Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/28/a-mini-vacay-in-columbus-part-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57936

For my and Bryant’s second day in Columbus, we had to start things out right by going to brunch. Much like Monday, Tuesday is a rough day to eat out because a lot of restaurants are closed. This is even more true for brunch places, as many of them are only open on the weekends. Plus, a lot of restaurants that normally do lunch and dinner also tend to do brunch only on the weekends. So, we had somewhat slim pickings for brunch, especially if we didn’t want to go somewhere that was just pastries and coffee.

We finally settled on Simply Honest Cafe, which is open everyday from 8am to 2pm. Perfect brunching hours! It’s in German Village, so we actually drove because it was just a bit too far of a walk for us, but it was a very short drive down. Fun fact about Simply Honest Cafe, they actually partner with other small businesses in the area. Their coffee is from Roaming Goat Coffee Co., also in Columbus, and get some of their produce from Yellowbird, a Columbus foodshed.

Simply Honest Cafe is a casual-style eatery, where you order at the counter and they bring the food out to your table. The inside is pretty open and spacious, and they even have a cute patio with string lights. Inside, there’s tons of plants hanging around, which I thought was a nice vibe. It wasn’t very crowded, so I took a picture of the interior:

When we walked up to the counter to order, there were so many options! The menu was honestly huge, and it was a bit overwhelming because I felt like I had to choose right away even though there was no one in line behind us. Which was no fault of the employee taking our order, she actually assured us that we could take our time, so it was just my own weird anxieties that made me feel that way.

First thing first, we just had to try their iced cookie butter latte:

These looked absolutely scrumptious, with a cookie butter drizzle inside the cup and on top of the whipped cream, plus one whole Biscoff cookie on top! This latte was so sweet, creamy, totes delish all around. These were six dollars a piece. They also have a Dubai chocolate latte I’d really like to try if I go back sometime soon.

For my main dish, I got their sweet potato hash, with crumbled turkey sausage, roasted sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, citrus kale, avocado, smoked gouda, a fried egg, cilantro, and arbol chili mayo:

This sweet potato bowl was ridiculously good. It tasted so fresh and healthy, it was really light without sacrificing flavor. The sweet potatoes were nice and soft from being roasted, the avocado was perfectly ripe, and even with the chili mayo it wasn’t too spicy at all, just had great flavor all around. It was very balanced and filling. I feel like I made a great choice with this dish, and it was fourteen dollars.

Bryant really wanted some good ol’ pancakes, so he got a stack:

This is their buttermilk pancakes topped with a whipped honey cinnamon butter. They say on their website that their buttermilk pancakes are made from scratch, so that’s nice. Bryant was nice enough to share, so I tried a bite and they were warm and fluffy, honestly you can’t go wrong with pancakes. I also liked that the strawberries were really fresh. If you’re craving a stack, these are pretty great, and only eleven dollars. But if you just want one, you can get a single pancake as a side for four dollars.

There was one more thing I was really craving: biscuits and gravy. But I didn’t want to have it all to myself, so I asked Bryant to share with me. He agreed so I went ahead and ordered their biscuit and gravy breakfast, which comes with two eggs and a side of potatoes:

For fourteen dollars, I felt like this was a really good portion of biscuits and gravy. I loved that it came with eggs and potatoes, as I can honestly think of no truer breakfast combo. I’m glad we shared this because those biscuits were very filling!

I thought the service, though casual, was very friendly. The guy that brought our food out complimented Bryant’s sweater and even asked him where he got it because he liked it so much.

We had a super pleasant experience at Simply Honest Cafe and I’d really love to go back. It’s quick, affordable, and has really good food and coffee. Apparently they do catering, too!

After brunch, we decided some shopping was in order, and went to a Barnes & Noble. It’s been awhile since I’ve perused a bookstore, but lately I’ve had a stronger desire to read than I have in recent past, so I’m glad Bryant suggested it. We decided we’d each pick out a book and then swap when we were done with them. Here’s what we decided on:

Perhaps when I finish mine (or both) I’ll report back on how they were! I also bought a Lego set because I’m weak-willed and can never say no to another set. I got the Great Wave Off Kanagawa set, and it is taking me for-flippin’-ever to build. But it’s gonna be awesome when I’m done.

