Arepazo Latin Grill

Arepazo Latin Grill brings all of the things you love about the Downtown location of Columbus' global Latin favorite, and then they add tapas and a full bar. Carlos Gutierrez brings the same formula working at his Gahanna operation.

The space is open and inviting. It is much larger than the Downtown restaurant. There are plenty of options for vegetarians.

Like the other two locations, every dish tastes delicious smothered in the famous cilantro sauce. Dishes originate in Latin American countries in North and South America.

Vegetarians can order meatless arepas, patacons (a stuffed fried plantain boat), burritos, tostadas and three tapas for lunch. Dinner has a wider selection of meatless tapas options.

The bean and cheese empanada might be the best way to spend $3.75 eating in Columbus. The fried corn pocket is crammed full of black beans and white cheese until it's about the size of a small Nerf football. The appetizer is almost a lunch portion by itself.

A few of the vegetarian tapas involve perfect tostones, or fried plantain chips. Arepazo's tostones have a crispy exterior, but are thick enough to also display some of the fruit's softer textures. They are great served with a garlic aioli, and even better topped with roasted red peppers, parsley and slivers of Manchego.

Servers were able to answer questions about vegetarian items on the menu, and served multiple meals quickly enough to keep lunch crowds moving.

Casa Sazon

Sometimes you have to consider when something reaches a saturation point. When is there too much reality television in prime time? When are there too many Starbucks in your neighborhood strip mall? When are there too many Venezuelan restaurants in Downtown Columbus?

Wait a minute. Did I just say too many Venezuelan restaurants? How is that possible? Let me explain.

The go-to spot for Venezuelan food near the Capital is El Arepazo. The tiny Pan-Latin spot is tucked into the Pearl Street Alley, and every item on the menu tastes delicious when slathered in the addictive cilantro sauce.

While Carlos is the captain of El Arepazo, Eliezer Molina, his brother-in-law, runs the show at Casa Sazon. Casa Sazon took over in the old Euro Cafe space. The menu at Casa Sazon kept some of Euro Cafe's sandwiches and lost the Eastern European offerings. They replaced the pierogies with arepas, burritos and cachapas (a savory corn pancake).

There are a few vegetarian sandwiches on the menu. There is a grilled cheese and a Mediterranean veggie wrap. However, if you want to compare the Casa Sazon to El Arepazo, you have to sample the arepas.

Arepas are griddled unleavened corn bread sandwiches filled with a variety of ingredients. At El Arepazo, the arepas are what one would expect in a South American sandwich, with black beans, lettuce, tomato and onion. At Casa Sazon, the vegetarian arepa is essentially a giant cheese dumpling. It doesn't have the veggies or beans like at El Arepazo, but it does come with your choice of the spicy or mild cilantro sauce (a condiment handed directly from God to a Venezuelan gourmand in some long forgotten era). The warm corn melts the soft white cheese, making the sandwich a savory delight.

I slightly prefer the El Arepazo arepa to the ones at Casa Sazon. However, both are tasty for different reasons. While I might get my arepas at El Arepazo, my only option for cachapas will be Casa Sazon, so they will have the corner on that market.

I'm not sure when Columbus will reach the saturation point with Venezuelan eateries. If the public feels that there isn't enough Venezuelan dining options, they can enjoy Casa Sazon for breakfast and El Arepazo for lunch. Since El Arepazo gets busy sometimes, perhaps Casa Sazon might benefit from some of the overflow. As with any other venture, the market will probably sort it out.

Casa Sazon

El Arepazo

I finally succeeded and took pictures while I was eating lunch at El Arepazo. They prepare Pan-Latin food that is made fresh and cheap with enough vegetarian options to keep you from repeating an item during the working week.

I have eaten here a number of times. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to take my camera. The store is small, and both the inside and outside walls feature interesting art work. El Arepazo is located in the Pearl Alley by Gay and High Streets.

Carlos Gutierrez, the owner, does a virtual tour of food from the Spanish speaking New World. There are vegetarian burritos and empanadas on the menu, as well my personal favorites, the arepa and the patacon from Venezuela.

An arepa (pictured above), is a sandwich on grilled corn meal disks. The vegetarian arepa is made with lettuce, tomato, cheese, black beans, banana peppers and a pinch of the cilantro sauce. It also costs less than $5, tax included.

The patacon is a boat made of deep fried plantain stuffed with lettuce, tomato, black beans, avocado and cheese. It is delicious and enormous.

There are some great sides, including deep fried plantains, the delicious Cuban cousin of the banana that gets a caramel sweetness when cooked in oil. El Arepazo also has free delivery for lunch orders of greater than $10.

They are open Monday through Saturday, and it seems like their hours can be a little bit flexible (as in they open when they get around to it, not by the exact hours on the door). But the service is fast and the fare is affordable and well made.

