… Who’s your pal? Pearl Market has the perfect friendship all lined up and it won’t even be a drain on your social calendar.
Friends of Pearl Market was launched to support programming, like Kids’ Day (July 27), Ohio Proud Mobile Kitchen, Tasty Tuesdays and live weekly entertainment. Unlike those snooty girls in seventh grade or the alpha dogs of high school, Pearl Market promises to be your friend forever.
For a $25 contribution, $20 of which is tax-deductible, a Friend of the Market gets a groovy canvas shopping bag with original artwork designed just for Pearl Market. The tote holds an easy half-dozen ears of corn, fixin’s for a perfect salad or a couple cantaloupes.
Friends also get sneak peeks at the weekly Market videos and email updates, as well as cool Pearl Market postcards. And Friends support Pearl Market’s efforts to provide superior local products to everyone which in turn helps heat up the incubator for small business entrepreneurs as they test the downtown market.
The first five people to identify six of the 12 downtown spots featuring the Friends of the Market bag in this video will receive 50% off a Friends’ Membership. Email aeschroeder@sidservices.com with your answers.
Columbus is home to many innovators. Few have changed art and technology as much as Charles Csuri, a pioneer in computer animation. Smithsonian Magazine recognizes him as the “father of digital art and animation.”
His work is being exhibited at the OSU Urban Arts Space in the former Lazarus Building through October 9. The exhibition includes more than 85 computer works dating from 1963 to 2010.
One of my favorite pieces is “Scribbles and Smears in Space,” an animation projected in a “black box.” The area, which has a seat in the middle, is cordoned off with blackout curtains. Walking into the space will make you forget all your troubles and will measurably lower your blood pressure.
Charles Csuri became a well-known neighborhood name after I first moved to the Short North in 1980. In 1981, he formed a company called Cranston/Csuri Productions at Neil and 8th Avenues to find commercial applications for computer-generated art. The result of his work can be found in movie theatres each time a feature-length animation hits the big screen.
Since I spend a good deal of time at the Market each week, I love it when new vendors pop up. And last week there were at least a couple that I had never seen before. Right next to us was a little gem called Cobenick Studios. They have all sorts of leather books and journals that I was astonished to learn are entirely handmade and bound. They are also quite affordable. The leather is hand-tooled and hand-dyed, or painted. The filler paper is also handmade; you can learn more about that at their Website. They also do wedding invitations that are stunning.
I stopped in to visit Ale’s House Peruvian this week as well. They have the cutest little things. And by little, I mean miniature. I’ve always loved miniature things; doesn’t everyone? There are little tiny houses made out of organic things like trees and gourds. There are tiny people in the tiny houses who are doing tiny things. It’s all just so magnificently tiny and cute.
I would tell you about the gorgeous cherry tomatoes that I got this week and how great they were, but I can’t because I didn’t get any! My kids ate them ALL while we were still at the Market. I would consider that a ringing endorsement, but I sure wish I could have had a couple. I guess I’ll have to try again next week.
For years European cities have utilized urban alleys as an extension of city living, but Yankees stateside were slow to learn until recent urban revitalization efforts. We’re on the ball now and boast our own jewel right in the center of downtown in Pearl and Lynn alleys.
It’s no secret that shoppers find lots of great deals and treasures in the alley during the twice weekly Pearl Market, but these alleys are home to some great eats all week long.
We’ve got a Mecca of restaurants that pull hungry stomachs in for ethnic treats and home-style favorites in Lynn and Pearl alleys. There’s Ringside Café that makes a burger that will stave off the hungriest construction worker; Café Napolitana tempts the Italian in all of us with their freshly made pizza pie; Pickles Deli on the corner of Lynn and Third makes a mean hoagie; Jack’s has old-time diner written all over it – grab the grits and eggs if you have any doubts; J. Gumbo’s spices things up with their Cajun fare; and don’t forget the cilantro sauce at El Arepazo (Did you know you can buy the stuff by the bottle?).
Tempting as it all is, the alleys welcome a new kid on the block – Lynnally’s. Man, are you in for a treat. Their goal is to use high quality, local ingredients to make the best meals possible – fast.
“Just because your time is limited doesn’t mean you have to sacrafice taste and wholsomeness,” say co-owners Matt Nickel and Shawn Korn, who also own Barrel 44 in the Short North.
They stand behind their mantra with made-to-order salads with more than 40 toppings to choose from and loaded baked potatoes the size of your head! Everyday customers also enjoy freshly roasted pork, beef, chicken and turkey on sandwiches, salads and pasta dishes. Top it off with made-from-scratch dressings and sauces and you are in for a feast.
Is your stomach rumblin’ yet? Stop in and see for yourself. They are even offering a little enticement for you in this week’s Blue Plate Special in our weekly newsletter Right Now Downtown, so read on and don’t wait. (And if you aren’t a Right Now Downtown subscriber, sign up now!)
Lynn and Pearl alleys bring a lot to the city, but there’s plenty more to come. What kind of business would you like to see pop up here next? Tell us what you think.
Walmart is by no means the only big-box predator in Ohio, but it is clearly the worst. On June 11, Business First published a list of the top ten employers in Ohio whose employees qualify for public assistance. At the top of the list with 15,002 employees is – you guessed it – Walmart.
