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Tim Fulton 00:00
Tim, welcome to the confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. We are a weekly Columbus centric podcast focusing on the civics lifestyle, entertainment and people of our city. I’m your host. Tim Fulton, this week, the results are in, and the people of Columbus have spoken. In this week’s episode, I sat down with Walker Evans, co founder and editor in chief of Columbus underground, to dive into the highlights of the best of Columbus 2024 readers poll, from the city’s favorite new restaurants and bars to the most beloved cultural institutions and neighborhoods, we explored what makes Columbus shine with nearly 1700 votes cast by engaged locals. This year’s poll celebrates the best spots to eat, drink and experience in the city, Walker and I discussed the stories behind the rankings, the trends shaping the scene, and even a few surprises from the lists, whether you’re looking for your next favorite pizza place, curious about the hottest new bar, or just love all things Columbus, this episode offers something for everyone. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at the confluence cast.com enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Walker. Evans, the co founder and editor in chief of Columbus underground. Walker, how are you? I’m great. How are you, Tim, I’m doing well. We are going through some of the highlights of the Columbus underground. Best of 2024, readers poll. Yeah, let’s get right into it. We so first of all, sorry, walk through the we in the past have done some editorializing. There’s no editorializing in this list. This is straight up. You put out a reader survey and you said, What’s the best pizza in Columbus? What’s the best bar in Columbus? Yeah, that sort of thing. Roughly how many votes
Walker Evans 02:06
it was? Like, 1700 ish, okay, this year. Yeah, it was a pretty, pretty good size.
Tim Fulton 02:10
That’s a good sample. And yeah, people just, did you have a drop down, or radio buttons, or just people type stuff in completely open ended? Okay, yeah, so pizza could have been Chuck E Cheese. Sure. Were there any Chuck E Cheese? I don’t recall.
Walker Evans 02:24
Okay, I can neither confirm nor deny. No, I don’t think anyone said Chuck E Cheese, but you do see some silly answers in there, right? There’s always some people who think they’re they’re being funny, and it’s great too, because, like, I’m really the only one that, like, looks at the back end of this, right? And so when people are like, I don’t know best new restaurant. They’re like, whichever one Mayor Ginther doesn’t go to. And it’s like, one no one else is going to vote for that, so it’s not going to appear in the top 10. Great. And who you writing? I guess now I’m sharing it with everybody, but, like, right? Funny that you’re being funny, but I’m the only one that sees well. And
Tim Fulton 02:56
it’s the same on the back end of the Columbus districts.com site, yeah, select a district name, and it’s district MC, district phase, yeah,
Walker Evans 03:04
yeah. But these are pure popularity contests, and I try and stress that. And when you look at the list on the website at the bottom, it says, note, our best of 2024, lists are published as the results of our annual reader survey poll. Like, these aren’t my favorites. These aren’t, you know,
Tim Fulton 03:24
you’re just doing your journalistic duty here. Sure,
Walker Evans 03:27
yeah, yeah, but, but, you know, I think some people look at, like, the list of best pizza, and we’ll get into that one in a minute. And they think that, like, it’s based on some sort of, like, qualitative measurement, like, these are Critics Choice, and it’s really like, whatever is the most popular is going to be the number one answer,
Tim Fulton 03:45
right among a group of people that opted to take the time to fill out a service? Sure, yeah. And I think
Walker Evans 03:50
our readers are pretty plugged in. Generally speaking, your favorite thing might not be in first place in every list, but like, they’re pretty good lists. You look at the top 10 burgers and burgers, and it’s like, oh, yeah, there’s some favorites on there and places you might
Tim Fulton 04:03
want to try, yeah. How many different poll, like, categories are there? Like,
Walker Evans 04:06
right around 50. We kind of, we add one in or remove one every year, okay? Like, if people are really answering it, or if there’s some sort of new trend, got
Tim Fulton 04:14
Yeah, got it. So what’s up first in our selection today, we have best new restaurant. We’re gonna do best new restaurants. Okay, so 10 of them,
Walker Evans 04:22
top 10 best new restaurants. So these are places that open calendar year of 2024, okay, give me the Give me 10 through 610. Through six, yeah. Do you have any predictions, any, any, not for 10 through
Tim Fulton 04:33
six, like, that’s really just going to be excluding like the other ones, yeah.
