Columbus Elites Get Spooked by Local Spirits

It was Halloween, so of course Columbus yelpers had to celebrate! Elites and their guests dressed in their funniest, scariest, and most creative get-ups for Yelp's "Haunted" Local Spirits Crawl prepared to enjoy a night of "adult trick-or-treating." But in this case, the only tricks were tricks of the trade learned from tour guides and owners of the participating local "spirit" producers.

Stop ONE: Middle West Spirits wowed with a tour of their distillery and a lesson in spirit-making. "The owners are passionate and we got a mini science lesson and some insider tips on vodka marketing," explains Liz M. The surprise of the night was when "they unveiled the new Stone Fruit vodka to us," before announcing to the public, "AND let us smell it!" And "the taste test between Grey Goose and OYO really opened my eyes. I think I'll proudly stock my shelf with some OYO now," she declared. Paired with tasty snacks from Union Café and pizzas from Press Grill, appetites were beyond satisfied.

Brothers Drake Mead was stop TWO. Black lights casted a spooky glow over the the local artwork while yelpers sipped mead and tried pure, local honey. The tour emphasized the importance of eating organically and locally while frighteningly delicious finger foods from Hubbard Grille fed our hungry ghouls or boys.

Our FINAL stop along the crawl was Camelot Cellars. "Gangsta" hostess and owner of Camelot, Janine, along with crazy scientist and general manager, Rick, led a wine tasting of three wines including ghoulish Gewürztraminer, creepy Chianti and Zombie Zinfandel! Meanwhile, Short North Kroger supplied fantastic fall fare that took Bryant M for a whirl: "Who knew how good the catering was from our new, neighborhood Kroger?! It's Kroghetto no more!" Indeed.

Awards were given out to yelpers who had the scariest, funniest and best Halloween costumes. Most creative went to an adorable bag of leaves, scariest went to a wolf (who was accompanied by little red riding hood), and funniest costume went to a “gold digger” in a shiny miner’s costume.   

Enchanting, eerie event photos from photographer Leigh Fouts can be found on our Flickr page here. And head over here to read or write a review of the festivities! 

Thanks for a SPOOKtacular evening! Until the next one,

Christina C

**Kudos to fall Yelp Columbus intern, Katie C for writing such a great event recap!