After some more exploring in Short North, we got hungry again and stopped by Tasi for a late brunch. It’s tucked away in an alley off of the main High Street strip. It is a casual place where you order at the counter and they bring the food to you when ready. They aim for seasonal, all natural, and healthy dishes. They also have a variety of breads and pastries baked daily.

The bro’s Italian Stallion sandwich! Mortadella, salami, coppa, sweet peppers, onions, and tomato aioli served in an olive oil loaf.  A delicious italian hoagie-like sandwich!

My ma’s toasted croissant sandwich with fried egg, canadian bacon, and swiss cheese, served with a side of fresh fruit.

My Huevos Rancheros with black bean cake. These black bean cakes were basically quesadillas, but instead of being filled with cheese and chicken or something, it’s filled with a little cheese and crushed black beans. What a fantastic idea. And instead of being eaten with salsa, you eat it with the accompanying poached eggs and sauce, gravy, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t know what this stuff is, but I know it tastes good and I loved it. The whole dish was new and great. The staff is nice and friendly. There’s little interaction with them since it’s a get-a-number and mostly serve yourself kind of place. W found this gem from a local Columbus blog, and we’re glad she did!

On July 4th, Columbus has an odd tradition called the Doo Dah Parade. I don’t know anything about it, but it’s an excuse for locals to get dressed up in weird costumes and parade about in the heat. In the midst of it all, we got some brunch in the Short North neighborhood at Northstar Cafe. It’s a nice, clean, and modern cafe that emphasizes simple and organic foods. It was a Sunday, and they only had the brunch menu available.

You put in your oder and get a number. You also get your own drinks and your own silverware. When ready, they deliver you the food to you. It’s actually quite efficient.
My mom’s sweet potato and turkey hash. With sweet potato, applewood smoked turkey, red peppers, sweet onions, and two sunny-side-up eggs, we all agreed this was our favorite.

The bro’s Cowboy Breakfast. He got two locally grown, organic eggs over-hard, sausage, and a warm biscuit with jam. I don’t know where my bro’s love for breakfast sausage came for. I don’t care for it at all. This biscuit was huge and epic.

Here are my Cloud Nine Pancakes. These are three huge ricotta pancakes served with real maple syrup and banana. These were excellent, but I could only eat one! I loved that it came with mushy butter that melted on the pancakes right away. This is a very popular spot with the locals and I can definitely see why. It’s great food at reasonable prices, especially for brunch.

I was in Orland to work a trade show with my company. This particular trade show is the BIG one of the year and well, it was rather overwhelming. The space at the Orange County Convention Center was absolutely ginormous. I’d never experienced something of its sheer vastness. The thought of feeding this number of people all day long is kind of mindboggling. There was hot breakfast, but I never made it to that as I was on my feet and working from very early in the day. Luckily, there were stations all around the main show floor with breakfast snacks. I think I took all of the bananas near me and took full advantage of the fruit cups. I only wish they had some yogurt.

The proper lunches were hot and served in the official dining area, which was huge. There were three stations: mediterranean salad, italian, american carvery. And for the three days, it was the same food, every day. Same three options, same dishes at each station. It was disappointing, to say the least. I ended up eating at the italian pasta station every day. The other two stations just did not appeal to me at all. So it ended up being pasta with red sauce and sausage. I wasn’t very impressed. The sausage was ok, but the pasta was overcooked, which tends to happen when you’re cooking for thousands.

In the afternoon, they tended to set out several snack options at various stations. There would be chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate. Sometimes, they had donut holes. They didn’t particularly care to have healthy snacks.

On one of the nights right towards the end of the day, they had a little reception thing and offered more snacks as well as beer, wine, and cocktails. More donuts, sweets, chocolates, mini salads, fruits and cheeses, and shrimp cocktail.

I liked these little mozzarella and tomato shooters. I’m a big fan of food shooters it seems!
They even had sushi, fried rice, and pad thai, and takeaway containers, which made it all kind of cute. But overall, it was just ok. The lunch was the biggest disappointment. Keep the same three stations every day, I can understand, but mix the options up a bit. Is it that hard to come up with different pastas for 3 days? I think not!