Walker Evans 04:39
So number 10 on the list was warriors, beef and pork in Clintonville. Okay, they expanded to Clintonville, opened up a new location. So a delicious cheesesteak, yes, yes, a delicious everything, yeah. Honestly, everything I had their cheese, yeah? Well, they’re also gigantic, and I feel like I gotta either be really hungry or I’m buying lunch for two days. Yep, to go to warios. But yes, they’re great. I. Number nine is the noctera Brewing Company location down at the Audubon Center. Okay, which, it got a bunch of votes, and I’m like, I gotta check to make sure they have a food menu, because we want to count this as a restaurant. And they do. Okay, it looks pretty good. I haven’t been there myself, No, but I’m excited to go, because I’m not a beer drinker, but I’ll go there and try out the food,
Tim Fulton 05:17
but like, light eats or sandwiches, pizzas?
Walker Evans 05:21
Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of bar, bar food I would classify it, but it sounds like it’s, it’s pretty good, okay, yeah. Number eight is bite this by Annie, which is a bakery in Clintonville. Okay, I’m 99% sure I’d have to go back and look. They opened in the old patty cake spot before they moved. Yeah. Okay, the original spot, yeah. So bite this, biennium has been at our sweet treats dessert festival every year for a couple of years. So great to see them opening up brick and mortar space, moving beyond kind of the farmers market sort of thing. Yeah.
Tim Fulton 05:57
Next, yeah.
Walker Evans 05:58
Number seven, sweet green in the short North Okay, have you been yet? I have. We’ve gone a couple of times, which, I know it’s a chain, but people are excited. It’s the only one in central Ohio. Yes, the first one in central Ohio.
Tim Fulton 06:09
Yeah, it’s good. It’s very nice to have, like, a place where it’s like, I want a salad and not and a salad that I can easily customize or change things out. The kids menu is a little lacking. Like it’s, yeah, we’re gonna eat yams and grilled chicken tonight. Yeah, honey. But it’s, it’s very good, yeah, I
Walker Evans 06:29
still need to go in just to try it out. But, yeah, yeah, nice carry
Tim Fulton 06:34
out options, Easy Web Interface, yeah, yeah.
Walker Evans 06:38
Relatively healthy, yeah, depending on how much dressing you put on things absolutely. Yeah. Number six is smash buddies.
Tim Fulton 06:46
Not familiar at all. It’s familiar with smash burger and smash burgers, yeah, smash buddy. So
Walker Evans 06:53
it’s a smash burger place, okay, yeah, they started with a food truck. They’ve had that for a couple of years. They just opened a brick and mortar. It was, I can’t remember what it was a long time ago, but it was where the tie, Basil tie, oh yeah, in the brewery district, yeah. Okay, that location, yeah. So in that, like alleyway there, so they just got open. I went down there with Jesse Yost, yeah. I can link to that video in the in the notes, we did a little burger excursion, and it was good. It was a solid burger. Okay, prices are reasonable. They have like, pretty cheap, like, drinks and beer, tater tot on their menu. Yeah, it feels a little isolated because Front Street is shut down. There’s all that construction, yeah, blocking some of their front door access, but worth seeking it out for a solid burger.