The Barnes & Noble was next to a Sephora, so I  grabbed a couple items I needed to restock for my skincare routine. The stores were also next to a World Market, which I was very curious about, so we went in there and I was blown away by all the different stuff they have. I don’t know what I was expecting from a place called World Market, but they had so much stuff that just felt completely random like tons of chairs and rugs and furniture, cooking ware and dishes, holiday items, so much foreign foods and snacks, soaps and bathroom items, even alcohol! A lot of alcohol, even! It was absolutely wild and I spent way too much time looking around and convincing myself to not buy everything I laid eyes on.

They even had my favorite chips, Honey Butter chips from Korea. Man I love those things.

Anyways, after going back to the Airbnb and chilling, it was time to go to our (rather early) dinner reservations. I made 4pm reservations at Lindey’s, because we were going to be attending the Stardew Valley concert at the Palace Theater at 7. Bryant actually got us the tickets a couple months ago, and I planned this trip completely around the concert. If he hadn’t gotten the tickets, we wouldn’t have even gone on this fun excursion to the city!

I was so excited to dine at Lindey’s. I follow so many Columbus-foodie type accounts on Tik Tok and everyone always rates Lindey’s as their number one spot in the city for fine dining. I have heard nothing but endless praise for Lindey’s and was so happy to finally be trying it.

I can tell you right now I’ll probably never go back.

Lindey’s opened in 1981, and is located in the German Village, so there’s lots of street parking or they have valet. I decided just to park on the street like a block or two away. Lindey’s is located on a corner, and there’s a step up from the brick walkway to a concrete slab to get through the ornate wooden double doors.

Immediately upon entering, I thought that Lindey’s looked very familiar. It looked a lot like Smith & Wollensky in Chicago. A dark, wooden bar, white tablecloths, and that exact same shade of green bar chairs and booths.

We were the first people there other than two gentlemen at the bar, and we got seated at the one table that was directly next to the front door and host stand, and the waiter’s station was directly behind the host stand as well. This was an unfortunate place to be sat, as the door opening consistently was very chilly and loud, we heard every single person that walked in say “reservation for X” and talk to the host, and the waiters were also like, standing directly next to us throughout the whole meal because they were busy at their station putting stuff into the computer, putting dishes they picked up off tables into the dish bin, etc. It was honestly very distracting and overstimulating, especially because our seat was under a speaker and the music was pretty loud.

Just like Smith & Wollesnky, Lindey’s decided to make their menus huge, cumbersome, floppy paper menus (and in green!):

Even the drink menu was just as huge:

Considering how small the table is, I truly don’t understand why they would have such large menus. With just our two menus they took up the whole table, let alone if we actually had four people at our four-top table.

Aside from the regular dinner menu and drink menu, they handed us this daily special:

The special being on a paper menu is completely fine, but I expect nicer menus from a fine dining place than giant paper.

After looking our options over, we decided not to get a starter, but I did opt for a cup of lobster bisque.

The cup was ten dollars, and came with creme fraiche and shrimp on top. I’ve mentioned before that I’m very picky about lobster bisque, and thankfully Lindey’s passed the test. I quite enjoyed this lobster bisque, it was creamy and piping hot, and had sizeable pieces of lobster in it. I do think ten dollar is a little much for a smaller portion, but it was pretty good.

Bryant stuck with water throughout the meal, but I decided to try a cocktail, and got the Sugar Magnolia:

Watershed chamomile gin, St. Germain, lemon juice, lavender syrup, eucalyptus tincture, and Barcina Cava. It was light, bubbly, not overly dry, and looked very pretty. I liked this drink but I don’t know that it was worth the eighteen dollars. Admittedly, it is one of the more expensive cocktails on the list, so I could’ve chosen a cheaper one if I really wanted.

Our waitress brought out some bread for the table:

While Bryant and I both really liked the crunchy seeded crisps, I do feel like the butter and bread was lacking. The butter was unsalted and unflavored, so it was just kind of bland and underwhelming. Plus the bread wasn’t warm.

For my entree, I decided to keep the lobster train rolling and picked the Maine Lobster Risotto:

Wow, now these plates are looking awfully familiar. It’s almost like they look exactly like Smith & Wollensky’s plates that are white, have a green line around it, and say the name of the restaurant at the top of the plate in green cursive.

Back to the food, I was honestly disappointed by this risotto. The gulf shrimp on top were overcooked and tough, and awfully fishy. The asparagus was toothsome and the risotto was bland. I just was not impressed, especially for the price point of thirty-seven dollars.

