Columbus, Ohio Wrap-Up

I have a confession to make. I love the midwest. John and I drove to Columbus, Ohio recently and I kind of fell in love with it. And then I remembered I felt the same way about Indianapolis. And Chicago. And Cincinnati.

Why Columbus? Some authors I like live there, some of whom left NYC for Columbus. As someone who left NYC for Nashville, I’m always interested in where people go when they leave NYC. Columbus is famously home to one Jeni Britton Bauer. It’s supposed to have a thriving LGBTQ+ community. A lot of notable creatives live there, and honestly, that’s enough to pique my interest. And it’s not a long drive from Nashville. It’s about 6 hours, but anyone who drives back and forth to Kentucky a lot won’t even register the first half of the trip. And we’re roadtrip people. We like taking back roads and stopping at local thrift stores.

Controversial take, but after some deliberation, we’ve decided we’re Gold Star people, as opposed to Skyline. I bring this up because we stopped in Cincinnati for dinner and had Gold Star chili. Apologies in advance to anyone who thought this blog post was going to be short.

We stayed at the Hotel Leveque, a boutique hotel in downtown Columbus. If you’re a hotel person, stay at this hotel. It was really great - easy (cheap) parking, on-site Starbucks, great concierge, walking distance to North Market and Short North.

We woke up and walked to North Market. I loved it. It was like a smaller version of the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco. It has a Jeni’s Ice Cream, natch, and if I’m not mistaken, it’s the original Jeni’s. There was so much to see - tons of restaurants, coffee, butchers, bagels, charcuterie shops, etc. I loved it. I really wish Nashville had something like this.

I had heard the Short North district was worth checking out, so we left North Market and walked to Short North (a short (lolz) walk). For Nashville people, it’s like if 12South and Hills Center had a baby. It was BUSTLING.

We ate lunch at Wario’s. I’ve never had a cheesesteak that didn’t come from a suburban Penn Station, so I was excited. Because we are fools, we ordered 2 full-sized cheesesteaks. That was…too much cheesesteak! It was also $50 lol. But it was delicious. Yay, Wario’s!

Okay, it’s only a slight exaggeration to say that we spent the rest of the day buying books. I asked if Columbus had an independent bookstore and everyone pointed me towards The Book Loft, a 32-room bookstore containing both new and used books. Think of McKay’s, but put it in a haunted house with all the lights on.

FYI. I wondered about shoppers who use a wheelchair or other mobility aid because the bookstore is built like a funhouse. It’s a lot of stairs, tight corners and narrow passageways. Apparently it’s not wheelchair accessible but they say the clerks will bring anything down to the first floor. On that note, I’m a small fat and there were spaces that were tight for me, so if you’re superfat or infinifat, ask your community if they’ve been here and what their experience was like.

Those disclaimers aren’t nothing, but I didn’t know any of this until I was inside the store. We were in there for hours and bought a ton of books. I found some paperback copies of my friend’s memoir and faced them out and then watched a woman walk by and put one in her cart. Future friends, take note, this is the level of commitment I bring to the table.

I didn’t mention this, but the bookstore is in a historic part of Columbus called German Village, which is really neat. If you have time, definitely park and walk around. The concierge at our hotel (who I loved) told us to check out Schiller Park, so we went there next and I took approximately 3 million pictures. The park currently has these suspension sculptures all over and I’ve never seen anything like it. They blew me away. It was also peak leaf season, so the whole thing was like a scene from a Nora Efron movie (When Kim Met Suspension Statues).

We left German Village and spent a few hours driving around the different parts of Columbus. Columbus is a huge city! I’m always curious when I visit a city, if I lived here, where would I live? Where would my friends live? So we drove around and pretended to figure it out. We drove past a record shop, so we circled back, parked and went inside. I loved that they had this hand-painted message in the window celebrating Hanif Abdurraqib’s recent MacAuthor Fellowship and National Book Award nomination.

We went back to the hotel to rest and decide about dinner. We had a ton of restaurant recs, but we were kind of worn out and I still haven’t been out much in the past 2 years, so going to a “fancy” restaurant in an unfamiliar city seemed like a bridge too far. Also, John wanted sausage.

You know what? It was actually delicious and stupid enough to not activate my anxiety. I was so busy laughing at everything, I forgot to worry about dying. There are better places to eat, but sometimes it’s fun to eat the dumb thing.

On the drive back home, we stopped at a HUGE thrift store called Ohio Thrift and I found this wool coat for $20. As a reward for reading this post, I will tell you: reader, I bought the coat. It needs to be dry-cleaned, but I am fully ready to spend this coming winter swinging my fringe around town.

That’s it! You did it! You read to the end of this very long post. I loved Columbus and I would 100% go back at the drop of a dime. I know 6 hours seems like a long drive, but it’s not. Louisville, KY is the halfway mark and the drive from Nashville to Louisville is nothing. And then from Louisville, it’s like an hour to Cincinnati and then another hour (90 min) to Columbus.

I love the midwest!