El Arepazo has been featured in a number of other blogs (here, here and here), and rumors are swirling that Carlos and the owners of Due Amici are planning on collaborating on an upscale Latin venture. If it's half as good as El Arepazo, I'm there with bells on for opening night. Check out the pictures below.

El Arepazo

There has to be something for veggies at...

Xalisco, Cafe Corner and El Arepazo. So I've heard.

Cycling the News Cycle

Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title in a move that came as a surprise to nobody but Floyd Landis. I believe the story received way too much press because Landis and O.J. Simpson lack a certain characteristic called credibility, with Landis having the additional problem of competing in the only sport that could rival football in terms of being associated with steroids. Actually, Simpson has a better chance of being found innocent than Landis had based upon simple examination of facts. If somebody wants to put together a novel and enlightening article about the Tour, I would suggest trying to track down the guy in cycling who isn't on drugs in order to introduce me to an unknown quantity.

The Senate failed to pass a measure that would have been the first step in bringing troops home from Iraq. Come to think of it, I'm trying to remember the last time the Senate succeeded at anything. It was might have been recently, but I really can't put my finger on the exact date.

It was a great news day for loony world leaders and ideologues. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, had his request to lay a wreath at the memorial for 9/11 declined. He would have been received less warmly than Art Modell at a Cleveland Browns convention. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is ordering his countrymen to set their clocks back a half an hour in order to create more daylight. Notice to Chavez: Day light and school hours can be changed without the arbitrary time shifts. Don't fix it if it ain't broke. And everybody's favorite fundamentalist cretin Osama bin Laden has issued a call for attacks on Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf because of his actions against mosques in Pakistan and his cooperation with America. Musharraf countered by cutting off bin Laden's supply of beard dye.

Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather filed a $70 million law suit against his ex-employer for damaging his reputation in the wake of his termination. CBS might actually give him half of that if he'd agree to come back and take over for the ratings slump that is the Katie Couric experience.

If you haven't gotten your fill of election coverage yet, definitely check out the Slate piece about Mitt Romney's make-your-own campaign ad Web site. You can go ahead and insert any random Mormon joke and make it Mitt's campaign slogan. Bonus!

In sports news, I'm still baffled that Tank Johnson signed a new contract. Obviously character means little and talent means everything in the NFL. The most surprising fact is that the Cincinnati Bengals didn't sign Johnson after the Cleveland Steamers dropped a 51 spot on their defense. His character would have made Johnson a natural fit in the Queen city.

Finally, if Notre Dame didn't look bad enough playing football on the field this season, hopefully the burn of lost income at Bowl season will sting enough to make the school rethink its independent status. Even without a conference, Notre Dame will still finish the year in last place in its division.

There are Different Degrees of Losing

It's going to be hard for me to say, but I have a better chance at becoming a bikini model than Cleveland has at becoming NBA champion. Game 4 should provide a great soundtrack to bore you to sleep at night.

If you're looking for something to get you excited, perhaps the bombing of one of Iraq's holiest sites will make you more than a little uneasy. The first attack years ago has been cited as the root of sectarian violence in the region. In technical terms, blowing the towers at the shrine up fucked everything up worse than it is fucked up already.

The two sides of the Palestinian coin Hamas and Fatah are engaged in a bitter civil war/power struggle, and they have decided to turn up the heat. Nothing is out of bounds, with military forces attacking leadership houses. I'm not sure if you were ever really safe walking around the streets of Gaza, but I'm guessing today is a little less safe than it was yesterday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been under fire since he silenced a critical television station. Chavez, the clown prince of the Southern hemisphere, is starting to flex his inner Machiavelli. If only the U.S. government could revoke Fox News' license for failing to serve the public interest, I'd vote Chavez for President in 2008.

News of the weird leads off with an L.A. Times profiling students that live a college life while not actually being enrolled in school. Let me be the first to tell you that if I didn't have to be in school, I sure as hell wouldn't be hanging around the library pretending to study philosophy.

Texas officials are reporting on widespread use amongst high school kids of a heroin-based cocktail drug known as cheese heroin. The $2 smack is mixed with the drug found in Tylenol PM and other sleeping medicines. I never needed help falling asleep in high school, and I have never done a drug named after a dairy product. But then again I have never lived in Texas.

Stalker engine Facebook has drummed up federal charges for an online predator. Allowing people like this into the Facebook community is akin to allowing a Catholic priest to be in charge of a youth summer camp. Shame on Facebook and the predator (and while I'm at it, shame on the Catholic Church).

Russia, the country that poisons critics in other nations, poisoned Kremlin protesters...with the smell of feces. Most protesters were driven away by the foul aroma of fertilizer that was conveniently strewn around the protest area. You know what they say. If it looks like shit and smells like shit...