Tim Fulton 07:41
Okay? And I have an editorial question here. Did you when you were getting these submissions, did you have to cut people out that you were like, they actually opened in 22
Walker Evans 07:50
Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. People will submit things that, and I don’t know if any of them crack the top 10, okay, like they would be missing out, but people will vote for things that, like, clearly did not open this
Tim Fulton 08:00
year, but you can’t think of any that like, hey, this actually would have been three, but, oh yeah, I don’t think that many people. Okay, yeah, okay, yeah. So my predictions for the top five, okay, are just that. I’m not gonna name names. I bet you can get a few of them. I will be not in the right order. I bet if I look out the window of this office, I can see a couple of them. Uh huh, yeah, yeah. When did spec open? Spec
Walker Evans 08:25
was 23 okay, not on the list. It was. It was actually the number one of 2023 best new restaurant. 2023 okay, yeah, see, I
Tim Fulton 08:33
didn’t do my background, yeah. The what’s the name of the French place? Here she went. Sweat is on the list. It’s
Walker Evans 08:40
number one. Okay, well, ding, ding, ding, we can end this
Tim Fulton 08:43
video right now. Yeah, so she went, and then what’s the across the street is Hanks. Hanks. That is number two. Number two. Great. I’m doing them in order, yeah? Anything like Bonifacio didn’t open this year. That’s been open for years. Yeah? Sorry, no, what else does that? So what’s what’s rounding out? Yeah, three, four and five. So,
Walker Evans 09:09
so number five, I guess we’ll keep going backwards. High bank distillery in Westerville. Okay, I think that’s our third location. And of
Tim Fulton 09:17
these you’ve now named, I think, three different ones it’s an expansion. Yeah,
Walker Evans 09:21
okay, yeah. So, I mean, that’s valid. Chains are valid. Like, really, it’s just calendar year, yeah, and popularity. So
Tim Fulton 09:27
like, McDonald’s and Arby’s are now going to be filling out the I’m kidding, yes,
Walker Evans 09:33
I would say that if, like, if a McDonald’s open in the short North it would probably get some votes, you know what? I mean, yeah, yeah. But like the 18th McDonald’s to open in Reynoldsburg is probably not gonna get any our thoughtful readers would not put that on, of course, of course. Not. Okay, but yeah, so high bank Del Mar at Easton opened this okay? So very good. Yeah, yeah. I’ve not been but the decor looks amazing. Yeah, I need to go out there. And speaking of Cameron, and speaking of i. Haven’t also haven’t been butcher and Rose. It’s great too, right over here at the Preston center. Yeah, it’s great too. Yeah, yeah, that’s a good list. Yeah, these lists are awesome because it kind of reminds you of what you might have skipped or missed out on or haven’t made a chance to go see yet. So is
Tim Fulton 10:14
it at all odd to you that the top two are literally, you could spit your gum from this office towards that kind
Walker Evans 10:21
of Yeah, but I mean, we’re at the epicenter of what’s happening downtown, like they say. So yeah, and we’ve been here for 10 years waiting for it to come. So it’s finally arrived. There you go.
Tim Fulton 10:30
So those are the top 10 restaurants of 2025 Yeah. Check them all out. Yeah. Coming up next, we have the top 25 bars. We will spend a little bit less time on this one to go through them. Yeah, and is it 25 because there’s simply so many. Yeah,
Walker Evans 10:48
we don’t I mean, there are some polls that I see out there. I mean, locally and non locally, where it’s like, best dive, best cocktail bar, best brewery, like bet and like, really breaking it down, and it’s like, this is gonna take forever for people to for people to fill out these forms. Like, okay, so you don’t have that as No, no, like, just best bar overall. So you’ll see a really nice mix of all those kinds of things, yeah? And so that’s why we kind of do 25 just because there’s so many variety of types of bars, yeah, Tiki bars, you know.
Tim Fulton 11:17
And is it divert? Do you feel like, well, we’ll see. But do you feel like it’s pretty diverse throughout, like, there’s a dive there might be four dive bars, and they’re sort of like, one’s at 23 one’s at eight, one’s at two. Like, it’s okay,
Walker Evans 11:30
yeah, it’s a pretty good mix. Okay, I think, okay, yeah, 2525 dicks. Din, okay, a staple. I think there’s celebrate their 60th anniversary, yeah? Like, I just saw that online, yes. So shout out, Dick Sten, yes. 24 is Denmark on high Okay.
