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S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 • C O L U M B U S C R A V E . C O M • 7 3S U M M E R 2 0 1 5 • C O L U M B U S C R A V E . C O M • 7 3

STORIES BY ANTHONY DOMINIC & BETH STALLINGS

PHOTOS BY TIM JOHNSON

S U M M E R 2 0 1 5 • C O L U M B U S C R A V E . C O M • 7 3

A vegan chef familiarizing the unfamiliar. An unlikely chicken fryer employing the

unemployable. A liquor lobbyist changing the way we drink. This is the eclectic 2015

Tastemakers class. What do they all have in common? They’re elevating

Columbus bars and restaurants one drink, dish and

slice of toast at a time.

LOCATION COURTESY: THE COMMISARY

7 4 • C O L U M B U S C R A V E . C O M • S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 • C O L U M B U S C R A V E . C O M • 7 57 4 • C O L U M B U S C R A V E . C O M • S U M M E R 2 0 1 5 S U M M E R 2 0 1 5 • C O L U M B U S C R A V E . C O M • 7 5

HOT CHICKEN TAKEOVER COLUMBUS BREWING CO.

JOE DELOSS

Head fryer

hotchickentakeover.com

: You can expect a few things at Hot Chicken Takeover: a line, fried chicken, communal tables and greetings from at least four members of the staff. “One of our mentors iden-tifi ed our customer service model as a surprising level of service,” DeLoss says. “We are, very inten-tionally, going to provide you with great service.” There are no scripts. Instead, employees are told to always be hospitable, kind and supportive.

: Gratuity dollars at Hot Chicken Takeover go straight toward staff development—fi nancial, household and professional. For exam-ple, the company offers budgeting and fi nancial planning and short-term loans. Through Church and Community Development for All People, Hot Chicken has guaranteed the lease of a three-bedroom South Side home that its employees can rent. DeLoss has also partnered with Columbus State Community College’s FastPath program, which provides certifi cation (like ServSafe food safety and sanitation) for entry-level jobs. Employees also get paid days off and an average wage of more than $10 an hour. All this, and De-Loss insists: “We’re not saving anybody. We’re just providing a platform for those people who are really motivated to change their life. We are in a position to be supportive as an employer.”

: Hot Chicken employs 30 people with an 80 percent retention rate. A little more than half of employees have benefi ted from Hot Chicken’s personal and professional develop-ment services. “The greater market sometimes has an aversion to hiring the people who need it, and the people who would probably work the hardest,” he says. “We have a great staff. I would pit our staff against any other, because they believe in us and we believe in them.”

: For now, DeLoss is avoiding what he calls the “f-word.” Though he does allude

that multiple locations around the city could be coming soon with longer hours and a smaller footprint than the North Market space.

: “I, unfortunately, still love it,” DeLoss says. “We’ve made these hot chicken bites—I don’t know what it is about them; maybe we just have the fry time right, or the heat balance right, but they are unbeliev-able.” The banana pudding is his other vice.

Why he’s a Tastemaker:

Take one look at the line of hungry

customers that hasn’t let up in

more than a year, and it’s clear this

town has hot chicken fever. And it’s all because of Joe DeLoss—a

social entrepreneur and community

activist who made Nashville-style

chicken on a whim, then opened a

takeout window in Olde Towne East. Now, Hot Chicken

Takeover has ro ots in the North

Market, a food truck, a presence

at Columbus Crew SC home games

and more locations on the way. But it’s not just the

four levels of spicy chicken, free sweet

tea and banana pudding we

adore; it’s DeLoss’ social mission. He created this craze with the

goal to employ those considered unemployable.

And that’s exactly what he’s done.

Age: 30 • Go-to drink: Bourbon • Guilty pleasure: “The monthly pancake special at German Village Coff ee Shop” • Food heroes: “I love the industry builders. Rodney Wasserstrom is one of my heroes for sure.” • Favorite ingredient: Cayenne (of course) • Last meal: Falafel Tacos from Firdous—“it’s an HCT special.”

ERIC BEAN

Owner and brewmaster

B C: After graduating from Kent State University, Bean completed an apprenticeship under the German-trained brewmaster at Firehouse Brewery in Cleve-land Heights, then the Master Brewers Pro-gram at the University of California, Davis, where he soaked up the then-burgeoning and hoppy West Coast craft beer scene.

