Sure, a free weekend, a holiday or a couple days off work won’t provide enough time for a full-fledged vacation.
But for a quick road trip, it’s the perfect length of time, and central Ohioans are fortunate because there are so many enjoyable locations within just a few hours’ drive time. Some are within the state’s borders, some in adjoining states.
Each of these destinations has a huge assortment of enjoyable bars, restaurants, museums, parks, shopping centers, theaters, concert venues and other means of entertainment – far more than we can write about here. Instead, we’ve picked out just a few of each destination’s highlights.
In-state
Greene County
You don’t need to leave Columbus to see a movie, but if you’re in Greene County – about 45 minutes west of Columbus down I-70 – it might be worthwhile to stop and catch a flick at the Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs.
The one-screen venue shows recent releases as well as classics and rebroadcasts of live theater performances, and also offers discussion sessions and screenings requested by community organizations. Its March offerings, for instance, included Academy Award nominees Gravity, Her and The Wolf of Wall Street, along with Casablanca and a performance of War Horse beamed live from the West End of London.
The theater itself is a sight to see, too. Though an upgrade process – entailing new seats, greater accessibility and digital projection and sound, among other things – began in 2012, much of the theater’s almost 80 years of history can still be found. Of special note are the art deco murals mounted on the house lights, created by Antioch College graduate Elizabeth Morss Graf in 1947.
EAT: That Crepe Place, a Beavercreek establishment with crepe flavors ranging from cookies and cream and caramel apple to chipotle chicken and pesto shrimp.
DRINK: S and G Artisan Distillery, a Yellow Springs small-batch distillery that sells apple pie moonshine (made from rum, rather than whiskey) and offers tastings of several German schnapps products
KIDS: Young’s Jersey Dairy, a Yellow Springs dairy farm offering country cooking, miniature golf, batting cages, an inflatable obstacle course, passenger train rides, a corn maze and a signature line of homemade ice cream.
Cleveland
A century of history and more than 100 vendors have helped establish the West Side Market as a popular stop during any visit to Cleveland.
A plethora of meat vendors (38 total) and produce vendors (29) make the market seem like an enormous farmers’ market, but the roster is much deeper than that. Vendors selling seafood, baked goods, pastries and a handful of miscellaneous items – including herbs, pasta, nuts and international cuisine – round out the offerings.
The market’s iconic clock tower makes it a sight to see even from a distance, and it’s located smack in the middle of Ohio City, an old Cleveland neighborhood that plays host to a wide variety of small businesses, restaurants and bars, including the Great Lakes Brewing Company.
EAT: The Nauti Mermaid, a Caribbean-inspired restaurant modeled after a Key West crab shack that serves up perch, walleye, Alaskan king crab legs, lobster rolls and other seafood creations.
DRINK: Rocky River Brewing Company, a suburban brewpub complete with its own beer line, including the popular Cooper’s Gold Kolsch.
KIDS: Great Lakes Science Center, featuring hundreds of hands-on exhibits, a six-story movie theater and the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, which not only documents the history of space travel but also educates visitors on day-to-day living in space.
Ashtabula County
A visitor to Ashtabula County in northeastern Ohio would be remiss if he or she did not take the time to check out some covered bridges.
The preponderance of covered bridges is a point of pride for the county, which counts 18 of the structures in its official tally. Four of the oldest – the Doyle Road, Harpersfield, Mechanicsville Road and Root Road covered bridges – date to the late 1860s, while another, the Smolen-Gulf Covered Bridge, the longest in the U.S., was constructed in 2008.
Ashtabula calls itself home to the longest and shortest covered bridges in the U.S. The former is Smolen-Gulf, which stretches 613 feet, and the latter is the West Liberty Street Covered Bridge, which is just 18 feet. An annual Covered Bridge Festival, this year scheduled for Oct. 11 and 12, takes place at the Ashtabula County Fairgrounds.
EAT: Covered Bridge Pizza Parlor, a local pizza chain with three locations – two of which are made from materials taken from dismantled covered bridges.