If public subsidies paid only for social services for Walmart employees, we would be lucky, but public funding goes far beyond social services. Taxpayer funding of roadway improvements, utilities, tax abatements and other subsidies make the behemoth’s low prices a mirage.
Those costs are merely the direct ones. The indirect costs of Walmart create another set of economic and social expenses. Walmart has almost single-handedly destroyed most walkable communities, gutting the downtown retail districts of virtually every small and medium city in the state and eliminating entire communities of retail entrepreneurs.
I sometimes wonder about the lesser of two evils: selling drugs to supplement one’s income or shopping at Walmart to stretch one’s income.
Sample Day at the Market! That’s what I’m talking about! After setting up our booth, we sat down and watched Market Manager, Adam, in his chef’s hat, carry by plate after plate of fantastic looking food, all made with Market buys! There was a surprisingly good beet hummus. Surprisingly because, who really likes beets anyway (aside from the color)? But this was gorgeous and yummy! There were also pickled green beans, tangy and zesty! Plus some zucchini bread that melts in your mouth, and some sausage breakfast casserole! They handed recipes out at the Market, or you can find them here.
This week my kids were exceptionally hungry so we moseyed on down to Honey Run Farms and got some cherry tomatoes for them to munch on during the day, which were delicious. We also picked up three beautiful sunflowers for only two dollars for all of them!
I was very excited to see Sweet Stella there with Maram. I have seen their work around town and am excited to have them at the Market. Sweet Stella makes jewelry that is just so sweet! You’ll understand if you go look at it. Maram makes recycled and eco-friendly things, most notably recycled purses, and these great pins with recycled pins. There are some great ones of Columbus, like a close-up of the Brewery District, downtown or Worthington. Very cute and very affordable!
Well, if you missed Sample Day at the Market, I am sorry because you missed out. So don’t miss another! Come down to visit on Tuesdays and Fridays!
The Menus served up a feast of entertainment during Downtown LIVE last week on the patio at Darbys, but not before Francisco Roja whet the appetite of all the people ready to kick off the weekend early at the annual concert series.
In between appetizers and frosty beverages, players from the Capitol Square Kickball League sauntered over from the “People’s Lawn” to kick back before they kicked butt on the field. By the way, there’s still time to get a team together for the second course of kickball (registration closes on July 23).
Check out the video below to see for yourself what Capitol Square looks like on Thursday nights during the summer, and thanks go out to The Hyatt and WCBE 90.5 for their generous support.
I began to think about the layout of this development one day as I waited at a traffic signal and saw a man walking south on Olentangy to get access to Time Warner. Daimler had blocked access to an asphalt trail that serves as a sidewalk, forcing the pedestrian to walk on Olentangy and compete with 45-mile-an-hour traffic.
Pedestrians, transit riders and bicyclists are clearly an afterthought at Gowdy Field. Buildings are surrounded by acres of surface parking. The buildings do not open onto the streets they face, but appear to provide only rear entry (no double entendre intended). The development stands in stark contrast to a much more urban-looking development to the south, Nationwide’s Grandview Yard.
Measured against a fallow, former landfill, the new buildings at Gowdy Field are an improvement. But alas, our standards are so low.
Tuesday at the Market was supposed to be ridiculously hot, but Pearl Street had such a lovely breeze that it felt like spring. Usually I pick a couple of booths to check out and head straight for them, but this time I meandered slowly down the road to see everything.
Crimson Design Group has a store front on Pearl and they set out a Market booth as well, so you can see the amazing things that they have in their store. I haven’t bought anything from them yet, but I always see the decor they sell and think, “Ooohhh, pretty! Those are the people I want to make my living room pretty!”
Another booth I always like to see is The Sweater Lady. Everything is so colorful and it always draws my kids over. There are little hand-knit finger puppets that are so incredibly detailed that I just don’t understand how somebody can do that. I also love the adorable kids’ sweaters that have scenes on knit into them, with suns and animals.
This week I also bought a good deal of produce from an array of farmers. Some tomatoes from one guy, some zucchini from another, and English peas from a third. I feel like I eat so much better in the summer when I get to spend so much time at the farmers’ market.
Meet Market Vendor and corn cook extraordinaire Ross Shipley of Darby Valley Farm. The corn looks delectable and we can’t wait until he brings some melons the third week of July!
WHO’S YOUR BUDDY…
Columbus is home to many innovators. Few have changed art and technology as much as Charles Csuri, a pioneer in computer animation. 
Since I spend a good deal of time at the Market each week, I love it when new vendors pop up. And last week there were at least a couple that I had never seen before. Right next to us was a little gem called 
THERE’S A NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Sample Day at the Market! That’s what I’m talking about! After setting up our booth, we sat down and watched Market Manager, Adam, in his chef’s hat, carry by plate after plate of fantastic looking food, all made with Market buys! There was a surprisingly good beet hummus. Surprisingly because, who really likes beets anyway (aside from the color)? But this was gorgeous and yummy! There were also pickled green beans, tangy and zesty! Plus some zucchini bread that melts in your mouth, and some sausage breakfast casserole! They handed recipes out at the Market, or you can find them 
The development of Gowdy Field at Olentangy River Road and Third Avenue with generous incentives from the 
Tuesday at the Market was supposed to be ridiculously hot, but Pearl Street had such a lovely breeze that it felt like spring. Usually I pick a couple of booths to check out and head straight for them, but this time I meandered slowly down the road to see everything.