From the Editor

It’s Saturday, and I’m alone in my office, combing through a stack of galleys for this, our second edition of Stock & Barrel. In a few days, these black-and-white pages enlarged on 11 by 17 stock will be sent off to the printer, only to return a few days later as a fully realized vision that began with a slew of talented people dashing their ideas into the mix.

This must be what a head chef feels like.

Sure, I’m eating cold veggie lasagna from a paper bowl, but still…I can feel the connection.

And with the ingredients I’ve been given, it’s hard not to put something creative on your plate.

In the last year, our team has spent a lot of time discussing what this magazine should be – our menu, so to speak. We wanted these pages to contain much more than recipes and food porn, a deliberate decision not just to make us stand out from the litany of like publications on the racks, but because the city is constantly informing us that the world of “food” and “drink” in Columbus reaches well beyond a great dish or delicious cocktail.

Just as the title Stock & Barrel suggests, this is about totality – behind the line of a fast-paced, sophisticated kitchen, or a study of the spirit(s) and care that goes into a $12 cocktail – and the depth Columbus’s culinary artisans bring to their craft.

And those are just the inventive creations you can actually taste.

Inside, you’ll find just as many people inspired by the possibilities of food and drink, their inventive spirits on full display:

Catherine Murray is making a cookbook you can wear around your neck.

Terry Afortiori wants his knives to be his eternal legacy.

CJ and Curt Shaver are drunk on creativity, repurposing an old bourbon barrel as a new skateboard or a pair of shades.

Considering this city can lay claim to a man who found a way to feed thousands with one bowl of potato salad – none of this should come as a surprise.

It’s a spirit demonstrated by our contributors as well.

Why not sit down at the desk of the Columbus Blue Jackets general manager and hand him mustard samples? Or write a love letter to gravy? Or pen an ode to the bar that welcomed a Chilean emigrant into her new Columbus home?

I’m proud to deliver a publication that will prescribe you a drink based on your favorite cartoon, and that isn’t scared to turn a hamburger into a fashion model.

The culinary scene here has already let us know it’s okay to get a little weird – that you can use the Wu-Tang Clan as inspiration for food, or drink an Old Fashioned on the beach, or eat the contents of your lawn.

We’ve embraced that weirdness and creativity and tossed our own blend of oddball imagination into the mix. This is the result – Stock & Barrel, a magazine about sushi places with badass hamburgers, and farm-to-table restaurants with drive-thru windows, and how to make your own boozy travel kit.

It’s filled with the stories of Columbus food and drink, and especially of those who create them. We hope they inform, entertain, and inspire you, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.