Just before Christmas, @mrsbozz and I made the drive down to Columbus, OH so we could watch my niece play basketball with her high school varsity team. Despite the annoying Ohio State fans, there are two things that I absolutely love about visiting Columbus.
First, my wife's family is there. Getting to see them is always a treat. I wish they lived closer, but if they did I'd be afraid we would take for granted the time we get to spend with them.
Second, there is just so much good food down in Ohio that it is ridiculous. That doesn't mean there isn't great food in Michigan, but the three cities of Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati have gained a reputation for having some pretty amazing food over the past couple of decades.
Not only are they well regarded "foodie" towns, but they are often test markets for many of the chain restaurants. You will find things on the menus in Columbus before you see them in many other states.
This post isn't about fast food though.
Before the basketball game, it was decided we would head to a local joint to get some food and drinks. My wife and I thought it would just be the five of us (her, myself, her sister, our brother in law, and our nieces older sister). We honestly should have known better.
@mrsbozz's sister has the uncanny ability to leave out details that are quite important to my wife and I even if they aren't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
You see, apparently this little get together before the game was for the parents of the whole team. @mrsbozz is a pro at socializing, myself on the other hand is a bit rockier of a road. We like having some heads up so we can prepare for hardcore socializing. Springing things on us at the last minute creates a lot of anxiety.
We decided to hang out by ourselves with our oldest niece at a table in the main part of the establishment, and we let the basketball families socialize in the little room you see in the photo above.
I'm getting ahead of myself though. You see, in the nearby suburb of Hilliard, OH there is a restaurant called Meatball Mafia. They specialize in (you guessed it), meatballs and they actually started out as a food truck in 2016 before opening that location in 2020.
More recently, a retail space became available in the suburb of Columbus where our relatives live. It's called Missing Jimmy's and they have a similar but smaller menu than the main location.
Given the mafia theme of the other restaurant, they continued that with Missing Jimmy's. Specifically, they are referring to Jimmy Hoffa who famously disappeared amidst the height of the mob era.
The bar area is pretty cool and they have a decent selection of Ohio brewed beers on tap as well as in bottles and cans. They also do the throwback beer thing where you can get cans of the classics like Hamm's, Schlitt's, Stroh's, etc. for a reduced price.
Unless you are at the bar, there are no waiters or waitresses to tend to you. You need to go up to the counter and place all of your orders. They do have staff that will bring your food out to you once you have ordered, but this isn't your typical full service joint.
Besides the meatballs, they also specialize in sandwiches and small pizza pies. That's what we decided to go with for dinner. Our niece got the pepperoni only pie that you see in the opening photo.
@mrsbozz got a pizza that I can't find the name of now for some reason. It was one of their specialty pizzas and it had a white sauce with onions, garlic, and mushrooms. I had a bite or two of it and I have to admit, it was quite good. I'm a little on the fence about most white sauce pizzas. I generally prefer tomato based sauce, but when you find a good white pizza, it almost changes your mind.
Myself, I got a pizza they call the "Sloppy Guiseppe". It's their famous crushed meatballs in house sauce with green peppers, white onion, and a five cheese blend topped with ricotta after the bake. It was delicious. Needless to say, despite the small size of the pies, we still had quite a few leftovers. I ate them as a midnight snack later that night and for breakfast the next morning.
Looking back, I kind of wish I had gotten something different despite how good the pizza was. They have sub sandwiches that sounded amazing as well as bowls that were basically just meatballs in a bowl with cheese.
Although my pizza had meatballs on it, they kind of got lost in all the other ingredients. I think I would have preferred to have just gotten a bowl so I could appreciate them in their natural form.
In addition to the pizza, the three of us also got a small container of their pasta salad to try out. It was quite good with a lot of flavor. I think @mrsbozz and my niece at more of it than I did, but I would definitely get it again based on what I tasted.
Since we weren't driving to the game, we ended up having about three rounds of drinks, so that bumped up our total bill quite a bit. Plus the fact that we covered the cost of our nieces meal. It wasn't the cheapest Friday night I can remember in recent history, but it was one of the more tasty ones.
If you find yourself down in the Columbus area and you are looking for something a little different, I highly recommend checking out Meatball Mafia or Missing Jimmy's.
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