Friday Food Bites: Bon Appétit lauds Agni, Los Altos joins Westerville, Mikey’s opens at Easton

There’s always a lot happening in the Columbus restaurant world! Here’s the latest:

• This week Bon Appétit highlighted chef Avishar Barua’s Agni as one of its 20 Best New Restaurants for 2024. The live-fire cooking eatery opened in the Brewery District early last year, and is Barua’s second eatery following Joya’s Cafe. You can read Bon Appétit‘s piece on Agni here!
• Following closely on the heels of their opening in Dublin last week, Mikey’s Late Night Slice is adding another location today at Easton. Both of the new pizza shops take over the former Weenie Wonder locations connected to PINS Mechanical Co. The new Easton store is located at 4117 Worth Ave.
• This Sunday, Sept. 15, Los Altos Mexican restaurant is opening in the former Blue Santa space at 8 N. State St. in Uptown Westerville. Blue Santa closed abruptly within the past couple weeks.
• A new Indian eatery called Taj on Fifth is set to open soon at 1021 W. Fifth Ave. in Grandview. One of the partners in the business is Ajay Kumar, whose family owned the bygone Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant in Old North and AJ’s Cafe downtown. The eatery offers a slightly upscale take on traditional Indian fare, in addition to having a full bar.
• A second location for Slammer’s bar, called Slammies on High, has closed at 1607 N. High St. near campus. It had opened in the spring of 2023; the original Slammer’s downtown remains open.
• A new coffee trailer called Joy Local Coffee Co. celebrated its grand opening last week. The renovated 60s trailer is based in Gahanna but will be appearing at events all around the area.
• This Saturday, Sept. 14, Land-Grant Brewing celebrates its 10th anniversary (!) with plenty of new beer releases, live music, food trucks, a Crew watch party, and much more.
• Both Brioso Coffee and Stauf’s Coffee Roasters have been nominated (by yours truly!) for USA Today’s 10Best awards for Best Independent Coffee Shop. Hit the link to vote for them daily!
• The Germania Singing & Sport Society’s Oktoberfest is this weekend in the Brewery District.
• The Locust Table in Powell announced a new series of special dinners with their chef Mike Gadd. The first dinner is on Friday, Oct. 4. Guests can purchase tickets here.

This week I’m also writing:

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