A Weekend in Zanesville

My husband is from Zanesville, Ohio, and for those of you who are not familiar, it is about one hour east of Columbus.  There are many things I love about visiting Zanesville.  I especially like the slower pace of the city, the great views of the countryside, and of course, the food!  I haven't tried a lot of places here because we go back to some of our favorites often.  We usually go to an Italian place called Adornetto's, one of my favorites, but did not this trip.  We did, however, go to another local favorite called Olde Falls Inn. 

Olde Falls Inn is the kind of place where everyone seems to know everyone.  The food is always good and you don't have to wait for a long time for a table, if you wait at all.  We went on a Friday night and didn't have to wait at all.  When you walk in, there is a list of specials written on a board; this night, the special was prime rib.  Olde Falls Inn's menu is very diverse.  There are burgers, salads, seafood, steaks, and sandwiches.  Ross ALWAYS gets the burger, so that was not a surprise.  Many things sounded good to me, but I opted for the reuben sandwich with a side salad.  The salad came out first.  One thing I have noticed in many restaurants in Zanesville, is they ask you if want to add cheese to your salad.  There aren't really other toppings on the salad, but I always add cheese because everyone else does.  I chose Itialian dressing with the salad.  This was a good a salad.  Even though there wasn't many toppings, it was good.  I really liked the dressing. 

My sandwich on the other hand, was just okay.  I thought it had too much sauerkraut and not enough corned beef and thousand island dressing.  The bread was toasted, but a little soggy.  I probably wouldn't order this sandwich again. I do love the pickles that come with the sandwiches though.

Ross was pleased with his burger as usual.  It was served with fries and he had a salad as well.  I think the burger was a bit overcooked, but he didn't complain.

My father-in-law ordered the prime rib special with a baked potato and salad.  I tried the prime rib and it was good.  I don't really eat prime rib often, but I thought this was good.  He really liked it as well. 

My mother-in-law just went with a baked potato and salad, which were both to her liking.  Service here was good as well.  Many people that eat here come here often, so they know what to expect. 

As we were sitting at dinner, my father-in-law mentioned a frozen custard place that I had never been to before.  This sounded fantastic!  I had to go.  So, we went on over to Whit's Frozen Custard on Maple Ave. 

Whit's offers frozen custard that is made fresh daily.  I didn't realize until I went to the website that there are locations ALL over Ohio, including Lebanon which is closest to us.  I would definitely go back here because this was delicious!  Whit's offers vanilla and chocolate custard every day and then they have a special flavor weekly.  This week's flavor was butter pecan, which is not typically a favorite of mine, so I went with the traditional vanilla with cheese cake bites as a topping.  These were also very yummy!  They were soft and chewy with a little crust on the outside. 

My father-in-law got the butter pecan which he liked very much as well.

It's probably going to seem like all we did on this weekend trip was eat.  We did do this a lot.  The next day, we traveled north (I think) to visit Amish Country, eat cheese, and visit a winery.  This was such a pretty drive.  It is very interesting to see how the Amish live and to try some of their homemade food items. 

I don't know a lot about the Amish lifestyle, but apparently they don't use electricity; however, the weed wacker helps out. 

After trying a couple cheese places, we decided to have lunch at a restaurant called Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen.

Everything here was homemade.  They have a lunch buffet daily and a salad bar available as well. I can be pretty particular about salad bars, but when I walked by this one it looked sooo fresh. All the ingredients just looked delicious.  We sat down and looked at the menu which was on the placemat.  (I also noticed at many restaurants in Zanesville they give you paper placemats that many companies advertise on, this placemat had the menu). 

Mrs. Yoder's had many options like meatloaf, soups, BBQ ribs, pork chops, and fresh bread. Since we had just tried lots of cheeses, I decided to get soup and the salad bar.  I chose the cheesy vegetable soup which was fantastic!  I was a bit unsure what to expect when she said the vegetable soup had cheese in it, but this was great.  It had fresh veggies and not a lot of cheese, more of a cream.  A delicious soup.

