CMH Gourmand – Eating in Columbus & Ohio

A bit of back story before I get to the meat of the matter. I am biased about Kolache Republic. I will not even pretend to have the pretense of objectivity. I met Dusty Kotchou, Rick Jardiolin & Doug Sauer in the first week of my tour of duty at the Food Fort. At the time, they were figuring out how to use a food cart to market two things still foreign to Columbus, mobile food and Kolaches. They gave up on the mobile aspect but they went whole hog into the Kolache aspect as one of my first clients to open a brick and mortar location. I lost track of them for a short time as I worked with the likes of Pitabilities, OH! Chips, Dos Hermanos, Ajumama and more but I did stalk them on social media. I was recently invited to get reaquainted with them and Kolaches so get ready for an education.

First, you need to figure out what a Kolache is. And that is not always a straightforward matter. Let’s begin with pronunciation: pronounced ko-LAH-chee. The origins date back hundreds of years to Central Europe and Czechoslovakia. They made their way to north america and settled with central Texas with Czech immigrants. Over time they transformed from a snack or treat to a meal and the fillings changed from simple cheeses and fruits to all manner of things such as savory meats in Sloppy Joe format. They have been the rage in Texas for decades and have slowing spread to a few select places via migrant Texans and super fans.

While Columbus is a long way from Texas, our fair city shares a lot of characteristics with Austin Texas so Dusty, Rick and Doug saw an opportunity to make Kolaches a thing in the capital city. Their location on South High Street (Brewery District/German Village) churns out Kolaches for breakfast, lunch and catered orders.

Here is a handy graphic I borrowed from them to walk you through how it all works.

And pictured below is a typical menu of daily offerings.

As you can see Kolache Republic has diners covered for sweet and savory – breakfast, lunch and even dinner to go. The daily specials are areas where they really excel in creativity. The in-house chef is allowed to push across the traditional boundaries of fillings and toppings. I hope you will block out some time to explore what they have to offer.