• Numerous restaurants opened in Columbus in April 2025, including several new locations for existing chains.
• A few restaurants closed, including 16-Bit Bar + Arcade and Apollo’s Greek Kitchen.
• Several new restaurants offer diverse cuisines, such as Filipino street food at Beep! Beep! and Haitian patties at Bibi’s Patties.

Spring is the season of renewal, and that carried over into the central Ohio restaurant scene in April.

In Italian Village, Budd Dairy Food Hall’s Filipino food vendor, Boni, was reborn as Beep! Beep!, and a Latin restaurant called Mezcla opened on Summit Street in the former home of The Market.

In Olde Towne East, a corner space once occupied by Yellow Brick Pizza and then Mikey’s Late Night Slice came alive again as Osteria. In Powell, Liberty Social Bar & Kitchen opened in the home of the former Gallop’s.

And Block’s Bagels reopened under its new name, Marx Bagels, on the Far East Side.

Here’s a rundown of restaurant openings and closings from April 2025.

Bada Bean Bada Booze

The fourth location for Columbus cafe-bar hybrid Bada Bean Bada Booze opened April 5 at 2157 Quarry Trails Drive, inside the Quarry Trails Metro Park, south of Upper Arlington. All four locations are part of Thrive Companies’ housing developments.

In addition to coffees, teas and cocktails, Bada serves a menu of sandwiches and sweets.

Beep! Beep!

Boni, the Filipino street-food vendor inside Budd Dairy Food Hall in Italian Village, reopened April 5 as Beep! Beep! The new name more closely reflects the culture of the Philippines — the honking of public-transport Jeepneys — but the new menu has expanded into other Asian cuisines.

Beep! Beep! serves chicken adobo and lumpia (Philippine eggrolls), but it now also offers dishes such as Taiwanese popcorn chicken, Thai-style drunken noodles and a Chinese-influenced steak and shrimp fried rice.

Bibi’s Patties

Haitian patties, an empanada-like puff pastry filled with chicken, spicy beef, fish or vegetables, is the specialty of Bibi’s Patties, which opened April 12 at 6086 Huntley Road on the North Side.

While her restaurant is new, owner Joseline Celestin’s business is not. She has been making and selling patties from her home since 2020.

Begin Cafe

Mike and Kayla Tompkins, who settled in central Ohio after vlogging their family’s cross-country travels by van, opened a coffee shop in Westerville on April 24.

Begin Cafe, 8 E. Main St. in the city’s Uptown, serves coffee, espresso, tea and matcha, with baked goods and small bites also available.

Binge

The newest business serving out of High Street Kitchens at 2864 N. High St. in Clintonville is a halal burger joint with Pakistani touches.

In addition to traditional American smashburgers and half-pound patties, Binge offers its take on Karachi’s anday wala burger, made with a mix of beef and lentils that’s topped with scrambled egg and crispy cabbage. The menu also includes a number of Pakistani (chicken biryani, kebabs, chickpea rice) and American (loaded fries, wings, tenders) dishes.  

Blackend Coffee Co.

After two years of pop-ups inside Ace of Cups, Blackend Coffee Co. opened up full-time on April 20 inside the University District bar and music hall at 2619 N. High St.

The coffee shop serves coffee and espresso, as well as vegan breakfast sandwiches, from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.

The Cafe on East 5th

Lori and Kevin Ames, Columbus restaurant veterans who most recently owned Downtown Tavern and Lola’s on South High Street, opened The Cafe on East 5th on April 17 in Weinland Park.

The new restaurant, at 300 E. Fifth Ave., seats 99 people and offers grab-and-go items for carryout. The menu includes ciabatta sandwiches (the sliced beef tenderloin with spicy peperonata, mushrooms, provolone and horseradish mayo sounds particularly tempting), crunchwraps, three takes on grilled cheese and panini sandwiches that are “smothered in cheese … both inside and out.”