The homemade bread was probably one of the best breads I have had in a really long time.  It was warm, soft, and a bit sweet.  Mrs. Yoder's also makes homemade "jam" and a peanut butter spread for the bread; I tried both and preferred the jam.

Here is a picture of the fresh salad bar.

 

My father-in-law went with the lunch buffet which included a vareity of fried chicken, meatloaf, and other items.  He said this was some of the best fried chicken (apart from some place in Kentucky) that he has had. He loved it.

Ross decided to get the grilled cheese with the salad bar.  The waitress, who was so sweet and did a fantastic job, asked if he wanted American or Swiss cheese.  He went with swiss and ended up not loving it.  He wished he would have gotten the American.

Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen was very good and service was fantastic as well.  It was reasonably priced with fresh ingredients.  If I lived closer, I would go back just for that soup, salad, and bread!  Looks like many of the locals enjoy it too as they parked across the way here:

We drove back to Zanesville after a stop at Breitenbach Winery in Dover, OH.  I thought the wines here were okay...many fruity and sweet wines, I liked the blackberry and my father-in-law really likes the peach. I just typically like more dry red wines.  This winery also had a great outdoor area with great live music!

That night, after our ride home and a couple hours resting at home, we decided to head out again for dinner.  My mother-in-law suggested a restaurant that is near Weasel Boy Brewery that Ross wanted to go to after dinner, called Jack Havana's Wing Revolution ( couldn't find a website). When we drove up,  I noticed that you could not miss this place. It is a bright pink building, has a nice little patio out front, and a light up martini glass on the side of the building. 

We decided to eat indoors, which was a great atmosphere. This restaurant definitely wants to give off a Caribbean feel. There are bright colors, writing on the walls, lots of pictures and paintings along the walls.  It wasn't too crowded, so we were told we could sit anywhere we wanted.  We chose some comfy chairs with armrests, they were very comfy!  As our waitress arrived, she told us some of the beers they have on draft and, per my request, told us some of her favorite items.  They are known for their wings, so Ross opted for their boneless wings with one of their signature sauces.  I can't remember what sauce he got, but I tried these and thought they were great!  Spicy but not too spicy to where you can't eat them, meaty, and had a great flavor.  I really liked these. 

I had a really hard time deciding what to get.  Everything on the menu sounded good to me.  They had fish, po' boys, wraps, burgers, wings, a variety of salads and sandwiches.  I decided to go with a sandwich that the waitress said was her favorite.  I was soo torn, but I decided to get this because it wasn't like anything I had ever heard before: it was roasted turkey with cream cheese and a homemade "fruit" spread.  The homemade sauce tasted like a berry jam type sauce and was really good.  The turkey was good as well.  I thought there was a bit too much cream cheese on this sandwich, but I am glad I got it.  It truly was unique and I probably won't be able to get this anywhere else!  The fries were great as well! 

One thing that was nice here that they offer is a "smaller" burger.  I forget exactly, but it was a bit bigger than a traditional slider.  My mother-in-law decided to get this with a cup of soup.  She thought this was pretty good and seemed to really enjoy her soup. 

I forget what kind of soup she got, but she liked it.

My father-in-law ordered the black bean soup with a panini type sandwich. He really loved this soup and thought it was fantastic! I tried it, and I thought it was good as well, but I'm a sucker for Skyline's black beans and rice :)  He thought his sandwich was just okay.

OK....so I know this was a really long post, but I hope you beared with me to see all these great places!  I truly enjoy all the local favorites Zanesville has to offer.  If you have any other suggestions for the future of places to try in Zanesville, please let me know! 

Olde Falls Inn:                                 Whit's                         Mrs. Yoder's                Jack Havana's
Food: 2                                            Food: 4                       Food: 4                          Food: 3
Service: 3                           (no service since walk-up)         Service: 4                    Service: 3.5
Overall Experience: 3                                        Overall Experience: 4       Overall Experience: 4

~Kate