BOTTLED UP

The story of Bliss in a Bottle, the Columbus company that helped popularize chocolate-coated wine, and its recent central Ohio rebirth

By Jack McLaughlin / Photos by Aaron Massey Story Design by Atlas Biro

For years, Chery Sher had the idea, she just wasn’t sure how to present it.

The owner of a Columbus wine and chocolate shop called Sher Bliss in the late 1990s, she began pairing the two together, something that wasn’t revolutionary by itself. It was a unique riff on this classic pairing that broke things open for her, however.

“I would always sell the wine next to chocolates, and I kept thinking that there had to be a way to combine them,” she said. “That’s when I thought of actually dipping the bottles in chocolate.” →

At the time, Cher didn't have much experience in writing business plans, or at least plans for original business ideas like hers. This meant the original wine-andchocolate concept stayed–pardon the pun–bottled up in her head for years.

“I had been learning more and more about it, but at one point, I just got tired of waiting. I had to go for it, and that’s what I did,” she said. “I started dipping wine bottles in the chocolate I was pairing with it, making them a single unit. I think I was the first person in the country to do it.”

In 2013, she opened Bliss in a Bottle, first as a kiosk at Polaris Fashion Place, which featured a variety of wine bottles with a coating of paired chocolate. Many bottles also include toppings as an additional compliment, like sprinkles, raspberry dust or peanuts.

At first, the concept blossomed, launching a number of new locations, and even multiple franchises in other states. Then COVID came, hugely impacting the business, causing all of its brick and mortar locations to shutter.

"BUT AT ONE POINT, I JUST GOT TIRED OF WAITING. I HAD TO GO FOR IT."

In late October–a year and a half later–Sher and Bliss in a Bottle peeked their heads above the rubble, opening a retail storefront for the first time since the pandemic.

Serving as rebirth of sorts, but also as a continuation of the brand which existed online after COVID came through, Bliss in a Bottle has found a new physical home, located adjacent to the Grand Stairway at Easton Town Center. And this time, Sher believes, it’s here to stay.

Using Sher’s Downtown Columbus “chocolate studio,” Bliss in a Bottle handdips all of its bottles. The dipping process starts with quality Belgian chocolate, which is melted before being tempered, a process that gives the candy a shiny gloss and reinforced firmness, ideal for coating, and able to withstand melting when held.

Patrons at the new Easton store can grab bottles like a pinot noir dipped in dark chocolate and dusted with raspberry powder, or a chardonnay dipped in milk chocolate with toasted toffee pieces and a peanut butter drizzle.

“For every type of wine, whether it’s a merlot or chardonnay, I like to have a milk, dark and white chocolate option,” Sher said.

The Easton store also offers beer bottles–like an imperial stout from Epic Brewing coated in chocolate, peanut butter drizzle and espresso powder–spirit bottles, and non alcoholic options, like a glass Coke bottle dipped in Belgian chocolate with vanilla bean and cherry powder.

No matter what you choose, you can rest assured all the flavor pairings offered in the Easton store have been personally vetted by Sher.

“I sample every single wine, and every single chocolate, and [pair them all based on flavor and texture,” she said.

The Easton storefront, which is open 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. five days a week, offers local deliveries through Doordash. Customers in many other states can order online from their website.

To learn more, visit blissinabottle.com

In a rapidly growing Columbus food and drink scene, the city’s service industry creatives are fast becoming a new class of local celebrities. Over the next few pages, enjoy a snapshot of some of Columbus’ top bar and restaurant pros. Dig in and drink up.

Story Design by Atlas Biro

THE GOAT

The Goat’s Andrew Welenken has returned to central Ohio just in time to oversee the Gahanna eatery’s new

and improved menu offerings

Andrew Welenken never really left The Goat.

After spending a year in 2015 opening the Louisville location as kitchen manager, he continued to stay involved with the LC’s restaurant brand, working on menu design and new store openings on a consulting basis before ultimately returning to the Goat full-time as Corporate Executive Chef this past August.

“I kind of always envisioned coming back,” Welenken said.

Welenken picked an exciting time to return. The Columbus-based brand is rapidly expanding outside Ohio, with locations in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee and more on the way in Texas and South Carolina. But the brand hasn’t forgotten its central Ohio roots. Locations in Dublin, HIlliard, New Albany, and Riversouth (on South High Street) continue to do well, and the Gahanna location is set to open in 2023.

“We’re really excited about it,” Welenken said.

