Wine Tasting At Camelot Cellars

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Andrea

You should know by now how much I love Camelot Cellars which is a wine bar/boutique located in the Short North area of Columbus. In case you don’t know, you can read more about Camelot and how to use some of their wine.

It’s a great place to go for a relaxing evening or afternoon of sipping wine. Plus with the remodel (which I’ll be talking about in another post!), there’s more comfortable seating along with free wifi access.

Business meetings can be a lot more fun and have a higher attendance rate if you meet some place casual.

Scott and I recently purchased a Groupon for a wine tasting for two and took advantage of that one evening.

The wine tasting is a very intimate and detailed experience. If you want to learn more about wines and how they are made, Camelot has exactly what you’re looking for.

You sample six wines, providing you with a taste of different styles of wines.

Ohio Summer Spritzer

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Andrea

Yesterday evening, Camelot Winery unveiled it’s new look with a Grand Re-Opening event. I was lucky enough to get invited not only to the event but to also provide some appetizers as well.

The inside looks completely different and definitely has a more welcome and cozy feel to it now. You can expect a full post on what’s new soon! The event was a huge success and many people arrived ready to check out the new look and to sip on some wine. Luckily I was able to make my way around the place a few times and got a chance to chat with friends and introduce myself to new people.

For the appetizers I made mini cheddar corn fritters using Ohio Sweet corn. I made 240 little fritters with the expectation that most people would take two. I don’t know about everyone else but Scott and I definitely had more than two!

To help celebrate the new ownership and new look of Camelot, I put together a summer inspired drink featuring one of their wines.

Dash for Donation 2011

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Andrea

I was contacted recently by a rep from Lifeline of Ohio, telling me about the Dash For Donation 5K, which is a race that takes place in Columbus. I didn’t know anything about this race and in fact had never even heard of it or Lifeline until I was contacted. I’m really glad they took the time to tell me about this race because I think it’s a great one that needs to be mentioned.

Lifeline Ohio, is an organization that promotes organ and tissue donation and transplant. From Lifeline of Ohio’s website:

Our mission is to educate and empower central and southeastern Ohioans about organ and tissue donation while also facilitating the donation process.

Everything you have wanted to know about organ and tissue donation can be found on their website. If you’re curious or interested in learning more, please click over and check them out.

The Dash for Donation is their 5K that they put on to help raise awareness of donation and to show support for those that have been impacted in some way by organ and tissue donation.

Hills Market Delivers

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Andrea

The Hills Market is located along the bike path in Worthington which is north of Columbus. The Hills Market is a gem because they feature a lot of Ohio products and produce. They work very hard to find and get these products to consumers. We all want to support local as much as possible and Hills helps us make that connection.

The Hills also hosts all kinds of events from happy hours to wine tastings to cooking classes. I’ve had the pleasure of attending happy hours, parties, and a dinner party at the Hills. All events were fantastic and you have to love a dinner party where you get to eat in the wine section of the store!

The Hills Market recently launched a delivery program called Hills On The Go. You can order items online and they will deliver them right to your door! Or you have the option of in-store pickup, allowing you to swing in and grab your groceries and go.

Shopping at Farmer’s Markets

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Andrea

Ah Farmer’s markets, a glorious time of year! With long dreary winter that Columbus goes through, the farmer’s markets are a very welcome sight. It signifies that winter is over and we are about to head into an abundance of amazing food stuffs.

Scott and I headed up to the Worthington Farmer’s Market on opening day. It was gorgeous outside with Mother Nature deciding to give us a break from all the rain we had been dealing with. We met up with our friend Bob early that morning to walk around. He left us early though to go attend to his girly things (love you Bob!) so Scott and I grabbed some breakfast.

I would explain to you my love for sausage but somehow I’m pretty sure that is going to get twisted around into something entirely different than what I mean. Instead I’ll just tell you how much I love a good breakfast sandwich.

It’s completely true, a breakfast sandwich is such a comforting meal and much to my delight, there was a food truck making these babies up that morning.

