Columbus; 614457-7883; wellington.org

Grades: Preschool–12

Enrollment: 718

Tuition: $13,700–$28,600

Student-teacher ratio: 8:1

Peter Tonguette contributed to this story.

The Wellington School

home & style

Growing in Granville

After years of renovations, a steppingstone home evolves into an ideal empty nest. Read more on Page 52.

Photo by Tim Johnson

Healing Art

Joshua Schottenstein says pottery can help people struggling with mental health challenges.

By Brittany Moseley

Joshua Schottenstein found his current studio space on a bit of a whim. While delivering a batch of pottery to the second location of Emmett’s Café, he decided to explore the building. The café is located at Open Air, a trendy multiuse concept in Old North. While there, Schottenstein found an available room. “I looked in here, and I saw the beautiful natural light pouring in, and felt like it was a very inviting room,” he says. Schottenstein moved in last summer. It serves as a studio and a shop where he sells his wares and those of local artists. Columbus Monthly spoke to him about his work and future plans.

How did you get into ceramics? I stumbled into it about seven years ago. I was living in Western Massachusetts, and I had an opportunity to try it out. I took a lesson with an artist, a demonstration of the basics of throwing on the wheel. There was a really immediate connection.

How did it go from a hobby to a full-time job? I decided this summer to ramp it up to a full-time, brick-and-mortar studio and shop. I’m taking the leap of faith to do this full time and see how things pan out in this period of building up an artist business. I have intentions to get my master’s starting next year in a degree that would combine the arts and mental health counseling.

What did you do before you got into ceramics? Predominantly, I was working in marketing and also various aspects of a family business, M/I Homes, which is a local company and the company my grandfather [Irving Schottenstein] had started and my father [Bobby Schottenstein] currently runs. I also tried other jobs, too, and bounced around a bit but always had a hard time figuring out what I was most passionate [about].

Was there ever any pressure, whether selfinternalized or from outside voices, to go into the family business? I think my parents have always wanted me to pursue what I feel excited to do every day, and [there was] never the kind of pressure to do what his dad did or what my dad does. It is something at times that I’ve wrestled with to some degree. [I’m] fortunate to have options. Many people who are interested in the arts, it’s a tough nut to crack. But I’m grateful that I’ve had the ability to take time to try and pursue it.

Follow @joshua.schottenstein on Instagram to see more of his work.

You mentioned the mental health aspect of art. Where did the interest in combining the two come from? I found pottery when I was having some struggles with my mental health, and it gave me a sense of grounding. It slowed things down for me internally. Pottery can be a powerful tool for people who have some mental health struggles. However I’m able to help someone from a mental health perspective, I would love to be able to integrate the arts, pottery specifically, because I have some skill set there. I think it’s something I feel deep down as a driving force that I would like to pay forward. ◆

Joshua Schottenstein in his Open Air studio

Reimagined Ranch

A Granville couple finds an unexpected forever home.

By Jill Span Hofbauer

Photos by Tim Johnson

When a former Granville couple returned to the area to plant roots in 2004, they purchased a 1976 ranch with temporary plans in mind. A timepiece of its era, the home—among the few available on the market at that time—was designed with a Southwestern motif, iconic ’70s trappings and an unfavorable layout for their family of six.

Yet the dwelling’s initial shortcomings presented a significant alternative to the nearly 4,000-square-foot Michigan residence they were ready to leave behind—a chance for a slower pace of life in a community they previously lived in and loved. “I had a pretty big and highly stressful job,” recalls the husband of the family, who worked for a large advertising agency in Detroit at the time, and his wife had her hands full with four kids. “We took some time off, and we just realized, ‘You know what, let’s rethink our lives here. We’re on this rat race, and let’s try to get off of it no matter what.’”

Together, the couple shifted their priorities and took a chance. Building on the valuable professional connections they made throughout their careers, they opened their own advertising agency and bought the dated home on a scenic, 7-acre property. Seventeen years later, they reflect endearingly on how a steppingstone home evolved into an ideal empty nest.

A custom table offers an ideal gathering place for family get-togethers.

Home & Style | Home

“What happened is that we moved in, somehow we found a place for all of our four kids, and things just got so busy for us,” adds the homeowner. Their company successfully took off managing several national clients in the restaurant industry, their kids were involved with school and activities, and the house became somewhat of an afterthought. “Over time, we just started making little changes to the house here and there, not really thinking much about it because other things were taking our priority.”

An early matter of attention was a 1,000-square-foot owner’s suite addition completed in 2007. The added space enabled the homeowners to transplant the suite from its original, awkward placement in the basement to a more practical location on the main level, improving the overall sense of flow.

Later, in 2011, they converted a screened-in porch only usable half the year into a sunroom with windows overlooking the gardens and expansive wooded property. Cozy furnishings and cheery, pale-yellow walls have made the space one of the homeowners’ favorite places to unwind in the evenings, take in the sunsets and watch the active wildlife that calls their backyard home.

Nearby, the revamped galley kitchen, completed in 2018, showcases custom-designed, Amish-made cabinetry and built-in wall storage in the adjoining dining area, where a custom table serves as the perfect gathering place while hosting their large family.

The homeowners say that all the functional and aesthetic improvements they have made to the interior and exterior over the years could amount to tearing

it down and rebuilding it completely.

“My concern was, I thought this house was going to be way too small,” says the man of the house, “and now, everything just has really comfortable proportions to it.” It has an informality that reflects the couple’s sensibilities and current lifestyle, and a warmth and intimacy that makes visitors feel welcome.

In recent years, the property has also given the pair the ability to bring their work life close to home. By fortunate chance, they finished an on-site studio in 2019 right before the start of the pandemic,

This page, the Granville home features a wood-burning stove, a pheasant dining room centerpiece and a cozy sitting area with a working fireplace. Opposite page, the family converted a screened-in porch into a sunroom overlooking gardens and trees.

transitioning their business from a large clientele, full staff and office space in Newark, Ohio, to a manageable workload for two as they approach retirement years.

Repurposed from an old utility barn on the property, the studio is a stone’s throw from their house and has been thoughtfully laid out to accommodate the close collaboration their work as a creative team requires. Currently designed with three work stations and a seating area conducive to interaction, the reimagined structure offers possibilities for other creative ventures the couple say they may choose to pursue down the road.

With nearly every square inch of the house modified, their latest project—a refurbished basement in 2021—feels like a full circle moment. Early renovations in the home started as a way to expand the house for their four kids and continues today as they make improvements to tailor it for their adult children returning to visit with partners.

The refinished lower level is set up as a roomy guest suite suitable for long stays. A private bedroom with a designated work station enables remote work flexibility, and a full bath provides privacy and convenience. On the opposite side of the basement, a hangout area with a pool table adds fun recreational space.

Though the empty nesters say they never thought it would be their forever home, they appreciate the way the house has been able to bend and shape around their everchanging lifestyle throughout the years. They never needed to seek out their dream house, because the home they already had turned out to be enough.

“We thought we had this whole thing planned out—that we were just going to be here for a couple of years and move on,” recalls the homeowner, “and that did not happen—and it worked out perfectly for us.” ◆

Top, the living room features built-in bookshelves and opens up to a cozy seating area and dining room. Bottom, the Granville couple, longtime advertising professionals, built an on-site studio repurposed from a utility barn.