P : Under Bean’s leadership, CBC has become Columbus’ most decorated brewery. At last year’s Great American Beer Festival, the largest commercial beer com-petition in the world, CBC’s Bodhi earned a bronze medal in the American-style IPA category, and its Creeper Imperial IPA won the gold in the Imperial IPA category. Uncle Rusty, CBC’s imperial red ale, also earned gold in its respective category at the 2014 World Beer Cup. But the real validation, Bean says, is in seeing CBC’s name right alongside those of other award winners such as Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Dogfi sh Head Brewery and Founders Brewing Co.

B : Bean isn’t chasing volume, though CBC has the capacity to do 100,000 barrels a year at its new facility. For him, it’s about smart growth. The new brewery will allow CBC to diversify its draft and bottled of-ferings (Bean is thinking lagers and Belgian-style brews). “It’s not the cash bottom line; it’s about the employee bottom line and what are we doing to create a better company,” Bean says. “So how do you do that and not become this robotic, commercialized caricature of ourselves? How do you balance that to main-tain the honest thing about craft beer, the artistic integrity? How does that continue to be sincere and not just something you write down on the side of the six pack?”

S : Bean commissioned a German-made brew house for the new CBC facility that will improve brewery effi ciencies while extending product shelf life (translation: greater expansion statewide). “I think, ‘What’s that beer going to taste like in 90, 120, 160 days?’ ” he says. “That’s the difference from our current to new space. Not a huge fl avor difference, but a huge stability difference. It will improve grain handling and hop aroma and fl avor [in the long term], too, by reducing oxygen pickup during the whole process.”


You’ll fi nd the short answer in one

smooth, citrusy sip of Columbus

Bodhi double IPA. The longer version

goes something like this: When Eric

Bean took over Columbus Brewing

Co. in 2005, the microbrewery was producing 1,500 barrels of beer

annually. This year, it will turn out more

than 15,000—a number that

will continue to grow as the city’s largest brewery

transitions later this year into its new 50,000-square-foot production

facility and tasting room at 2555

Harrison Road on the West Side. But Bean is responsible

for more than just sheer growth and good beer; he’s shaped a

respected brand that’s evolved

into a sustainable company poised to launch Columbus onto the national

beer scene.

Age: 42 • Previous gigs: Diamond Knot Craft Brewing in Mukilteo, Washington; Firehouse Brewery & Restaurant in Cleveland Heights • Guilty pleasure: Cheap beer and whiskey • Recommended reading: “The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts” by David McMillan, Frederic Morin and Meredith Erickson

Favorite off-night eats?

Eric: Indochine Cafe. “I also like

that, when I’m there, I don’t have to think

about business. If I go into a bar, I’m

looking around, ‘What are they

drinking; what’s in their hand?’ ”

Joe: Duck breast entree at

Wolf’s Ridge

columbusbrewingco.com


GARRY WHITE

Bar and food manager

H : White started in the kitchen, most notably as culinary director for Italian chain Buca di Beppo. Burned out after logging 70-hour weeks, White quit and headed back to school to fi nish a degree in fi ne arts. This is when he stepped behind the bar. “I had all this knowledge that I’d built up after 10 years of being a chef,” he says. “It was just a natural pull.”

S : In-stead of being divided into spirit categories, Denmark’s menu is organized by six fl avor profi les. It’s a way of discouraging custom-ers from gravitating toward a favorite spirit and instead to a fl avor or mood.

M : Next up, White says customers should look for a few modernist cuisine techniques to grace the cocktail list. Bartenders have

been creating house infusions sous vide, but spherifi cation (sealing liquid inside an easily popped gel-like capsule), foams and other methods are on the way.

G : Eight years ago, White would have told you his thumbs were black. Today, he maintains a large garden behind his Clintonville home, where he grows all the herbs and much of the produce used in cocktails and dishes at Denmark. This sum-mer’s project includes digging a pit green-house—about 6 feet deep and below the frost line—so he can grow about nine months out of the year.


