Oh no, the office holiday party is tomorrow or the day after, and your workload was so tall, you forgot to make restaurant reservations. No worries. We came up with a list of 10 downtown places that with a quick call, you will get a holiday feast sure to please the biggest Scrooge. For those of you who managed to take care of these details already, keep the list for future reference.
1. The Columbus Athenaeum offers a smorgasbord of options. We stick by “Chef’s Choice” because Chef Lynn is amazingly creative with absolutely everything. Try it out first if you want. The Pine Room is open for lunch during the week, and Chef Lynn will be right there to let you sample some of his daily lunch special.
2. Lexi’s on Third offers breakfast sandwiches, bagels and muffins, or order up a lunch platter of pastrami and rye or hummus for the vegetarians out there.
3. How can you go wrong with the Freshbox tag line of "Feed your appetite. Nourish your community."? Boxed lunches and salads explode with flavor, and if you need a last minute gift idea, they offer gift boxes of their signature hand-dipped Oreo Cookies.
4. Café Napolitana will deliver an authentic Italian feast to your office party. Lasagna, white pizza, garlic knots, calzones, and rigatoni and meatballs will keep the party going for hours.
5. Si Senor. Think empanadas, salads and slow roasted meat on freshly baked ciabatta. If you want to add some dessert, we recommend the tres leches cake – delish.
6. Is the guy in the cubicle next to you a picky eater, and is the woman down the hall a real diva? No problem. Hills Market Downtown offers everything from huge trays of savory mac and cheese to lobster spring rolls.
7. Wanna dish up a bowl of gumbo bigger than the bayou? Well then, give J. Gumbo’s Cajun Joint a ring for some down home New Orleans’ cookin’.
8. Trying to keep your lunch-time choices über healthy since holiday cookies and candies keep magically appearing in the break room? Market 65 offers locally sourced ingredients to make the best salads and wraps around.
9. Let’s just say that your break room isn’t full of sweet treats. What better pick me up than a platter of warm raspberry muffins and cranberry scones? Café Brioso even offers coffee to go for the whole office.
10. Sandman Gourmet, which is tucked into the office tower at 180 E. Broad, offers everything from a simple continental breakfast to a full, hot buffet. Psst…we love the idea of the baked potato bar. Yummo.
We’re sure we missed a lot of great downtown catering options. Leave us a message on our Facebook page about your favorite place to grab a bite to eat or your favorite downtown catering digs, and you’ll be entered to win lunch on us from Cafe Napolitana.