Columbus couple purchase Hilliard pub where they were engaged

Not many couples can say they bought the venue at which they were engaged to marry, but count Joel Cosme and Tara Mullins-Cosme among them.

They are the new owners of Off Center Patio and Pub, 5286 Center St. in Hilliard.

They bought the business in June from its previous owner, Liz White, who had operated the pub as Benito’s Restaurant Bar & Grill since she purchased it in 2000.

Before Benito’s, it had operated with different owners as Backstreet Pizza.

Cosme said he proposed to Tara at Benito’s in 2013 on her birthday, March 20, enlisting White’s help to stage a surprise proposal along with a birthday party at which people wore fake mustaches.

The couple did not purchase the venue out of a sense of nostalgia, “but it kind of just worked out that way,” Cosme said.

They already own and operate two other businesses, but when White, 74, put the restaurant up for sale because of weakening health and a wish to retire, the couple approached her about buying the restaurant.

“I miss Benito’s, but I’m excited to see it open again (and) glad it is in (the hands of customers),” said White, who lives in Fort Myers, Florida.

The south Columbus residents also own Community Grounds, a coffee shop that opened in 2019 at 1134 Parsons Ave. in Columbus.

“I was already thinking of how to begin providing some food options (for my customers at Community Grounds),” Cosme said.

Since the limited opening of Off Center Patio and Pub last month, Cosme said, some of the food items made there, including calzones, are being sold at Community Grounds.

Cosme and Mullins-Cosme also own Childcare Training Ohio, a business Mullins-Cosme started in 2012, visiting job sites and providing virtual training that child-care centers need to obtain licensure.

The name Off Center Patio and Pub is a play on words, Cosme said, referring to the street on which the restaurant is located and to how he considers himself and his wife as “a little off center.”

They are remodeling the dining room area of the restaurant and hope to open it for inside dining sometime early next year, Cosme said.

The patio will open in the spring.

A backyard, not utilized by Benito’s, will be made into “family-friendly, kid space,” Cosme said.

“A lot of changes are in store for next year,” but right now “we’re focused on getting up and running,” Cosme said.

Off Center is open for pickup and delivery only from 4 to 10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, serving pizzas, calzones, salads and "duncas," a deep-fried dough dish retained from Benito's menu, and a limited number of other options.

Off Center has a liquor permit and plans to offer craft beers in cooperation with Parsons North Brewing Co. and Wolf Ridge Brewing, two Columbus-based craft-beer makers, Cosme said.

“We will be expanding or hours (and days) of operation, as well as our menu,” Cosme said.

For now, food preparations at Off Center are up to Cosme, his 15-year-old son, Yesh, the oldest of his three children, and one employee, Gary Frenz, who for the past five years worked at Benito's while it was owned by White.

As the business grows, Cosme said, he will add more employees.

For more information about Off Center, updates on operations and to view menu selections, go to offcenterhilliard.square.site.

kcorvo@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekCorvo

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Columbus couple purchase Hilliard pub where they were engaged