When Denmark opened in March 2014, the second-

story, Ikea-furnished cocktail bar was a refreshing change

of pace to the s peakeasy-style lounges dotting Columbus. The

30-odd signature and seasonal cocktail list followed suit with ri� s on classics, like a Manhattan made

with a blueberry shrub. Leading

this spirited bar is wildly creative food and drink manager Garry White, who always stops to ask: Can we make that

turmeric gin infusion or tobacco tincture

from scratch? When the answer’s yes, the

result is tempting cocktails and fl avors layered with the skill

of a master chef. Thanks to White’s

direction, Denmark is one of the most

exciting cocktail bars in the city.

denmarkonhigh.com

ADAM ROELLE

Spirits manager

C -: Everything changed when Roelle moved to Chicago in 2000. Illinois is not a liquor-controlled state, and the trans-planted bartender was introduced to a new world of craft whis-kies, rums, gins and liqueurs—right on the cusp of the national cocktail renaissance. When he returned to Columbus in 2010 and landed a job handling booze at Weiland’s Market, he knew he had to usher change. So he scheduled meet-ings with state sena-tors, the superinten-dent of liquor control and even the director of the state Depart-ment of Commerce. Before long, Weiland’s had Columbus’ fi rst bitters bar, and Roelle was turning fewer and fewer customers away.

R : In the last year, Roelle single-handedly tripled the volume of rum in Ohio. Bartenders at spots like Mouton and Curio are now jiggering drinks with funky craft rums such as Venezuelan Diplomatico, Jamai-can Smith & Cross and Agricole-style Rhum JM. The latter, unlike common molasses-based rums, is distilled with sugar cane juice and ooz-ing with botanicals, not sugary vanilla fl avor.

B : It’s no secret Columbus is growing into a serious beer town. And Ro-elle’s playing on that very spirit to drive quality products into bartenders’ hands. “If you don’t have crap on tap, why do you have it on the back bar?” he says. “The same reasons bartend-ers give for having Bacardi and Captain Morgan are the same reasons people gave for having Miller Lite and Bud Light on draft 10 years ago—it’s what people know, it’s cheap, etc.”

Why he’s a Tastemaker: You may never

meet Adam Roelle, but if

you’ve imbibed at a Columbus

cocktail bar in the last year, you’ve likely reaped the fruits of his labor.

When Roelle joined Cavalier

Distributing in mid-2014 to jump-start its spirits division,

the Ohio craft beer distributor

had two products in its spirits

portfolio. Today, it boasts more than 80—rum, whiskey, liqueurs and bitters

among them. Roelle’s secret to cracking Ohio’s

antiquated liquor laws? Lobbying the Division of Liquor Control, one craft

spirit at a time.

CAVALIER DISTRIBUTING FOUR THIEVES THIRST PARLOUR DENMARK

ANNIE WILLIAMS

Co-owner; bartender, The Sycamore

L : After helping to open Matt the Miller’s Tavern in Grandview in 2011, Williams was recruited by Broth-ers Drake general manager Eric Allen to transition the Short North meadery’s tast-ing room into a sleek cocktail and beer bar. Soon, she was develop-ing mead-based cock-tails, placing product orders and coordinat-ing parties. “Brothers Drake really shaped the way I do things now,” she says.

P : Since October, Williams and partner Luke Pierce have hosted three pop-ups as Four Thieves Thirst Parlour. Over the next year, Williams hopes to continue collaborating with chefs, coordinat-

ing an outdoor event and taking the concept to new neighborhoods like Italian Village. Eventually, she could see Four Thieves becom-ing a brick and mortar or a line of alcohol-related products.

T : A woman has never won the Bombay Sapphire Most Imaginative Bar-tender contest, nor has any bartender returned to the competition three years in a row. Wil-liams aims to break both records this summer, as she competes to become a brand ambassa-dor for the internationally marketed gin.

N : Williams’ curious mind and adventurous palate result in inventive cocktails time and time again. Take her fi rst Four Thieves pop-up, for which she crafted three tonics for three different gins—includ-ing a Moroccan-inspired tonic water. “There’s hundreds of gins,” she says. “Why do we think one kind of tonic is appropriate?”

Why she’s a Tastemaker:

If Annie Williams has never personally

mixed you a cocktail—and what a shame that would

be—chances are you’ve unknowingly enjoyed at least one

of her innovative recipes. The

bartender and cocktail consultant’s

infl uence can be found all over the city’s bar scene,

especially thanks to her latest venture,

Four Thieves Thirst Parlour,

Columbus’ fi rst pop-up speakeasy. In just four years

bartending, Williams has

pushed numerous national trends, from macerating shrubs to crafting her own

tonic waters.