The Return of the Buyer’s Market

With rising mortgage rates, Central Ohio home sellers may lose the upper hand in 2023.

By TC Brown

In the waning months of 2022, the balance of power shifted away from the seller and moved toward the home buyer in the Central Ohio real estate market. That trend is likely to continue for the first half of this year, along with a reduction in the number of homes being sold, because buyers are skittish about the economy due to rising mortgage rates and inflation.

Those changes, with potential buyers staying away and home prices stabilizing, could lead in the second half of the year to an increased inventory in what has long been an extremely tight market, say local real estate agents and bankers.

Real estate company Redfin has predicted that nationally, existing home sales will sink this year to their lowest levels since 2011, falling by 16 percent. Despite regional rankings for being the fifth-hottest market in the country, the Columbus area won’t be immune to this shift, says Joseph “Butch” Wahlsmith, the local Redfin principal listing agent. “Would-be buyers are

pressing pause due mostly to affordability challenges, including high mortgage rates, still-high home prices, persistent inflation and a potential recession,” Wahlsmith says. “People will only move if they need to.”

Rising rates clearly spooked potential buyers as 2022 faded, with closings down by nearly 2 percent from the previous year. In March, interest rates on a 30-year fixed loan were just under 4 percent. By mid-December, they had risen by more than 2 percentage points, says Rebecca Gray, vice president at Fifth Third Bank and a loan originator ranked in the top 5 percent of the country. “The person who earlier could have afforded a $500,000 house can now only afford a $400,000 house,” Gray says. “And people are concerned about inflation.”

But that hesitation could also be a silver lining this year in the local market, which has been plagued in recent years with way more demand than available housing.

“There’s a lot of people falling out of the market because they no longer qualify for

loans, so inventory will improve in 2023,” Gray says.

Homes now stay on the market 40 percent longer than they did a year ago—on average 15 to 21 days—and buyers held a lot more sway by the end of 2022. “Now buyers want to negotiate more and are no longer willing to overpay to get a house,” says Sara Walsh, a real estate agent at eXp Realty and a former Columbus Board of Realtors president.

Even though home sale prices were down by just under 2 percent at the end of last year, they are not expected to go into a serious decline this year. “People would be better off buying or at least preparing to buy now,” Walsh says. “No one is predicting a real estate crash.”

In fact, home values should continue to appreciate moderately this year by 14 to 16 percent, says Fifth Third Bank’s Gray. “That will be driven by supply and demand, and there’s still the huge impact of Intel coming here,” she says. ◆

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Top 25 Real Estate Transactions

Nov. 1–30, 2022

$3,950,0002700 Crafton Pk., Columbus

$2,800,000147 E. Deshler Ave., Columbus

JTLC Enterprises LLC from 2700 Crafton Park LLC

Carol and Theodore Manley from Christopher J. and Lisa M. Barton

$2,500,000 4077 Beech Rd. NW, Johnstown MBJ Holdings from Tracy G. Spencer

$1,800,0004117 Beech Rd. NW, JohnstownMBJ Holdings from Larry Criner

$1,700,0002516 Tremont Rd., Columbus

Alyssa and Thomas Litzinger from Brett A. and Julie N. Gruss

$1,700,000 4219 Beech Rd. NW, Johnstown MBJ Holdings LLC from James S. Thomson

$1,526,0005490 Ashford Rd., DublinSusan Cider from Ron Mercer

$1,486,0001755 Riverstone Dr., Delaware1755 Riverstone LLC from Seale Moorer Jr.

$1,475,000982 Jaeger St., Columbus

Jeffrey and Lisa Kapp from Thomas J. Grote and Richard B. Neal Jr.

$1,368,300 2063 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington Petrichor Lane LLC from Mark and Stephanie W. Bernhardt

$1,365,0002611 Clarion Ct., Upper Arlington

$1,360,0009358 Highbury Ct., Powell

$1,350,480 7727 Sudbrook Sq., New Albany

$1,345,000 1127 Highland Dr., Upper Arlington

$1,325,0006106 W. Quin Abbey Ct., Dublin

$1,300,0004945 Yantis Dr., New Albany

$1,275,0007924 Cook Rd., Plain City

$1,250,000134 Stone Valley Dr., Granville

$1,236,7509479 Wilbrook Dr., Powell

Kimberly P. and Scott W. Williams from Dayna Baird and Tommy Joe Payne II

Cheryl Heather Jane and Renato Lim from Carol Ann and John V. Dauria

Kelly and Peyman Salehi, trustees, from William T. Conrad II and Anahi M. Ortiz

David and Julie Wright from Tuckerman Home Group Inc.

Jonathan Brown and Polina Shindiapina from Megan and Troy Schaffernocker

Jelena Gazivoda and Slavisa Milenkovic from Ann M. and Frank D. Korth

Rick Finsterbusch from Mary Beth and Robert J. Comfort, trustees

Jacoby L. and Lindsey L. Boren from David A. Kapp, trustee

The Al Czervik Trust from Romanelli and Hughes Building

Sara and Steven Schairbaum from Dawn M. and Ronald M. Austin

David

Jenna and Timothy Matthew Maly from

Martha F. Bullock, trustee, from Ann B. Larger,

Cathie A. and John W. McFadden from

food & drink

’Round the World

Columbus has a trove of creative spins on pizza, including the piñon pizza at Off Center: Patio & Pub.

Read more on Page 63.

Photo by Tim Johnson

Food & Drink | Chefs

Knives Out

Ray Ray’s has scrapped its conventional Granville restaurant, transforming it into a “supper club” featuring private dinners and competitive “Chef Scraps.”

By J.R. McMillan

It’s fight night, but it’s not Las Vegas or Atlantic City. The arena is Ray Ray’s in Granville and a pair of local chefs—Damian Ettish of Fetty’s Street Food and Justin Gottschalk of the eagerly awaited Harvest Pizzeria in Granville—are ready to throw down in front of a live audience and a trio of judges. After a brief tour of the kitchen and its provisions, the chefs ready their knives as the mystery ingredients are revealed and the competition begins. Each chef must prepare an appetizer and entrée using a whole chicken, cipollini onions, golden beets, apples and oranges. This is still Ray Ray’s, so smoke and fire are also essential elements.

Minutes into the matchup, any skepticism about chef showdowns being as choreographed as professional wrestling is imme-

diately settled, as Gottschalk’s palm meets the business end of a mandoline. He bandages himself up and returns to the bout.

A little friendly competition, discerning judges, a raucous crowd, creative cuisine and, yes, a little blood: This is the new Ray Ray’s Supper Club.

Though chef James Anderson, founder of Ray Ray’s Hog Pit, has an impressive collection of ink and accolades, his latest pivot in Granville from a sit-down “meatand-three” restaurant, which closed last August, to an even more complex concept, one that combines a barbecue carryout with an experiential dining venue, was an unexpected departure.

Except, it really isn’t. That’s because this new endeavor is all about celebrating Ohio chefs and purveyors, just as Anderson always has dating back to his first food truck more than two decades ago in Clintonville. The new concept is also a product of the challenging time we’re in.

