The Grumpy Gourmet’s Dining Guide to Yesterday’s Broad and High Restaurants By Doral Chenoweth If you live in Columbus and do not remember names such as the AIU Building and The Purple Cow, then pay attention. This is a quick history of Downtown Columbus restaurants. I had three strange favorites for two odd reasons. They were open around the clock and all served grilled cheese sandwiches at 2 a.m. All since departed: The Purple Cow in the Chittenden Hotel; Gray’s Drug in the Deshler-Hilton, Broad and High; and Jack & Benny’s, 30 feet east on Broad at High street. Let’s now move to the good stuff. By 1890, the F&R Lazarus Co. gave the nation an early taste of department store dining when the Niagara Soda Fountain opened for business serving the first Columbus ice cream concoctions, mostly floats and sarsaparilla. If the customer wanted it gassed, that meant a mixture of birch oil and sassafras spiked with carbonation. Columbus had many fine restaurants in the early years of the 20th century. When it was the crossroads for passenger rail traffic, the old Union Station – where the Hyatt Regency now sits – was blessed with two marble-floored restaurants plus a coffee shop off the main entrance lobby. Service was around the clock, with a heavy breakfast trade at all hours. One of the dining rooms was named for President McKinley, supposedly because he had campaigned before a shoulder-to-shoulder audience there while eating hot cherry pie. Immediately prior to and shortly after World War II, Downtown Columbus counted as many as 50 fine dining establishments, quick-fry joints, cafeterias, second-floor eating halls, bars, lunch counters, and drug store lunch counters – all within walking distance of the State Capitol. The Capitol was the focal point of all food venues. Those names around the Capitol: • F&R Lazarus Co. – the Buckeye Room and the Chintz Room. • F. W. Woolworth Co. – a lunch counter half the depth of the street-level floor. • H. L. Green’s – a lunch counter that once was credited with inventing marshmallows in hot chocolate. • Mill’s Cafeteria – probably one of the most lamented closings in the 1960s by regulars who claimed it was the only place in town that served a beef-stock-free vegetable soup. Chicken broth OK, beef and pork, not OK. • Neil House – Stag Bar (men only); Town & Country Room; Garden Room, a basement eatery where the only garden-related aspect was the wallpaper; Victorian Room, where big bands played for dancing and dinner crowds. • Q-C-B (Quick-Clean-Best) at 7 S. High St. A Planter’s Peanut Shop later opened next door with Mr. Peanut playing to sidewalk traffic. • Deshler Hotel (later to be affiliated with the Wallick and Hilton family operations) – The Ionian Room in the basement with silver dollars studded into the rolled liquid plastic flooring and pinpoint lighting to prevent people from prying them away; the Sapphire Room had a grand entrance off the west lobby, three steps up to rich reddish tones fashioned into heavy wall drapes; The Hour Glass had a glassed area behind the bar where monkeys played to the patronage, this venue’s most noted unwelcome guest was baseball player Mickey Mantle, who took delight one night after an exhibition with the Red Birds and tried to free the animals; The Minute Bar right off High Street; and never forget the Roaring 20s, which was a garish attempt to backtrack to the 1920s Flapper era with tightly-wrapped girls in a red-roped swing atop the booze bottle display and bar. What a scene! • Kuenning’s was the most noted Columbus eatery at 19 N. High St. from the 1950s on. Formerly it was Mill’s Buffet, which later moved to 77 S. High St. and became Mill’s Cafeteria. In the 1930s and 1940s the buffet was the place to be seen after shows at the Palace and Grand theaters. • Benny Klein’s, once the site of York Grill, became a chop house in the 1950s and a showcase for top jazz artists. Friendly Joe Dunlop was the house pianist. Klein came to Columbus from Cleveland where he was the pickle king. If he liked you, he would sit down at your table and stick one of his whole pickles in your mouth, regardless of whether or not you liked pickles. A bachelor, Klein lived across the street as a permanent guest at the Deshler-Hilton Hotel. “I have to keep an eye on the place around the clock,” is the way he explained his room overlooking the restaurant. It was a favorite gathering place for gent-about town, attorney George Garef, and his personal “bar association” composed of the in-lawyers and his friendly judges. • Jack & Benny’s faced Broad street, but had a basement tunnel under the alley to connect with Benny Klein’s. Klein was half owner of the 24-hour diner. • Marzetti’s, the name now known for salad dressings, was the finest restaurant in Columbus. The world remembers Marzetti when they