Age: 40 • Previous gigs: Buca di Beppo, Burgundy Room, Hubbard Grille • Go-to drink: Sazerac •

Guilty pleasure: “I love a good brandy alexander. It’s just so rich and creamy.” • O� -night eats:

G. Michael’s, Harvest in Clintonville and Cuco’s. “I love Cuco’s. I probably eat there more than any place else.”

Age: 35 • Previous gigs: Beer and spirits manager at Weiland’s Market • Guilty pleasure: Cream

liqueurs • Go-to drink: “If I am home, then a true martini. No blue cheese olives—your drink is not

an appetizer—no olive brine, no vodka, no shaking. Good fresh vermouth, good gin, bitters, stirred.”

Age: 26 • Previous gigs: Brother’s Drake Meadery, The Crest, Matt the Miller’s

Tavern • Guilty pleasure: Bud Light Lime • Recommended reading: “Death & Co.:

Modern Classic Cocktails” by David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald and Alex Day

Favorite ingredient?

Adam: Quality ice

Annie: “Sherry is so versatile and runs the gamut from the rich, deep, syrupy ones to super-dry, fl oral pear ones.”

Garry: Amaro Nonino. “It’s got a really nice overall

sweetness-bitterness balance. I think it

imparts nice fl avor in a cocktail.”

cavbeer.com fourthievesthirstparlour.com


CHALLAH!

KATE DJUPE

Owner

: Djupe grew disenfran-chised with culinary school while briefl y attending The Culinary Institute of America. She wanted more from her instructors. She longed for greater hands-on experience. Thus the seed for The Commissary was planted. A few years later, this seed grew when Djupe wasn’t able to sell her homemade baby food because it wasn’t produced in a commercial kitchen. She gained private investors and eventually launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $47,770.

: Scanning The Com-missary’s events calendar is like playing a game of culinary roulette. Silas Caeton and Av-ishar Barua (both formerly of Veritas Tavern) may be serving a Bangladeshi-inspired dinner. Matt Swint of Matija Breads may be teaching a pizza-making class for kids. Or there may be a Columbus Knife Fight Club showdown be-tween chefs Bill Glover of Gallerie Bar & Bistro and Andrew Smith of The Rossi. “When people started coming in and using the space the way I kept telling everyone over and over for years they would, I said, ‘Yes! I knew it!’ ” Djupe says.

: By late summer, The Commis-sary will open its brewery-roastery room. Here, Fred Lee of Actual Brewing Co. and Mark Swanson of Stauf’s Coffee Roasters will serve as advisors. “Like with our kitchens, you could build your business here,” Djupe says. “Two local brewers could collaborate on a beer that

won’t upset their own production, or restaurants could even use the equipment to brew branded beer.”

: For chefs, Commissary events are about more than exposure. Minus rental fees, event profi ts go directly to the culinary teams responsible. And for entrepreneurs renting the test kitchen, Djupe and her team offer a range of services. “We help to make sure you have insurance, workers comp for your staff, make sure forms are fi lled out,” she says. “We have to continue to create this culture where taking a risk is supported and failing is fi ne.”


The Commissary—commercial

kitchen, storage warehouse, event

space, small-business incubator

and soon-to-be brewery and

roastery—defi es the format of an elevator pitch. Founder Kate Djupe learned as much as she spent the better

part of eight years molding her ambitious dream

into a reality. Since opening in November, it has become the kind of sanctuary Djupe wishes she could have called home as a curious

culinary school student—a place

where foodies can experiment,

collaborate and grow.

Age: 36 • Previous gigs: Handke’s Cuisine, Trattoria Roma, catering director at Denison University • Recommended reading: “Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris” by A. J. Liebling • O� -night eats: Helen’s Asian Kitchen

Age: 33 • Previous gigs: Nostrana (Portland, Oregon), Jury Room, Allswell (Brooklyn) • O� -night eats: “I love the Sycamore, and Short North Tavern on Monday nights for dollar tacos.” • Go-to drink: Bulleit bourbon and a Miller High Life. “But I am not a hipster.” • Guilty pleasure: Bu� alo chicken wraps with ranch dressing and cucumbers

CATIE RANDAZZO

Chef and owner

: She took her fi rst job, at Dairy Queen, seriously. While others vied to make cones, Randazzo clamored to the burger conveyor belt. “I caught the bug at DQ,” she says. “Fast food teaches you repetition and quality control.”