DRINK: Really, any of the wineries in Geneva on the Lake is worth a look; Chalet Debonne Vineyards, Ferrante Winery & Ristorante, Grand River Cellars, Old Firehouse Winery and the Lakehouse Inn Winery are just a few examples.
KIDS: AC&J Scenic Line, a series of hour-long railroad rides with themes such as Bandit Hold-Up, Wild West Weekend and Civil War Train Raid.
Toledo
It’s only appropriate that the Glass City be home to a world-renowned glass art collection.
The Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art hosts more than 5,000 pieces from a huge number of historical eras from the European Renaissance to modern day, as well as hot shops, classrooms, a glass study room and more. On top of that, the 2006-built facility was artfully designed to contain as much glass as possible; more than 360 panels fill out the architecture, including all the exterior walls.
The 74,000-square-foot facility is one of six buildings that make up the museum campus. The 45 galleries in the main building are complemented by a lecture hall, a concert venue, a café and an educators’ resource center.
EAT: Ye Olde Durty Bird, a downtown Toledo gastropub with a sizable menu of burgers, chicken sandwiches and other items between bread, from pulled pork to tuna salad.
DRINK: Maumee Bay Brew Pub, home of the Maumee Bay Brewing Company, which has a long line-up of brews ranging from an IPA and a hefeweizen to a chocolate cherry porter and a blood orange imperial witbier.
KIDS: Sundance Kid Drive-in, a 1950s-style drive-in theater that shows first-run movies and also offers prize drawings and all the classic outdoor movie concessions, such as cotton candy and corn dogs.
Cincinnati
It might be a bit of an understatement to refer to Jungle Jim’s International Market as merely a “super” market.
The massive, 200,000-square-foot store with locations in Fairfield and Eastgate has, in effect, the same set of departments as a conventional grocery store. The difference is the sheer variety available in each section – think cow tongues and frozen turduckens in the meat section, cactus leaves and durians in the produce section, and bacon ketchup and root beer barbecue sauce in the condiment section.
An international department spans the globe with Asian, Indian, Hispanic, European, Eastern European, Middle Eastern and African sections, and the beer and wine sections are practically the size of a small country in their own right. Individual areas within departments offer even more specialized options; how many other grocery stores have entire sections blocked out for candy or hot sauce?
EAT: Kaze, a combination Japanese sushi bar, gastropub and beer garden in Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine neighborhood, offering sliders, skewers, soups, salads and entrees in addition to sushi.
DRINK: Moerlein Lager House, the official brewpub of the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company, featuring a lengthy beer list that includes all of the Moerlein offerings.
KIDS: Newport Aquarium, a highly decorated facility housing thousands of marine animals from around the world; a new turtle exhibit just opened in March.
Out-of-state
Pittsburgh
A robust museum scene is not a unique feature of Pittsburgh – about three hours east of Columbus, most of it on I-70 – but the museums themselves can certainly be considered unique.
These include the Photo Antiquities Museum of Photographic History, dedicated to preservation of and education on photography, and the ToonSeum, focused on the art and history of cartooning.
There are also the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, which include the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Science Center and the Andy Warhol Museum. The Warhol is not merely a collection of the famous pop artist’s visual work; it also holds daily screenings of his film work, as well as music concerts and performing arts.
EAT: Meat & Potatoes, a gastropub by chef Richard Deshantz with such menu items as soft shell crab tacos, bone marrow appetizers and a Wagyu flat iron entrée.
DRINK: Church Brew Works, an old church converted to a brewery and restaurant, complete with custom stained-glass windows.
KIDS: Waltzing Waters, a “liquid fireworks” show at Station Square that features multi-colored water jets choreographed to music.
Wheeling
Childhood memories are the stock in trade at Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum.
The museum has permanent exhibition rooms for model trains, games, dolls, vehicles and miniatures, as well as space set aside for special exhibitions, such as a 250,000-piece K’Nex amusement park model. Another room is dedicated to the Ohio Valley, with highlights including a model of Wheeling, fine china made by Wheeling Decorating specifically for U.S. presidents and a Victorian-style dollhouse.
