Cafe Creekside in Old Gahanna offers breakfast, lunch six days a week
Cafe Creekside has been an Old Gahanna staple for 15 years, dishing up homestyle diner classics and cracking about 2,500 eggs a week.
The breakfast and lunch spot offers an egg sandwich ($6.49) — two eggs, cheese and bacon or sausage on the toast of choice; the pumpernickel-rye swirl or 12-grain bread are highly recommended.
The dish, as with many, is served with sliced redskins browned on the flattop grill.
“People really like it because they can customize it,” said General Manager Anna Katanyuta, daughter of owner Chris Katanyuta. “You can build a large sandwich or a big sandwich.”
Cafe Creekside serves eggs Benedict ($7.99), using homemade hollandaise, a sauce that’s known to break apart with a sideways glance.
Anna Katanyuta said the sauce is made in small batches to keep it fresh and with a nice consistency.
Two poached eggs are set on English muffins with a layer of Canadian bacon and drizzled with hollandaise.
“You get a little of that smoky flavor from the Canadian bacon on there,” she said. “Yes, it’s definitely traditional.”
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A dish not seen on too many menus these days is the cream chipped beef ($6.99) over Texas toast. The dehydrated corned beef softens in the scratch gravy.
“It’s something that a lot of people say you can’t get anywhere,” Anna Katanyuta said.
Cafe Creekside started out as Creekside Cafe until Chris Katanyuta bought the place in 2007 and changed the name — albeit slightly.
“We were trying to keep the clientele, basically, so we didn’t necessarily want customers to know it changed hands,” Anna Katanyuta said.
Chicken and waffles ($7.99), now a menu staple at nearly every restaurant, is built a little differently at Cafe Creekside. The base is house-made Belgian waffles with big pearl sugar nibs, topped with two fried chicken tenders, homemade maple butter, a drizzle of maple syrup and bacon bits.
Burgers are fairly inexpensive at the cafe, which uses a half-pound patty and traditional garnishes and offers fries or another side of choice.
Anna Katanyuta suggests trying the guacamole or the spicy jalapeño with pepper jack cheese (each $8.49).
“All of them are probably equally as popular,” she said. “It’s a big burger and we use a really good kaiser bun that holds up to the burger. It’s a pretty big meal for the price.”
The cafe serves both roast beef and turkey open-faced sandwiches ($9.49), each made in-house and served over Italian bread.
The beef is cooked medium-rare and heated in jus to the customer’s preferred temperature and smothered with a homemade gravy. Meanwhile, the turkey is reheated in a skillet and also lathered in gravy. The preferred side for both is mashed potatoes.
There’s nothing particularly unusual about the fried bologna sandwich ($6.99) — except for the heft.
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“It’s definitely pretty close to an inch thick,” Anna Katanyuta said. “It’s a big slab. People are surprised when they see it coming out.”
Chili ($2.99 a cup, $3.99 a bowl) is made with a classic recipe of ground beef, sausage, onions, tomatoes, peppers, celery, beans and spices but nevertheless is a favorite among customers.
“It’s a pretty good breakfast item,” Anna Katanyuta said, noting that chili is an available accompaniment for eggs and other dishes.
Cafe Creekside
Where: 53 Granville St., Gahanna
Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays; closed Mondays
Contact: 614-337-1819, cafecreekside.com/
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