Greener pastures: How Market 65 has been making some of the city’s best salads for a decade and counting

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Comfort food is great and all, but when it’s hot and sticky, you’d best believe we’re not reaching for that bowl of mac and cheese.

The good news? Columbus is home to a plethora of places that know their way around a refreshing, hearty salad. One of these is Market 65, a fast, fresh eatery known primarily for their fantastic greens.

“We’re essentially a boutique salad shop,” said Co-owner Anthony Micheli. “We fresh-chop everything every morning, including our greens. We’re never going to be the cheapest, but it’s the quality you’re paying for.”

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And while their greens are top-notch, Market 65 pays just as much attention to the rest of their salad bowls as well.

The eatery offers nothing but the best in local ingredients. This includes a list of top-tier central Ohio purveyors such as Blue Jacket Dairy, Shagbark Seed & Mill, the 125 year-old Weir family farm, and more.

With rotating weekly specials and enticing menu mainstays such as the Korean BBQ, 65 Cobb with blackened corn, or the Orchard—featuring a house-made caramel apple vinaigrette—diners have no shortage of delectable options to pick from.

But if even that’s not enough variety, you can always customize your own salad, with nearly 100 different ingredients to choose from, like house candied walnuts, sweet-chili marinated tofu, and roasted salmon. Plus, you can finish off your creation with one of their must-try dressings, including Spicy Avocado and Red Wine & Shallot.

While Market 65 team members are regularly involved in creating recipes for their salad specials, perhaps more importantly, they also have a hand in growing them from the ground up.

Several years ago Micheli launched the restaurant’s urban garden out of a plot in Marion Village. While this program has temporarily gone on hiatus due to COVID-related issues, they plan to relaunch it in the near future.

“We have some lettuce, herbs, spicy peppers that we can dry and [use] in soups and other things, and we focus a lot on our heirloom tomatoes,” Micheli said. “We usually feature an off-menu salad each week that highlights something we get higher yields of in the garden.”

Micheli says the real benefit of this garden program is how it connects both himself and his employees to the growing process.

“When they’re involved, I mean actually involved, in the process of growing a lot of the things we end up serving, they’re not only more knowledgeable about our food, but they really do care,” he said. “It’s great to see, it’s great for our customers. It really is helping all of us.”

To learn more, visit market65.com.