CMH Gourmand – Eating in Columbus & Ohio

What is an Amuse Bouche you might ask? It is a small taste offered for free by a restaurant as a sample of what they can do. Alana’s is one of the few places in town that offers these, 99% of the time, presented by Alana herself.

On that note, there are a few developments at Alana’s which warrant bringing to your attention.

Dine Originals is observing their Tenth Anniversary next week and as such, they are doing more than the typical Restaurant Week. So of course Alana’s has taken this as another opportunity to do anything other than typical. For the first time ever, at least officially, lunch will be served for one day only – Friday March 15th. It promises to be a great meal for $20.

It may be sold out by the time you read this, but Alana’s will be hosting a fund-raising dinner for WCBE for the fourth year in a row on March 18th. The price is $57 per head to match the number of years WCBE has been on the air. Much of the meal will be served family style. Your servers will be from WCBE (but not me unless there is an emergency). Find more details -> HERE <-

I spoke with Alana and Kevin about this last week and they were really excited to offer a meal and support WCBE again. They both find they enjoy the evening as much as their guests.

What else is new?

A new door mat:

The image above is also on new business cards and magnets for the restaurant. The card is pretty cool with some visual trickery going on. I tried to capture some of this in photos.

Notice the change to the color of the text and the size of the eyes as you are being hypnotized! This is the same card being manipulated by me. I did not capture the eyes changing but they do. I am sure a card like this costs a little extra, but it is a lot more fun, not unlike the restaurant it markets.

Alana’s is a seriously good restaurant that does not take itself too seriously. The cards are inspired on the ongoing themes of Paul Volker whose works are found in the restaurant. They are also at least a nod to Kevin’s (the front of the house and wine guy) keen fascination with the humor of the Simpson’s and of the world in general.