Location: Ritzy’s, 4615 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43214

In the mid 1980’s, after Sunday morning service but before youth service at 5:30 pm, we would pile into Alicia Mackey’s car to go to GD Ritzy’s in Bexley for lunch.

Interview with Corey Webb

How did you decide to open after several years?

It started on Thanksgiving about 4 years ago. My brother and I were walking on the beach in Florida. We were talking to our dad telling him that someone asked us what ever happened to GD Ritzy’s. We decided to bring it back. We are old enough to have the experience and young enough to have the energy. Here we are.

What can you tell me about the burgers?

We fresh bake all of our buns in house. All the meat is fresh, never frozen. We have more premium toppings. We want it to be better than fast food, but we don’t necessarily want it to be a sit down burger restaurant. Many people talk about our ice cream cost, but it is a premium dense ice cream. Most ice creams are 30% over run. That is the percentage of air that is added to ice cream. We are at about 8%. One scoop of our ice cream is about as dense as two scoops of someone else’s ice cream.

My favorite ice cream from 30 years ago was Chucky Dorey Fudge. Tell me about that flavor.

It is our chocolate based ice cream that won best ice cream in America by People Magazine back in 1983. We add fudge brownie pieces to it. It is a very decadent and rich ice cream.

Brag on some other menu items that weren’t my favorite. (I ordered the same thing every time.)

You are on par with the double cheese burger and Chunky Dorey Fudge ice cream. Our peanut butter and jelly sandwich is phenomenal. It comes with fresh sliced strawberries and crushed nuts on two pieces of Texas toast. It can be grilled. We have a 100% all beef natural casing hot dog.

Was the peanut butter and jelly on the menu back in the day?

Yes. We are slowly bringing back some of the other menu items people remember. We are working on bringing back the chicken sandwich, steamed vegetables, and salad.

Sidebar: Steamed vegetables and salad have their place in our diet, but I suggest you try the double cheeseburger and fries.

Sidebar: The picture doesn’t do the burger justice. I didn’t remember how the outside of the building looked, the restaurant décor, that you have your choice of toppings or condiments on the burger, or if the fries were dropped to order. When I took a bite of the double cheeseburger, all the memories of eating there and fellowshipping after church with my friends from the youth department came back.

Sidebar: It tastes exactly how I remembered. It starts with an extremely rich chocolate base. The chunks of fudge just take it over the top. I don’t have the words to describe how good this ice cream is. It is worth the $3.99 for the first scoop, $2.00 for the second scoop or $7.99 for the pint. The single scoop was extremely filling. I think the dense explanation made more sense after I ate every bit of the scoop.

My take on Ritzy’s Columbus:  

It is worth driving from the east side… This is a place to go back down memory lane or to start new memories. My suggestion is the double cheese burger, fries, beverage of your choice, and save room for the Chunky Dorey Fudge.