Tim Fulton 11:46
Cocktail Bar. Cocktail bar right across from the convention center second floor, yep.
Walker Evans 11:51
So, so we went from Dick Sten was a little bit more low end, a little like music venue, but kind of diving, yeah. And then Denmark a little more high end. 23 is combustion brewery in Clintonville, okay, yep. So brewery on the list. So we’re checking all the boxes, right? 22 is stories on high, the rooftop bar, yeah. Hilton, Yes, yep. So now we got a rooftop bar in there, which could be its own separate category at this point. Yes,
Tim Fulton 12:19
indeed. I mean, some people have qualified, like top patios, top roof top. Yeah. 21
Walker Evans 12:26
is Bob’s bar in Clintonville. Okay, so there’s the beer bar on the list now, yeah, 20 is the union cafe. Okay, now you have an LGBT bar on the list? Yes, yep. Number 19 is the Oracle, a favorite of mine. I don’t speak easy. No, it’s a it’s like a tiki it’s a tiki dive. Oh, okay, yeah. It’s a cocktail centric bar. They do like some music nights and stuff, some DJ nights. Old Town east. Oh
Tim Fulton 12:53
yes. Name of the cocktail bar, I’m thinking, below Mikey’s in convention center area, the sacred palm. Oh yeah, yeah, different place, yeah, okay, similar. Apologies to the Oracle, though. Yeah, palm reading, Oracle, well, yeah, you see why my brain did it. Yeah,
Walker Evans 13:10
totally. Number 18, another rooftop bar. Is Lincoln social, okay, north, yep. Number 17 is the bottle shop.
Tim Fulton 13:18
Which is that is king and Neil, yeah, which
Walker Evans 13:22
right now during Christmas. Spoiler, this is like holiday season. Yeah, is Christmas pop up called ebenezers. Okay, yeah, so visit there in December.
Tim Fulton 13:32
Rest in peace. Viking beverage, the previous name, take, oh, yeah,
Walker Evans 13:35
number 16 short, North tavern, okay, one of the divest dives of all time, but perfect. Yeah, 15 the beer stoop, rip,
Tim Fulton 13:46
yeah. Do you let them qualify because they
Walker Evans 13:50
people voted for them. They were open the majority of the year. Fair. I think, I think if people voted next year, we probably strike it from the record as they close this year. Yeah, if people were voting for a bar that closed 20 years ago, we obviously wouldn’t include it in the list. But yeah, the beer stew, you know, big, big splash going out, big this year. So fair enough. 14, St James tavern, great, pretty close to you. Yep, yeah, always a classic spot. 13, parable, I’ve not been at night. Parable, parable, the coffee shop in the Lazarus building. Oh, yeah, they added a bar. They do wine, they do cocktails. They have, like, a jazz night, I think on Sundays. Okay, seems really popular. I’m not super into jazz, but I’ll drive by, like, coming home
Tim Fulton 14:32
from Kroger. I’m sorry, what number on the list there? That is number 13. And I’m not going to say that it’s not a fantastic bar, yeah, but I think it’s also a bar that people sort of would be like, Oh, that’s also a bar Cool, good to know that, yeah, but it is also, this is for basically business proprietors. Is why I’m saying this, yeah, that’s an example, probably, of them soliciting their patrons to fill out the reader survey. Yeah? Maybe,
Walker Evans 14:58
yeah. Well, and they added. You know, they were coffee shop first, and then they added the bar component. And I think it’s growing in popularity, like, pretty steadily. Yeah, great. So number 12 is local bar in the short north, okay, Short North. Hang 11 is Charette, who we mentioned, is one of the top new restaurants, but people are also going there for the bar. Okay, great, and now we’re into the top 10. Do you want to make any guesses, or do you want to wait till top five? Can
Tim Fulton 15:24
I ask if it, and this is for those that know me near and dear. Is there anything else on the top 10 that is closed this year that has closed? Yeah? Um, okay, okay, I
Walker Evans 15:36
don’t think so. Now, why
Tim Fulton 15:38
were you gonna go Quentin’s place? Didn’t make it. Oh no. Little Rock didn’t make it. Okay? Well, not like he was soliciting people. He’s like, I’m in Italy right now. No, yeah, yeah. Shout out to Quinn,
Walker Evans 15:49
yeah. And maybe because that was a little bit earlier in the air too than the beers do, right?
