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FeedThe Sauce Spot
Downtown favorite El Arepazo brings its Colombian and Venezuelan fare to Gahanna
Peruvian Ceviche Tapa and a margarita (below) at Arepazo
PHOTOS BY JODI MILLER
The cilantro sauce. Oh good god, the cilantro sauce. Cool yet spicy, drizzled over burritos and used as a dressing for salads, it’s become Arepazo’s signature flourish. It’s the kind of addictive delicacy that turns customers into regulars—this stuff is so popular they sell it by the bottle.
Carlos and Carolina Gutierrez have served that cilantro sauce for years at El Arepazo, their tucked-away spot on Pearl Alley. Loyal Downtown lunchers endure long lines inside the cramped space to feast on homestyle Colombian and Venezuelan fare. Now, a new Gahanna outpost called Arepazo Tapas & Wine is converting suburbanites into believers.
Located a block east of the Creekside development, the new Arepazo foregoes the counter-order lunch concept for a more upscale feel with table service, dinner hours and a full bar. Business is brisk in the ’burbs, but the dining room here is ample enough to accommodate crowds without too much of a wait.
The new menu brings over all of the dishes from Downtown and, as its name suggests, adds a lineup of tapas and wines—plus a small collection of cocktails.
As a longtime Arepazo devotee, I have to admit I really loved being able to ease into my meal with a little vino. And I especially loved that my red wine sangria actually tasted like wine, and not the sugary-sweet fruit juice other places try to pass off. A refreshingly straightforward margarita made with fresh-squeezed citrus is the best of the otherwise cloying mixed drinks.
Tops on the tapas list is a fancy twist on a lunchtime favorite, Arepazo’s ceviche salad. Here, the Peruvian Ceviche ($9) is a colorful confetti of citrus-cured seafood tossed with onions, corn and peppers, served in a pretty glass dish. Squeezed with fresh lime juice and scooped onto thick tortilla chips, it’s a bright and refreshing start to a meal.
On the other end of the tapas spectrum—and stretching the limits of the small-plate genre—the Picada platter ($18) is a meat fest of grilled steak, wine-soaked chorizo, deep-fried pork belly, starchy green plantains and potato-y yucca fries.
It’s recommended for two to three people but better suited for four to five—in other words, a little goes a long way. A couple hunks of chicharron (crispy-skinned fried pork belly) are a novel bar snack, but gnawing through piece after piece gets to be a chore.
As for entrees, Arepazo’s Patacon ($10) is a revelation, and a dish I have to talk myself out of ordering on every single visit. And yes, it’s found on the menu in Gahanna.
The patacon’s secret ingredient is a whole, ripe plantain that’s been sliced, flattened and fried into caramelized submission. That sweet sheet is used as the base for a heap of pulled meat (I usually go with the pork), shredded mozzarella and provolone, and lots of veggies—diced onions, tomatoes, banana peppers, avocados, lettuce and flecks of cilantro.
Several of Arepazo’s entrees take a mix-and-match approach using the same basic components (steak + rice and beans + mini arepas or steak + rice and beans + plantains). I found the grilled steak to be too tough in dishes like the Carne Asada, but adored it in the Peruvian Lomo Saltado ($12), where it’s especially tender and juicy after being sauteed with rough-chopped tomatoes and onions.
Entree salads are good too. Try the Southwestern-style Steak, Avocado and Bean Salad ($9.50), with chunks of spicy steak paired with corn, pinto beans, avocado and tomato slices, plus crispy tortilla strips for some crunch.
Like all of Arepazo’s salads, it uses cilantro sauce as dressing—magically, the stuff is somehow the perfect accompaniment to every dish on the menu. Go ahead and order a few extra cups of it up front.
—Shelley Mann is the editor of Crave, the Columbus dining magazine.
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RESTAURANT REVIEW
Hours: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5:30-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5:30-10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday Price range: $11 to $20 per person. Entrees range from $10 tacos to $15 meat combos. Reservations: Accepted In short: A chic, roomy new Arepazo location with extended hours and plenty of parking is introducing Venezuelan fare to the masses. Rating: ★ ★ ★ 1/2 |
RATING SYSTEM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★: outstanding |
