Guides ·Food & drink

Columbus-style pizza: thin, square-cut, cupped pepperoni

The city's defining dish is a cracker-thin round pie cut into squares rather than wedges, edge-to-edge toppings, provolone-heavy cheese, and small pepperoni that curl into crisp cups of grease. It is not New York, it is not Chicago, and locals will argue about it for hours. Tommy's Pizza on West Lane Avenue, a family operation dating to the 1950s, is the version most Upper Arlington households grew up on — a large runs about $22 to $28, and the corner pieces are the good ones.

For comparison, Donatos was founded on Thurman Avenue in 1963 and built a chain out of the same idea, with pepperoni laid edge to edge; there are locations across the suburb and a large runs around $18 to $24. Order a side of the sweet-sharp house dressing if it is offered, and get it delivered to a rental in Old Arlington rather than eating in — this is a food designed for a kitchen table, a cardboard box and a bag of ice.

French pot ice cream and the Columbus scoop wars

Graeter's makes its ice cream in two-gallon French pots, folding chocolate in molten so it fractures into irregular slabs rather than chips. Black raspberry chocolate chip is the flagship and the correct order; a single scoop runs about $5.50 to $7 at the West Henderson Road shop, and pints are sold in every grocery store in the city. It is a Cincinnati company that Columbus adopted completely, and it is the ice cream people here actually keep in the freezer.

The modern counterpoint is Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, born in Columbus and now national, with a shop on Grandview Avenue ten minutes from Upper Arlington. Grass-fed dairy, dense body, and flavours like brambleberry crisp and salty caramel; scoops run $6 to $8. Do both in one afternoon if you can — Graeter's on Henderson for tradition, Jeni's in Grandview for craft. Between them they explain more about Columbus's food identity than any restaurant does.

Buckeyes, cream sticks and the neighborhood bakery

Buckeye candy — a ball of sweetened peanut butter dipped in chocolate to leave a bare circle, mimicking the nut of the state tree — is Ohio's edible mascot. Anthony-Thomas has made them in Columbus since 1952 and sells them at shops around the metro and in grocery stores; a small box runs $8 to $15. You will also find buckeye-flavoured donuts, milkshakes and cheesecake anywhere the marketing department got involved.

For everyday baking, The Goodie Shop at Tremont Center is the Upper Arlington institution, running since the 1950s with cinnamon rolls, decorated cakes, cookies and cream sticks — the long, cream-filled, glazed donut that midwestern bakeries do better than anyone. Most items sit between $2.50 and $5, they open early, and they sell out of the good things before mid-morning on weekends. La Chatelaine on West Lane Avenue offers the French counterweight: croissants around $3.50 and proper baguettes.

German Village and the sausage-and-cream-puff tradition

Columbus's German heritage sits fifteen minutes southeast in German Village, a brick-street district that is a required half-day from Upper Arlington. Schmidt's Sausage Haus on Kossuth Street has been a family business since the 1880s, and the two orders that matter are the Bahama Mama — a spicy smoked sausage they have made for generations — and the jumbo cream puff, a fist-sized choux shell filled with an absurd volume of whipped cream. Expect $18 to $28 a head with a beer.

The same neighborhood gives you Thurman Cafe, home of the Thurmanator, a burger so overbuilt it has its own reputation, and Pistacia Vera for macarons. Closer to home, the Old Bag of Nails Pub at Tremont Center covers the everyday Ohio tavern register: a beer-battered fish sandwich, pub burgers and a pint, generally $14 to $19 a plate, in a room where half the tables know each other.

Cincinnati chili, sliders and the fast-food birthplace

Cincinnati-style chili — cinnamon-scented, thin, served over spaghetti and buried in shredded cheddar — is a southern Ohio invention that Columbus eats without ceremony. Order a three-way, which is spaghetti, chili and cheese, for around $8 to $10 at any Skyline Chili in the metro; add beans and onions for a five-way. Oyster crackers and hot sauce are part of the ritual, and yes, the cheese is meant to be a haystack.

Columbus also has an outsized claim on American fast food. Wendy's opened its first restaurant downtown in 1969, and the Frosty remains a legitimate local order at about $3. White Castle is headquartered here, and its steam-griddled sliders with onions cost roughly $1 each, which makes a sack of them the cheapest late-night food in the county. Neither is fine dining. Both are, factually, Ohio food history you can buy for pocket change.

Ohio produce and the seasonal stuff worth chasing

In summer, the state's real signature is sweet corn — picked in July and August in the counties around Columbus and sold at farm stands and markets for around $6 to $9 a dozen. Ohio tomatoes follow, along with peaches from the ridges to the southeast. Autumn brings apples and cider from orchards within a 30-minute drive, and the pawpaw, North America's largest native fruit, which tastes like mango crossed with banana and has its own Ohio festival in September.

You will find all of it at the Giant Eagle Market District in Kingsdale, at Whole Foods on West Lane Avenue, and better still at the Saturday markets in Clintonville and Worthington. Two more Ohio contributions worth noting on the label: Marzetti, the Columbus company behind the slaw dressing in every fridge in the state, and Velvet Ice Cream from Utica, an hour east, which is the other freezer pint locals defend.

Frequently asked questions

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Rooms worth pairing with this guide.

Short North Hotel LeVeque Autograph Collection

4.6/5 $483/ night

Ohio State University District Hilton Garden Inn Columbus University Area

4.3/5 $165/ night

Worthington Homewood Suites by Hilton Columbus Polaris OH

4.4/5 $207/ night

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