“Day Trippin with Uncle Mike” is a Pickerington Online series featuring fun trips within a few hours of Violet Township, Ohio. Michael Nicodemus is a biology professor, birder, travel enthusiast & uncle.
August 13, 2021 by Pickerington Online Contributor Dr. Michael Nicodemus
For this edition of Day Trippin’, we traveled just across Columbus to Grandview Heights. Grandview has a walkable downtown full of locally-owned boutiques, restaurants and ale houses. It would be impossible to include them all in one article, so please leave a comment with your favorite Grandview spots for me to try for myself on a return visit.
Smokehouse Brewing
Smokehouse Brewing Company, formerly known as Barley’s Smokehouse, is my favorite barbeque/bar food/brewery restaurant in the Columbus area
They have excellent ribs and burgers.
The sauerkraut balls are mostly sausage and cheese, with just enough sauerkraut to taste. They offer Scotch eggs (pictured above) as well.
Their wings are my favorite in Columbus. They are smoked then grilled instead of fried. You can get a four beer sampler to try out their excellent beers that they brew on site.
Downtown Grandview
Staufs is my favorite coffee shop in Columbus. The coffee is great and roasted on site. They have a broad selection of loose teas. The atmosphere is awesome for working on a laptop or sitting outside on a cool evening.
I would guess that most people in the Columbus area would already be familiar with Jeni’s. Jeni’s is a bit pricey, but they have really fun, distinct flavors of ice cream. They have a lavender flavored ice cream, goat’s milk ice cream, and even quirky seasonal flavors like Frankincense. My favorite is Queen City Cayenne, which is a mixture of chocolate ice cream and cayenne pepper.
Hofbrauhaus
Honestly, Hofbräuhaus is very good, but I personally prefer Schmidts . Several members of my family would disagree. Hofbräuhaus specialized more in schnitzels while Schmidts is better known for its sausage. It was much easier to find parking and get seated at Hofbräuhaus.
Cap City Diner
Cap City Diner is a Cameron Mitchell Restaurant, so its prices and quality are both higher than your average “diner”. In addition to Grandview location, the restaurant can be enjoyed in both Dublin and Gahanna.
This restaurant is known for its meatloaf, “seriously big chocolate cake” and their blue plate features (on the day this was published it was pot roast with mashed potatoes). Image from Cap City’s website
Breakout Games
I have been here a few times with my sister and her family. It is probably our favorite. It is good for adults, but even young children can contribute to the game. The games are a little easier to solve than some of the other escape rooms in Columbus, but are still very challenging. When we have gone, we have either just barely won or just barely lost. I think what you want from an escape room is a really close finish, one way or the other. At the end, if you fail, they show you the clues to the ending, which I like.
Currently, they are offering six different room options of varying difficulties plus a virtual option. For the virtual option, you and your friends join a Gamemaster, who is a real person in a real escape room, to explore and you solve clues via video link. To learn more or to reserve a game, visit the Breakout Columbus.