Tim Fulton 15:53
Oh yeah. That was like, yeah. And we’re talking about little rock bar, if we didn’t explicitly say yeah, a little Little Rock, yeah. So guesses would be, yeah, I don’t know, like off the top of my I mean, I gotta assume there’s more campus bars in there. I gotta assume that there’s a lot more short North bars in there. It’s still a good mix. German village. I law bird is certainly on the top 10, number two, number two. See, I’m good at this now. Yeah, lobber, what’s the antiques on high
Walker Evans 16:26
that did? Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s nine. Sorry, nine. That didn’t make the list right in front of me. Yeah, give it to me. What’s number 10? Number 10 is Jackie O’s on fourth. Great,
Tim Fulton 16:35
yeah, and a great setup, at least for warm weather, yeah? Great spot.
Walker Evans 16:40
I think it’s sometimes those kind of places, I think get a little penalized in people’s minds, because they’re voting on stuff at the end of the year when it’s called out, and you start to not think about patios as much. Yeah, and that place is like 50% patio, yeah, maybe 70% patio says pins
Tim Fulton 16:55
on the top 10, pins number
Walker Evans 16:56
eight. Okay, so, yeah. So again, nine is antiques. Okay, so Jackie owes antiques pins. Number seven is high bank distillery. Okay, yeah. I’m assuming the original location. I think people kind of vote generically for lists like this, yeah. Number six is the citizens trust right across the street over here. Great. Little spot, yeah. Big Spot. Big Spot. Also another Christmas pop
Tim Fulton 17:20
up? Yeah, yeah. Is ace of cups in the top five. No, no, but
Walker Evans 17:24
it’s in the music list. I know the music vendor list, yeah, and a lot of times I think people, if they vote it for one, they’ll vote for something, yeah, else in another category makes sense. So citizens trust number six, five is Slammers. Okay, great. Yeah, downtown lesbian bar. Great pizza climbers, yeah. Number four is the brass eye, okay, which is the rooftop over at the junto? Yes, yes. Okay, so that’s number four. Number three is land grant brewing, okay, gigantic campus over there. Okay, yeah, which I like the extension on? Have you been, have you been Have you been in the extension building that
Tim Fulton 18:02
they added? Not the extension building, just the extra outdoor like, yeah. So there’s a little
Walker Evans 18:07
building that’s, like, close to all that stuff, like, where the the pickleball is in the summer and the ice rink is in the winter. Okay, that’s a little, like, cocktail bar sort of thing. So for me, that’s like, right up my alley, yeah. So that’s number three. You mentioned law bird was number two. So the only one left is number one, close to law bird. I can’t think of it. People watching the video now, why? I don’t know. I’m just, I’m just guessing Cobra. Cobra, yeah, number one. They’ve got a lot of accolades, both locally and nationally, yeah, like being a hot new bar recognized in a lot of lot of places. So that’s a great spot. It’s a cool spot. It’s got, it’s got a great menu. They do pop ups. They do collabs with other like chefs and mixologists and things. So yeah, it’s, it’s wild to see it so quickly rise to number one too, because it’s still relatively new. I think it was best new bar last year. Yeah, and now it’s best overall bar this year.
Tim Fulton 19:00
There you go. Yeah. Okay. Well, congratulations to everybody in the best part category, yeah,
Walker Evans 19:05
go check them all out. Something for everyone.
