Playful chefs have cooked up some of the best sandwiches at Goood Friends Downtown
After nearly a decade of writing about restaurants in these pages, when it came time to pick my last scheduled Dispatch review (it had to happen sometime), I wanted a no-brainer — a friendly and unfussy place that was new and that I assumed would entertain me with carefree fun and great food.
So, I chose an offshoot of mighty Wario’s Beef and Pork — the undisputed heavyweight sandwich champion of Columbus — that’s physically connected to festive Jackie O’s On Fourth, the new Downtown branch of the terrific, Athens-based brewery.
Frankly, this place’s amiable name even beckoned me to choose it for a lively farewell party and upbeat swan song: Goood Friends, as in it’s so good that it requires an extra “o.”
Maybe that’s, umm, “koooky?” But it does cohere with the operation’s devil-may-care and let-it-rip spirit. Besides, after annihilating a few extravagant sandwiches, I decided this eatery’s title was perfectly “ookay” with me.
Who has the best wings in Columbus? Try these 7 eateries
Except for its fabulously indulgent dishes — a big “except” — you don’t actually see much of Goood Friends at Jackie O’s: Food orders are made via QR code, and then, after receiving a timely text, picked up at a window abutting a remote, rear patio. There is a lot of Jackie O’s to see, though.
It’s a sprawling, multilevel complex whose crisscrossing ramps, stairs and pathways evoke a never-made M.C. Escher artwork of a brewery linked to three bars, a scenic rooftop hangout and several beer garden-like areas.
Appreciated labor and expense have reconfigured an older, industrial-looking space into a modern and comfortable place. Expect good furniture and nice outdoor picnic tables underneath ceiling fans and amidst fire pits and sports-tuned, silent TVs.
From rustic wooden accents to abundant plants, amusing knick-knacks (especially as displayed on a stunning, two-story wall), Downtown vistas and splashy murals on vintage brickwork, interesting images abound. Ditto for delicious beers brewed in a variety of styles by Jackie O’s.
What I’ve described might conjure a potentially chaotic, “party-hardy” scene. But during my visits, although enormous and sometimes packed beyond the rafters onto the rooftop, Jackie O’s was always humming along efficiently.
“Enormous” and “efficient” could be used to describe Goood Friends, too. While recently opened, its enormous sandwiches and other delights were efficiently prepared in scant minutes.
Credit a “supergroup”-like team led by kitchen pros with serious skills and playful ideas: Stephan Madias (Wario’s chef/founder) and Tyler Minnis (chef/owner of dearly departed Angry Bear Kitchen; former chef at The Market Italian Village and Law Bird).
Subs aren’t featured a la Wario’s, but Goood Friends’ massive sandwiches will sink your hunger with a Wario’s-esque, more-is-more sensibility. Another Wario’s similarity: Goood Friends locally sources Matija Breads, whose superior products hold together despite a flagrant overloading.
The aptly named Juicy Jackie ($13) is a characteristically huge riff on an Oklahoma onion burger. Typical of the fare here, its spins and twists add to, instead of diminishing from, the original model’s appeal.
Oodles of noodles: These 4 Columbus eateries offer primo pasta
Its base is a perfectly toasted, excellent bun encasing two sizable beef patties umami-boosted with mushrooms. Adding to the 19-napkins-needed fun are American cheese, zippy house pickles, caramelized onions, crispy fried onion strings and multiple house condiments (that included mayo and mustard).
The likewise gloriously messy Warby's Melt ($14) is essentially a far better and bigger Arby’s beef and cheddar. Tender, juicy, house-cooked roast beef (really good, even if mine could’ve used a pinch of salt) was piled high enough for monstrous appetites and flattered with scratch-made versions of the expected sauces onslaught.
For another dressed-up, downscale classic, order the After School Snack ($13). It's a bunch of bologna, but that weighty meat disc was appealingly charred and gently smoke-scented. Add bold pickles, American cheese, shaved onions, a mayo-mustard-based sauce, salt-and-vinegar potato chips and fantastic, Texas toast-like bread, and you have an overachieving, oversized bologna sandwich. This is just a snack the same way Ohio State is just a school.
More crunchy, wonderful toast housed the best new veggie sandwich in town: The outstanding BeefSteak ($11), with ripe and juicy red tomatoes playing off tart and pickled yellow and green tomatoes, all showcased by bright bursts of citrus (from cured lemon) melded to tangy and fragrant ranch (made with ramps), plus fresh basil and dill. Bibb lettuce, shaved onion and “everything bagel crunchies” added to the garden party in my mouth.
Goood Friends also cooks the biggest and best new fish sandwich in town. Its name — Filet-O-Walleye ($15) — informs you that it’s modeled after the old McDonald’s favorite, but it features a major fish upgrade. And that whale of a gigantic, panko-crusted, fresh filet (mine had skin on one side) was fried to crunchy, grease-free perfection and treated to house-made tartar sauce, good lettuce, house pickles and American cheese.
A heaving slab of battered breast meat was likewise expertly fried in the Ol Faithful ($14), a chicken sandwich accessorized with hot honey, chile, pickles and prominently truffled Delice de Bourgogne (brie-like) cheese. That last flourish gave this an unusual yet enjoyable flavor profile.
Because cheese sauce and honey often clash on my palate, I found the well-made, funnily named Trashy Spuds ($14) — smashed, fried, audibly crinkly fingerlings with cheese sauce, honey, Sichuan-style chile crisp, scallions, pickled and truffle notes — a case of the lily being a little over-gilded.
Though a tad salty, the crunchy, golden-brown fingerlings with only seasoned salt were a more manageable sandwich companion (smashed spuds, $6). But my favorite potatoes were the firm fingerlings partnered with green beans, onions and fresh dill in a kicky potato salad (a recent salad du jour menu-listed under “FarmersOnly.salad”; $6).
Still, my overall favorite side was the addictive and inspired loaded corn ($7): Knob-like segments of a seemingly unimprovable dish — Mexican-style elote — with the crispy and zippy crushed pepperoni you never knew was lacking in the spicy, tangy, sweet, salty and rich corn-based classic.
The PB&J Mooon Pie ($6) answers a lengthy culinary question: What do you get if you combine a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a Moon Pie, a s’more, a fluffernutter, a black-and-white cookie, chocolate-covered espresso beans and corn cakes? While this sticky, moderate-sized hybrid treat was somewhat hard to pry from its plastic container and should be eaten with a lubricating drink — like Jackie O’s standout Russian imperial stout — it’s easy to make good friends with.
As dessert is finished, my Dispatch-reading, well, goood friends, it's time for me to bow out and say that sharing my words with you through all these meals and years has been great fun. I hope you had some fun, too. And I’m not completely going away.
But for now — with PB&J Mooon Pie still on my breath, face and easy chair — I fondly bid “gooodbye” to this regular Weekender space.
gabenton.dispatch@gmail.com
Goood Friends inside Jackie O's on Fourth
Where: 171 N. 4th St., Downtown
Contact: hello@eatgooodfriends.com, eatgooodfriends.com
Hours: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; closed Monday and Tuesday
Price range: $11 to $15
Ambience: quick, friendly and efficient, snack bar-style business that operates, via QR-code orders, from a rear window at a huge, friendly and efficient new brewery with ample seating at multiple attractive spaces like a rooftop patio
Children's menu: no
Reservations: no
Accessible: yes
Liquor license: full bar (Jackie O's)
Quick click: Gloriously indulgent sandwiches, produced by talented and playful veteran chefs, star at this terrific new spinoff from Wario’s Beef and Pork.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Goood Friends offering indulgent sandwiches in Downtown Columbus
