As a vegetarian, it can be tough watching a week of deals on meals in the city and know that you can’t get in on the action. Since most Restaurant Week menus are meat-forward, it’s hard to find a spot that can satisfy your plant-based diet. But the office of 614NOW holds not one, not two, but three people who have ditched the carnivore lifestyle for strictly veggies. Here’s our tips for a fellow VegHead in need.
Fukuryu Ramen (Dublin and Upper Arlington) | $15 per dinner
Try and find a three course meal in the city for $15… We’ll wait! Fukuryo Ramen offers edamame with shiitake mushroom salt, nori fries, or a Fukuryo salad to start your dinner and your miso ramen bowl can be made vegetarian or vegan upon request. Just make sure you get the the matcha soft serve as your dessert.
If there’s one cuisine that understands the plight of a plant-eater, it’s Mediterranean food. Whether it’s simply hummus and pita to start with za’atar bread with labaneh as your entree, or trying the falafel with house pickles, nearly everything on this RWC menu is vegetarian/vegan friendly. Well, almost everything. The third-course features more meats, but the spinach fatayer with banadora salad can save you.
Bareburger (Clintonville and Short North) | $20 per dinner
Whether you choose to start your meal with a kale Caesar salad or pair your Impossible Burger with a side of fries or onion rings, the first two courses at Bareburger are absolutely vegetarian-friendly. You can specify ahead of time if you’re vegan for cheese options and other salad dressings. Finish it all off with a vegan carrot cake, or s’mmmmores (not a typo) if you don’t mind dairy products.
Lineage is breaking out all the vegetarian and vegan options for RWC as their vegan sloppy joe as well as “grilled” cheese hand pies find themselves as two of the three entrees offered. You can start your meal with deviled eggs, or a trio of dips—Chipotle Hummus, Colombian Aji and Tex-Mex Tomato Salsa—with tortillas chips. Round out your veggie adventure with some spiked desserts—coconut stout chocolate custard or Berliner Weisse Italian Ice—and maybe stick around for a few extra beers.
Basil Thai (Brewery District and Upper Arlington) | $20 per dinner
Basil Thai is a test of eating endurance during RWC as they roll out an all-you-can-eat buffet for just $20 a person. The Panang is a vegan dish featuring red curry with bell peppers, tofu, and a spicy creamy sauce while the lo mein noodles still stand a go-to favorite for vegetarians every where. The best part? You can have as much as you want of both.
Haveli is going above and beyond for RWC as their menu features four-courses! The battered and fried vegetables in veg pakora are a solid starter and following it up with some veg manchow soup ensures you’ll still have room for the third and fourth course. Finish off with some mixed veggie curry with garlic naan and you’ve somehow ate your weight without spending all your cash.
How does a well-liked, 19-year-old, small town girl wind up dead in a Columbus garage? Unfortunately, even after nearly 60 years, no one knows.
The lifeless body of Mary Margaret “Peggy” Andrews was found in a garage near the Ohio State campus on September 20, 1962. She was shot three times in the face and—judging by the condition of her clothing when investigators arrived—sexually assaulted.
Peggy moved out of her parents’ home almost immediately after graduating from her Catholic high school near Steubenville, Ohio in 1961. Along with two other young women, Peggy lived in a boarding house on 18th Avenue near Buckeye Donuts. She enrolled in night classes at the Columbus Business University (now Bradford School) and worked full time as an accountant’s secretary.
She was smart, well-liked, and deeply religious. People close to her described her as “carefree” and “lighthearted,” reports Columbus Monthly.
It was a Thursday at 5:00 PM when Peggy left her downtown workplace before heading to class. She met up with her two roommates, Carol Maxwell and Carol Eick, and two male classmates outside her office. Typically, Peggy would’ve taken the bus with her roommates, but she wasn’t feeling well that day. Instead, she caught a ride with her friend and classmate Ron Negutt to avoid the uncomfortable bus commute.
He pulled up to Peggy’s boarding house and watch her walk to her door under the streetlamp light. Negutt took off before she had gotten inside, eager to meet his buddies at the 7-11 Club. He arrived at the bar around 9:30 PM, reports Columbus Monthly.
This was also the time Maxwell and Eick say they arrived back at the boarding house. Both women, along with the housemothers, waited for Peggy’s signature high-heeled entrance through the back door, but she never came.
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Meanwhile, Columbus Business University student Gary Ontko was moving into his new apartment on Woodruff Avenue. Around 11:30 PM, Ontko volunteered to help out his roommate who had forgotten to roll up his car windows.
He approached the garage cautiously as he was new to his surroundings. As he grew closer, that’s when he saw them: a pair of human legs illuminating in the moonlight.
Peggy’s purse contents were strewn about, her long red coat was covered in dirt, but the small black bow remained pinned to her curly brown hair. Her school books were discovered neatly stacked on the ground behind her boarding house.
Everybody in Peggy’s life, including Negutt who was the last known person to see her alive, were cleared as suspects. Police expanded their search to registered sex offenders in the area, which garnered a possible link. A .22-caliber pistol found in a university district drain spout in 1963 supported the link, but did not cement it.
Another break in the case occurred decades later in 2000. Forensic scientists extracted DNA from a stain on the back of Peggy’s shirt and tested it against DNA samples obtained at local, state, and federal crime scenes. The tests garnered no results.
This stain just may be the key that unlocks the entire mystery. Now, if they could only find a match.
Anyone with additional information or questions regarding this case should submit a tip.
First came the 614NOW Donut Trail. Then, there was the Mac & Cheese Trail. Now, 614NOW is on the hunt for the best fried chicken this city has to offer. Welcome to the 614NOW Fried Chicken Trail!
Forty’s Chicken and Waffles
2593 N High St
They say life is one big question when you’re staring at the clock, and the answer’s always waiting at the [chicken] store. Sorry, the name of this particular fried chicken establishment is giving me major Sublime vibes.
Forty’s Chicken and Waffles is a rad food counter situated in the back of Old North Arcade on High Street. While chicken grease and arcade game joysticks are a match made in hell, the combination of sweet, pillowy waffles and succulent fried chicken is one for the ages.
Forty’s “tendies” basket before I drowned the whole affair in the pictured syrup
The chicken at Forty’s comes in strips referred to as “tendies,” but this is not the stuff of chain restaurant kids meal baskets. Forty’s generous strips of tender, all-white meat chicken are obviously cut from whole breast pieces, which takes the chore of deboning out of the equation. This means you can spend more time blasting through Dig Dug or Tron, and less time dealing with pesky chicken carcass!
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If I were to compare the Chicken at Forty’s to anything, it perhaps most resembles the strips from a certain chain that rhymes with “Blazing Mains.” The pieces found here, however, are so much larger and more juicy than anything you’ll find at that familiar sauce+garlic toast joint.
Nerd out AND eat fried chicken? I’m sold.
If you’re not yet a believer in the sweet-meets-savory mashup of syrup-soaked waffles and fried chicken, you’d best get down to Forty’s stat. Syrup, and plentiful sauces (chipotle ranch, of I’m not mistaken?) help this chicken shine in spite of it being a little light in the seasoning department for my taste.
Large doses of sugar-coated protein are just the thing to fuel your late night Q*bert rampage at the adjoining arcade. Just remember to wash the grease off your hands before diving back in!
