Columbus Brewing Company – Something old, something new, something bottled, something brewed
Posted by CMH Gourmand on October 6, 2007
Columbus Brewing Company (CBC)
525 Short Street
Brewery District
614.464.2739 (Brew)
Lunch:
Monday – Friday
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Dinner:
Monday – Thursday
4:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Friday
4:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Saturday
5:00 PM – 11:00 PM
CBC (Columbus Brewing Company) used to be a CMR (Cameron Mitchell Restaurant) until manager Doug Griggs and brewmaster Mike Campbell bought the restaurant in 2007. Both owners remain actively involved in daily operations, Doug minds the menu and Mike tends the taps.
The establishment has a ten-year history and a loyal following but ongoing creative changes should only encourage more people to flock to his hard to find nugget in the Brewery District. CBC did some recipe spring cleaning, keeping and tweaking some old favorites while adding sixteen new specialties. One hot new entrée is Fresh Saffron Linguini, a combination of jumbo shrimp, crawfish, spinach, diced tomato, white clam sauce and parmesan draped over a bed of linguini from local specialty shop, Pasta Ditoni’s (?).
Other mouth-watering features include Pecan Crusted Sea Scallops and Cuban Roasted Chicken – not what you would expect from a brewing house.
A perfect finish to a fine meal is the Baby Key Lime Pie – a small but tall tower of thick graham cracker crust, key lime filling, raspberry coulis and raspberry whipped cream with a shaving of lime on top – a bargain at $4.75.
Jaime, the head bartender, mixed things up at the bar with new drink recipes such as the Espresso Martini (Van Gogh double espresso vodka, Kahlua Especial, and Baileys) and The CBC Cosmo (Pineapple Finlandia vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice and hand squeezed lime juice). These concoctions serve as tempting competition for the in house brews.
There are some subtle changes in the décor as well. A few new colors and some wrought iron wrestled away from the original design create an atmosphere of rustic lodge lounge meets retro swanky chic.
The hand crafted house ales have not changed. This taster’s choice for the total brewhouse experience is the CBC Tasting Flight, a serving of the six house beers and the seasonal special in three ounce glasses. (The selections are Columbus Ohio Honey Wheat, Columbus Apricot Ale, Columbus Pale Ale, Columbus 90 Schilling, Columbus 1859 Porter and Columbus IPA. Until late October, the seasonal selection is Keller beer, (an unfiltered German Lager). The price is still right for this sampling, at $4.75
This fresh and original version of CBC is well on track to be a dining destination for customers old and new. There are at least two more reasons to be at CBC. Pizza and a Pint Nights (for $10) are Monday through Thursday. If you can be on call for something on tap, sign up at the CBC website, you will receive a few days notice for the tapping of the first keg of seasonal beer. Freshly brewed beer and free samples of food from 6 to 7 PM create a more convivial and classy atmosphere than a college keger.
Side Notes
Strange coincidence or cool quirk of fate?
Doug Griggs and Mike Campbell worked together for some time before buying CBC. When they were closing on the purchase, they learned something new about each other – they both have the same birthday – October 30th. Hmm, might be a good night to drop by CBC.
Blast from the culinary past
Sous Chef Brian Cook is a now a vegetarian – but that does not stop him from cooking up some excellent carnivorous and fishatarian dishes. Columbus gastronauts often lament the demise of Ricky Barnes’s Galaxy Café from the 1990’s. Brian was a Galaxy veteran so the Cuban, Tex-Mex fusion flavors and over the top technique from the Galaxy era do show up in some of the new CBC creations, expect more additions with the change of each season.
A version of this appears in C-Bus Magazine
CMH Gourmand - Eating in Columbus & Ohio 
gary robinette said
Is Mike Campbell the new brewmaster? What happened to Eric?
cmhgourmand said
Eric is still brewing beer at CBC – the current seasonal brew is barley wine… which was tapped on February 21.
Tom Hart said
Back in about 1989, just as the Columbus Brewing Company was getting started, I was asked to do an opening blessing – beer, bread and a prayer. The brewer was named Scott and he had the local homebrew shop on High Street. What has happened to him? Hope the blessing worked out!
Tad Nelson said
Are yous guys aware that there was a Columbus Brewing Co operating in Columbus back around 1900? I have one of their very rare cork type bottles about 16-24 oz.