: Heading to Columbus Culinary Institute at age 27, Randazzo liked food but didn’t understand to what depth. That changed when a three-month intern-ship with farm-to-table chef Cathy Whims at Nostrana in Portland, Oregon, turned into a yearlong stay. It was here Randazzo fi rst got the idea of owning a food truck.

: In 2012, Randazzo left for New York City, where she got her butt kicked working for chef Nate Smith at Allswell. After Randazzo referred to a quart of caulifl ower pu-ree as a pint (for the umpteenth time, she says), Smith drew a picture of the two measurements and told her to get it tattooed on her arm. “And then I did. After that, our relationship changed dramatically,” she says. Soon promoted to junior sous chef, Randazzo was running brunch service when she decided to come home.

: Randazzo settled on the Challah! concept after being gifted the “Mile End Deli” cookbook. She’d always enjoyed pickling, brining and slow cooking, so she thought she’d give it a whirl, adding her own spin to create “Jew-ish” food. “I wanted to reinvent it, make it more innovative,” she says. : Her eventual restaurant will revolve around a food term she’s coined “local-scratch,” meaning if she can’t get it locally, she’ll make it; and if she can’t make it, she’ll get it locally. “The food would be whatever I feel like making, whatever I’m inspired by,” she says, adding her ultimate goal is to open a food education center for kids. “That’s really

my passion—working with kids and teaching them a skill set and help-ing them fi nd their way, because I was lost for a really long time.”

: Growing up, Randazzo’s mom made dishes, including pasta, from scratch, used organic ingredients and grew her own vegeta-bles. “Trying to trade my lunch in elementary school was the worst,” she says. “It was like pancakes with cottage cheese, tofu chicken fi ngers, fruit leather. No sugars, no processed food, nothing. It was very progressive.”

challahfoodtruck.com


Catie Randazzo is the kind of chef you hope catches on like a wildfi re. She’s passionate,

humble, a perfectionist,

eager to learn and mindful of her food

sourcing. From her 2-year-old

truck, she serves ri� s on Jewish deli classics—a style she calls

“Jew-ish”—like an addictive smoked salmon and lamb bacon sandwich,

bright and lemony chicken salad and

irresistible schmaltz fried potatoes.

We’re excited this Columbus native has plans to open a restaurant where she can expand her love for turning the unappealing into

the appealing (her heart, tongue and cow tail specials sell out almost every time). In the meantime, we applaud her

e� orts to tighten the local culinary

community through growing

monthly Knife Fight chef battles.

THE COMMISSARY

Favorite ingredient?Kate: “If I’m at a restaurant and an item has pistachios or cauli-

fl ower, I will almost always order it.”

Catie: Champagne vinegar and ground arbol chilies. “At brunch, anything you get will be topped with ground arbol chilies.”

thecommissarycolumbus.com


Why they are Tastemakers: Five years ago, no one in the restaurant world had heard of Ali, Ismail and Abed Alshahal. Now, the founders of restaurant group A&R Creative run seven restaurants and employ more than 300 people. This year, they’ll open an urban farm and two new restaurants—a Parsons Avenue location of their popular gastropub, The Crest, and an Italian Village brewpub in partnership with Hoof Hearted Brewing. This rapidly growing restaurant group has earned a rep utation for creating aesthetically pleasing spaces that attract diners in droves and for crafting locally sourced food and drink. A&R is poised to be the next powerhouse Columbus restaurant group.

A&R CREATIVE GROUP

: Sure, all siblings have disagreements, Ismail says, but not seeing eye-to-eye has never been an issue for this family business. “We all have strong person-alities,” Ismail says. “We’re very open and honest. We make decisions together. There’s no dictatorship.”

: After eight years in the military, Ismail was working for the State Department when Ali pulled him into the busi-ness. Ismail’s regimented mindset—everything needs to be just-so, he says—made him the perfect fi t for an operations manager. Ismail describes himself as the general on the ground, making sure the ship is righted on a daily basis.

: The brothers have always trav-eled locally, Ismail says, but they’ve recently started to journey internationally, scouring the globe for new restaurant ideas. “We are always on our phones or computers learning different things, researching new ideas. What are people talking about?”

