Columbus Monthly / December 2010 / December / Vegan bar food

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Vegan bar food

Vegan bar food

The folks behind Hal & Al’s, 1297 Parsons Ave., are doing things differently than most Columbus bars that serve food. Yes, they offer standard bar fare, but there’s a catch: It’s all vegan, which means there’s no meat or any animal byproducts, such as milk, eggs or cheese.

“The goal is that customers can’t tell it’s vegan. That’s the highest compliment,” says owner Jay Cheplowitz, who, if you’re wondering, is not vegan.

He says the bar opened almost two years ago, but when he started to serve food this past spring, he wanted to take a different approach. Menu items include a beer brat, chili, mac and cheese, taco salad and several sides, including fried pickles.

“The perception is that it’s healthy, bland, has twigs and leaves, small portions, that kind of thing,” says Cheplowitz. There also are more than 90 beers available, almost all of which are vegan. (Did you know that Guinness uses isinglass, a product of fish bladder, in its refinement process?) “This is just cool bar food that happens to be vegan,” he says.

Hal & Al’s is open Sunday through Thursday from 4 pm to midnight and until 2:30 am on Friday and Saturday.

 

Cheap eats

Michael O’Toole’s, 89 E. Nationwide Blvd., is offering a special to Columbus Blue Jackets fans during home games at its bar. For $5, guests can get a burger and beer, says manager Jeffery Tincher. “We’re just trying to support the Blue Jackets,” he says.

Openings

If you’re looking for another lunch option near Ohio State University, you might stop by the Wexner Center, the new home to Taste of Belgium, located inside the arts facility in the former Cam’s on Campus location. Owner Jean-Francois Flechet says the Wex menu is much more expansive than the other Taste of Belgium site at the North Market. (There’s also a Cincinnati shop.) New offerings include soups, sandwiches, salads and, of course, waffles and a variety of crepes. There also are coffee drinks and cold, frozen and hot espresso options. Flechet says he hopes to host special events in conjunction with the Wexner Center. “We want to try to do things that have never really been done there before,” he says. The cafe is open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 4 pm. Prices range from $3 to $11, and there’s a daily $5 lunch special. Bonus: There’s free Wi-Fi.

Mellow Mushroom is headed to Dublin, says general manager Luke Zachrich, whose brother, Colby, runs the Polaris location. The new place, 6505 Dublin Center Dr., is expected to open by early March. The menu is the same as the one at Polaris, and there will be a full bar with 36 beers on tap and nearly 170 available. Zachrich mentions he and his brother are hoping to expand to New Albany and either downtown or the Short North area in the next year.

Pizza Rustica, 1558 N. High St., opened in early November, says Caryn Shapiro, administrative and franchise coordinator for the Florida-based chain. Menu items include salad pizzas, vegetable pizzas and even a chocolate pizza. Beer and wine are available, and the restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner.

Meanwhile, just down the street, New York Pizza Department, 1644 N. High St., opened in mid November, says owner Rick Pressly. Pizza options include mixed mushroom, grilled veggie and chicken zucchini. While no alcohol is offered now, there’s a full coffee bar with a classic Italian cappuccino and other espresso blends. Pressly, a general contractor, remodeled the building himself. “This is going to be my identity. No one in Columbus is offering what we’re offering,” he says. The restaurant and coffee bar will serve coffee from 7 am to 11 pm and pizza from 11 am to 4 am daily.

Fresh Face

William Fugitt, the newly minted chef de cuisine at Rigsby’s Kitchen, says a job in his native Washington, D.C., as a teenager helped him find his life’s calling. “It really led me to have a passion for the food profession,” he says.

He attended the Baltimore International Culinary School and completed an externship in France following graduation. He helped open a restaurant in D.C. called Equinox, which he says has a “farm to table” concept. After moving to Chicago and working for acclaimed restaurants such as Tru and Charlie Trotter’s, Fugitt headed south to golf legend Jack Nicklaus’s Bear’s Club in Florida; he was soon hired (again) by Nicklaus as an executive sous chef at the Country Club at Muirfield Village, where he worked for five years. After a stint at the Chef’s Garden in Huron,  Fugitt was hired by Kent and Tasi Rigsby this fall.

At Rigsby’s, “I’m really trying to set standards and goals in place that will elevate the level of experience,” he says. “You’ll never hear ‘job’ come out of my mouth. It’s more than that for me. It’s a constant search for perfection, and it’s a passion.”