“The decision was driven by staffing,” Anderson says about his pivot away from his meat-and-three restaurant. “Running a restaurant six days requires a roster of 25 people. The drive-thru operating Thursday through Sunday only takes four. The supper

club and events like the Chef Scrap are different than the daily grind. Staffing immediately became more sustainable, and we only select the highest caliber people.”

Winnowing down the meat-and-three menu, which offered a slew of Southern-inspired sides, also became essential, with familiar Hog Pit favorites such as baby back ribs and collard greens making the final cut for the drive-thru. “[The Meat + Three menu] was way more robust, probably three times as large. You can’t sell food that needs to be served hot on a plate [in the drive-thru],” he says. “We had to pare it down to the items that traveled well.”

But the open-concept space at 1256 Columbus Road was destined for something more. When the restaurant was first remodeled ahead of its opening in 2021, a wall separating the kitchen from the dining room was removed, Anderson says, making it an ideal exhibition venue for the eventual supper club, featuring multicourse chef’s tasting menus. However, it also made it the perfect arena for culinary competition.

“It’s very interactive compared to a traditional restaurant setting, much like a food truck but even more so. You’re seeing everything, sitting in the kitchen or at the counter for supper club,” Anderson says. “At the Chef Scrap, you have standing

Chef Damian Ettish of Fetty’s Street Food (right) and chef Justin Gottschalk of Harvest, battle it out for Chef Scrap bragging rights in the kitchen at Ray Ray’s Granville.

room right at the edge of the kitchen, so everyone has a complete view.”

For those unfamiliar with Chef Scrap, imagine Iron Chef—the wildly popular Japanese television series in the ’90s that soon inspired a worldwide cult following and countless imitators. Renowned chefs known for their mastery of various cuisines are required to prepare sophisticated dishes from surprise ingredients in a limited amount of time for a panel of celebrity judges. The setup is deceptively simple— but the execution, done well, is absolutely enthralling entertainment.

Though fiercely protective of the Hog Pit brand, Anderson is unpretentious and conspicuously supportive of our local food scene. Through Chef Scrap and the supper club’s collaborative dinners, he steps out of the spotlight and invites colleagues and other local chefs to showcase their talents and businesses instead. The lineup of competitors past and pending isn’t a who’s

who of barbecue. Rather, it’s a mix of established local chefs—like Jack Moore (former Watershed Kitchen & Bar executive chef) and Dan “Hungarian Butcher” Varga—and emerging ones who share his humble culinary spirit, no matter their specialty.

The Chef Scrap, in which extemporaneous fare is prepared under the intense attention of a captivated crowd, is a creative counterpoint to the refined multi-course dinners, and other events that round out Ray Ray’s Supper Club. During the December competition, while chef Gottschalk was bandaging his hand, emcee John Reese, owner of Black Radish Creamery, coyly tried to distract from the mishap by asking the judges to share their own kitchen scars and close calls. Chef Sebastian La Rocca of Fyr, Spark and Stories on High rolled up his sleeve to show a string of stitches as fellow judges Scott Wilkins, co-owner and operator of Three Tigers Brewing and Mai Chau Kitchen, and Columbus Monthly contrib-

UPCOMING RAY RAY’S SUPPER CLUB EVENTS

Feb. 3: Seven-course Italian dinner featuring chefs James Anderson, Aric DeAngelis and Adam Fleischer

Feb. 6: Chef Scrap No. 3

Feb. 10: Valentine’s Dinner No. 1

Feb. 17: Valentine’s Dinner No. 2

Feb. 24: Three-course barbecue and bourbon dinner

utor Nicholas Dekker, of the eponymous Breakfast with Nick blog, visibly winced with the audience.

Though there are cameras and televisions positioned to help capture the action up close, unlike most cooking shows the head-to-head contest is also face-to-face. In true Columbus fashion, competitors were handing utensils back and forth throughout and watching the other’s preparations to prevent burning or boiling over.

Gottschalk was first to present his final dish, togarashi-spiced fried chicken with smoked beets atop an onion and apple slaw, finished with a black garlic vinaigrette. Ettish answered with a South African sweet curry with fried chicken thighs, smoked beets marinated in orange juice, then flambéed in local moonshine he’d quietly pinched from behind the bar.

It was close, but Ettish’s stealth ingredient and ingenuity appeared to pay off, earning him the win. Being a food truck owner who’s accustomed to tight kitchen quarters probably didn’t hurt. “On a food truck, there’s limited equipment and storage space,” Ettish says. “But neither of us knew who the judges were before tonight, so we couldn’t really appeal to their tastes. I just came in with the idea of Asian or Indian flavors, and whatever was in the mystery basket, because that’s what I know.”

Though Ray Ray’s recurring Chef Scrap is consistent with Anderson’s aspirations to highlight Central Ohio’s credible culinary chops, it’s also indicative of a larger trend in Columbus and beyond, where product and service converge to create an immersive experience, one that strengthens customer loyalty in an age of commodities.

“ We’re looking for executive chefs in the Columbus area to compete, and as it grows, we’ll have chef versus chef and sous versus sous scraps,” he says, noting the audiences for the supper club, kitchen showdowns and drive-thru may be distinct, but the authenticity they crave is identical.

“[Every chef] comes in with what they know best, but it’s also a culinary playground,” Anderson says. “We’ve had a couple people from out of town apply, but I want to generate excitement about local competitions before opening it up to all of Ohio and additional states, so local chefs can compete against some of the best chefs in the country.” ◆

1256 Columbus Road, Granville, 740-920-9103, rayrayssupperclub.com

Ray’s Ray’s Supper Club

Damian Ettish’s South African sweet curry with fried chicken

Chef Scrap judges Nicholas Dekker, chef Sebastian La Rocca and Three Tigers’ Scott Wilkins compare notes about the dishes.

Give Me Tacos

Forget the latest taco chain to arrive in town; instead head west for

Tacos

Don

Deme.

By Bailey Trask

Need a respite from the doldrums of winter? Tacos Don Deme, located in a West Side strip mall, might be just the fix, offering both the taste buds and eyes a lively dining experience.

Vibrant green and yellow walls are adorned with posters of Mexican revolutionaries. A wall of sound, including both Mexican music and streaming telenovelas, provides an awakening of the senses. Most of the 10 tables are set up like booths, with individual upholstered seats providing comfort and flexibility. Water, chips and a thin salsa are delivered immediately. This friendly and efficient service is a consistent feature of the Tacos Don Deme experience.

The 4-year-old restaurant offers a wide variety of both traditional and fusion eats, with three different menus to peruse: a main Mexican menu that includes breakfast, a California menu (the new-ish owners, Gerardo and Monica Lopez, previously lived in the Golden State), and a selection of “new and popular” items. I selected dishes from each.

Given this establishment’s name, tacos are an obvious choice. Delivered in small Koki’s corn tortillas, tacos come topped with chopped onions and fresh cilantro, garnished with limes and cucumber. And they each offer impressive portions of protein. The well-seasoned, spit-grilled pastor ($2.50) with crispy bits is a standout. But other enjoyable options include the tangy and stringy beef barbacoa ($3.50) and the fatty lengua ($4).