G : Ismail likens the fi rst year of 4th Street to the sitcom “Cheers”—he says he could still name 75 percent of the customers by name, along with their orders. “Knowing what they drink, having that conversation. Not only are you a client, but you are part of something that is growing. That’s how I feel we separate ourselves.”

ISMAIL ALSHAHAL

Head of operations

ALI ALSHAHAL

Owner

: Ali admits he “was stupid and naïve” when he opened 4th Street Bar & Grill in 2010. “I assumed I would be capable to handle any of the issues that popped up,” he says. There were other challenges—under-staffi ng, kitchen consistency issues—as A&R grew, but the company is the one he envi-sioned years ago.

& : Ali believes the restau-rants’ authenticity resonates with diners. “Once you have honest passion behind what you are doing, and it’s not just a business, I think people feel it,” he says. “I think it’s our respon-sibility to source properly for our customers.”

C: “We never wanted to open up another Crest,” he says. But the more they looked at the neighborhood around Parsons Avenue, the more they realized they needed to open a destination restaurant. “It’s such a challenging location that we fi gured we would put a name brand behind it and hopefully draw customers. I am so rooting for that neighborhood.”

’ : By the end of 2015, A&R will have opened nine restaurants in just fi ve years. It’s a challenging pace, Ali admits, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be slowing down. The next restaurant he’d love to open? A place that merges food from his two cultures—Leb-anon and America.

ABED ALSHAHAL

Head of engagement and logistics

: Five years ago, Abed fi gured he’d be half way through medical school. But then The Crest came along. It was a project that appealed to his nutrition background (he was a nutrition coordinator with Local Matters) and his interest in sys-temic food systems. He jumped in to help with sourcing and to lead A&R’s community relations, working with farmers and area organizations.

: “I always say The Crest is different from any other restaurant,” he says. “We use it as a platform for social change. Growing up, we’d discuss family issues at the dinner table; we’d celebrate at the dinner table; we’d celebrate with food. The restau-rant is a place for people to come together from the community. It’s a micro example of what can be done on a larger scale.”

: Urban farming piqued Abed’s interest in college: “I had a professor who talked about community developments and access to food. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but he was talking about how there’s a shift away from houses being built around golf courses and toward houses being built around farms.” Abed advocated installing gardens atop both locations of The Crest. The Parsons location will feature a 1,100-square-foot garden. Next to the Italian Village Jeffrey project will be a 2-acre urban farm.

Guilty pleasure?Ali: “I have a 1974 Mercedes that I

absolutely love. I get a lot of inspiration

from old car colors for di� erent

concepts—those old yellows and blues

and greens.”

Age: 37 • O� -night eats: “I’m a homebody. I love my wife’s cooking. I eat my mom’s cooking and my wife’s cooking all the time.” I binge over, it’s sports.”

Age: 37 • Last meal: “My mother’s home-cooked Lebanese meals—that would be so comfortable, and

it takes me back to my childhood. It’s not a single meal; it’s everything that my mother cooks.”

Age: 25 • Go-to drink: Grapefruit, orange and sage juice • Food heroes: Anthony Bourdain and

food activist Vandana Shiva

arcgcolumbus.com


DAN THE BAKER PORTIA’S CAFE

Owner and chef

PORTIA YIAMOUYIANNIS

: Yiamouyiannis ran Beechwold Natural Foods for eight years be-fore opening her cafe. Every time a customer had a question, she would read any book or attend any class or seminar to learn the an-swer. The cafe, in her mind, is an extension of that process, of that willingness to help others. “I thought if I went even deeper and gave people good, healthy food made with love—because I really believe in the energy going into the food—they wouldn’t have to go to the doctor or the health foods store as much,” she says.

: By fall, Portia’s will add a full weekend brunch menu. In addition to Yia-mouyiannis’ popular Belgian-style waffl es, she’s testing recipes for smoothies, coconut bacon, sweet potato hash, chia seed pudding parfaits and overnight oats topped with rice milk, cinnamon and apple. “No place has really good vegan breakfast,” she says. “I re-ally want this to be a place where people can come and get something hearty.”

: Portia’s was one of four local restaurants to earn Slow Food Colum-bus’ 2014 Snail of Approval. The award recog-nized Yiamouyiannis’ unwavering commit-ment to local organic produce, composting, recycling furniture and kitchen equipment, using scrap paper instead of server tickets, paying employees a living wage and offering no-questions-asked personal days.