Camelot Cellars

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Andrea

My friend Janine recently bought and took over Camelot Cellars earlier this year. Having a friend who owns a wine shop is a beautiful thing, in case you were wondering.

Camelot Cellars is a boutique winery located in the Short North district of downtown Columbus. Camelot is a winery in that they create and bottle their own wines. However they do not have a vineyard in Ohio. They buy juices from all over the world and then create the wine in-house from those juices.

This means that when you buy an Italian Pinot Grigio (which happens to be my favorite white), you are getting exactly that. A lovely wine that was created from juice directly from Italy.

Calling Camelot a boutique winery is accurate because it is way more than a place that sells wines. It has so much to offer its customers.

You can go to Camelot for a relaxing moment and enjoy a glass of wine or two. You can try flights of wine. You can schedule to have your very own tasting. Either as lovely intimate date or with a group of friends. You can have small business meetings at Camelot and discuss financials over a burgundy.

2011 Warrior Dash Ohio

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Andrea

Sunday started bright and early for Scott and I as we got up to prepare ourselves for the first Ohio Warrior Dash weekend. For those that aren’t familiar with the Warrior Dash, I’ll explain briefly. It’s a 3 mile trail race that has obstacles along the way. The obstacles vary race to race, but to get an idea, think of like a military boot-camp style obstacle course.

There’s fire, water, ropes, and mud, all of which you have to make your way through in order to get to the finish. Oh and barbed wire, you know, just for kicks.

For the first Ohio series this race was located in Logan, Ohio which is just south of Columbus in the Hocking Hills area. As thousands and thousands of people descended on Logan this past weekend, I’m pretty sure it’s still trying to figure out what hit it. Though I bet the cabin rentals got a huge upswing in reservations and aren’t complaining one bit about being invaded for the weekend.

2011 Columbus Race For The Cure

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Andrea

One of the things I did during the blog migration was run a 5K. My friend Jess contacted me earlier this year asking if I would be interested in running Columbus’s Race for the Cure in May. She was getting together a group of folks and Team Run, Tweet, Cure was born! There were 10 of us who met up that morning to get our 5K on.

This was the first time that I’ve ever done this race. Having been downtown a few times during race day, I knew it was a big deal. It wasn’t until we walked over there to get ready for the race that I was able to see just what a big deal it was.

Holy crap is basically all I can manage to say. This race is HUGE. There’s a small expo that is open to the public that was located on a street adjacent to the start of the race. We navigated our way through that and managed to find each other again at the start.

2011 Cap City Quarter Marathon

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Andrea

Saturday, May 7th was this year’s Cap City Half Marathon. This happens to be my favorite race in Columbus. It was the first half I ever ran so naturally it holds a special plate in my heart.

The past two years I have run this half but this year I did not. It was not in the cards this year for me to have time to train properly for a May half. Once I realized this I was terribly bummed out. I can’t even tell you how much it bothered me to know that I wouldn’t be running in this year’s Cap City half.

Then the race coordinators decided to add a “Quarter Marathon” to this year’s race. That means there was the half, the quarter, and a 5K.

I signed up for the quarter because I knew that I would be able to run that no problem. I was sad to not be running the half but at least I still got to participate in my favorite race.

Mid-Ohio Foodbank Visit

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Andrea

Last week I had the chance to take a tour of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, which is located in Grove City, Ohio. This is a brand new facility for the Foodbank. The Foodbank bought an old mattress factory and repurposed it for the Foodbank needs.

All donations and distributions happen out of this facility. It is also home to all of the administration offices as well.

It’s a HUGE building.

I met up with Jessica on a Wednesday afternoon to chat about the Foodbank, take a tour, and discuss some volunteer opportunities with her.

The service area for the Foodbank is rather large, covering just about the entire midsection of the state. They distribute a great deal of food and despite the gigantic size of their storage areas, the food doesn’t stay around for long. There is a huge turnover.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, in 2010 they delivered 39.7 Million pounds of food to their 500 partner agencies that then distributed the food to 20 counties in Central Ohio.