T
he smell of cooking oils, onions and garlic and smoke
can stick to you like Velcro. That seemed the overall
sentiment of the patrons, especially professionals, who
frequented the restaurants that help defne Columbus, Ohio's
beloved North Market area.
The stigma of "smelling like the market" was just too
great to risk, they claimed.
Oddly, the smells and rich airborne aromas at North Mar-
ket are an important part of the generously sensual experience
that customers – more than a million each year – have come
to enjoy. The cultural mix, the wide
variety of vendor offerings, the colors,
taste and textures commingle with
the wafting fragrance of it all.
"That mix of goodness is highly
prized here," says Rick Harrison
Wolfe, the market's executive di-
rector. "Though, over the years, our
ventilation woes became something we needed to deal with."
And there's plentiful "goodness" in the mix at North
Market – Best of the Wurst, a mix of fne brats with Bangkok
cuisine, The Fish Guys, which offers some of the freshest,
line-caught fsh in town, and Holy Smoke BBQ, just to name a
few of the many food vendors.
Clearing
the
By John Vastyan
Columbus, Ohio's
beloved North Market
gets a ventilation
makeover
air
94 COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION & RENOVATION — MAY : JUNE 2016