: You won’t fi nd Boca burgers or slimy, processed tofu at Portia’s. Instead, Yiamouyiannis deconstructs and reimag-ines familiar fare to offer something healthier and heartier without compromising on fl avor. Take her raw but meaty Savory Patty (served inside a gluten-free house tortilla) made from blended and dehydrated spinach, kale, celery, carrots, apples, herbs, nuts and seeds. Or her luscious Cheezecake, blended with soaked cashews, fresh fruit and raw extra-virgin coconut oil. “I do what I do for the taste fi rst,” she says. “You feel good when you leave, physically and emotionally. Then you may look into it further and help yourself. It’s my sneaky way of saving the world.”


A meal at Portia’s Cafe inevitably

becomes a game of How Did

She Do That. Vegan chef Portia

Yiamouyiannis, whose mastery of coaxing familiar fl avors from raw

ingredients—rich cashew

cheesecake, spicy kelp noodle pad

Thai, creamy veggie pate

disguised as tuna—has caught the

attention of vegans and omnivores alike since she

opened her bright Clintonville eatery in 2013. Later this year, she’ll start

scooping house-made ice cream, add a weekend brunch menu

and eye a second location

in Granville.

Age: 46 • Previous gigs: Portia’s Creations, Beechwold Natural Foods, Tommy’s Pizza and Subs • Guilty pleasure: Her own vegan Cheezecake • Recommended reading: “The Oh She Glows Cookbook” by Angela Liddon • Favorite ingredient: Cashews

Age: 29 • Previous gigs: Trader Joe’s, Northstar Cafe • Food heroes: Chad Robertson (Tartine), Courtney Burns and Nick Balla (Bar Tartine), David Chang and Christina Tosi (Momofuku Milk Bar) • Guilty pleasure: The cornfl ake cookie crunch used to make Milk Bar’s signature cornfl ake marshmallow cookie. “I will eat quarts of it. It’s like crack.”

DANIEL RIESENBERGER

Owner and baker

dan-the-baker.com

: “Baking, in a way, chose me,” says Riesenberger, who thought his career would involve building custom computers. But then two things happened: the head baker at Northstar Cafe quit and sold Riesenberger his baking equipment, and then another Northstar coworker gifted him a sourdough culture. It’s the same one he uses today. “I love that complexity, that tang, that fl avor that’s developed in it. It’s just amaz-ing,” he says. : Typically, breads are baked at low heat for a long time, but Ries-enberger wanted to replicate the actions of a wood oven. So he cranks up the heat to 560 degrees until his signature crackly crust sets, then lowers it down. It’s why his doughs are made of equal parts fl our and water. “I’m pushing the boundaries of hydration with my dough,” he explains. “A super loose, wet tex-ture makes for a very bubbly crumb, which is the most sought-after aspect of bread.”

: Yes, organic fl our is fi ve times as expensive as conventional ingredi-ents. But the cost is worth it for the subtle, incomparable sweetness he says it gives the 50-odd loaves in his repertoire.

, : “I’ve always wanted to have this sort of farm-to-table concept, being as from-scratch as possible,” he says. Serving toast was a natural fi t. What started as slices of his bread topped with house jams and almond

butter has morphed into a savory cafe menu. This summer, he’ll add tartines, more smorrebrods and fresh pastries and house-made sodas.

Why he’s a Tastemaker: It’s been a big year for Dan

the Baker. The organic bread shop

saw expansion of its restaurant

wholesale business—

including a deal with Cameron

Mitchell Restaurants for

rolls and sandwich bread—and its

retail outlet, with the opening of Toast Bar, a tiny

shop proving there is a craft to toast. It’s a dramatic rise

for the 7-year-old bakery that shows no signs

of stopping, because if you want beautiful,

organic loaves of local sourdough,

rye porridge and walnut or

sunfl ower fl ax, this Grandview bread baker is your guy.

Favorite off-night eats?

Portia: Bon Thai Bistro. “At ethnic restaurants, the

people that [cook] are usually the

owners, and they usually care and you can taste it. It’s hard

for me to go out anywhere because I got to the point of tasting if the person

in the kitchen is indi� erent, angry or depressed. Even if

the food tastes good, it doesn’t feel right.”

Go-to drink?Daniel: “Right now, a house-made soda with turmeric

tisane, ginger and lime.”

portiascafe.com

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