North Market Downtown Announces New Butcher, Poultry Shop

Ian Holmes, the founder of Coastal Local Seafood, has long been known around Columbus as the seafood guy. But in a significant reshuffling of the historic North Market’s fresh merchant offerings, Holmes and Coastal Local Seafood—which recently rebranded as COLO—will soon take over the market’s butcher and poultry shops as well. 

The Spruce Street North Market has been without a butcher shop since December, when its most recent butcher, Saddleberk, shut down. (Saddleberk remains in operation at North Market Bridge Park.) COLO will fill that void and also replace the market’s chicken, duck and eggs vendor, Park Street Poultry & Game. 

Holmes, a 2017 Columbus Monthly Tastemaker, first launched COLO—then named Coastal Local Seafood—as a Central Ohio wholesale seafood purveyor in 2013. Then in 2020, Coastal Local opened its first retail seafood shops in North Market Bridge Park and North Market Downtown.  

COLO currently offers a wide variety of fresh seafood, from fresh sashimi-grade salmon and tuna to a prepared menu of fish and chips, shrimp po'boys and clam chowder.  

The seafood purveyor was recently forced to rebrand after a legal dispute over “Coastal Local.” 

"Our commitment to high-quality food and services remains unchanged. I'm also thrilled to have the opportunity to expand our fresh business at North Market Downtown,” Holmes said in a press release.  Here’s how the reshuffle will work: COLO’s current seafood stall on the market’s northeast corner of the building will move across the aisle, taking over the former poultry stall, and the former Tajine House space. A new oyster bar will also be added. (The Moroccan eatery Tajine House remains in operation at North Market Downtown but has relocated around the corner to the space formerly occupied by Preston's: A Burger Joint.) 

The current COLO seafood shop will become “a fresh store for beef, pork, poultry and deli offerings as well as a new kitchen for prepared foods such as burgers, chicken sandwiches and more,” according to a press release.  "COLO continues to impress with the freshest pier-to-plate seafood, raw bar and café at both North Market locations. Not only is his product consistent and high quality, but Ian has also proven himself to be a wonderful Market community member; he even serves as merchant representative to the North Market board,” said North Market's executive director and CEO, Rick Harrison Wolfe, in Monday's announcement. “We knew we could trust Ian to reinvent the fresh butcher and poultry along with a new prepared food concept, as these are very important components to North Market's mission."   Meanwhile, at North Market Bridge Park, COLO’s rebrand has already been implemented, and its product line will remain unchanged. COLO's updates at North Market Downtown are expected to take place later this spring, beginning with the move of the seafood operation, and continue into the summer.  

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In case you missed it, chef Avishar Barua (Joya’s Café and Agni) did indeed beat Bobby Flay on the celebrity chef's eponymous show on Food Network last Thursday. In a head-to-head, first-round battle, Barua was victorious against his competitor, Romain Paumier, executive sous chef at Restaurant Daniel in New York. Barua won the judges over with his tempura-fried dorade (a Mediterranean fish) nestled in yellow curry. His victory led to a match-up against celebrity chef Flay, with Barua having a distinct advantage: He got to choose what the pair would be cooking in just 45 minutes. Barua smartly picked his signature kati roll, the spicy Indian wrap on his menu at Joya’s Café in Worthington. Once you saw Barua making his own paratha dough—and Flay using a pre-made flatbread—you knew it was all over. After the judges announced Barua’s win, the Columbus native cartwheeled off screen—a similar trick he pulled during his 2021 stint on Top Chef: Portland.