A selection from the California menu, the steak California burrito ($17.99) left me puzzled. This foot-long flour tortilla is loaded with a large portion of marinated beef, mozzarella cheese, pico de gallo, a chipotle cream sauce and a layer of french fries (instead of rice and beans). It’s accompanied by green and spicy red

salsas. In my opinion, the burrito would be better without the fries, because the tangy steak is overpowered by the double serving of carbs.

Hunting for the best birria tacos has almost become a national pastime, and the quesabirria ($13.50) from the eatery’s “new and popular” menu do not disappoint. I’m told they are the restaurant’s most popular offering. Slow-cooked birria beef and its accompanying broth are the keys to this entrée. Three large, double

Tacos Don Deme

75 S. Murray Hill Road, West Side, 614-465-9014

tortillas are dipped into broth, amplifying the flavor and color, and fried before being loaded with stewed beef, stringy mozzarella, chopped onions and a mountain of cilantro. When dipped into the broth, the result tastes like a hearty, hand-held stew. With cheese.

Speaking of stew, don’t skip the caldo de res ($11.99). Hefty chunks of beef, sizable carrots, potatoes and cabbage are served in a pungent. clear broth alongside rice, cilantro and onions. It’s one of the restaurant’s healthier options.

With its ample portions, mastery in flavor and fine service, Tacos Don Deme deserves to be a West Side staple. Stick with the standards and avoid the fusion, and you’ll surely agree. ◆

PHOTO: ROB HARDIN

Quesabirria tacos

’Round the World

Columbus has a trove of creative spins on pizza, reflecting food traditions from Puerto Rico to India.

By Bethia Woolf

Central Ohio’s love of pizza isn’t news, but the myriad international interpretations of the dish that have popped up—featuring toppings such as heart of palm, plantain and goat—should be. A gratifying number of these novel pizzas have found their way to local, immigrant-run restaurants. Here are a few of our favorites.

Brazilian Grill & Bakery (formerly Estilo Brazil) has, in short order, cultivated a dedicated demand for its wide range of sizable South American-style pies. Options range from Portuguesa (topped with egg, cheese, onion, bell peppers, olives and peas) to palmito (cheese, heart of palm, tomato and oregano). Crusts are light, bready and of moderate thickness, and sauces range from

tomato to white to beef stroganoff gravy. Dessert pizzas, which display a distinct sweet-and-savory balance, round out the offerings at this market-meets-restaurant. Be sure to check out the Romeu & Julieta (cheese and guava paste) or banana con canela (banana with cinnamon) pizzas. 5818 Columbus Square, North Side, 614394-9254

Dadu’s Bakery & Sweets is a nifty little strip-mall snack nook offering a wide range of subcontinental bites, including pizzas with names like paneer tikka, goat keema and chilli chicken. The paneer tikka rendition features the familiar tikka masala gravy as a sauce, studded with crumbled bits of the Indian cheese known as paneer. Onions, green peppers and chiles finish it off, and heat levels are not insignificant. The goat keema comes with tomato sauce, a traditional minced goat preparation (keema), cheese, onions and green peppers, and spicing is a bit milder. In both cases, pizza crusts are relatively thin, soft and chewy. 8495 Sancus Blvd., Polaris, 614-505-0047

Off Center: Patio & Pub is where Puerto Rico meets Manhattan. Co-owner Joel Cosme’s exceptional New York-style crust serves as the foundation for a wide range of pizza options, but only two, picadillo and piñon,

make it to the “Puerto Rican-inspired” section of the menu. Among them, surprises abound. For one, they’re all vegetarian, or you can request vegan. Secondly, ingredients such as raisins and plátanos maduros (ripe plantains) feature prominently. Though the picadillo (Impossible sausage, olives, raisins, bell peppers, cheese, onions and olive oil) may seem the safe choice, we suggest the piñon (topped with Impossible sausage, plantain, culantro—a cilantro cousin with long, serrated leaves—cheese and housemade seasonings). 5286 Center St., Hilliard, 614-710-1160

Halwani’s Pizza & Stromboli  is the grandfather of this group, having served diverse takes on pizza since 2010. Unlike the others, owner Shan Halwani doesn’t focus on only one culinary tradition, preferring instead to explore and interpret styles from all over the world, including South Africa, India, Morocco and others. Featuring a medium-thick crust with nicely puffy edges, his tandoori chicken pizza (tandoori chicken, cumin, ginger, onions, jalapeño and cheese) is a neighborhood favorite. His most unique pie may be the Royal Moroccan, on which Moroccan spices set the backdrop for toppings like shrimp, garlic, green olives, onions and cheese. 1453 Ida Ave., Fifth by Northwest, 614-618-4756

PHOTOS: TIM JOHNSON

Left, the piñon pizza featuring plantains and Impossible sausage at Off Center: Patio & Pub; right, pizzas from Brazilian Grill & Bakery

Food & Drink |

Go Fish

Can the conservas trend catch on in Columbus? One local chef is

doing his part.

By Erin Edwards

Recently, Chapman’s Eat Market co-owner BJ Lieberman has taken part in a fairly niche pursuit. He estimates that he’s eaten a thousand varieties of conservas (aka tinned seafood) with the goal of identifying the very best.

We’re not talking about tins of Chicken of the Sea, but rather the kind of handpacked, high-quality seafoods found in Spanish tapas and Portuguese petiscos bars. Seafood varieties range far beyond tuna to sardines, mussels, trout, squid, razor clams, mackerel and many others. Preparations aren’t limited to water or oil, either.

“ You know, it’s all over the world; anywhere there’s a fishery, there’s generally people trying to preserve that product, because you can’t sell it all fresh. Spain, Portugal have very proud traditions of it,” Lieberman says.

The chef took on his tinned fish project ahead of opening his jazz and cocktail lounge, Ginger Rabbit, last year in the Short North. The underground jazz bar doesn’t have a kitchen and instead serves conservas and Dan the Baker bread alongside other snacks like housemade hummus, Castelvetrano olives, and caviar with potato chips and crème fraîche.

The jury’s still out whether the conservas trend can stay afloat in Columbus. When trying to open Ginger Rabbit’s doors last year, even Lieberman struggled to explain the concept of conservas to the city.

“The [Columbus] health department had a really tough time trying to wrap their head around what we were doing. They’re like, ‘OK, the scallops, how are you cooking them?’ I’m like, ‘We’re not cooking them.’ ‘So you’re serving them raw?’ And I’m like, ‘No, they’re not raw. No, they’re conservas.’”

It’s a niche craving, perhaps. Since opening the jazz lounge, Lieberman has already halved his conservas offerings based on demand. Instead of being the thing Ginger Rabbit is doing, it’s a thing, he says.

And yet, some trend-watchers predict that charcuterie’s sea-faring cousin, the seacuterie board—yes, that’s a thing—will soon have its moment in the sun, though quality conservas can be hard to find in local markets. The best local selection I’ve found is at Carfagna’s Market in Polaris. Otherwise, the internet is your best bet.

If you’re interested in creating your own seacuterie board or just trying to recreate the Ginger Rabbit experience at home— without the spiffy bar service and jazz band—here’s a quick guide to some of the best tinned seafood brands to seek out and where to source them.

EKONE OYSTER CO.

