Ah, the Northstar Cafe. I used to live right down the street and when they were renovating their space, I would walk past every day to see the progress. Unfortunately, they meticulously taped paper over the windows until about week before they opened, when they cut one little circle at eye level, so curious passers-by could get a little peek. I knew from that moment that I would love Northstar. Of course, they didn’t open until a few weeks AFTER I moved out of the Short North into my very first house of my own, in Clintonville (2.5 miles away).
Northstar is a casual cafe offering all meals, with brunch served on Sunday and Monday. They do have a liquor license although it has never occurred to me to get a drink; mainly because I’m there around lunchtime. They offer a rather limited menu for all sorts of diners, being vegetarian-friendly but also offering good bacon. My favorite for lunch is the sweet basil chicken wrap with brown rice; Husband usually orders the veggie burger, which is charmingly purple thanks to its base of beets! I love that they offer brown rice, since I have been trying to incorporate more whole grains into my diet (grumble grumble). Typically when I dine there for brunch I get the turkey hash, full of red peppers and sweet potatoes, topped with a poached egg.
Today, however, I was feeling rather naughty and decided that I must have the ricotta pancakes. I first had them last Sunday, when Husband surprised me with breakfast from Northstar along with coffee and flowers to celebrate Engagement Day, our answer to Valentine’s Day. Oh, ricotta pancakes. I don’t know who came up with this idea but it sure is a good one. The ricotta makes melting pockets of creamy richness in the pancakes; you don’t even really need butter or syrup but I used a little anyway, since I was already a lost cause on diet for the day. Sadly, I can hardly eat more than one pancake and the other 2 end up going to waste. Due to a tragic, guilt-ridden childhood event involving pancakes, husband doesn’t like them, and so does not do his usual clean-up duty. I really need to convince them to sell me one a la carte pancake...
Northstar focuses on using locally-grown organic products; they worked with farmers for months before opening to source all of their wonderful veggies and meat products. When you order, you receive a laminated card with a number so they can find you when your food is ready; printed on the card are facts about their various farmers, usually along with a telephone number if you should decide you need their products as well.
My one complaint about Northstar is they do not have soup on their menu. This is truly a travesty, since about 90% of the times I’ve been there, it has been raining cold Ohio rain, and the only thing I really want is soup and one of their ethereal biscuits. I brought this up to the owner once when I was there, and she said that they wholly planned to introduce soup but were still testing recipes. Alas, Spring is (thank God) almost here and still, no soup.
Other favorites include their breakfast biscuit with egg and really, really good sausage, warm homemade granola on yogurt, and their chocolate truffle cookies, which are totally and without a doubt worth their $3.50 price tag.
Some people think that Northstar is too expensive - for reference, today’s breakfast included one Turkey hash, one order ricotta pancakes, one warm granola with yogurt, a side of roasted potatoes, and two coffees, brunch tab $27 - but I think that we need to encourage this sort of restaurant. It is ridiculous that the notion of using locally-grown sustainable food sources is suddenly a novelty in the States, especially in a city that is surrounded on all sides by agriculture. I don’t know how we ended up this way (okay, actually I do - cheap food and Wal-Mart) but we really need to get back to basics. Buy local, kitties!
In the meantime, I am going to clean my kitchen and then walk off my sins.
Info: Northstar Cafe 951 N. High St Columbus, OH 614.298.9999 website is in the works.
