CMH Gourmand – Eating in Columbus & Ohio

Bono Togo Pizza in the Short North closed quietly in November. The good news is 2009 may see Bono bounce back in Grandview at the corner of Northwest and Chambers.

Bono Togo was tucked away on Russell street in the core of the Short North. The daytime location of Eleni Christina Bakery (among my favorite breads in town) became Bono Pizza at night.

Bill and Peggy Yerkes with some helpers crafted artisan pizzas inspired by Bill’s decades of perfecting his prized pies. In between pushing pizzas in and pulling them out of the oven, Bill would provide lots of commentary to his guests. Peggy treated all of us like family. And if that was not enough, there were crepes, very, very, very good crepes.

The Summer of Bono created some great memories and locked in some fine friendships as late nights outside of Bono flowed into fall (Bear, Colleen, Hungry Woolf, Roland, Drew). It also led to the creation of the “Colleen” Pizza – 15b on some menus. Any food item can be Colleened by adding a fried egg.

Here is some insight into the magic.

The Columbus Underground Bono Post

Hungry Woolf wolfs down Bono

Walker, Anne and Desmond (future mayor of Columbus) go to Bono

Columbus Foodcast interviews Bill and gets the backstory on the Colleen pizza

15B - The Colleen

White Castle and Bono – The Roland Pizza

Yelp on Bono

The End of Bono

In the meantime, Bill has a mobile woodfired pizza oven he created himself. He graciously brought it to the Columbus Underground 7th Anniversary party at Wildgoose Creative. We ate pizzas all night which helped out a bit since the night before we were told about the coming demise of Bono.

Dispatch article on Bill’s Oven

For now, while waiting for the new Bono to open, maybe we will see the mobile oven pop up somewhere. I volunteer my driveway anytime.