Visitors particularly interested in model trains might do well to stop by June 20 and 21. That’s when the Marx Toy & Train Collectors National Convention takes place.
EAT: Metropolitan Citi Grill, a fine dining establishment with a menu stocked with steaks, seafood and such other highlights as crispy split duckling and Frenched double-cut rib pork chop.
DRINK: The Market Vines, a wine bar that also boasts good-sized beer and food menus.
KIDS: Oglebay Resort, which offers the 50-acre Good Zoo – featuring a train tour, a learning center and a theater that shows nature programs and laser shows – as well as a wide variety of other outdoor activities.
Ann Arbor
Don’t let your Buckeye fandom dissuade you from visiting the University of Michigan’s home turf – you’ll miss out on the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments.
The collection is one of the largest in North America, with more than 2,500 historical and contemporary instruments to see and learn about. These range from centuries-old versions of the familiar – a 1659 six-string guitar and an 18th-Century viola – to items with unrecognizable names, such as the machete, a Portuguese guitar-like instrument shaped like a bird, and the serinette, a German miniature organ that was used to train songbirds.
Exhibitions within the collection include a stock of functional instruments – example: the dabbus, a Turkish rattle that could also be used as a weapon – and a group of forgeries.
EAT: The Heidelberg, a 50-plus-year old, three-story bar and restaurant serving a variety of traditional German cuisine.
DRINK: Jolly Pumpkin Café & Brewery, with a brew list specializing in Belgian-style farmhouse ales and saisons.
KIDS: Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum, featuring more than 250 interactive exhibits that allow children to generate tornadoes, launch pressurized rockets and experience Google Liquid Galaxy.
Louisville
A Louisville company has been giving the blind the means to read for more than 150 years, and and visitors have the opportunity to learn all about it.
The American Printing House for the Blind produces books in Braille, large-print, computer and audio formats, and is also heavily involved in development of and instruction in alternatives to the printed word. The nonprofit organization offers tours of its plant and of its museum, the latter of which traces the history of education for the blind.
Trips through Louisville’s better-known history are available in the city as well through such establishments as the Louisville Slugger Museum and the Kentucky Derby Museum.
EAT: Ramsi’s Café on the World, a restaurant with its menu and décor inspired by a huge variety of different cultures; entrees alone range from Moroccan lamb chops and Shanghai stir-fry to spicy Jamaican tofu and Caribbean ribs.
DRINK: Maker’s Mark Bourbon House, highlighted by its menu of 75 Kentucky bourbons, which can be ordered individually, in cocktails or in themed flights.
KIDS: The PBJ Shop, which appeals to both children and adults with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that may incorporate, among other things, raisins, pineapple jelly, potato chips, kosher salt and bologna.
Indianapolis
It would be pretty easy to make a day – or two – out of a trip to Broad Ripple Village, a neighborhood known for its commitment to the arts.
Spray-painted murals, sculptures, functional art and unique architecture are among the neighborhood’s visual highlights. The Indianapolis Art Center, complete with a 12-acre landscaped exhibition called the ArtsPark, is located in the village, and the 44th annual Broad Ripple Art Fair will take place there May 17 and 18.
A respectable line-up of restaurants, bars, music venues, boutiques provides plenty of other means of entertainment in the neighborhood. It also has access to Indianapolis’ Monon Trail and Central Canal towpath, not to mention a canoe launch onto the White River.
EAT: Punch Burger, a gourmet burger joint known to incorporate such ingredients as Nutella and ground duck and offering to burn a ring of cheese around the patty if the customer so desires.
DRINK: The Slippery Noodle Inn, the oldest bar in Indiana, known for its robust live blues line-up, its popularity among celebrities and its connections to such historical milestones as Prohibition and the Civil War.
KIDS: Tilt Studio, a family entertainment center – it’s a five-location chain, but the Indianapolis venue is closest to Columbus by far – featuring video games, laser tag and racing.
Garth Bishop is editor of CityScene Magazine. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
