Columbus Mini-Vacay (All the Good Food and Drinks, Please)

This past weekend we journeyed a couple of hours south, back to our former home, and I do believe our favorite city of all, Columbus. It was kind of all about the food. We drove down on Thursday and for dinner went to Marcella's for Italian. Marcella's is part of the portfolio of a Columbus-based restauranteur, and while it might not be the most innovative Italian in town, it is reliably delicious, doing all the staples to a T. This one proved herself a worthy member of the Family by digging on the meatball and gnocchi she sampled.

We stayed at Easton Thursday night, which is the large shopping/dining/entertainment/staying/living community on the east (I know. East?! No way! :D) side of Columbus. The area is very walkable, so this facilitated some post-baby bedtime shopping for mommy and a trip to Jeni's (which I did take back to the room to share). I had forgotten how Art Deco (Deco Revival?) Easton is. After getting more experience in architectural history since moving, after this revisit I was left with a new appreciation of the effort that went into not making the whole thing feel so mall-y and artificial by incorporating the details that they did.

It also facilitated breakfast the next day at Northstar which was a short walk away from our hotel. I miss this place terribly. Since moving two some years ago this has been the stuff of my dreams. So simple, but somehow impossible to replicate just so. I had the Cowboy Breakfast and Greg had the Poached Eggs and Prosiutto. Plus a Morning Glory Muffin and a scrambled eggy for the squee, who is a bit of an eggaholic, meaning when she is rejecting all textures but purées, baked things or cereal (like right now, since we came home from our trip) she will still happily slurp up a scrambled. 

We drove around town while baby napped until it was time to head over to the friends' place in our old neighborhood in Worthington with whom we were staying the rest of the weekend. We toured through Bexley, German Village, and Grandview before arriving in the Short North. By that time nature was calling and baby was awake, so we stopped in for a little refreshment at, erhmm, Northstar. Second of three locations, check. 

There was another slightly older baby at an adjacent table for awhile, then we had to resort to vigorously bouncing bunny for entertainment. Hit. 

We went up High Street through Clintonville on our way to Worthington and made a pit stop at Wholly Craft for a host gift for the one and three quarter year old of the trio with which we were staying. He does not drink coffee yet, so we got him a cute knitted raccoon stuffie from the Wiggly Bridge. But I do like these mugs and agree with the sentiment.

Next morning we all hit up the Worthington Farmers market. After gathering pretty much as many good things to eat and drink as we could carry, we grabbed a seat on the patio at House Wine and a bubbly rosé. Above: lobster rolls from Rivage. In the Sassafras (who opened a brick and mortar shop downtown Worthington moments after we moved away after only selling at the farmers market previously :/) bag, the quiche pictured below plus a not-pictured chocolate zucchini muffin. Also below, a yummy pour over from Ride Home.

Saturday night involved a babysitter (only the second time ever for us, that stat needs to keep climbing posthaste) and an adult evening out. We went for cocktails at Curio at Harvest in German Village. That is their Ramos Gin Fizz and this was my last picture of the evening which means I was having too much fun not to just be in the moment. Yay! We went on to dinner at Sycamore, by the same owner as Harvest, also in German Village. Then a nightcap at none other than Bob's Bar back up in Clintonville. 
Sunday morning we completed the Northstar trifecta by visiting the Clintonville location before heading home. 
It was a great weekend with great friends and I actually came home feeling recharged. I wish I could say that has lasted all week without flagging, but in truth it hasn't; there have been some (family, baby, house, sanity) bumps on this road to another weekend. But it's nearly behind us now (I'm going to role with this metaphor) and there has been some pothole patching along the way, so things are looking up again. :)