Tupelo Honey Cafe launched its initial foray into the Ohio market here in our very own Columbus (well, Upper Arlington). The operation serves up southern-style brunch, lunch and dinners with a conscientiously-sourced (“forever-free”) angle. Before we go much further, though, a nagging, wholly distracting question:
What is so special about tupelo honey (lowercase – the actual honey)?
Right? It’s got to have something special about it, because it’s the name of a burgeoning restaurant empire (and also a reference-point for a former local donut dispensary). There’s actually an answer to that question, and it doesn’t have anything to do with Tupelo, Mississippi. Tupelo honey comes from bees who spend their time pollenating tupelo trees. The pollination process leads to honey that allegedly is higher in fructose, and therefore more delicious.
Now, whether tupelo honey is really higher in fructose than all other honey was a little harder to verify. It tends to be higher, which helps explain why it has legend-status. That said, the menu at Tupelo Honey restaurants isn’t all that honey-centric. You could look for a long time and not see any items with bee-juice.
But at least we now understand the name.
So, let’s kick off the meal with warm biscuits with a vat of…nope, not honey: blueberry jam upon which floats a plump globe of whipped butter. The offering is good in the way that warm, enveloping biscuits are always transcendent, and the whipped butter element is value-added as it melts into the biscuit fabric. The formal name of the starter is Biscuits for a Cause ($4.50), and proceeds support an in-house account that provides funding to address urgent employee needs.
Staying in the southern lane, the appetizer section also features Famous Fried Green Tomatoes ($10.95). A good consolation for the fruits (pun intended) of off-season harvesting, the slices are firmly surrounded in a panko-based crackle coating and served on a big puddle of grits glazed with red pepper sauce. Green tomatoes are never going to deliver summer tomato flavor, but the crunch coating elevates them above what they’d otherwise achieve.
Chicken, fried or served with waffles, is a Tupelo Honey specialty, so guests can expect a decent selection of fried chicken options on the menu. Sriracha Honey Fried Chicken and Waffles leverages the sharp, well-defined heat of Sriracha to compliment the juicy house chicken. The crackling poultry parts, glazed in glistening sriracha sauce, are perched atop relentlessly perky waffles and forkfuls can be strategically parsed out to yield the optimized dose of spiked bird and sweet, syrupy sponge ($16.95).
Roast Beef Debris ($24.50) meanwhile comes with its irresistible name in the tradition of junkyard and garbage entrees found across the comfort-food-states. Achingly soft braised beef is served over grits infused with (blessedly) mild goat cheese. It’s enough goat cheese to give it a rich edge, but not so much that that dish ends up tasting like a barnyard. The combo is gilded with green beens, the house green tomato salsa and a halo of fried onions.
Dessert here is important. Banana Pudding ($4.50) is nearly an essential element in the southern dining experience. At Tupelo Honey, it is…heavenly. An order is crowned with whipped cream and nilla wafer fragments that create a light blanket for a show-stealing, cloud-like golden pudding base with bananas. Each spoonful demands a little pause of appreciation for its craftsmanship.
In the bar department, there’s the requisite options of beer, wine and a collection of house cocktails that includes a mocktail list with options such as Turmeric Ginger Tonic and Lavender Lemonade.
Tupelo Honey is open for lunch and dinner daily, and brunch too (on weekends). It can be found at 1678 W. Lane Ave.
For more information, visit tupelohoneycafe.com.
All photos by Susan Post