Ekone is the tinned seafood brand from Taylor Shellfish Farms, which has been fishing off the Washington coast for five generations. Lieberman is particularly fond of Ekone’s smoked oysters.

Where to buy: taylorshellfishfarms.com, caputos.com

IASA

Among its conservas offerings, one of Ginger Rabbit’s best-sellers is a silky branzino from the Italian brand Iasa.

Where to buy: amazon.com, caputos.com

JOSE GOURMET

Lieberman carries this Portuguese brand of conservas at Ginger Rabbit. In addition to a high-quality product, Jose Gourmet wins for best packaging with its clever illustrations. Seafood varieties include sardines in tomato sauce, octopus in olive oil and garlic, and mackerel fillets dressed in extra-virgin olive oil.

Where to buy: amazon.com, caputos.com, conservaculture.com

LA BRUJULA

This is the rare brand of conservas that you can find locally—at Carfagna’s Market. Hand-packed in Galicia, Spain, La Brujula conservas include stuffed squid, white tuna, sardines and others.

Where to buy: amazon.com, Carfagna’s Market (1440 Gemini Place)

RAMÓN PEÑA

Since 1920, this brand has been preserving seafood from the Galician estuaries off Spain’s northwest coast. Lieberman recommends Ramón Peña’s scallops in a Galician sauce of oil and paprika and its (quite pricey) razor clams in brine. Other offerings include octopus in olive oil, baby sardines with peppers and stuffed squid nestled in ink.

Where to buy: amazon.com, caputos.com, conservaculture.com

SCOUT

Co-founded by chef Charlotte Langley, Scout is a B Corp craft cannery based in Brooklyn, New York, that sources its seafood from Canada and Alaska. Scout offers a three-pack featuring PEI Mussels in a smoked paprika and fennel tomato sauce, lobster in lemon-infused olive oil and rainbow trout with dill.

Where to buy: enjoyscout.com, caputos.com, conservaculture.com

PHOTO: TIM JOHNSON

Clockwise from top: Jose Gourmet packaging, Dan the Baker country sourdough, Jose Gourmet mackerel filets in olive oil, Ortiz anchovies, La Brujula squid, Scout freshwater trout with dill, Marcona almonds

PRO TIP

Conservas aren’t just for eating on crusty bread or straight out of the can. Making pasta for dinner? Cook down anchovies and add to your tomato sauce for more depth of flavor. Or add canned clams, garlic, white wine and olive oil to linguine for a quick weeknight supper.

A New Cocktail Bar Makes a Splash at Buckeye Lake

By Erin Edwards

Openings & Announcements

Granville native Benjamin Long has opened a new cocktail-lounge-meetsgastropub near Buckeye Lake. Hereinafter Cocktail Tavern, located at 3430 N. Bank Road NE in Millersport, promises classic cocktails, wine, beer and Southern-inspired fare such as fried oysters, gumbo, shrimp and grits, and fried green tomatoes. In addition, the tavern houses a retail wine shop called Heretofore Wine Shop The tavern’s hours are 4 p.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday; 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

In mid-December, Dos Hermanos Tacos unveiled its swanky new standalone restaurant at 3946 Morse Crossing in Easton Town Center. (Some customers may remember the address as the former home of Edamame Sushi & Grill.) Starting out a decade ago as a single truck on Morse Road, Dos Hermanos has grown into a multipronged business with stalls in both North Market locations, a location at Food Fort 2.0, catering services, multiple food trucks and now its first standalone restaurant with a full bar. In addition to its regular menu of street tacos, tamales, and chips and guacamole, the restaurant is expected to add desserts and some Oaxacan specialties like tlayudas (large, crispy tortillas topped with refried beans and other toppings).

At press time, two highly anticipated chef-driven restaurants were hiring and close to opening: Agni and Speck Italian Eatery. Agni is chef Avishar Barua’s live-fire restaurant taking over the former Ambrose and Eve space in the Brewery District. It

will be Barua’s second restaurant opening in less than 12 months, joining Joya’s Café in Old Worthington. Meanwhile, the relocation of chef Josh Dalton’s Speck, from Delaware to the corner of High and Gay streets Downtown, is almost complete. Speck was named one of Columbus Monthly’s Best New Restaurants in 2020.

India Bistro & China House was expected to open in mid-January at 2540 Bethel Road in the Carriage Place Plaza. The restaurant will offer both Chinese and Indian cuisines, including daily lunchtime and dinner buffets.

The owners of Kittie’s Cakes have taken over the Highline Coffee Co. space at 693 High St. in Worthington. Known for its cupcakes, cinnamon rolls and Stumptown Coffee, this is Kittie’s third Central Ohio location, including cafés in Bexley and German Village.

Leonard’s Coffee Roasting Co., a local, smallbatch coffee roaster operated by Zach Leonard, unveiled its first brick-and-mor-

tar coffeehouse in early January at 32 S. Main St. in downtown Johnstown. The new spot is located across the street from Ghostwriter Public House.

Hot Chicken Takeover has taken over the building at 1417 W. Fifth Ave., formerly home to Sweet Carrot and Rife’s Market. The Fifth by Northwest location is HCT’s seventh overall.

Closings

Owner Jimmy Dragich has shuttered his Schumacher Place deli and live music venue, Jimmyluka’s, which opened in 2018. In an announcement on social media, Dragich teased that a new, yet-to-be-determined venture will fill the space in the future.

To keep up with the latest restaurant/bar openings and closings, visit columbusmonthly.com and subscribe to our food newsletter, Copy & Taste.

Grilled fish at Speck

let’s eat

WHERE TO DINE THIS MONTH

Editor’s Note: Given the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, please call restaurants to check hours and menu availability.

$$$$ Very expensive, $26 and higher

$$$ Spendy, $16–$25

$$ Moderate, $11–$15

$ Affordable, under $10

NEW

Restaurant has opened within the last few months.

Outdoor Seating

B Breakfast

BR Brunch

L Lunch

D Dinner

One of our 10 Best Restaurants

2022 Best New Restaurants

Let’s Eat comprises Columbus Monthly editors’ picks and is updated monthly based on available space. Send updates to eedwards@columbusmonthly.com.

ASIAN

Ampersand Asian Supper Club

Megan Ada’s Ampersand serves ramen, donburi rice bowls and more in the heart of the Short North. This sister restaurant to Westerville’s Asterisk Supper Club also offers craft cocktails and a variety of sakes. 940 N. High St., Short North, 614-928-3333. LD $$

Bonsai

Started by the creators of Japanese Oriental Restaurant, Bonsai puts a creative spin on authentic Japanese and Korean cuisine, with sushi, ramen, kimchi stew, bulgogi and more. 3108 Kingsdale Ctr., Upper Arlington, 614670-4138. LD $$$

Helen’s Asian Kitchen

A mix of Chinese-American, authentic Chinese and Pan-Asian dishes are served in a casual atmosphere. Don’t miss the pork buns, spicy stir-fried cauliflower and handmade dumplings. 1070 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., North Side, 614-987-5121. LD $$

Tiger + Lily Bistro

This inviting Downtown eatery features modern takes on Pan-Asian cuisine, such as lemongrass chicken or teriyaki tofu in a rice or sal-

ad bowl, chicken broth-based ramen, bubble milk teas and seasonal crêpe cakes. 19 E. Gay St., Downtown, 614-928-9989. BRLD $

