Ohio

I have a confession to make about pumpkin season. I love picking the perfect orange pumpkin, but I mostly show up for the doughnuts. Every October, I map out my…

I always thought ordering a large pizza was pretty straightforward. Then I discovered that some Ohio pizzerias make pies so enormous that getting them home might be the biggest challenge….

Fabric bargains are the big draw at this little Ohio shop, especially when a furniture project has been waiting for its turn. There’s plenty to explore without waiting for the…

I have a weakness for shops where you never quite know what you’ll find behind the next shelf. Cleveland, Ohio, has plenty of places that encourage that curiosity, and I’ve…

Dinner inside an actual jail cell sounds like a strange flex. Yet that’s exactly what one steakhouse offers, with original cells turned into cozy dining spots. The building stood for…

Somewhere around the last mile of a chilly Ohio hike, my priorities begin to change. The scenery might still be beautiful, but I’m already thinking about where I can sit…

No cheese. No ketchup. No mustard, no mayo, and absolutely no sloppy sauces. The whole burger is a small fried patty on a roll with onion, pickle, salt, and pepper….

I’ve seen plenty of impressive Halloween decorations, but Ohio takes things a little further once the sun goes down. An entire hillside covered in glowing pumpkins? That’s the kind of…

A pumpkin donut with cream cheese icing is on the October menu, and it has a glazed old-fashioned sibling. That pair alone could justify a drive across Ohio. The shop…

Some bakery visits begin with a craving. Mine sometimes begin with a beautiful building that catches my attention before I even notice what’s being sold inside. I’ve always enjoyed finding…

Someone carved the date 1797 into a cliff wall here, and the gorge still carries his name. That’s a bold autograph, and it’s carved into rock that’s roughly 350 million…

I can handle a creaky staircase in broad daylight. Put me inside a historic Ohio building on an October evening, with a guide sharing its strangest stories, and suddenly I’m…

A chocolate factory grew up around a woman’s actual house, and it’s still making candy there today. The whole story started with fudge made in a home kitchen and sold…

Every holiday season, I convince myself that putting together a cheese board will be the easiest part of hosting. Somehow, I still end up standing in a grocery aisle at…

Halloween at this Ohio bakery comes with monster cookies, pumpkin cakes, and treats decorated with enough personality to steal the show. From friendly ghosts to grinning pumpkins, the sugar cookies…

October brings a different kind of excitement to Ohio’s quieter corners. Just beyond the farmland and small-town streets, entire hillsides turn brilliant shades of red and gold, often without the…

The meatballs here are made with veal and ricotta. The carbonara gets its richness from guanciale cured right in the kitchen. That alone tells you someone serious is running the…

One haunted house in Ohio has opened for more than 50 straight seasons without moving or skipping a single year. It started inside a real elementary school that closed in…

Twenty minutes of circling a tiny Ohio village taught me something I probably should have figured out sooner. A charming downtown and a sunny Saturday don’t always make for an…

An impressive variety of Japanese bento boxes and prepared dishes fills the cases at this Columbus grocery, with selections changing daily and popular favorites sometimes selling out early. The seafood…

By late afternoon on an Ohio fall road trip, I usually start thinking less about the next overlook and more about what is for dinner. A few hours on a…

One Ohio bakery on this list lights its kitchen with gas lamps, and another sells donuts shaped like wagon wheels. I had to read that twice before I believed it….

Your waffle might be red, your burger might be named after a chainsaw movie, and ordering one pizza sets off the Jaws theme. That’s a normal Tuesday at this spot….

A popcorn shop sits right above a roaring waterfall, and nobody here seems to find that strange. In this small Ohio village, the falls drop about 20 feet straight through…

A single pancake here can stretch past the edge of the plate. That alone earns a second look, and the rest of this breakfast-to-dinner menu keeps pace with it. The…

Some towns update everything every few years. Others keep their old brick storefronts, neon signs, and soda counter charm like a treasured family photo album. I have spent plenty of…

Ranking pizza sounded easy until I started arguing with myself over crust. Ohio does not exactly make the decision simple. One stop wins you over with a thin, crisp slice,…

I knew this Cincinnati craft shop was different when I spotted supplies priced in loose change. Fifty-cent colored pencils will do that. Then I started looking around. Fabric, yarn, paper,…

I have a weakness for Ohio restaurants that seem perfectly happy staying exactly as they are. You notice it right away. Maybe it is the chrome stool in Toledo, the…

I like a fall hike a lot more when I know a warm lodge is waiting at the end of it. That is what makes these Ohio state parks so…

I did not expect a $10 day pass in Ohio to buy me much more than a basic swim. Then I found this indoor recreation center near Dayton and realized…

I have eaten enough breakfasts around Northern Ohio to know one thing: showing up hungry is usually the smart move. A morning drive can lead to biscuits buried under sausage…

One Ohio pizza spot near a college campus claims to have the World’s Largest Pac-Man. I read that twice, and then I started hunting for more places like it. The…

German rye bread, imported chocolates, and European deli specialties have shared shelf space in one Cleveland, Ohio market for decades. Hansa Import Haus has been around since 1957, which makes…

Every October, I make the same promise to myself: climb higher and see more color. Ohio makes that promise easy to keep. Old steel fire towers still stand above its…

One small shop calls itself the largest scrapbook and rubber stamp store in Ohio. It also claims the title of the oldest stamp store in the state. That’s a bold…

A caramel apple sounds like a quick October snack until an Ohio orchard gets involved. Then you are standing beside a farm market with sticky fingers, a bag of fresh…

A two-toed sloth, a pair of otters, and a capybara family all live on one farm. That farm sits in rural Ohio, and you can hand-feed almost all of them….

Every October, I trade my sunglasses for a flashlight and point my car toward the quiet back roads of Ohio. The leaves turn the color of pumpkin pie, the air…

An Ohio sandwich shop has walls covered in chewing gum, and people still line up to eat there. Another stop on this list started as a chuck wagon in 1907….

A pumpkin pie six feet wide and weighing about 400 pounds gets baked for this festival every year. That is not a typo. It is a dessert roughly the size…

One Cleveland bakery has been making bread since 1903. That’s older than the first Ford Model T, which still blows my mind. Ohio has more of these long-running family kitchens…

A baker’s grandfather once sold bread from a horse-drawn wagon in Germany. Today, that same family shapes Bavarian pretzels in Ohio. The family name on the sign traces back to…

A burrito called Infierno arrives stuffed with grilled chicken and chorizo, then gets smothered in queso dip and diablo sauce. That name feels like a dare. I really like a…

One Ohio farm lets kids zoom down a slide built from a giant John Deere combine. Yes, an actual harvest machine turned into a playground ride. I love that someone…

Forty kinds of apples grow at one family orchard, and not a single one can be bought with a credit card. Cash is the rule here. I kind of love…

One Ohio bakery shows off a pumpkin pie that measures 6 feet across and weighs more than 400 pounds. I had to read that twice. The same shop once made…

At one tiny Ohio restaurant, the staff might loudly announce to the whole room that you’re a first-timer. Yes, out loud. In front of strangers holding hamburgers. I love that…

A family grocery in Ohio that traces its roots to 1927 now has a sushi chef making fresh rolls every day. I love that detail. It proves an old-school market…

I came for the river views and ended up wondering what it would actually be like to live here. This southeastern Ohio town has an easy rhythm that becomes noticeable…