Katzinger's Deli, Columbus' greatest discovery

Instead of being a food nerd, I spent last weekend at a film nerdie's convention. Old movies from 9 am to midnight, for three days straight. The last such event I went to was in a charming small town. This one was in the significantly less charming Ramada Plaza hotel on a semi-blighted commercial strip in Columbus, Ohio. The five closest restaurants to this place, not counting hotel food (I managed to escape without actually eating in the hotel once, by the way) were a McDonald's, a Bob Evans, a Taco Bell, another McDonald's, and another Bob Evans. The weekend promised its attractions (Tom Mix in The Great K&A Train Robbery! An obscure pre-Code Fox called Broadway Bad, with Joan Blondell!) but food was not likely to be among them, without extraordinary effort.

By the second day I had to get out of this generic commercial hellhole and find something resembling a real town that wasn't excreted out five minutes earlier. Never one to leave Chicago unprepared, I had my Mapquest directions to Katzinger's Deli printed out, and headed there for Saturday lunch.

And promptly got lost. "I knew I shoulda made a right toin at Albuquoique!" With only about an hour before I had to be back to catch CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE (1944), starring Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway as rival music hall stars of the Victorian era, and directed by the Brazilian emigre Cavalcanti, I spotted a sign that promised salvation, or at least a better burger than McDonald's:



Which it was... slightly. Better genuine working class atmosphere, complete with gravel-voiced waitress, than food. Still, it was blessed relief from the chain hell to which I had been sentenced.

The next day, after A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (1942) with Cornel Wilde, Phil Silvers and Evelyn Keyes as a man-hungry genie, in a brand new Technicolor IB print, I tried again, this time with better directions.

All I know about Katzinger's comes basically from one Chowhound thread: http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards/midwest/messages/14712.html That implies that it has some relationship to the much more famous Zingerman's, but all I know is that they carry a few Zingerman products (and many other people's). No, all I know is that I fell in love with this place the moment I walked in. Crowded with people and good foods, walls covered with cartoony posters extolling the virtues of this olive oil or that cheese, even longer brochures offered for lunchtime reading after you picked your sandwich off a board offering as many choices with as many goofy names as the old D.B. Kaplan's, exuding an atmosphere that suggested old time deli taken over by the hippie second generation and run with both love and a little humor. Here, soak in the atmosphere:









For lunch, I ordered a reuben, then picked up some other goodies (a nutty, really nice piave and a disappointingly bland artisanal cheshire from the cheese counter; quite good bagels and less good sourdough, and some very nice T-shirts). Here's the reuben:



How was the corned beef? Good, but not stellar. I'm not sure anything was fantastic, I expect most of their cheeses and artisanal balsamic vinegars and so on are available in Chicago, and yet despite that Katzinger's has become a destination for me. Why? Because the whole is greater than the parts-- it has a personality and a love for good food that you want to reciprocate. And now I come back and wish we had such a place here-- yes, we probably have those cheeses at Fox and Obel, and arguably better corned beef at Manny's or Kauffmann's, and if a hippieish humorous personality is what you want, well, Melman still has restaurants like that. But there isn't one place that has it all, and in fact it makes you realize that too often eating in Chicago is a rather serious business, we don't have the laidback Sunday morning breakfast places in funky neighborhoods like this, or the Flying Biscuit in Atlanta, or like places I went in my funky hippieish youth in Lawrence and Kansas City. Even a Bongo Room or an Orange seems to be striving and jockeying for position. Or maybe it's just me, and the difference between me at home and me on vacation. I dont know. All I know is, I want to go back to Katzinger's this Sunday, too.

Oh, thank you so much for the photos! They do take me back...I went to OSU and lived about 3 blocks from the Goody Boy. My Dad would come to visit and buy us breakfast there--quite inexpensive. Yes, it was the atmosphere more than the food.

Katzingers is a Columbus institution, of course. One of my favorite features is the barrels of pickles you can fish out yourself--delicious and you can get quite a few.

http://www.katzingers.com

reco's for Columbus

1. The Clarmont
Legacy steakhouse downtown. Great soups, acceptable steaks, very good b'fasts, very good bar. been there forever. Has a very good, quiet Best Western attached.

2. City BBQ.
Ok, no soap box here on relative bbq merits. but edible brisket and corn pudding.

5-6 visits to Columbus, the Clarmont became like a comfortable old shoe.

Steve Drucker wrote:reco's for Columbus

1. The Clarmont
Legacy steakhouse downtown. Great soups, acceptable steaks, very good b'fasts, very good bar. been there forever. Has a very good, quiet Best Western attached.

2. City BBQ.
Ok, no soap box here on relative bbq merits. but edible brisket and corn pudding.

5-6 visits to Columbus, the Clarmont became like a comfortable old shoe.

What about the classic Khala Kahiki near the airport. It's an old school Polynesean restaurant with an inddor rainstorm every 30 minutes or so. I can't say much for the food, but the kitsch value alone and the tropical drinks make it worth at least one visit.

LOL. We both, I think, are traveling a bit too much.

Actually, my Columbus chow highlight is always en route between Dayton Airport and Columbus, at Young's Jersey Farm near Springfield, for ice cream.

Damn, serves me right for not checking in more often! I was just in Columbus and would have loved to try some of these.

Any feedback on the North Market I believe on Spring (or Spruce) street. I was told it is a good Farmer's market on Saturdays.

Sweet Willie wrote:Any feedback on the North Market I believe on Spring (or Spruce) street. I was told it is a good Farmer's market on Saturdays.

The North Market is on Front Street, just north across I-670 from Nationwide Arena (1 block west of High St.). I've eaten lunch there a number of times. There are a large number of small booths with widely varying cuisines. Everything from a rather pedestrian pasta place to an esoteric ice cream place.

I've also been told that the Farmer's Market on Saturdays is quite good, but have not experienced it.

stevez wrote:What about the classic Khala Kahiki near the airport. It's an old school Polynesean restaurant with an inddor rainstorm every 30 minutes or so. I can't say much for the food, but the kitsch value alone and the tropical drinks make it worth at least one visit.

Steve did you go to this place? Closed now but some of the photos are terrific, I used to get to Columbus quite a bit in the 90s, can't believe I never saw this place. http://critiki.com/location/kahiki-supp ... lumbus-33/

I've been to the Tonga Room in San Francisco a few times, they have a rain storm & moving band platform in the moat, a total hoot. http://www.tongaroom.com/

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Sweet Willie wrote:

stevez wrote:What about the classic Khala Kahiki near the airport. It's an old school Polynesean restaurant with an inddor rainstorm every 30 minutes or so. I can't say much for the food, but the kitsch value alone and the tropical drinks make it worth at least one visit.

Steve did you go to this place? Closed now but some of the photos are terrific, I used to get to Columbus quite a bit in the 90s, can't believe I never saw this place. http://critiki.com/location/kahiki-supp ... lumbus-33/

I've been to the Tonga Room in San Francisco a few times, they have a rain storm & moving band platform in the moat, a total hoot. http://www.tongaroom.com/

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At one point during the late 70's and early 80's, Kahala Kahiki was a regular stop for me and the crew when we were in Columbus, which averaged out to once or twice a month. Haven't been there all that much since then, and I'm not sure when the restaurant closed.