Echo Spirits on the Vine

Echo Spirts on the Vine opened April 25 at the former Soine Vineyards winery in Delaware County at 3510 Clark-Shaw Road. It will be open on Fridays and Saturdays, with additional hours planned during summer.

The taproom serves wine produced by what’s now R&S Vineyards, cocktails from its own stock of spirits and local craft beers. It hosts live music and a rotation of food trucks.

Johnson’s Real Ice Cream

The expansion of homegrown Johnson’s Real Ice Cream continued in April with the opening of its eighth central Ohio shop. The newest, at 50 S. Liberty St. in Powell, is the second in the suburb. It opened April 17.

Juice Time

The owners of Juice Time promised free Dubai strawberry cups to the first 500 people who visited their dessert shop when it opened April 19. They estimated about 1,000 lined up.

Juice Time, at 1722 Hilliard Rome Road on the Far West Side, doesn’t stop at juice. Its menu includes milkshakes, ice cream, crepes and other sweets.

Liberty Social Bar & Kitchen

Chef Andre Saultz of the new Liberty Social Bar & Kitchen in Powell promises wings that will be “the best in Ohio, period.” The 240-seat restaurant opened April 26 at 240 N. Liberty St., in the former home of Gallop’s Bar & Kitchen and Gallo’s Tap Room.

Liberty Social serves burgers, sandwiches, pizza, wings and other pub fare. The restaurant also offers entrées such as lemon-herb or balsamic-cherry chicken, a 10-ounce New York strip, grilled lamb chops brushed with an orange and mint sauce and two salmon dishes.

Luna Pizza Kitchen

Eleven-year-old Luna Pizza Kitchen opened its fourth central Ohio pizzeria April 4 at 150 Hutchinson Ave. on the Far North Side. All four Luna locations — the others are in Dublin, near Gahanna and on the Northwest Side — serve pizza, stromboli and subs.

Marx Bagels

Block’s Bagels, the Far East Side deli that closed in March following the death of founder Harold “Hal” Block, reopened April 3 under the name of its new owner, Marx Bagels.

Cincinnati-based Marx uses the same recipe for its bagels as Block’s. Owner Y.Y. Davis told The Dispatch that Hal and Audrey Block were the original owners of Marx as well. In Columbus, the deli is located at 6115 McNaughten Road.

Mezcla

Latin American food and cocktails are front and center at Mezcla, which opened April 11 at 1022 Summit St. in Italian Village.

Mezcla’s menu has recognizable standards such as fish tacos — they come with burnt poblano mayo and habanero salsa — but also dishes such as a 40-ounce tomahawk pork chop with garlic sauce and sweet plantains, and duck thigh with a sour orange sauce. Cocktails, such as the Ooomami with tequila, tomato brine, chili liqueur, lager and lime, are similarly creative.

NuFlava Gourmet Kitchen

NuFlava Gourmet Kitchen, which offers glazed honey buns as an option for its smashburgers and fried-chicken sandwiches, reopened April 26 on the South Side after a move from the Essex Avenue ghost kitchen. The new address is 1542 Parsons Ave.

The restaurant offers build-your-own soul-food combos of burgers, Philly subs, wings and fries. Its cheesesteak line includes options of steak or chicken, with or without shrimp.

Osteria Pizzeria

Owners Brad Hobbs, Krista Sparks and Kevin Burns thought about calling their new Olde Towne East restaurant The Third Pizza Place at This Location Pizzeria. They opted instead to put it on the back of servers’ T-shirts at Osteria, which opened April 3 at 892 Oak St.

Osteria is in the former home of Yellow Brick Pizza (now at East Market) and Mikey’s Late Night Slice (now pretty much everywhere). Chef Sarah Rankin’s menu is more than pizza, however. The restaurant also serves pasta, subs and craft cocktails.

Sexton’s Pizza

Sexton’s Pizza opened its fourth location, at 5880 Evans Farm Drive in Lewis Center, on April 9. Brothers Joey and Jamey Sexton started their business as a food truck in 2016 before opening their first restaurant three years later.