Bryant picked the Chicken Scarpariello:

The menu says it’s pan-seared chicken with ricotto gnudi (I thought it was gnocchi, to be honest), Italian sausage, peppadew peppers, wood grilled mushrooms, with roasted tomato sauce and lemon oil. So I found it strange that there were peas on the plate. It wasn’t listed on the menu, anyway.

I thought the presentation of this dish was kind of… not good. It looks haphazardly thrown together and messy. Bryant liked it, but I thought it was just okay. The gnudi was fine but kind of bland, the peas seemed like they’d been blanched so they were rather firm, the sauce was lacking. Again, I just wasn’t wildly impressed. This was thirty dollars.

Thoroughly unimpressed so far, I was definitely looking more forward to dessert.

I hate when paper menus are dirty. If one gets dirty, you should throw it away since they’re just paper. Dirty menus are seriously unappetizing in my opinion, but maybe I’m just being nit-picky.

Anyways, Bryant didn’t want a dessert because he was full, but I saved room and got a box for my risotto. Which the waitress boxed up for me! Love to see it.

I ending up picking the basque style cheesecake, as it seemed like the most unique thing on the menu:

An ube basque cheesecake with a mango passionfruit glaze and whipped cream. Y’all. Y’all. I was going to tell y’all to pass on Lindey’s, but I change my mind. Go to Lindey’s, sit at the bar for like fifteen minutes, and just get this cheesecake. It is so good, my mind was honestly blown by this cheesecake. It’s perfectly sweet and creamy with just the right amount of ube flavor, and the mango passionfruit glaze is bursting with fresh, tangy, tropical flavor that contrasts the cheesecake amazingly. This slice was twelve dollars and it was worth every penny. This is a prime example of why I say dessert is the best part of the meal. Holy cannoli.

After all that, we still had some time before the concert, so I got a pot of tea to sip on since it was so dreary and rainy out. Listed on their dessert menu under specialty teas, I opted for their chai, which was $4.50 and came like this:

Our waitress also brought out some sugar packets for me, as well. I enjoyed the tea. The tag said it was Hubbard & Cravens. It was nice to sip on while we waited for the check.

Before we left, I decided to use the restroom. I almost never mention this in my posts over restaurants but I secretly judge the heck out of a place by its bathrooms. Anywhere that offers free menstrual products automatically gets bonus points.

Anyways, I asked where it was, and the waitress said it was up a small set of stairs and to the left. So I went up there and when I went through the door, I noticed it was really narrow. Like awkwardly so. And then I noticed that there were two stalls, neither of which were handicap accessible. Hmm.

When I got back to the table, I asked the waitress if there was a different bathroom that was handicap accessible. She said no, and that their building isn’t ADA compliant. To even get in the front door is an obstacle to those in a wheelchair. I was shocked to hear this. How could a fine dining establishment in Columbus not be handicap accessible? She said that it’s because it’s considered a “historic building” they’re not allowed to change any of the structure. It has to remain intact the way it is to preserve its historical-ness or something.

That is so totally bogus, man. I don’t care how historic a building is, y’all can find a way to make it accessible for everyone. That is truly unreal to me.

All in all, I did not care for Lindey’s. I thought it was tacky instead of classy, middling food for high prices, and has incredibly ugly dishware and menus. The best part of our experience was our waitress, who was an absolute peach and a wonderful server. She was extremely friendly, and even complimented my hair! The service and cheesecake really improved Lindey’s score in my mind.

Moving on from dinner, the Stardew Concert was something I was really looking forward to. Bryant is actually the one that got me into Stardew in the first place, so I have him to thank for my sporadic obsessive playing and love of the game and music. If you’ve never played Stardew Valley, it is a truly wonderful game, with an awesome pixel art style, super fun and unique music, and so much exploring, foraging, crafting, cooking, fishing, combat, oh man it’s seriously loaded with tons of different stuff to do, you’ll seriously never get bored of it.

For the concert, we were quite a few rows back but right on the aisle, so it was a pretty clear view straight ahead to the stage. There was an absolute monster of a line for the merch table, but you could also just scan a QR code and buy your merch from their online shop. Granted, it took like a week for it to come in and you had to pay for shipping, but I figured that was better than waiting in that line and then having to hold everything awkwardly the entire time.

There were quite a few people in cosplay of the characters from the game, and I even saw a really good Emily and Clint couple (which I also kind of hated because I hate Clint and he doesn’t deserve to be with Emily!).

The orchestra played the songs alongside a screen that either showed gameplay, or showed fanart-type backgrounds of locations from the game, like the farm and the traveler’s cart.