BAKERY

NEW Al Aqsa Sweets

Excellent baklava, petit four cookies, knafeh and other desserts are the focus of this traditional Middle Eastern bakery owned by Fathieh Abdellatif. 1940 Schrock Road, North Side, 614-806-0293. LD $

Belle’s Bread

Tucked away in the same complex as Akai Hana, this French-inspired Japanese bakery is known for its outstanding pastries, cakes and treats. 1168 Kenny Centre Mall, Upper Arlington, 614-451-7110. BL $

Dough Mama

The creation of Perrie Wilkof, this hip café showcases Dough Mama’s scratch-made pies, scones and savory eats like soups and biscuit sandwiches. 3335 N. High St., Clintonville, 614-268-3662. BL $$

Le Vieux Lyon French Bakery & Market

This bakery named after Old Lyon offers a wide variety of pastries, croissants, cakes and coffee. 1792 Brice Rd., Reynoldsburg, 614370-4292. BL $

Omega Artisan Baking

The North Market bakery sells a wide variety of artisan breads, scones, croissants, cookies, focaccia, cakes, pies and pastries. 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-224-9910. BLD $

BARBECUE

B&K Smokehouse

Owner James Howell serves excellent Memphis-style ribs and soul food at this no-frills carryout spot. 1114 E. Main St., Olde Towne East, 614-252-7017. LD $$

Hank’s Texas BBQ

Central Texas-style brisket is king at chef Brad “Hank” Harkrider’s casual restaurant, which replaces Old Skool. Other offerings include smoked chicken, pulled pork, ribs and sides such as mac ’n’ cheese and baked beans. 2941 N. High St., Clintonville, 614972-6020. LD $$

Ray Ray’s Hog Pit

Since launching Ray Ray’s food truck at Ace of Cups, owner James Anderson has built a thriving barbecue business and snagged a James Beard nomination. Expect excellent

Visit columbus monthly.com to read about the latest restaurant openings.

barbecue fare, with ribs, pulled pork and beef brisket sandwiches, plus sides. 424 W. Town St., Franklinton, 614-404-9742; 1256 Columbus Rd., Granville, 740-920-9103; 2619 High St., Old North, 614-753-1191; 41 Depot St., Powell, 614-441-1065; 5755 Maxtown Rd., Westerville, 614-329-6654. LD $$

BAR FARE

Ash & Em

Housed inside Classics Sports Bar, this kitchen turns out above average game day fare such as pizzas, smashburgers, fried pickles and 24-hour brined wings. 541 S. High St., Brewery District, 614-697-1108 LD $$

Barley’s Brewing Co.

The microbrewery offers an expansive selection of brews, which can be enjoyed at the hand-carved, century-old mahogany bar alongside American bar favorites like nachos and burgers. 467 N. High St., Short North, 614-228-2537. LD $$

City Tavern

This casual sports pub located inside the mixeduse Wonder Bread Building features exposed brick walls and large windows. Solid bar grub is served, such as Hungarian stuffed peppers, bacon cheeseburger fries, classic burgers, sandwiches, flatbreads and more. 697 N. Fourth St., Italian Village, 614-826-2348. LD $$

O’Reilly’s Pub

A casual, neighborhood Irish bar with a menu including the Pepper Burger, subs, sweet potato fries and wings. 2822 N. High St., Clintonville, 614-262-6343. LD $

BURGERS

Ringside Café

Dating back to 1897, this venerable Downtown spot has an old-school-tavern feel and specializes in burgers like the Jack Dempsey, the Ali and the Oscar De La Hoya. 19 N. Pearl St., Downtown, 614-228-7464. LD $$

Thurman Café

A Columbus landmark restaurant with the wait times to prove it. Diners flock here for overthe-top pub grub and the biggest burgers (like the towering, double 12-ounce patty burger, The Thurmanator) in town. 183 Thurman Ave., German Village, 614-443-1570. LD $$

CAJUN & CREOLE

Creole 2 Geaux

Located in the new East Market, this food

vendor serves up Southern hospitality and comforting fare such as bourbon chicken, jambalaya mac ’n’ cheese and po’boys. 212 Kelton Ave., Franklin Park, 614-432-6226. LD $$

Creole Kitchen

This family-owned restaurant founded by chef Henry Butcher serves Louisiana classics like gumbo, po’boys and crawfish étouffée. 1052 B Mt. Vernon Ave., East Side, 614-3723333. BLD $$

CHINESE

ChiliSpot

This casual restaurant in Kenny Centre is one of the city’s best options for authentic Sichuan cuisine. Think: mapo tofu, Chongqing popcorn chicken, cumin lamb, dry pot dishes and more. 1178 Kenny Rd., Northwest Side, 614-929-5565. LD $$$

NE Chinese Restaurant

Authentic dishes from the Dongbei region of China are the specialty at this unfussy Old North spot. Go for the cumin potato, spicy twice-cooked fish or any of the hot pots. 2620 N. High St., Old North, 614-725-0880. LD $$

Xi Xia Western Chinese Cuisine

Xi Xia offers an authentic tour of flavors from the Ningxia autonomous region in north-central China. Highlights include the chewy stirred noodles and rice pilaf with cubed lamb. 1140 Kenny Centre Mall, Northwest Side, 614-670-7736. LD $$

Yun Nan Crossing Bridge Noodle

An authentic noodle shop that specializes in rice noodle soup from Yunnan Province, China. Choose from more than 10 noodle soups and starters like pork dumplings or crispy salt and pepper chicken. 2548 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-929-5552. LD $$

CONTEMPORARY

Chapman’s Eat Market

Chef BJ Lieberman’s debut on the local dining scene fills the original home of Max & Erma’s in German Village. The renovated space is fun and sophisticated, sporting a palette of bold wallpapers with rose pink and green accents. Diners can expect creative and ingredient-driven dishes, fine cocktails and homemade ice cream. 739 S. Third St., German Village, 614-444-0917. D $$$

Comune

Joe Galati’s restaurant and bar fills a void in Columbus with a plant-based approach to upscale dining. The seasonal menu includes shareable dishes like tahdig, house-made pita, tempura cauliflower and semolina cavatelli. 677 Parsons Ave., Schumacher Place, 614-947-1012 D $$$

NEW Fyr

Argentinian chef Sebastian La Rocca oversees this live-fire restaurant at the new Hilton Columbus Downtown tower. Dinnertime

starters range from empanadas to grilled bone marrow, while the mains include ember-cooked shrimp, grilled filet, wood-fired pizzas and roasted salmon. Breakfast is served daily. 404 N. High St., Short North, 614-384-8600. BD $$$

Goodale Station

Topping Downtown’s Canopy by Hilton hotel is this rooftop restaurant, bar and patio led by executive chef Jonathan Olson. The restaurant’s city views are complemented by a large bar, high-end cocktails and sophisticated fare inspired by global cuisines. 77 E. Nationwide Blvd., Downtown, 614-2279400. BRD $$$

Service Bar

Local distiller Middle West showcases its fine spirits at this on-site restaurant and bar led by executive chef Chris Connolly. Expect New American fare ranging from a wagyu beef burger to halibut with Kashmiri curry. 1230 Courtland Ave., Short North, 614-947-1231. D $$$

