The Boys Are In Chicago

Top of Mind

The $1,000,000 carryout cash out

It turns out lightning can strike in Columbus, and this week it hit East Linden. Hudson Express Carryout sold a Powerball ticket worth a cool $1 million, proving once again that your gas station snack run might pay for more than cool ranch and a fountain fridge cig. The lucky player matched all five white balls but missed the red Powerball, so close to a billy, yet still enough cash to make student loans vanish and still have plenty left for beers.

Ohio actually had two million-dollar winners in this draw, the other in Woodstock, but Columbus gets the bragging rights here. While Missouri and Texas each split the jaw-dropping $1.8 billion jackpot, we will gladly settle for our city’s large seven-figure slice of the pie. After all, who wants the stress of managing a billion dollars when you can happily flex your millionaire status by still shopping at Kroger in sweats?

So, if you are feeling lucky, consider grabbing a ticket on your next carryout stop... Because in Columbus, even the Powerball can be local news, and sometimes a neighbor’s wildest dream is just one set of numbers away. And if you are the mystery winner reading this, drinks are on you, friend.

And now here is another about the fucking trains getting delayed again

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many years did Prohibition last in the United States?
A. 11
B. 1738
C. 13
D. 4

Still Waiting at the Station

Ohio might rank fourth in the nation for freight rail mileage, but when it comes to moving people, we are still waving from the platform as the train rolls by. The long-discussed 3C&D corridor, which would connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati, remains stalled, with the latest state rail plan prioritizing freight over passenger service. Columbus, the largest city in the country without an Amtrak stop, remains the kid at recess waiting to be picked for dodgeball.

Transit advocates had their hopes up, picturing sleek trains zipping between Ohio’s cities, but the plan hit the brakes once again. Instead of boarding with a coffee and Wi-Fi, Ohioans are still stuck with I-71 traffic jams and the occasional Megabus sighting. Meanwhile, other states are cashing in on passenger rail upgrades and economic boosts, while we are left with a timetable that never seems to get printed.

But here’s the hopeful part. Interest in rail has not gone away, and every round of disappointment only gets more people asking “why not us?” Imagine hopping on a train in downtown Columbus for a weekend in Cleveland or a day trip to Cincinnati without ever touching the gas pedal. Until then, we will keep refreshing the station board and dreaming of the day “All Aboard” actually means us too.

Columbus & Chicago: Ashes, Whiskey, and The Midwest Baby

The onlyincbus team has been in Chicago for about 13 days for our “Day Job” and I thought what better than to throw together some history about how Chicago and Columbus are connected…of course, it’s via insurance claims and illegal alcohol operations.

When Chicago Burned, Columbus Brought the Clay

In October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire reduced the Windy City to a smoldering pile of regret. Seventeen thousand buildings were gone, 100,000 people were suddenly homeless, and the financial damage hit $200 million, an amount that would bankrupt Ohio State’s NIL program for at least two seasons.

The official story blamed Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. But whether it was a bovine arsonist or just a city built almost entirely of dry wood, Chicago was desperate for help. And who came running? Columbus.

By the 1870s, Columbus was already a modest manufacturing hub with brickyards in Franklinton, glassmakers downtown, and rail lines reaching straight into Chicago. Our factories and clay pits saw opportunity in tragedy, pumping out fireproof brick, window glass, and iron hardware that rolled west on train cars. Local churches and city officials raised money for Chicago relief, but the real lifeline was industrial: Columbus literally shipped the bones that rebuilt Chicago’s skeleton.

The result? Chicago got to rebrand itself as the phoenix that rose from the ashes, while Columbus got… well, a bigger payday and a little less recognition. Still, every time someone stares up at Michigan Avenue or the Sears (fine, Willis) Tower, they’re looking at a city partly rebuilt with Columbus dirt.

Then We Kept The Party Going

Fast forward fifty years. Chicago was thriving, Columbus was humming, and then America did something very American: it banned alcohol.

Prohibition (1920–1933) turned Chicago into the capital of organized crime. Al Capone and his Outfit pulled in around $60 million a year from bootlegging, controlling breweries, speakeasies, and smuggling routes like a Fortune 500 company with more bullets than HR policies. Chicago got the headlines, but Columbus was more than a bystander, we were part of the supply chain.

Columbus had the railroads, the warehouses, and the geography to make it a distribution hub. Trains would roll in from Chicago carrying crates marked as “machinery” or “produce.” Surprise: they were filled with thousands of gallons of Canadian whiskey. Federal agents caught on by the mid-1920s, and by 1927, Columbus was officially on the government’s “cities of concern” list. We weren’t violent like Chicago, but we were efficient.

And yes, it got messy. In 1922, rival gangs in Milo-Grogan clashed over a Chicago shipment, killing three in what the Dispatch labeled “the Italian War.” Columbus bootleggers like Tony Zappa, a grocer with more liquor than lettuce in his shop, built reputations off Chicago connections. Bobby Doyle DiCarlo even graduated from Columbus smuggling to Detroit’s infamous Purple Gang.

Our speakeasies weren’t glamorous. No jazz bands or mob bosses in tuxedos, just sawdust-covered pool halls, basement bars, and Hilltop garages hiding barrels behind piles of coal. But the liquor flowed, and a lot of it came through Chicago. Columbus was basically the Amazon Prime of illegal booze, minus the two-day shipping guarantee.

The Midwest Way

When Prohibition ended in 1933, Chicago’s Outfit pivoted to gambling and unions. Columbus’s gangs faded into obscurity, absorbed into “legitimate” businesses or simply forgotten. Just like with the Great Fire, Chicago kept the narrative; Columbus kept the receipts.

That’s the story of our relationship in a nutshell: Chicago does the burning, boasting, and bloodshed; Columbus supplies the bricks, the whiskey, and the logistics. It’s not glamorous, but it’s efficient. And hey, being efficient aint to bad. 

ReSlice: A Pizza Night with Purpose

Columbus’s favorite excuse to eat too much pizza is back, this time with a new name and a new location. ReSlice, a reimagined take on the classic Slice of Columbus event, will take over COhatch Polaris on Wednesday, September 18, from 6–9 p.m.

13 local pizza shops will be serving up their best slices, from tried-and-true classics to creative toppings that spark debates stronger than pineapple ever did. Attendees get to sample them all while supporting the Development Board of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

It’s part competition, part community gathering, and all about good pizza for a good cause.

Get Tickets HERE

Trivia Answer

C) 13 years