Honestly, the music was rough. The pianist continuously messed up in every single song, and was also the loudest and most prominent part of the orchestra. She fudged up the notes constantly, and the banjo was no better. Some of our favorite songs were just kind of butchered by the piano alone. There was one song that was strictly string instruments (not the banjo) and they absolutely nailed it. The violins were perfect and beautiful and I wished there were more songs that had just them.

The conductor mentioned that all the musicians literally showed up at the venue that day and they barely got any practice in beforehand, and it was apparent.

Also, the person DIRECTLY behind me was coughing up a lung the entire time and I was not only extremely annoyed, but I was also having health anxiety and fearing that I was going to get COVID or something from her, so that was unpleasantly distracting on a number of levels.

Plus, we parked in a lot right next to the theater, which only had about twenty spots total, and was twenty bucks to park in. Only to come back to the the car and see that we (and so many others) were trapped in their spots because they had people parked to the gills in this dang parking lot, with so many cars parked everywhere that everyone was blocked in by other vehicles. Rows and rows of blocked in cars! So we had to sit in our car for like twenty minutes before everyone finally made it back to their car and everyone was able to actually move their cars and leave. It was insanity. How are they allowed to do that (“they” being the parking lot operators that told everyone which spot/where to park)?!

If you’re wondering what merch we got, I got the Void Chicken keychain and Bryant got the White Chicken keychain, and then I got the poster and of course I had to get the Junimo t-shirt. Shit was expensive.

Anyways, by this point we were very full and very tired, so it was another decently early night. Second day in Columbus in the books!

Are you a big fan of brunch? Have you heard of either of the books we bought? If you’ve tried Lindey’s before, did you have a better experience than us? Do you love Stardew Valley? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/28/a-mini-vacay-in-columbus-part-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57936

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/28/the-big-idea-keith-r-a-decandido-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57982

As if solving crimes wasn’t a hard enough job, you throw mystic and magical mayhem into the mix and you’ve got a whole new world of trouble. Enter the Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD, author Keith R. A. DeCandido’s newest novel, where he presents just the team for the job. Follow along in his Big Idea to see why this, of all his novels, was his favorite to write.

KEITH R. A. DeCANDIDO:

I do not have a sole answer to the question, “what are your favorite things to write?”

My favorite things to write are police procedurals. Growing up watching Barney Miller and Hill Street Blues instilled in me the love of a good cop story. Part of it is the fun of solving a crime, which is a process that fiction has made fantastic use of ever since Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a guy named Dupin who figured out that a brutal murder was carried out by an orangutan. Part of it is the struggle detectives have when the ability to solve those crimes is reliant upon the vicissitudes of politics and budget. And a big part of it is the verbal dance that goes on in an interview, as the detective uses the interrogative process and no small amount of rhetorical trickery to glean the truth from a person who is reluctant to provide it.

Plus, investigators are often fun characters to write, from the hyper-observant genius of a Sherlock Holmes to the eccentricities of Nero Wolfe or Miss Marple or Adrian Monk or Charlie Cale to the hardened cynicism of the veteran city cop trying to close a homicide case.

My favorite things to write are fantasy stories involving creatures from myth. Years ago, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on the air, I saw a panel at San Diego Comic-Con that included several of the cast-members as well as creator/show-runner Joss Whedon. Someone asked Whedon about his research process for the demons and such on the show, and he grinned and said he just made stuff up, describing his creative process thusly: “Put a horn on it and give it a history.”

I am abject in my love for Buffy (if not for Whedon as a human being), but this always struck me as a missed opportunity. It would have been so much fun to see Buffy and the Scooby gang go up against monsters from European, Japanese, Zoroastrian, or African mythology.

Indeed, one of the Buffy novels I wrote (The Deathless in 2007) made use of Russian mythology, with Baba Yaga, Bulat the Brave, and Koschei the Deathless all involved in a story set in 1990s Sunnydale, California.

So much folklore and mythology is out there to play with and do new takes on—which is what storytellers have been doing with these bits of cultural zeitgeist for as long as there have been humans. 

My favorite things to write are stories that take place in my hometown of New York City. There are other cities on this Earth that can claim to be the greatest city on Earth, but they’re all wrong, and while I admit that this is a biased statement, it’s one that comes from more than five decades of living here.

This city has everything: crowds and empty spaces, overpriced entertainments and free enjoyments, the finest gourmet meals and the cheapest fast food, shopping for every tax bracket, museums, zoos, theatres, concert venues, and every other damn thing. If it’s obtainable, chances are you can obtain it here. 

