Mezcla Chef Looks to Mix it Up in Italian Village
Plus, Meanie Konbini is at the forefront of the local onigiri trend.
Many Italian Villagers lament both the passing of the upscale Mexican eatery Cosecha Cocina and the loss of The Market: Food & Drink. Chef Garrett Talmage aims to address both with his new restaurant, Mezcla, opening this month at 1022 Summit St.
Recently, we met Talmage inside of the former home of The Market where, amidst the bustle of employees and contractors readying it for Mezcla’s April 11 opening, he shared his vision for his new restaurant and the influences that inspired it.
Talmage was a chef at Grow Restaurants’ Cosecha, and characterizes his time there as “the job I found most fulfilling.” Noting that he’s spent his whole working life in kitchens, Talmage emphasizes how drawn he is to the food, culture and personalities of the Latin Americans working within.
Between that, his time at Cosecha and a stint at Nada in the Arena District, Talmage has developed a clear sense that nobody in Central Ohio has given Latin American fare the high-end treatment it deserves.
“People have played it too safe,” he says.
One way Talmage plans to push the envelope is in the tortilla department. Not only will Mezcla make its own fresh tortillas in house, but the staff will be nixtamalizing and grinding heirloom corn to make the masa for their tortillas.
This is not to say that Mezcla will be a taco-centric restaurant, and it won’t be exclusively Mexican. (Mezcla, after all, means mix or mixture in Spanish.) “Eighty percent of the menu is based on Mexican food,” Talmage says. “We will have minimal tacos on the menu and really broaden out from there” to other Latin American cuisine inspirations.
For example, Talmage says the menu will include the Can Can Porkchop (aka chuleta kan kan), a Puerto Rican inspired bone-in chop with belly and chicharron attached. There will also be a lamb tenderloin with a proprietary spice mix and pistachio-mint mole.
Talmage suggests that the spirit of a meal at Mezcla will be to “order multiple [dishes] and share with friends.” Mezcla’s menu will be divided into three sections: verduras (vegetables), mariscos (seafood) and carne (meat), with no dedicated appetizer or entree sections.
Mezcla’s beverage program shares the ambition of the rest of the endeavor, with bar manager Jackson Proctor at the helm. From his bar, expect unique offerings including tepache (a fermented pineapple drink), sotol and, as Proctor promises, “the best selection of additive-free mezcal and tequila in Columbus–if not the state.”
All of this seems to have caught the imagination of the public, as reservations are fully booked for the first weekend. To learn more about Mezcla, or reserve your seats, visit the restaurant’s website at mezclacocina.com.
Find It:
Mezcla
1022 Summit St., Italian Village
Hours: 4-11 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 4 p.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday
Trends
Onigiri is Taking Columbus (and NYC) by Storm
By Bethia Woolf
Over the weekend, I read a NYC-based newsletter that mentioned how “onigiri, Japanese rice balls, are taking New York by storm right now.” I thought maybe for once Columbus is ahead of New York on a food trend. In fact, we had posted on the @cbusadventures Instagram account about the onigiri trend landing in Columbus back in January 2024.
Hugely popular in Japanese convenience stores, onigiri are triangular, seaweed-wrapped rice balls that are usually filled with anything from tuna mayo to beef to mentaiko (pollack roe). They’re a cheaper, more portable alternative to sushi. They’re also good value (ranging from $2-$6) and kid friendly.
As we noted in last year’s post, for a long time the only places to find onigiri in Columbus were at Tensuke Market or Tensuke Express. Then in 2023, a dedicated onigiri business called Meanie Konbini launched in Columbus. In January 2024, we noticed that both Satori Ramen Bar and Nida’s at North Market Downtown had introduced onigiri as well.
It’s now 2025, and Japan’s favorite on-the-go snack is becoming more and more available in Columbus. While the trend is possibly fueled by social media and increased travel to Japan, people are also catching on to how portable and convenient onigiri are. We’re seeing more and more local shops and restaurants stocking them, including: Koso at East Market, CAM, Charmy’s Market, both Lucky’s Markets and Littleton’s Market. Some are stocking Meanie Konbini while others are making their own in house.
Onigiri are also a feature of the new Downtown restaurant Osaka Ton Katsu. The restaurant offers half a dozen flavors of onigiri including some more unusual fillings such as kakuni pork and ginger beef. Osaka Ton Katsu also offers a chicken torimeshi onigiri, which is slightly different from the typical filled rice ball. With the torimeshi onigiri, all of the ingredients are cooked together so the chicken, vegetables and tofu are intermixed with the rice.
Jen Kim, co-founder of Meanie Konbini, says that since they launched the business in October 2023 there has been a “huge exposure to onigiri as more places have started carrying their own.” This has helped build demand for onigiri locally.
Meanie Konbini onigiri can be ordered online for pick up at Fukuryu Ramen’s Downtown commissary at 748 Harmon Ave.; you can also find them at markets around town like Sunrise Asian Market in Upper Arlington, Lucky’s, Littleton’s and Fukuryu Ramen Dublin. Meanie Konbini offers 10 varieties of onigiri (including one vegan option), with its best sellers being salmon and chicken.
Onigiri Tips:
If you buy onigiri from a market where they have been refrigerated, they benefit from 30 seconds in a microwave to take the chill off the rice.
If you haven’t eaten onigiri before, I encourage you to watch a video showing you how to open the packaging. There’s a little trick to removing the cellophane without tearing the seaweed.
Notes
Around the Columbus Food & Drink Scene
The owner of Westerville’s Espresso Air plans to open West House, a new matcha and chocolate shop, at 21 N. State St. in Uptown Westerville. Customers can expect ceremonial-grade matcha sourced from Japan, drinks like matcha lattes and iced matcha, chocolate bento boxes and chocolate fountains. Look for a summertime grand opening.
Borgata Pizza Cafe, one of the original restaurant partners at Budd Dairy Food Hall, is set to depart the food hall permanently. Its last day of business is Sunday, April 6. According to a post on Instagram, Borgata’s owners have decided to focus on their Worthington location at 2285 W. Dublin-Granville Road #113.