Between June and October 2026, four coffee and bakery counters on or just off High Street closed. Over the same months, new coffee opened in the Short North area, but none of it went into an empty storefront of its own. It went into an Italian restaurant, a bottle shop and a community center.
That shift shows up in more than the street addresses. The new counters keep shorter hours on fewer days. If you get your morning coffee anywhere between Goodale and campus, the route you used a year ago may not work every day of the week anymore.
A summer and fall of empty counters
The closures came one at a time, so they were easy to miss as a group:
- Winans Coffee & Chocolate, 611 N. High St. Its last business day was June 6, Columbus Underground reported.
- Woodhouse Vegan, 19 W. Russell St. In April, the owners told 614NOW the cafe would close that summer so they could rethink how they operate. Columbus Monthly later reported it closed in July.
- Starbucks, 1014 N. High St. It closed after service on Sept. 26, one of roughly 250 stores nationwide in a mass shutdown, according to Columbus Underground. That location had opened only in April 2025, after the space sat empty for a couple of years following Julep's 2023 closure.
- Maison Skalli, 662 N. High St. On Oct. 13, Columbus Underground reported that the Moroccan bakery's Short North location was closed. A staff member at the Dublin flagship didn't know whether or when it would reopen. The Short North shop had opened in April.
Each closure has its own story. A national chain trimmed its store count. A vegan cafe decided to restructure. A suburban bakery tried for a second location. Taken together, they removed four places where you could walk in off the sidewalk and order something warm, and three of those four sat directly on High Street.
Where the coffee went instead
The best example of the new pattern is one that technically closed and came back. Park Service Coffee shut down when Woodhouse Vegan did, and Columbus Monthly's account describes the two closures as one event. In other words, Park Service was already a coffee program running inside someone else's business.
It reopened Sept. 25 inside Metsi's at 36 E. Lincoln St., a wood-fired Italian restaurant a short walk east of High. The cafe runs Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Drinks include espresso, cold brew, matcha, chai and a maple-hazelnut budino cappuccino. The food uses the restaurant's kitchen: wood-fired pepper quiche, a mortadella sandwich on house-made sourdough focaccia, a farro and stone-fruit salad, zeppole, almond cake and a chicken Caesar wrap, according to Columbus Underground and Columbus Monthly.
The same thing happened over in Victorian Village in May. Palomino opened inside The Bottle Shop at 237 King Ave., serving espresso, matcha, chai and seasonal drinks Wednesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Breakfast with Nick reported.
At the north end of the district, Queer Beans Coffee & Tea operates inside Stonewall Columbus at 1160 N. High St. The Short North Arts District listing shows hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.
All three set up inside a building that already had a business, a kitchen or a front door. The two newest ones open four or five days a week for six hours a day.
What that does to your week
The hours matter because they decide which days each counter actually works for you. Here are the listed hours for the spots in and around the district, from the businesses' own pages or the Short North Arts District directory:
| Spot | Address | Listed hours |
|---|---|---|
| Stauf's, Victorian Village | 1334 Neil Ave. | 6:30 a.m.–4 p.m. weekdays; 7 a.m.–4 p.m. Sat; 8 a.m.–4 p.m. Sun |
| Mission Coffee Co. | 11 Price Ave. | 7 a.m.–6 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m.–6 p.m. weekends |
| One Line Coffee | 745 N. High St. | Daily, within a 7 a.m.–9 p.m. range |
| Fox in the Snow, Italian Village | 1031 N. Fourth St. | 7 a.m.–3 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m.–3 p.m. weekends |
| Queer Beans Coffee & Tea | 1160 N. High St. | 8 a.m.–4 p.m. weekdays; 9 a.m.–4 p.m. weekends |
| Tertulia Bakery Cafe | 997 N. High St. | 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon–Thu; 9 a.m.–8 p.m. Fri–Sun |
| Park Service at Metsi's | 36 E. Lincoln St. | 8 a.m.–2 p.m. Wed–Sun |
| Palomino at The Bottle Shop | 237 King Ave. | 8 a.m.–2 p.m. Wed–Sat |
The table shows the split clearly. The two newest counters close at 2 p.m., and neither is open on a Monday or Tuesday. The spots that cover the edges of the day are standalone cafes that were already here. Stauf's opens at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays, the earliest on the list. One Line's listed hours run as late as 9 p.m., and Tertulia stays open until 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
So a Saturday walk can take you to Park Service for focaccia and zeppole. A 6:45 a.m. Tuesday commute, or a coffee after work, still leads back to the older names. These are listed hours, and they change, so check the business's own page before you head out.
The standalone counters are still investing
The standalone cafes that remain are putting money in. One Line's location page calls its 745 N. High St. shop "newly-renovated" and mentions a new lineup of sweet and savory items.
Mission Coffee Co. calls the Price Avenue shop its primary location. In April, Columbus Underground reported that Mission planned a second shop at 125 E. Woodruff Ave. near Ohio State, with a May 4 opening date.
That northward pull showed up elsewhere this fall. Columbus Monthly's Sept. 24 roundup reported that Koffee Paradise opened a new location at 1333 N. High St., on the campus edge of the corridor.
One brunch storefront still in waiting
The one new daytime concept planned for a High Street storefront of its own is Litchi, a Japanese-inspired brunch and dinner spot announced for 940 N. High St., the former Ampersand Asian Supper Club. Columbus Underground's May announcement gave a summer target with no set date. The planned menu included Japanese soufflé pancakes, Eggs Benedict with shredded beef, and tubetti pasta with a soft-poached egg.
If you walk past 940 N. High, the paper on the windows will tell you whether it has opened.
Two Saturdays that put coffee hours to the test
The district's next two big days bring the most foot traffic, which makes daytime hours count even more.
November Gallery Hop is Saturday, Nov. 7. The Short North Alliance describes Gallery Hop as a free first-Saturday event, usually running from 4 to 8 p.m. along High Street. By 4 p.m., Park Service and Palomino will have been closed for two hours. One Line and Tertulia are the coffee options still listed as open into the evening, and both sit right on the Hop route.
Holiday Hop is Saturday, Dec. 5, from noon to 8 p.m. High Street goes pedestrian-only between W. 2nd Ave. and E. Russell St. The Alliance's event page lists a maker market with more than 150 vendors, along with food trucks and storefront pop-ups. December's Gallery Hop falls on the same date. With a noon start, this is the one big Saturday when a late-morning stop at Metsi's on East Lincoln and an evening at a gallery can fit into the same afternoon.
Reading the empty windows
The four empty spaces from this year are at 611, 662 and 1014 N. High and around the corner at 19 W. Russell. Some will fill quickly and some won't. Starbucks only moved into 1014 N. High after that space sat vacant for about two years.
For now, the newest coffee options in the Short North share their space with a wood-fired Italian kitchen, a bottle shop and a community center. You find them a block or two off the main street, on Wednesdays through the weekend, before 2 p.m. The full-day, every-day mornings are still covered by the standalone counters at Stauf's on Neil, Mission on Price, One Line at 745 N. High and Fox in the Snow on Fourth.
At Columbus Prime Realty, we follow which storefronts turn over in the Short North, block by block, because those changes shape what it's like to live on a given street. If you own near High Street and want to know how this year's turnover shows up in your home's value, request your free home valuation and we'll go through it with you.