Tim Fulton 19:09
Next up in the readers poll, top 10 cultural institutions in the city. These are the, you know, the lifeblood of culture of Columbus, and the things that people, I would argue commonly, think about if they live in the periphery of Columbus, or visited Columbus one time. Oh, my family took me to XYZ. I don’t have any predictions about I think I can just name all 10, but they will just be totally out of order.
Walker Evans 19:33
Maybe. Yeah, there’s a few little surprises in here, but, yeah, we just do this one that way, museums and theaters. Yeah,
Tim Fulton 19:40
it’s like that. Okay. Can we just do it that way? Do what? I’m just gonna put up 10 fingers, okay, and you, I’ll name them, and you tell me what they are on the list. Okay, okay, cosi, not on the not on the list. Okay. Who is this? Like? If I get three I’m out.
Walker Evans 19:57
That was, that was probably. 11, to be honest, Franklin Park on there?
Tim Fulton 20:04
Yes, number five. Franklin Park is number five. Okay, Columbus Museum of Art, number one, number one. My former employer, the Wexner Center for the Arts. Number three. Got it. Okay, let’s see we did Franklin Park. We did, are there any like malls on there? They’re not considering that. No, what about like culture at the malls? And it’s institutions, right? For the most part, there’s a like, there’s a house in the Ohio are not on there? It would be kappa. I
Walker Evans 20:33
mean, they could be, but they’re not okay. Is kappa on there? No, that’s an organization, yeah, yeah. We have a separate list of guys arts organizations in there. They’re high up on that list. I think GCAC was number one. Kappa might have been number two this year,
Tim Fulton 20:48
okay, but like, the symphony isn’t on there. That’s arts organization. Yeah, they’re not on the list. Ballet, No, you wouldn’t have excluded them, no,
Walker Evans 21:01
no, but they just didn’t crack the top 10. Okay, yeah, okay, we have a lot more cultural Okay, let’s start from 10. Then where are we at right now? Okay, so number 10 the Garden Theater, okay, great and great in the short North home to Short North stage. Number nine is the Billy Ireland cartoon Library and Museum. Fantastic. On that one, yeah, it’s a great, great space. Good. Number eight, is the King Arts Complex. Good, over, over in my neighborhood? Yeah, yeah. Number seven, the small but mighty street light guild. Excellent. Scott woods, yeah, shout out. Scott woods. Number six, stone wall Columbus, okay, great. Number five, you mentioned Franklin Park Conservatory. Number four, the McConnell Arts Center. Okay. Number three, you mentioned Wexner Center, and then so the only one left is
Tim Fulton 21:48
number two. Number two is gonna be, I
Walker Evans 21:52
think it’s one that’s like, it’s hidden in plain sight. People forget about it, but like the library, no, but that’s a great guess. What
Tim Fulton 21:59
is it? Oh, say, it a mile. No, close
Walker Evans 22:05
the Scioto mile, pretty much dead ends into it. That’s No, just give it to me, the Cultural Arts Center, the Columbus cultural arts That’s great. Yeah, the old armory, yeah,
Tim Fulton 22:15
yeah, I’ve taken classes. There certainly, a couple of events. Green
Walker Evans 22:18
Space run by the Rec and Parks Department. Great. And again, that’s the arts Top 10 arts institutions. Yeah, arts and culture institutions in the city. Do you see much movement year to year? Yeah, things, things bop around, you know, things you know, like you mentioned the library and CO sides, like, kind of wild that they’re not on the list this year. Yeah, a lot of times it’s whoever sort of petitions there, weekly email, yeah, please go vote for us. Sort of stuff. Yeah, you see a lot of things moving around, and I think it just speaks highly to the fact that, like, there’s like 30 highly qualified things that could be on this list. Yeah, yeah, okay, let’s go check them all out.
Tim Fulton 22:58
All right. Up next, hotly debated, not really top 10 neighborhoods, yeah. Does this list change much every year?
