Union Café

About this place Union Café

Union Café at 782 North High Street occupies the functional niche that every good gay neighbourhood needs but many lack: a restaurant and bar that serves the LGBTQ+ community's food needs as seriously as its drinking needs, and that functions as a neighbourhood anchor through the full range of daily life rather than just after 10pm on weekends. The kitchen takes the restaurant function seriously — the menu is a cut above bar food, the service is attentive, and the space accommodates both the pre-theatre dinner crowd and the late-night bar regulars with equal competence. The bar programme is equally well-run: good cocktails, quality beer selection, and the kind of bartender knowledge that comes from being embedded in a gay neighbourhood for years. The High Street location between the Axis/Havana cluster and Stonewall Columbus puts Union Café at the geographic and social centre of the Short North's LGBTQ+ scene. The outdoor seating on High Street is one of the most pleasant outdoor drinking spaces in Columbus during good weather. For LGBTQ+ visitors spending a day in the Short North, Union Café is the natural lunch or early-dinner anchor before the evening's nightlife begins.