Adriaticos spent much of 2018 in a state of limbo. In the Fall of 2017, The Ohio State University announced a plan to take their building as part of an expansion for the OSU Optometry program but a firm date has not be released to the public other than by September 2018. There were talks of a relocation near the campus but no site was indicated. No new site could ever reflect the character of original Adriaticos which has called this small brick building home since at least 1987, when I first attended Ohio State as a freshman. The University and Adriaticos were committed to finding a spot near the original location. For Adriaticos this would be an opportunity for a larger kitchen and more dining space. For many, but especially south campus dorm students and all of the nursing staff of the OSU Medical Center, Adriaticos was more than just food, it was a public service and in many cases a critical need. By this I mean the Buckeye Pizza Special – a large sheet of pizza that would be a tight fit in Car to Go and can feed 12 or more people with ease and at a low price. Cheap pizza is rarely good, but this a great pizza at a great price.
I only had Adriaticos a few times while I was a student and never on site, it was always too crowded. I can vaguely remember having a few slices of a Buckeye Pizza (really big, square-shaped Sicilian pizza at a party). My budget did not supporting buying a whole pizza so I would just throw in a few bucks when on campus friends ordered it.
I do recall in detail, meeting there with some of my older friends who were back in town for the weekend to visit with other friends in the OSU MBA Program. It was not until the inception of the long running Nerd Night started around 2009 that Adriaticos became a regular fixture in my life and for many years, a weekly fixture. In early 2014, a reliable source told me that Adriaticos was slated to close at the end of the year so the university could use the building. I contacted the owner about the rumor and he strongly denied such a thing as a remote possibility and urged me not to write anything about the rumor so as to not spread panic. I was relieved. That was a good thing because later in 2014, Adriaticos was the featured late night snack for drunk revelers at my wedding in April 2014. It was a mainstay for my wife during pregnancy and continues to be the default emergency meal (with great frequently because it has been one crisis after another since we got hitched) after we moved into our new house and started to raise a pizza loving child.
In early spring 2018, word came out of a new location for Adriaticos. They will be taking over the old Aveda space, just around the corner at 1681 Neil Avenue. The new location is an upgrade in many ways: more dining space, more craft beer selection and a larger kitchen which equals a greater choice of items on the menu. Parking will still be a challenge but that does maintain at least one tradition of the original. The new location is expected to open by the end of summer just in time to serve a new generation of freshmen as they move into the dorms. The old location will close mid summer 2018 so there will be little to no down time for people who need their pizza fix.
In April to ensure CMH Griffin Gourmand had enough original Adriaticos in his DNA I took him for a dine in experience. We both discovered something we did not know. Their bread sticks are amazingly delicious.
CMH Gourmand - Eating in Columbus & Ohio 