Walker Evans 23:07
A bit. You see a lot shifting around. It’s one of those things that sort of like, you vote for the neighborhood you live in,
Tim Fulton 23:15
yeah, yeah. And we also, if people live there, right? Like, I imagine, when did we start? When did you start the reader survey? 2013 Okay, so like, probably then Franklinton was maybe on there. But like, I would have heard that top two,
Walker Evans 23:33
yeah, and not top two. But like, yeah, it’s moved up the list. Okay, yeah, as it’s gained residents and visitors and people that like going there. Yeah, can I? Can I do my same thing again? Yeah, I would love your guesses. I mean, okay, quick, quick qualifier. We do have a separate list for Top 10 suburbs. Okay, so these are Columbus Neighborhoods. Suburbs are separate. Westerville
Tim Fulton 23:54
is not in here. Arlington is not on here. No, City’s not on there. They’re all on a separate list. Got it? So you can check out that list, go to the website to look. I’m gonna try to do this in reverse order. Okay, so that’s my attempt, but I’m not gonna get them right. I’m just gonna get it generally. Okay, so I’m gonna say, towards the bottom of 10, we’re gonna I’m gonna do southern orchards, not on, not on the list. I’m gonna do, I’m because I know my top five. I think, okay,
Walker Evans 24:26
I bet you could name the top five. Let me
Tim Fulton 24:28
just do the top five. Okay, so we’ll do short North is gonna be number one. Short North is number five. Wow. Okay. Short North, Franklinton, number one, number four, number four. Wow. Okay. Old Town east, number three, number three. Wow, 543, I’m getting this right. So then what’s the top two? Top two are gonna be Clintonville. Is that number two or one? That’s number one. Number one. Okay, so number two, then is Oh, German village, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Okay, there we go. So
Walker Evans 24:58
then what? Nine. You almost got them, like, in reverse, yeah, yeah, yeah. So 10 through six, I guess Denver 10 is Victorian village, okay, which, some people say it’s part of the short north. It’s adjacent to the Short North. I mean, it’s
Tim Fulton 25:13
lit, yeah, the Short North is Italian village and Victorian village, yeah,
Walker Evans 25:17
yeah. But enough people vote for these all independently, so we can put them all. That’s fair, yeah. So, Victorian village, number 10, Marion village, number nine, okay. Number eight is Old North Great. Number seven, Italian village, great. Number six, where we are right now, the downtown area. Yes, okay, downtown. There you go. So, yeah, top 10, we blast it through that, yeah, but I will say, like looking through the archives, Clintonville makes number one a lot. German village has cracked the number one. Yeah, a couple of times. But Clinton people forget that. Like 30,000 people live in Clintonville. Clintonville is massive compared to
Tim Fulton 25:54
everything else, indeed. Yeah, well, and I think, like, we can’t segment our readership any more than just, like the DM the greater metropolitan area. But interestingly, like, I don’t think a broad, like, the majority of the content that you write is not about things happening in Clintonville, not that, like, it’s, you know, there aren’t large cultural institutions there,
Walker Evans 26:16
yeah. I mean, there’s always, like, new stores and stuff opening. Like we wrote about Tiger tree when they expanded across the street this year, and then we just and then we just wrote about the new Clintonville bookstore that went into the old Tiger tree spot. Yeah, so there’s like retail activity up there, but you’re right. A lot of Clintonville is just residential streets, right?
