Columbus, OH: Fun in the U.S. 'Test Capital'
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Columbus, OH: Fun in the U.S. 'Test Capital'
A deer, a rabbit, German sausage, spring tulips and a recipe for Buckeye candies
“Columbus is a town in which almost anything is likely to happen and in which almost everything has.”—James Thurber, “More Alarms at Night”
When you live in L.A. or New York, you become rather smug and self-centered and tend to think the only things that matter are happening on the coasts. Of course it isn’t true and you ought to get out of your bubble now and again and see what the rest of the world is up to.
A couple of weeks ago, we did just that.
We went to Columbus, Ohio, for a few days to visit relatives—my brother David and his wife, also called Ruth, and my husband Jeff’s recently discovered cousin, Leslie, who used to live in L.A. but moved back to Columbus a few years back. (You can read Jeff’s Substack post about Leslie here.)
It turns out that Columbus, Ohio, is the true heart of the country, at least when it comes to test marketing. Historically, it’s the city where companies like Starbucks, White Castle and Wendy’s have tried out new menu items before releasing them to the masses.
Test marketing was probably not on James Thurber’s mind when he wrote about the “anything” that might happen in his hometown—his subjects were ghosts, mass hysteria and bad-tempered dogs and giant rabbits, not burgers and coffee drinks.
But the city, as Thurber knew and we found out, is actually a very cool place. Below are just a few of our finds. I hope we’ll return in the not-too-distant future to see some more of the town.
Oh deer!
On a bridge over the Scioto River, we encountered a bronze deer (see photo above) taking in the view of downtown Columbus, a sight I imagine Thurber might have appreciated. (Apparently there are three deer statues for those who enjoy such oddities—plus paths and parks for hikers and bikers along the waterfront.)
We also visited the Ohio Statehouse, built in the Greek Revival style popular during the 22-year period (1839-1861) it was under construction. Of the city’s designation as the state capital, Thurber said:
“In the early years of the nineteenth century, Columbus won out as state capital, by only one vote over Lancaster, and ever since then has had the hallucination that it is being followed, a curious municipal state of mind which affects, in some way or other, all those who live there.”
(My sense is that Thurber was the only person afflicted by this state of mind, but I might be mistaken.)
German Village
A highlight of our trip was wandering around the restored historic German Village neighborhood just south of downtown. It’s filled with delightful red brick buildings of the type that we seldom come across these days in our Southern California neighborhood; they’re not the best choices to take shelter during an earthquake, but, unlike our state, Columbus isn’t prone to such shakers.
It was nice to see that there was a thriving independent bookstore in German Village, The Book Loft, “with 32 rooms of bargain books.” It seemed like the perfect place to escape reality amid the maze of book-lined corridors and catch up on anything and everything you ever dreamed of reading.
As on our recent trip to Japan, we arrived just in time to enjoy the bounty of spring at its peak, with white flowering dogwoods, redbud trees (more pink than red!) and ruby-colored crabapple blossoms. Adding to the visual feast were tulips in a rainbow of hues and lilacs so fragrant you couldn’t help but bury your face in the boughs.
And of course, there was real food to be had in German Village, especially of the hearty variety, including a Jewish-style deli, Katzinger’s; and an old-fashioned German eatery, Schmidt’s Sausage Haus; a bakery cafe called Kittie’s with flaky biscuit sandwiches called Sammies, and the Old Mohawk, a former speakeasy famed for its turtle soup (they were out of it when we came, so we had burgers and salad). There were many more restaurants we wished we could have tried (I counted 59 on a brochure I picked up at the visitor center!), but really there’s only so much one can consume in the course of a few hours, whether in sights or in calories!
A favorite was the sausage sampler plate at Schmidt’s, which came with four varieties of wieners, plus sauerkraut, potato salad and applesauce—even split between the two of us, it made for a filling lunch, with, unfortunately, no room left for the desserts, like the German chocolate cake, apple strudel and cream pies that teased us from the glass case as we made our exit.
Jeni’s Splendid, a Columbus native
We did save some room for ice cream at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, a company hatched in Columbus 21 years ago and still headquartered there. We discovered later that Jeni’s is now available nationally, including in L.A. (news to us!). Founder Jeni Britton Bauer, began her career at Ohio State University as a fine arts and chemistry major, where she got the bright idea one day to mix some cayenne pepper oil into chocolate ice cream. From that first experiment, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams was born.
The ice cream is really very good, especially the Lemon & Blueberries Parfait, which I tried—twice! A lot of other creative flavors—like Sweet Cream Biscuits & Peach Jam, Powdered Jelly Donut, and Wildberry Lavender—do sound delicious. There’s even an award-winning book, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, that I may need to order. After all, summer’s only two months away, and I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker I once bought on a whim and have never taken out of the box!
As I said, folks on the coasts tend to turn up their noses at the middle of the country, but they really shouldn’t. Columbus is the largest city in Ohio (population 905,748 as of 2020) and second largest in the Midwest after Chicago. It’s a lot more affordable than L.A. or New York, has a huge, well-respected university, Ohio State (officially known as “The Ohio State University” and on some T-shirts simply as “The”), in the center of town, and, unlike many other cities (including here in Southern California!) it’s still growing!
As for James Thurber, who died in 1961 at age 66, he is still fondly remembered in his hometown. You can even visit the house in Columbus, where the writer and cartoonist lived with his family from 1913-17 while he was a student at Ohio State. Since we didn’t have time to check it out, that’s another reason to return.
Buckeyes: state icon and popular treat
When I found that there was a simple recipe associated with a native Ohio treat, the Buckeye, named for the state tree and resembling the nut it produces, I felt I would be remiss if I didn’t include a recipe, so here’s a link to the one I tried. It requires only six ingredients—notably, peanut butter and chocolate—and no oven time. I had just enough basics on hand to make a third of the recipe—about 20 candies in all. Good thing as they’re too delicious to resist—a lot like homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
You can find packages of Buckeye candies everywhere in Columbus, not surprising since the Ohio State Buckeyes is the name of the wildly popular sports teams that represent the university, and the school’s mascot is Brutus Buckeye, whose face and coloring resemble the nut. The nuts produced by the tree are actually poisonous, but the candies, at least the ones I baked, are luckily quite harmless—except for the calorie count (about 100 in each).
Okay that’s it for now. Thanks for reading, liking, sharing and, most of all, subscribing. See you soon.
Ruth
PS: Here’s a link to Jeff’s PhotowalksTV episode on the importance of timing in taking photographs, with a gorgeous nighttime shot of the Columbus skyline as an illustration.
Columbus, OH: Fun in the U.S. 'Test Capital'
Fun to visit this old post Ruth! I like the style of your writing. I used to travel occasionally to Columbus and always enjoyed the German Village. The vibrancy of a land grant university can transform a city. I was surprised that Columbus was the 2nd largest city in the Midwest. Then I remembered that Jacksonville FL is the largest city in the US (land area -- Continental). Some cities incorporate many of their suburbs into a single entity. Loved the photos!
Hi Ruth! Another great post. I know nothing about Ohio (I'm Australian) so it's all fascinating to me. I also love the idea of making your own ice cream, but have only done it once. My neighbour had an ice cream machine under her bed so I borrowed it for a few weeks, made ice cream like mad and gave it back.