It will be a restaurant, chef’s table, training space, incubator, library and event space – all in one. The Line, the ambitious new project from the co-founders of Service!, is targeting an August opening at 145 N. Grant Ave. in a space previously owned by the Columbus College of Art & Design.
Satisfy your hunger for food news. Subscribe to Columbus Monthly’s weekly dining newsletter, Copy & Taste.
Service! was founded as a nonprofit to offer support for hospitality workers during the pandemic. Its work expanded into industry training with the opening of Café Overlook in the Franklin County Government Center in 2022.
Matthew Heaggans, a longtime Columbus chef and a Service! co-founder, will serve as The Line’s executive chef when it opens. He said they plan to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from the get-go, with initial seating capacity planned for about 100 people (a patio and incubator kitchen, which will open later, will add roughly 90 additional seats). The opening menu will be lighter earlier in the day, with more robust offerings at dinner time.
The kitchen line “is set up for mentorship,” Heaggans said.
“Both sides of this line are a mirror of the other, so that we can work side by side for a while, and then we can work across from people.” This allows for real-time conversation and demonstration, with the goal of offering “upskilling” opportunities for staff.
Unlike Café Overlook, where many workers are new to the field, The Line is designed to build new skills for existing industry workers.
“Let’s say you work at the Waffle House, and you are really good at that work and … you want to do a different style of cooking. I think this is the kind of place for you,” Heaggans said. “You can come here and learn how to do something different and find a way to excel in a different kind of environment.”
A resource library, which will also serve as an event space, will offer additional opportunities for learning and collaboration.
And in keeping with the learning-by-doing model, an on-site rotating incubator kitchen called Now Serving, planned to open after The Line is up and running, will allow visiting chefs to “test pilot their concept” for three to six months, Heaggans said.
“It’ll give them the opportunity for some direct mentorship, a place to work. … They can do it here with dishes and staff in a dining room.”
He said that the space may be used for weekend pop-ups before it fully launches.
For updates on the opening timeline, follow @theline_cbus on Instagram.
More food news to know
Find a place to eat near you
This article originally appeared on Columbus Monthly: New Columbus Restaurant The Line Focuses on Training
Reporting by Linda Lee Baird, Columbus Monthly / Columbus Monthly
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Linda Lee Baird, Columbus Monthly | USA TODAY Network
