Thursday, March 02, 2017

Columbus scene report

So, if you follow me on the Gram you know I went to Columbus for work. Columbus has a pop of 820,000 in the last US census (#fakenews), and Sac has 480,000. I bring this up because Columbus has an area, which stretches between Downtown and Ohio State (a mile and a half?) called "Short North", which has a lot going on. What struck me is how much retail there was, including small clothing boutiques, chain ones like Anthropologie (and I got to shop at a discount at another dying American Apparel), and furniture. We really have so little retail downtown, and it's all in little pockets here and there. Short North wasn't the be-all end-all, it just made me realize that we don't have any concentrated district like that. And its also the arts district.  At the end near the college there was an art house/mainstream theater way better than anything we have. I saw Get Out, and I Am Not Your Negro and The Salesman were both playing there. They also were playing Fire Walk With Me the night I was there, and regularly do cult films and sci-fi marathons. And had good beer on draft.
 I took a cab to the cobbled area called German Town on my last night, didn't get to stroll around, and Schmidt's Fudge Haus was closed, unfortunately (I love a good fudge haus). Schmidt's was a charming spot, open since 1886. I got a good German pils on draft and this excellent chicken schnitzel and tangy red cabbage. That other side dish is green beans and spaetzle.
 This is the Hyatt I stayed in, totally Brutalist and weird and awesome looking. No filter on this!
 The convention center is way way bigger than ours, probably due to the centralized location to so many other states, and it has this Arnold statue. Turns out he has a bodybuilding invitation thingy there. It's actually happening right now and brings a million visitors (or that's what my Lyft driver said)
 This was the view from the hotel, and this doesn't even show all the windows. They ran along two sides of the room. The hotel actually ruled for this reason. Columbus has a lot of good old buildings and neon signs. I got to watch a violent thunderstorm on the last night
Here's the outside of Schmidt's. Columbus has some things as good as us, other things not so good. The end.

7 comments:

DB said...

To be fair, "I Am Not Your Negro" and "The Salesman" were playing at the Tower the same week. "Get Out" is playing at the chain theaters.

The Hyatt looks like something out of "High-Rise".

beckler said...

True. It just had a cool, scruffy vibe, but it was also smack dab against a yuuuge college campus, so it's not like we have something like that in our metro area. I liked that it wasn't just art-house, it was more like good taste in movies.

DJ Rick said...

How much longer are you there?
It's a city I should visit sometime.
At one point almost 10% of my podcast listeners were in Ohio, and mostly in Columbus. It's like they think of KDVS as "that station plays our local bands." Anyway, I gotta lotta friends there, including people who make the fun things happen. They could tell me what's up while you're there.

beckler said...

I'm already home! Blake G. went to college there so he told me the venue to look up, but there was nothing good playing. I was only there 3 nights. I was struck by how cheap everything was. Sac is so damn expensive.

Anonymous said...

I have fam in Cleveland and they always tell me I'd like Columbus. I would be so all over Schmidt's.

JD

beckler said...

Definitely good for a few day visit. There was a Jewish deli I didn't get to hit up, and I would have like to walk around the campus.

Scott Miller said...

Schmidt's has the coldest Krombacher in town. Buy 2, get 1 free.