Welcome to The Columbus Foodletter

Love food? Love exploring Columbus restaurants? Love hearing from the people who make our food scene tick? You're in the right place.

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The three of us are proud to introduce The Columbus Foodletter—a Substack-based newsletter about everything food-related in Central Ohio. The Columbus Foodletter publishes twice a week—with a mix of short, medium, and long reads—and our content combines the first-to-know info that Columbus Food Adventures’ old blogs were known for, with a seasoned reporter’s oversight and clarity. 

From the humblest of food trucks to the most exclusive of high-end dining to the quirkiest contents of Bethia’s cupboard, The Columbus Foodletter not only provides us with a platform for sharing such content, but also a means for you to respond to it (and for us to interact with you).

Expect topics to include reflections on a quick visit to a Springfield Haitian restaurant (see below), a look at the downtown dining renaissance, a deep-dive on all-things tartare, the grocery-store peanut that’s much more than just a peanut (seriously!) and much more.

Subscriptions start at $9/month or $95 per year. We know that might not be for everyone, but if you’re as curious about the food world around us as we are, we bet it’ll be worth it to you. 

Thank you for reading!

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Essay

Reflecting on a Visit to One of Springfield’s Haitian Restaurants 

By Andy Dehus

Last week, I got in the car and went in search of good food—as I’m wont to do. Only this time, I pointed the car west, not to explore Columbus but in search of Haitian restaurants about 45 minutes outside of Columbus.

Later, I posted a few photos and some awkwardly written impressions on Facebook of a Haitian restaurant I visited, which normally wouldn’t have garnered much attention.

But Rose Goute Creole Restaurant (which makes wonderfully flaky Haitian patties by the way) is located in Springfield, Ohio, and the post was dated September 10, 2024.

For those reasons alone, the post was shared thousands of times across the US and beyond. Messages flooded in from across the globe, many of them calling on Ohioans to support Springfield’s Haitian community by patronizing their restaurants.

I started seeing photos of Springfield restaurants packed to capacity with visitors lined up out the door. Some Facebook users replied to the post with reports on wait times and the varied composition of the guests in the dining rooms. Some took to the message thread to proudly recount their enthusiasm for the meals they ate there.

It was a heartwarming response to a profoundly disturbing provocation, and Columbus Food Adventures is truly grateful to have played a part in it.

Inevitably, there were some unpleasant comments, sure. There were also a couple of (seemingly) well-intentioned commenters who suggested there was a shallow or even performative element to the rush to dine at Springfield’s Haitian restaurants. They argued that most people’s engagement with the culture would begin and end with the visit.

While I’m not entirely unsympathetic to the spirit of that line of thinking, I do find the practical implications of it disheartening for three reasons:

1)    Everyone with any interest in a different culture has to start somewhere, and there’s no better place to start than food. Sure, many visitors may go no further than a meal or two, but I’ve seen firsthand how relationships formed through interactions over food have gone on to change the courses of people’s lives (mine included). Why be pessimistic about percentages?

2)    The cultural exchange goes both ways. Just about every immigrant business is walking on a high wire without a safety net. Well-meaning patrons are a potential strand in developing that net. A restaurant owner’s casual conversation about a business challenge with a customer who is well versed in how the US works may lead to sound, actionable advice. I’ve seen this firsthand. 

3)    Money matters. Let’s imagine that the result of this effort to support Springfield’s Haitian restaurants is little more than a few weeks’ worth of increased profit for the businesses. These restaurants are among the few meeting points for the Haitian community in Springfield, and those profits help them to remain so. That matters.

These points hold true for every immigrant business, and not just those besieged by craven political calculation. This belief animates much of what I’ve done with Columbus Food Adventures and will feature prominently in the stories we choose to tell through The Columbus Foodletter.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope you’ll subscribe and continue to join us as we explore the global flavors of Central Ohio and—occasionally—beyond. 

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Delicious Finds

The Mallorca Sandwich at Three Bites Bakery on Broad Street

By Erin Edwards

One key to good living is to always be on the lookout for a good breakfast sandwich. 

Enter the Mallorca Sandwich, now available at Three Bites Bakery/Little Cat Boba (12 E. Broad St.), the collaborative new cafe at Broad and High from baker Isabella Bonello and Little Cat founder Raymond Kim.

The Mallorca Sandwich from Three Bites Bakery (Erin Edwards)

The Mallorca is Bonello’s take on a Puerto Rican breakfast sandwich featuring a runny egg, ham and Swiss on a house-baked ensaymada bun. Ensaymada is a snail-shaped brioche that hails from the Philippines, with origins from the Spanish colonial period. It’s based on a pastry from Mallorca in the Balearic Islands archipelago. (In Puerto Rico, the bread is called pan de Mallorca.)

The kicker? The ensaymada is dusted with powdered sugar, and reminds me of that happy accident when your pancakes, syrup, bacon and egg intermingle a bit. Three Bites’ new sandwich is no accident, it’s very intentional. And craveable.

We need to know what breakfast sandwich you’re craving lately. Let us know in the comments!