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Owner Jimmy Woodland in Woodlands Tavern.
Dan Trittschuh
All-star bartenders
Many entrepreneurs get their start not from watching something go right, but from seeing it go wrong. In this case, it was during the wedding of one of Joe Edelman’s friends. Edelman, who’d bartended through law school at Capital University, noted the open bar at the reception was adequate, but lacked any kind of wow factor. “The bar gets more face time with your guests than anyone else,” he says. So why not go the extra mile?
The observation prompted Edelman to consider what would happen if he gathered several of the crafters and mixologists he knew—his “all-star team,” he calls them. The result is Muddle, a cadre of bar caterers who create drinks and craft menus specifically for their clientele. Instead of handing over a rum and Coke or a Ketel and cranberry, he says, Muddle bartenders will meet with clients to determine which drinks their guests would like. Additionally, they create cocktails using fruits and herbs grown on Edelman’s family farm in Waynesville. (Clients supply the alcohol and the Muddle bartenders take care of the rest, he says.)
“Being behind a bar doesn’t make you a bartender,” Edelman says. “We look at the bar as a chef would a menu.”
Often, Muddle will work with sponsors, such as Maker’s Mark bourbon or Hornitos tequila. “We want people to say, ‘I can’t believe this is how you can use whiskey,’ ” he says. “We want to do [for our drinks] what ‘Sex and the City’ did for the cosmo.” For more information about Muddle, visit muddle-me-this.com.
—Ben Zenitsky
OH-WHY-OH!
Brady Konya and Ryan Lang hardly seem the types to embrace the Buckeye State. In 2007, Konya, from Seattle, and Lang, from a small town in Pennsylvania, each followed a significant other to Central Ohio, where they struggled with their new surroundings. “We found ourselves in Columbus without purpose,” Konya says, adding that when they first met, they almost immediately clicked.
After tossing around a few ideas, the pair of entrepreneurs decided to try their hand at distilling, which Lang’s family has been doing for four generations. The result is Middle West Spirits, which opened in July. Located at 1230 Courtland Ave. in the Short North, it offers Oyo (pronounced “Oh-why-oh”), a vodka that Konya and Lang hope will set the gold standard for locally produced spirits. Konya describes the taste as being “very smooth,” with hints of vanilla, cherry and oak. “It’s full-bodied, anything but tasteless and really full in flavor—distinctive of its Ohio roots,” he says. “We’re very passionate about being an agribusiness. We want to be a conduit and advocate for buying local and sourcing local.” (Twice a week, he and Lang bring in wheat from a mill in Fostoria.)
Along with his distilling endeavors, Konya is active as a chair in the Wonderland project to redevelop the old Wonder Bread bakery into a multi-use art studio, office and retail venue. “Aside from making a great product, we’re definitely here to be a participant in the community,” he says.
Middle West hosts free tours and tastings by appointment, and the distillery is open for retail sales each weekday from noon to 5 pm. (There is an open-house walk-through each Wednesday from 5 to 7 pm.)
—Ben Zenitsky
Wrong address, right name
When Rich Garrett and Chad Wise opened Suite 143 at the corner of Fourth and Main streets in early August, they originally were given the address 143 E. Main St.—thus the “143.” They later were informed that, since the space’s front door faces Fourth Street, their street number was 303 S. Fourth St. The owners decided to keep 143 in the name and liked it even more after Garrett’s little sister informed him that it is numerical slang for the phrase “I love you.”
The lounge features leather couches, modern chairs and end tables and a dance floor with an elevated deejay booth. A VIP area includes a lounge, small dance space and bar with a server and bartender.
The drink menu is heavy on martinis. In addition to all the regular brews, Stella, Newcastle and Strongbow will be on tap, among others. Happy hour highlights include free pizza and $2 beer on Tuesday from 5 to 8 pm and free food and $4 drink specials along with $2 beer all night on Thursday. Live music will be featured Thursday from 6 to 8:30 pm.
The new Little Brothers?
Owner Jimmy Woodland is putting the finishing touches on the year-long evolution of the venerable Grandview blues bar the Thirsty Ear, 1200 W. Third Ave. Now called Woodlands Tavern, the space boasts a new patio and interior. Last October, Woodland acquired the vacant adjacent space and began outfitting it to be the new music room. Now in its final phases, the hope is that it will be a “great venue for bands to play in and for fans to experience a real quality show in a smaller type venue,” Woodland says, adding that he plans to book a more diverse lineup. “The Thirsty Ear’s motto was ‘home of the blues and a whole lot more,’ ” he says. “We at Woodlands are now going to focus on the ‘whole lot more’ of that line.”
In fact, comparisons already are being made to another beloved music venue. “Woodlands Tavern is really poised to fill the hole in the music scene that Little Brothers left when it closed in the Short North,” says Mikey Sorboro, owner of Mikey’s Late Night Slice, 1030 N. High St. One reason Sorboro is excited is that in late August, he began renting the tavern’s kitchen, offering the shop’s pizza and specialty items. (Sorboro says he’s also drawn up an expanded menu that includes wings and a hummus plate.) “Everyone I talk to is just ecstatic about them coming in, and they just rave about the pizza,” Woodland says.
Of the Thirsty Ear, Woodland says he understands people might be disappointed to lose what had become something of a Grandview institution over the years. “I know that it will be sorely missed by older generations, but the thirtysomethings generation and younger were not aware of this bar,” he says. “I feel with new music, new food, new stage, new sound and a new look, it was only right to give it a new name.”
Happy hour is Monday through Friday from 4 to 8 pm and features all 18 drafts, all well drinks and domestic bottles for $2. Wednesday is open mic night, when patrons can get $2.50 import bottles, says general manager Amanda Rees.
Woodland also is coordinating with Columbus Monthly’s sister publication, The Other Paper, to host the seventh annual Cowboy Hillbilly Hippy Folk Festival Oct. 14 and 15 to commemorate the grand opening of the tavern and to mark the 20th anniversary of the alternative weekly newspaper. Bands will include the Cowboy Hillbilly Hippy Folk Band, the Rumpke Mountain Boys and the Top Heavies, as well as a slew of others. “We’re really gonna do it up; we’ll have valet parking, the whole deal,” Woodland says, adding that he’s looking into having some “insane” special.
—Ben Zenitsky