Sycamore

Now under new ownership, Sycamore is a welcome neighborhood hang featuring a carryout coffee window, full bar and a tastefully renovated dining room. Dishes range from an egg sandwich in the a.m. to grilled artichokes, whole branzino, lamb sugo and more. 262 E. Sycamore St., German Village, 614-7541460 BLD $$$

Veritas

Chef Josh Dalton’s modern, tastingmenu-style restaurant celebrates the art and science of cooking while offering one of the finest dining experiences in town. Located in the Citizens Building at Gay and High streets, Veritas prides itself on excellent service and exhilarating cocktail and wine lists. 11 W. Gay St., Downtown, 614-745-3864. D $$$$

DINER

Delaney’s Diner

Jeff and Lisa Miller’s cheerful diner offers American breakfast and lunch classics done

right. Popular items include the signature Breakfast Conewich or house-made corned beef hash. Lunchtime means burgers, sandwiches and Pasta Salvi, a nostalgic nod to the bygone B.G. Salvi’s chain. 6150 E. Main St., Reynoldsburg, 614-626-2006; 5916 Westerville Rd., Westerville, 614-776-5788. BL $

German Village Coffee Shop

This popular greasy spoon takes you back in time with its 1950s interior and thrifty menu. Serves create-your-own omelets, pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers and other comfort foods. 193 Thurman Ave., German Village, 614-443-8900. BL $

Hang Over Easy

What started as a Campus-area diner serving breakfast all day has expanded into OTE. Menu options include omelets, seasonal pancakes, breakfast skillets and burgers. 1646 Neil Ave., Campus, 614-586-0070; 51 Parsons Ave., Olde Towne East, 614-928-3778. BL $$

ETHIOPIAN

Addis Restaurant

The injera here is about as good as it gets with traditional Ethiopian dishes like tibs, kitfo, shiro wot and doro wot. 3750 Cleveland Ave., North Side, 614-269-8680. LD $$

Lalibela

Some of the city’s best Ethiopian food is served at this modest East Side spot where diners gather around large platters of gomen, doro wat, shiro, tibs and more—all served atop injera. 1111 S. Hamilton Rd., Whitehall, 614-235-5355. LD $$

Nile Vegan

Vegan meets Ethiopian at this restaurant, where customers can expect affordable combination plates of stewed or puréed veggies on injera. Go for the mushroom combo, a mushroom stew with curry split peas, a beet medley and Puy lentils. Don’t forget the chai. 1479 Worthington St., Campus, 614-6708171; 1223 Goodale Blvd., Grandview, 614223-1288. BLD $$

PHOTO: ROB HARDIN

Xi Xia Western Chinese Cuisine

EUROPEAN

Café Elena

A fusion bakery and restaurant with a Russian twist operated by a mother-daughter duo. Go for the freshly made pastries and delightful breakfast options such as crêpes, pancakes, skillets and more. 2054 Crown Plaza Dr., Northwest Side, 614-726-0726. BL $$

Pierogi Mountain

Located in the former Grass Skirt Tiki Room space, Pierogi Mountain offers a 50 percent vegan menu that includes a variety of handmade pierogi, chicken paprikash and housemade pork sausage and kraut. 105 N. Grant Ave., Downtown, 614-745-3139. LD $

FRENCH

The Refectory Restaurant & Wine Shop

At this Columbus icon, chef Richard Blondin puts more effort into a single plate than an ordinary restaurant does into an entire menu. Inside this church-turned-fine-dining spot, expect impeccable service and a world-class wine cellar to pair with your meal. 1092 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-451-9774. D $$$$

GREEK

Anna’s Greek Cuisine

After serving her mother’s food in Greece, Anna opened her own restaurant over 22

years ago. Specialties range from pita sandwiches and pastitsio to lamb shank and moussaka. 7370 Sawmill Rd., Northwest Side, 614-799-2207. LD $$

Lashish the Greek

An authentic Greek restaurant where the cornerstone of the menu is genuine shawarma; moussaka, gyros, falafel and kebabs are also served. 788 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614457-5800. LD $

INDIAN/PAKISTANI

NEW Clove Indian Bistro

This fledgling Indian restaurant is especially notable for its Indo-Chinese dishes, such as chili paneer, Manchurian chicken and Hakka noodles. The restaurant offers a popular lunch buffet Friday through Sunday. 6642 Sawmill Road, Northwest Side, 614-362-0132. LD $$

Indian Oven

Friendly and chic eatery serving Northern Indian and Bengali meals. The menu includes palak paneer, tandoori chicken, biryani and roasted lamb shank. 427 E. Main St., Downtown, 614-220-9390. LD $$

Neehee’s Indian Vegetarian Street Food

This lively, Michigan-based franchise offers a wide variety of vegetarian Indian fare. In addition to several variants on chaat, a traditional savory snack, the large menu also includes Indo-Chinese dishes, sandwiches, veggie burg-

ers, dosas, lassis and more. 6080 Sawmill Rd., Dublin, 614-389-6304. LD $

Rooh

A San Francisco import serving high-end, “progressive Indian” fare. Go for the inventive cocktails, buzzy atmosphere and conversation-stoking small plates. 685 N. High St., Short North, 614-972-8678. D $$$

ITALIAN

Ann & Tony’s Restaurant

A quaint family restaurant serving traditional, homemade Italian and American dishes, including chicken Parmesan, prime rib, spaghetti, seafood and homemade desserts. 211 E. Main St., West Side, 614-879-8897. LD $$

Martini Modern Italian

Cameron Mitchell’s classy Short North staple offers classic Italian cooking in a modern, vibrant setting. 445 N. High St., Short North, 614-224-8259. D $$$

Nicola Restaurant & Bar

A neighborly white-tablecloth spot boasting an inviting Italian menu with a wealth of handmade seasonal pastas. 4740 Reed Rd., Upper Arlington, 614-459-7000. D $$$$

Scali Ristorante

This strip mall gem opened by Frank and Judy Scali in 1993 pulls off sophisticated Italian-American fare with the genuine warmth

of a neighborhood institution. The veal Parmesan and classic lasagna give red sauce a good name. 1903 State Route 256, Reynoldsburg, 614-759-7764. D $$$

JAPANESE

Fukuryu Ramen

Jeff Tsao, whose family owned the Kahiki Supper Club, brings his Melbourne, Australia, ramen shop stateside. It’s quick, modern, bustling and adds a little rock ’n’ roll to traditional Japanese fare. The Signature Tonkotsu and Red Dragon ramens are standouts. 4540 Bridge Park Ave., Dublin, 614-553-7392; 1600 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington, 614-929-5910. LD $$

Yoshi’s Japanese Restaurant

This fine Japanese spot combines traditional Japanese cooking with modern twists. The large menu ranges from small plates such as sunomono and okonomiyaki to sushi, udon and Japanese curry. 5776 Frantz Rd., Dublin, 614-889-1275. D $$$

KOREAN

Don Pocha Korean BBQ

A fun KBBQ spot where meat, seafood and vegetables are cooked at the table and paired with pickled side dishes (banchan) and dipping sauces. Flavorful Korean soups and stews round out the menu. 4710 Reed Rd., Upper Arlington, 614-459-9292. LD $$$