Sourdough Pizza Bros

Upper Arington’s new Bob Crane Community Center has two gyms, a pool, treadmills, stationary bikes, pool tables, a running track — and pizza.

Sourdough Pizza Bros opened along with the center on April 6 at 3200 Tremont Road. Specials so far have included a Philly cheesesteak pie and a white pizza with burrata and truffles.

Chain openings: Del Taco, Mochinut, Paris Baguette…

Chick-fil-A: 680 Polaris Pkwy., Westerville

Del Taco: 8787 Owenfield Drive, Powell

I Scream Gelato: 2010 N. High St., University District

Mochinut: 994 W. Fifth Ave., Northwest Side

Paris Baguette: 1369 W. Lane Ave., Upper Arlington

Potbelly Sandwich Shop: 2108 N. High St., University District

Other dining news

The Original Goodie Shop makes life a bit sweeter in Upper Arlington: Our “Before the Buzz” on central Ohio’s legendary places to eat and drink continues with a visit to the 70-year-old local bakery known for its signature cinnamon sticks. The Original Goodie Shop has been owned and run by three generations of one local family.

Planned Downtown restaurant to offer hands-on food-service training: Service!, a nonprofit created during the pandemic to aid food-service workers, will open The Line as an opportunity to help people who want to join the field.

Staas Brewing Co. wins 2025 Central Ohio Brewery Bracket: After five weeks and more than 30,000 votes from readers of The Dispatch, Delaware’s Staas Brewing Co. emerged as the winner of the search for central Ohio’s favorite brewery.

BJ Lieberman plans Italian restaurant as next venture: The team behind Chapman’s Eat Market and Ginger Rabbit are working on a new restaurant called Metsi’s, which they plan to open around June. The Italian Village location will serve classic and modern Italian.

A Chicago Italian beef chain is looking to expand into Columbus: If you’ve seen “The Bear,” you’ve probably craved an Italian beef sandwich. Now, a third-generation chain from Italian beef’s hometown of Chicago wants to share its legendary sandwich with central Ohio.

Closings: 16-Bit, Apollo’s Greek Kitchen, Howl at the Moon…

Twelve years after bringing the dream of every 1980s kid to life (free video games, not 100-ounce beer towers) 16-Bit Bar + Arcade closed its original Columbus location on March 30. The bar, at 254 S. Fourth St., follows neighbors El Camino Inn and Little Palace, which have been squeezed out by development plans in that area of Downtown.

Apollo’s Greek Kitchen, 1758 N. High St., closed in early April after nearly 50 years in the University District. Sokol & Associates, a Columbus restaurant broker, said the location will become home to Burger Royale, which has been in business as a food truck since 2023.

Borgata Pizza Cafe, which sold huge New York slices at Budd Dairy Food Hall since its opening in 2021, ended its operations April 6 at the Italian Village venue. The pizzeria remains open at 2285 W. Granville Road in Worthington.

Howl at the Moon, 504 N. Park St. near North Market Downtown,, closed March 31, ending the Chicago-based chain’s second run in Columbus since the 1990s. It was located in the Brewery District back then, when the neighborhood south of Downtown was the city’s nightlife hub.

The Kee, which opened in 2023 as a restaurant, bar and event space at 225 Neilston St., announced in April that it will continue operations as an event space only. General manager Izzy Ochoa said the volume of rentals for private events were squeezing out the venue’s public hours.

Just a month after opening at 3708 Fishinger Blvd. east of Hilliard, Maison Skalli closed its patisserie there. Owners didn’t say exactly why, but they said on Instagram that they’ve “always wanted a space that truly reflects the heart and feel of Maison Skalli.” The shop at 2746 Festival Lane in Dublin remains open, and owners said they’re looking for a new second location.

Dining Reporter Bob Vitale can be reached at rvitale@dispatch.com or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.