Harvest Bar + Kitchen

45 N. High St.
Dublin, OH 43017
614.726.9919
website

There are a dozen ways to do pizza right in the Midwest, but wood-fired, true to the original style of pizza, certainly endures and has enjoyed a surge in recent popularity. Taking advantage of this, Harvest Bar + Kitchen has opened a few locations around Central Ohio taking people back to this much simpler way to making a good pie. Not just for the pizzas but a great set of cocktails and a general ambiance of peacefulness that pervades the entire restaurant. This place is cool and relaxed.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The menu is pretty classic, full of favorites. Pizzas are generally best ordered by one person, since they’re going to fill you up. Some of the things I like:

• Margerita Pizza: The classic favorite pizza made simply with a bit of mozzarella cheese, a little tomato sauce and some olive oil. It’s simplicity, grilled until it’s crispy and a little bit salty. This one is all kinds of comfort food.
• Fennel Sausage Pizza: A mix of Gouda and Havarti, provolone and onion. Probably simpler but the sausage is also pretty good.
• Roasted Garlic Pizza: Calabrian chilies, tomatoes, provolone and arugula. This one leaves you with a memorable and rising warmth. Like a spicy hug.
• Brussels Sprouts: Tallegio and honey with some breadcrumbs add an accent to these roasted sprouts.
• Mean Green Salad: A solid mixture of veggies, this one features spinach, arugula, watercress, red and napa cabbage all mixed in as a medium for snow peas, sprouts and pepitas, pickled blueberries, and something convincing called “avocado goddess dressing.”
• Spicy Margarita: This one is made with tequila and the mix, but the extra habanero peppers and salt add an assertive, bright mix of heat. It’s aggressive and comes up on you pretty quickly.
• Lemonade Cocktail: This one was a lighter mix for a summer month that offered a little snap of citrus and spritz of gin for the effort. Memorable.

The bar enjoys something of a simple vibe, each location having kind of a wide open feel with plenty of wood trimmings and a nice kind of open feel that doesn’t crowd you even in the compact space. These pizzas come at a high-normal price which isn’t too bad, and the food and drink is delivered very fast even when it’s a busy time of the night and the staff gets busy. Nonetheless, this is a bar worth visiting and the drinks worth sampling. 

Harvest has expanded in a pizza-saturated city for the simple reason that achieving a wood-fired crust is just very hard and few places pull it off as well as this one. It’s enjoyed a few other advantages too; the convenience and speed of the food and the overall vibe makes this place a valued Columbus original, and worth a meal. 

Recommendations

• Pizzas are built for one person, and while sharing is obviously built in, I wouldn’t try to split one unless neither of you are that hungry. The wood-fired crust is wonderfully thin and crisp and welcoming. 
• The cocktail menu, which includes some seasonal things, is well worth a sample. Margaritas, specifically, are the star of the show. 
• Consider a salad too if feeling healthier, those are very interesting.