Min Ga Korean Restaurant

This friendly strip-mall spot serves traditional Korean specialities like kimchi, bibimbap, bulgogi and gopchang. 800 Bethel Rd., Northwest Side, 614-457-7331. LD $$

LATIN AMERICAN

Arepazo

Owners Carlos and Carolina Gutierrez serve excellent Venezuelan and Colombian fare and cocktails in a hip atmosphere. Don’t miss the arepas, patacón and lomo saltado. 515 S. High St., Brewery District, 614-914-8878. LD $$$

Pablo’s Havana Café

This Cuban café serves authentic recipes made primarily with locally sourced ingredients. Be sure to try its signature El Cubano sandwich. 6750 Longshore St., Dublin; 9685 Sawmill Rd., Powell, 614-389-4302. LD $$

MEXICAN

La Poblanita

A hidden gem for authentic tacos, tortas, burritos and quesadillas with seasonal specials such as the carne asada platter. Food Truck, 3825 Indianola Ave., Clintonville, 614-598-9539. LD $

La Super Torta

A strip-mall find that specializes in outstanding (and sizable) tortas. The no-frills eatery also serves tacos, gorditas and other authentic Mexican eats. 721 Georgesville Rd., West Side, 614-928-9079. BLD $

Los Guachos Taqueria

The brick-and-mortar version of the popular taco truck (461 Commerce Sq., West Side) offers all the truck favorites—authentic tacos, tortas and gringas—and, of course, the city’s best al pastor. 7370 Sawmill Rd., Dublin, 614726-9185; 1376 Cherry Bottom Rd., Gahanna, 614-471-4717; 5221 Godown Rd., Northwest Side, 614-538-0211; 1121 S. Hamilton Rd., Whitehall, 614-852-3000. LD $

NEPALESE/TIBETAN

Everest Cuisine

Combining Nepalese, Tibetan and Indian fare, Everest Cuisine boasts authentic dining at affordable prices in Old Worthington. 652 High St., Worthington, 614-601-6004. LD $$$

Momo Ghar

Since 2016, Momo Ghar has gained a loyal following thanks to the handmade dumplings that co-owner Phuntso Lama and her crew make by the hundreds, weekly. No trip is complete without the best-seller, jhol momo. 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-495-6666. LD $

PIZZA

GoreMade Pizza

It’s all about the pizza here at Nick Gore’s modest spot. Thin-crust pies are wood-fired in an oven imported from Italy, and seasonal toppings are locally sourced. Enjoy solid cocktails and salads while you wait. 936 N. Fourth St., Italian Village, 614-725-2115. D $$$

Paulie Gee’s Short North

A Brooklyn-based pizzeria with Neapolitanand Detroit-style pies and craft beer. Offers traditional and eclectic pizzas with names like the Hellboy, the Greenpointer and the Ricotta Be Kiddin’ Me. 1195 N. High St., Short North, 614-808-0112. D $$$

SEAFOOD

Coast to Local Market

In addition to fresh seafood for cooking at home, this North Market fishmonger offers lobster rolls,

chowder, lobster poutine and more. 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, 614-683-8782; 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-929-5701. LD $$

NEW Cove

Chef Josh Dalton’s newest creation in Delaware is a casual seafood joint with New Orleans leanings. Start with the wedge salad topped with everything-bagel seasonings (a la New Orleans’ Turkey and the Wolf), then head for the seafood boil with a handmade “pasta back.” Oysters, scallops, fish and a fine cocktail list round out the menu. 15 E. Winter St., Delaware, 740-417-4074. D $$$

STEAKHOUSE

Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse

A Cincinnati-based chain from restaurateur Jeff Ruby that offers top-flight steaks, à la carte sides, oysters and sushi in an over-the-top atmosphere. The wine list is extensive, and the service is formal, with flourishes like Bananas Foster served tableside. 89 E. Nationwide Blvd., Downtown, 614-686-7800. D $$$$

The Top Steak House

For more than 65 years, this Bexley palace of beef has offered award-winning, high-end cuisine (filet mignon, pork and lamb chops, and seafood) in a dimly lit, vintage, 1960s-looking haunt. 2891 E. Main St., Bexley, 614-231-8238.

VIETNAMESE

Huong Vietnamese Restaurant

Housed in a Northland-area strip mall, this bright and simply decorated restaurant turns out great Vietnamese fare such as pho, bahn xeo and bun nem nuong. 1270 Morse Rd., North Side, 614-825-0303. LD $$

Lan Viet Market

Located in both North Market locations, family-run Lan Viet offers tried-and-true Vietnamese favorites, with pho, banh mi, bun thit bo xao and ca phe sua. 6750 Longshore St., Dublin, 614-683-8783; 59 Spruce St., Short North, 614-227-4203. LD $$

PHOTO: ROB HARDIN

Paulie Gee’s Short North

jan.kanas@sothebysrealty.com

Kevin Sullivan

(614) 419-2026 kevins@ columbus.rr.com

Kevin Sullivan

(614) 419-2026 kevins@ columbus.rr.com

WORTHINGTON

Luke Fedlam’s Favorite Spots

The Fedlam family has spent the past few years getting to know the paths, parks and places to eat in the north side suburb of Worthington. Luke Fedlam is a partner at the Porter Wright law firm and president of Anomaly Sports Group. He and his wife, Janelle, moved to a home just north of the Worthington border in 2019, and their children— Allen, 12, and Simone, 8—attend Worthington public schools. —STEVE

WARTENBERG

A Taste of Paris

Anything on the menu at La Chatelaine French Bakery & Bistro “will make the entire family

happy,” Fedlam says of the popular eatery in the heart of Old Worthington. “I love the pain au chocolat, the kids go for anything with chocolate and my mother-in-law [Jan Toles] loves the coconut macaroons.”

Perfect Pie

“My favorite pizza in all of Columbus is the Dr. Dre at Dewey’s Pizza, but without the jalapeños,” Fedlam says. “It has chicken, bacon and peppers, and they drizzle on ranch dressing. It’s amazing.”

Along the River

A fun family outing is a walk or bike ride along the Olentangy River bike

path to Olentangy Parklands. Allen plays soccer there; everyone enjoys tennis. “We haven’t played on the pickleball courts yet, but it looks like a lot of fun. I want all of us to play, two-ontwo, me and my daughter against my wife and son,” Fedlam says.

Plenty of Playgrounds

“We moved here in big part because of the schools,” Fedlam says, adding an unexpected bonus has been the quality of the playgrounds at Worthington Estates Elementary and Worthingway Middle School. Gaga ball (a dodge ball variation) is a favorite,

and “the kids love trying to beat dad.”

Eat Your Veggies

The weekly Worthington Farmers Market is a family tradition. “We’re fresh-vegetable people,” Fedlam says. “And we like to have fresh flowers in the house.”

Ace is the Place

Fedlam is a hardware store aficionado and a regular at Schreiner Ace Hardware. “I love a good, old-fashioned hardware store,” he says. “I even love the smell, and no matter what question you have, whatever drip or leak, there’s someone there who can tell you what to do.”

Luke Fedlam at La Chatelaine French Bakery & Bistro

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