Plus the people. Every type of human imaginable—and some unimaginable—are here, and we all live together in this densely packed metropolis.

And there are millions of them, and they all have stories to tell. I’m proud to say that I’ve told dozens, if not hundreds, of stories set in my city, with no end in sight.

My favorite things to write combine at least two of the above three things. My very first short story (“An Evening in the Bronx with Venom,” written with John Gregory Betancourt, in The Ultimate Spider-Man in 1994) and my very first novel (1998’s Spider-Man: Venom’s Wrath, written with José R. Nieto) each combined the first and third—and the second, if we decide that superheroes count as American mythology (and they really kinda do). So did my solo novel Spider-Man: Down These Mean Streets in 2005.

I’ve combined two or three of the above so many other times, in tie-in novels (Supernatural: Nevermore, CSI: NY: Four Walls), in short stories (“Prezzo” in Weird Tales:100 Years of Weird, “Streets of Fire” in V-Wars: Night Terrors), and in many of my original novel series (the Dragon Precinct books and stories, the Super City Police Department novel and short fiction, and the Adventures of Bram Gold novels and short pieces).

I particularly like blending the quotidian, almost mundane details of the life of a criminal investigator with the crazy-ass elements of the fantastical, whether it’s magic-users, superheroes, or mythological creatures.

My favorite thing to write is Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD. My latest series, which debuts today from the Weird Tales Presents imprint of Blackstone Publishing, combines all three of the elements above, and it is my favorite of the sixty novels I’ve written to date.

First of all, we’ve got New York City, and a cast of characters who embody the diversity, the seen-it-all cynicism, and just the general complexity of the people here. This is primarily represented in the members of the NYPD’s newest special squadron, the titular Supernatural Crimes Unit, which handles misdemeanors and felonies that involve magic and/or monsters.

There’s Detective Domenica Kiernan, an Italian-American woman of diminutive height and unlimited attitude; Detective Luis Ortega, who has seen everything in four decades on the job; Detective Liam Grullon, who has a secret he’s keeping even from his fellow detectives; Detective Vinny Fiore, who has “a guy” for all situations, usually a relative or in-law; Detective Sofia Umali, whose comparative religion classes in college didn’t prepare her for this job nearly as much as she thinks it does; civilian archivist/occult expert Basia Pietri, whose hair is a different color each week, and who knows quite a bit about the SCU’s mandate (of course she has a podcast); Sergeant Simeon Hawkins, who has very little street experience, but whose knowledge of the weird rivals Basia’s; and Lieutenant Stan “the Major” Majorowicz, the ex-Marine who rides herd on the squad. Not to mention the various informants and consultants and such, from the Gitaus, a married couple who are paranormal private investigators, to Pasquier Valapart, a three-hundred-year-old vampire who owns a BDSM club in SoHo.

Secondly, there’s the different mythical creatures who aren’t so mythical. Like the city itself, we’ve got lore from all the folks, so to speak: a kappa (from Japanese myth) on City Island in the Bronx who has murdered one of his housemates; a Taotie (from Chinese legend) committing robberies in Chinatown; a shape-changing domovoy (from Russian folklore) who has committed assault in Queens, and who has resisted arrest and escaped imprisonment; and a contingent of Zoroastrian demons whose arrival on 125th Street may spell doom for the city…

And thirdly, we’ve got the aforementioned mix of the drudgery of a police investigation mixed with the fantastical: Kiernan having to requisition a new set of silver bullets after firing her last one at the domovoy. The medical examiner having to deal with the corpse of a likely murder victim being magically liquefied before the autopsy can be performed. A precinct trying to pretend that a homeless stabbing victim was killed by a vampire (two of the stab wounds are to the neck, and they could be bites…), so SCU will take it and the nigh-unsolvable murder won’t be counted as part of their precinct’s crime statistics. 

Being able to combine (forgive me) a few of my favorite things has been an absolute joy for me as a writer, and it is my fond hope that it will bring a similar joy to you as a reader. So if you like reading about the Big Apple, or about cryptids and creatures from all around the world, or about a snarky, cynical bunch of co-workers trying to do a job that’s difficult enough without factoring the supernatural into it, and especially if you like all three, Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD may very well be the book for you!

Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s|Audible|Kobo

Author socials: Website|Facebook|Instagram|Bluesky|TikTok

Read an excerpt.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/28/the-big-idea-keith-r-a-decandido-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57982