The Gahanna location at 6400 Preserve Crossing Blvd. is undergoing a complete remodel. The location was one of the first of the Goat’s locations, and it will reopen with a hybrid menu that features old favorites and new finds.

“We don’t want to take away everything,” Welenken said. “We’re just rebooting it. We’re leaving the classics.”

To that end, Welenken focused on the eatery’s house-made tots, along with mac and cheese, pizzas and other very snackable items. There are the Southern Short Rib Tacos with braised short rib, pimento cheese, onion straws, and house homemade ranch, and avocado crema, and the Baked Potato Tots, featuring bacon, cheese sauce, white cheddar, onion straws, BBQ, and MoonShine Sauce. “We’re going to blow the competition away,” Welenken said.

An avid sports fan, Welenken has always viewed the culinary arts as akin to athletics, with lunch and dinner rushes as a sort of competition.

“When you overcome that, it’s like winning a game or something,” he said.

In high school, Welenken would often compete against his best friend in the kitchen: Both attended The Ohio State University’s Lima Branch their senior year and would cook lunch together every day after their classes were done. Inspired by the Food Network, the two decided to take a year working in restaurants before taking the plunge to attend culinary school.

Welenken worked at Tony’s Italian Restaurant and The Elevator in Columbus before ultimately attending Sullivant University in Louisville, Kentucky for culinary school. And while he no longer spends as much time in the kitchen as he once did, Welenken enjoys the ability to design menus for multiple regions across the country. Menus across the locations bear many similarities, but each location features a bit of local flair: Nashville has its Hot Chicken Thighs, while the Texas location will feature the Short Rib.

Welenken, who avidly follows menu trends to stay ahead of the game, even created a Brussels sprouts dish with gochujang sauce, toasted peanuts, and cilantro that was so good it was duplicated in other eateries across the country. Welenken said he gets a fuzzy feeling when he thinks of people in a variety of states eating the meals he’s dreamed up.

“I’m so proud of that,” he said. “It’s just getting better and better.”

↓ Welenken applying sauce to taco trio To learn more, visit lcgoat.com

↓ Offerings at The Goat Gahanna ↑

VITTORIA

Twin brothers Jamie and Javier Guitierrez reunite in the kitchen to create from-scratch Italian classics at Powell’s Vittoria

At Vittoria, the Powell eatery serving a range of authentic, old-world Italian dishes, customers are getting two for the price of one all the time.

Only it’s not a deal on food we’re talking about, it’s the restaurant’s pair of top chefs, Jamie and Javier Guitierrez.

The Guitierrez brothers, now both Columbus restaurant veterans, are twins, and they work together to prepare the toptier Italian-inspired dishes Vittoria is known for, with Javier serving as Executive Chef and Jamie as Sous Chef.

The two carry on the eatery’s from-scratch ethics to craft everything from Arancini Di Risotto to Bone-In Ribeye, New York Strip, Tiramisu and much more.

“Everything we make is homemade, down to every sauce,” said Vittoria owner Nick Lalli. “We don’t serve anything we don’t make ourselves.”

Even the eatery’s cornerstone pasta dishes like its Rigatoni Bolognese or the Chef’s Gnocchi feature noodles that are made entirely in-house.

For the Guitierrez brothers to end up where they are today, the duo took an interesting–and circuitous–path, one that wove its way through another classic Italian eatery: La Scala.

Owned by Nick and his late father WIlliam “Willi” Lalli (who also served as La Scala’s top chef), the twins learned the ropes of authentic Italian cuisine from careful study of Willi and his technique over the years.

“My father hired them originally, Jamie in 2003 and Javier in 2005, and he taught them a lot about Italian cooking,” Nick Lalli said. “And you can see that in Vittoria today: They really try to preserve his legacy, and all his teachings; everything shared with them. They’re preserving all of it.”

While the twin chefs began together at the classic Columbus-area eatery, their careers took them on slightly different paths, as one left for Vittoria when it was originally purchased by Willi and Nick Lalli in 2019, and the other stayed put at La Scala, which eventually closed in October of 2020.

But after this, according to Lalli, the pair are back together again, bringing authentic Italian fare to Powell and conveying Willi’s approach to the next generation of Columbus chefs as well. It doesn’t hurt that they’re doing it all from scratch along the way, either.

“They’re reunited here, and it really is great,” Nick Lalli said.

To learn more, visit vittoriacolumbus.com

↑ A pan with flames in the Vittoria Kitchen

Chef's Gnocchi ↑