"Weekend in Columbus, Ohio: with charm and beer" Columbus by gkitzmil

I was asked by the Ohio State Fair to come judge beer -- yes, beer! There are many brewing competitions and I judge quite a few a year, from the Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky fairs to events from Nashville, TN, to Chicagoland. Lucky me.

The Ohio State Fair provided me with hotel accomodations for the weekend so I did not make a choice but the Hotel was quite comfortable.

I discovered that Columbus has several inner city districts: Arena District is near north, Brewery District is near SouthWest, and German Village is near south.

Columbus also has a modest skyline but also some very interesting historic buildings.

But then.... I came for beer! Though I only had Friday evening and Saturday evening when I was not judging at their State Fair location, I found four brewpubs and one nice old German hang-out pub.

I knew Gordon Biersch had a brewery here and that was my only destination for delightful beer and wonderful dinner on Friday!

It seems there would be great living downtown and great wandering of pubs and clubs especially in the Arena District and the German Village!

The pic is of a street in the Arena District which actually had about five restaurants.

• Pros:Fairly urban with several nice districts in the center
• Cons:cold in winter... glad I went in Summer
• In a nutshell:Midwest.... but with good beer and fund