Tim Fulton 26:31
Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, those the top 10 Columbus Neighborhoods for 2024, nice. And then next up we have the top we have listed the top 20 pizzas in Columbus. I think today we’re just going to review the top 10. Yeah, lots of talk about, talk through. This is, as you said, this is the most controversial topic, just because people are passionate about it, and people everyone
Walker Evans 26:56
has a favorite pizza, yeah, you know, yeah. And again, you know, this is just reader survey, so it’s a popularity contest. This is not based on some sort of critic deeming one pizza better than the other, but yeah, it’s always a fun list, and you might discover some new ones you’ve never tried before. Yeah, yeah. So top 10. Give me 10. So full top 20 on the website, click the link below, top top 10. Number 10, campus, classic adriaticos, great. Yeah, yes. Have you had
Tim Fulton 27:24
it in a while? Not in a while? Yeah, yeah. I was a pizza you eat in college, yeah? Well,
Walker Evans 27:28
I went with a friend who was in town. Shout out to Jim lauci maybe a year or two ago. And he really wanted to go. And so we actually dined in at the location after they moved. Oh, I’ve been to the new one, yeah. And it was, it was great, like, the vibes, cool, the pizza, it’s stellar. Yeah, I was like, You should go here more often. It’s good. So AJ is number 10, number nine, JTS pizza. Okay, they have a new location that’s in the process of opening. It might be open by the time this video is out. Okay, kind of by Graham view yard in that southern station building, right? Okay, yard on good ale. Where’s their current location? I forget what the original is, but it’s one that I hear a lot of pizza nerds really raving about, okay, cheese pizza, relatively new, generally speaking, but like growing and expanding, okay, yeah, number eight is pizza house. Okay, I’ve never been i A lot of my friends swear by it. It’s been around since like, the 60s, I believe, yeah, one of those sort of classic spots, number seven. This was actually number one last year, but it’s really sort of, what’s that wizard of Za no polygs?
Tim Fulton 28:34
Oh yeah. Really good, yeah. I assume still,
Walker Evans 28:39
yeah. I mean, I don’t think anything’s vegan cheese changed, yeah. And again, like, these are very different styles of pizza. Like, they have a Detroit pizza on their menu. Okay, apologies that people like really rave about, but it’s like, if you’re in the mood for that, I get the wood fired, right? Yeah. Number six is Tommy’s Okay, which we’ve, we’ve written about recently, the the one location closed. There’s still the other one right, both on lane Avenue, uh, number five, good old Mikey’s late, nice lice, excellent.
Tim Fulton 29:07
Yes, surprise, it’s not a little higher given the just the love, you know, yeah,
Walker Evans 29:13
well. And also, they have so many locations. They just opened the campus one this year. They took over the old weenie wonder spots in the pins mechanical both at Easton and Dublin. So, yeah, Mikey’s has been on fire lately. Yeah, with growth number four is base more not familiar. I’ve not, I’ve not been to that one yet. Okay, that’s, that’s a little bit more of a newer, newer one. I believe number three, another campus classic hound dogs. Excellent. Yeah, it. I haven’t had it in a while, but it holds up well, even if you’re not, like, drunk at three in the morning. Yeah, it’s still pretty good. It’s, yeah, it’s pretty good. Pizza. Number two, this one is one that’s, like, really been climbing the list lately, is Sexton’s pizza, okay? I believe the original is like, Gahanna area, all right? And then they. Open the one in Harrison West Victorian village, Harrison west area, yeah, we had it. It’s really good kind of wood. Wood fired. Yeah, delicious, yeah. And then number one, it’s been at the top of the list a couple of times over the years, except when poly G’s upset it last year, harvest. Yeah, yeah. Which I love it every time I have it. There’s not one super close to us, so I don’t think about it all the time, but, but
Tim Fulton 30:26
also, they’ve reopened their Clintonville space, yeah, right. There
Walker Evans 30:29
was that fire this year, right? Yeah. So that reopened. They also have Bexley. They have the one in the brewery district. But, yeah, they’re getting the support they deserve. Yeah, harvest pizza can’t beat it. I love the original location where it opened, a German village. We were there quite a bit. Yeah, so ripped to that one, but yeah, that’s the top 10. All right.
Tim Fulton 30:45
Well, again, those are the top 10 pizza places in Columbus for 2024, nice Walker. Thanks for your time today. Yeah,
Walker Evans 30:51
no, it’s a lot of fun. Thanks.
31:00
You. You
Tim Fulton 31:02
for Listening to the confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. Again. You need more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at the confluence cast.com Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of The confluence cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite pollster. If you’re interested in sponsoring the confluence cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info, at the confluence cast.com, our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I’m your host. Tim Fulton, Have a great week. You.
