Rusty Bucket responds to local backlash

By KEVIN PARKS Tuesday October 28, 2014 11:51 AM

Voters in Clintonville's Ward 21-F will decide on two liquor options Tuesday, Nov. 4, that would allow for alcohol sales at the proposed Rusty Bucket restaurant at 4109 N. High St.

But before the residents of that subsection of the neighborhood go to the polls, the president of the company wants them to know the permits will not be used to the full extent allowed by what will appear on the ballot.

Further, Gary Callicoat said he wants to clear up what a representative of the Rusty Bucket's public-relations firm termed "some of the misinformation circulating in the community about the restaurant and talk about how their vision for the restaurant will successfully engage with the local community."

"We're not a bar," Callicoat said last week in a telephone interview from Nashville, Tenn. "We are a restaurant. We are a very community-driven restaurant, very family-friendly.

"We give back to the community," he added. "It's very important to us that we're entrenched there. I think it's being represented that we're a bar in some of the meetings going on there."

With a Board of Zoning Adjustment hearing on two variances requested to pave the way for the newest restaurant in the Columbus-based chain scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 28, the fate of the establishment was still up in the air as of ThisWeek Booster's press time. The outcome of that meeting will be reported online and in next week's print edition.

Opposition to the Rusty Bucket has arisen in the form of a Facebook campaign and fliers suggesting "4 easy things you can do to stop this development."

These steps include voting against the local liquor options -- Issues 9A and 9B -- in Ward 21-F, which is bounded on the east by North High Street, the west by the Olentangy River, the south by Hollenback Road and on the north primarily by West Schreyer Place, save for a small portion that runs south along Olentangy Boulevard and then west along Henderson Road to the river.

The fliers also suggested emailing the Board of Zoning Adjustment and Columbus City Council members.

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Rusty Bucket responds to local backlash