order Johnny Marzetti, today a school lunch staple. • Apparel Arts Club at 6 E. Broad St., was a third floor afternoon joint selling illicit booze to Broad and High guys and dolls. The other attraction – slot machines. Chicken and noodles led the menu listings. • The Ringside, an alley saloon with greasy food in olden days, is still operating. In the post World War II days, it was a gathering place for reporters who wanted to meet with City Hall contacts. In those days we had three newspapers, The Columbus Dispatch, The Columbus Citizen and The Ohio State Journal. Ringside was a convenient press club. • Thompson’s Cafeteria, 26 N. High St., was a night owl nest for all classes. • Stone’s Grill had two addresses: 43 N. Pearl Alley and 40 N. High St., with entrances on both ends, plus the city’s longest bars which considered a boilermaker (a shot of cheap booze in a mug of beer) half their food trade. • Barnes’ Drug Store had one of the city’s most popular lunch counters and specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches. • The Cove, a popular lunch-only tea room. • The Curly Q – an alley eatery, breakfast and lunch only, behind The Columbus Citizen. Tom Thumb’s was a diner across the 34 N. 3rd St. entrance to The Citizen. The fare was a copycat of old Toddle Houses. • Hayes Restaurant, 67 E. Gay Street, served comfort food before it had such a name. Chicken and noodles led the menu listings. • Virginia Hotel, 40 N. 3rd St., had a dining room called the Jefferson Room and was noted for serving the worst food Downtown. • The Maramor, originally owned by Mary Love McGucklin, was one of the first restaurants to be reviewed by Duncan Hines, before he was a cake mix. He granted the place an early ‘Recommended by Duncan Hines,’ his posted endorsement. The Maramor remembered in recent years was owned by Danny Deeds, who turned the establishment into a show place for movie and stage stars appearing at the Hartman, or with Kenley Players. • Paoletti’s Restaurant, family-owned with modest prices and a hangout for Dispatch employees – reporters, editors, pressmen and composing employees. Pie was the attraction. • The Congress Café – A bar with food, mostly Greek, when it operated across from the YWCA. It later became Spiro’s Congress, later Mellman’s, and in recent years, a half dozen unsuccessful joints of little note. • Tom Johnson’s Seafood Restaurant – 116 S. 4th St. – once had dirt floors when it was mostly a fish market. It was a popular place with people working or shopping at the old Central Market, then on the block across from today’s Greyhound terminal. • State & Fourth Grill, the grease empire owned for years by Sammy Harachis, is now a parking lot at that address. • Club Restaurant – An off-lobby sandwich shop in the Hartman Theater building. Jim Thurber was a daily patron when in Columbus for the staging of his Thurber’s Carnival. The other claim to fame – grilled cheese sandwiches on butter-soaked rye bread. • State Restaurant – A second floor place in the Grand Theater building, between High and S. Third Street on State, served Chinese food and held noontime dances during World War II. Eddie Frecker’s was another small restaurant on the ground floor of the same location. Freckers later became the big name in ice cream in Columbus. • The Terrace Room – Remember the fourth floor of the Union Department Store? That was after the Levy family moved their department store from Long and N. High streets to a building across from Lazarus. It was a lacy place – real linens for napkins. Call it the city’s last tea room of note. • Bismark – An eatery at 13 W. State St., recently occupied by Ho Toy’s, a Chinese spot, now closed. • Downtown Office of Graceland Stock Farm – Yep, that was the name of Pat Murnan’s wide open gambling operation. Booze, numbers, the works if you wanted to place a bet. The Graceland name came from Murnan’s very good friend, Grace Backenstoe, who owned the farm where Graceland Shopping Center now stands. It was Murnan who engineered the sale of Graceland property to the late Don M. Casto. She had refused many offers until Casto, one evening over a few hard beverages in the Backenstoe manse, sealed the deal by telling her “Grace, you sell it to me and I’ll name it after you.” • Doersam’s Restaurant – Right below Murnan’s establishment across from the Palace Theater, was known for the quick hamburgers available to the theater-going crowd. Eat it fast and walk across the street. One small attraction was the dry slaw on the burgers. Onions tended to reek among moviegoers. HISTORICAL NOTE: About that building – AIU – that was the original name for LeVeque Tower – American Insurance Union, a name victim of the Depression. [Columbus historian Bob Thomas, since deceased, contributed to this story.] 10March2007 update home