Feature Story

August 28, 2014 | By Spenser Hickey ’15

Downtown Delaware offers lots of shops, restaurants, and activities to entice visitors. Main Street Delaware also hosts a Farmers’ Market every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning through Oct. 25. (Photo by Caleb Dorfman ’15)

Discovering Delaware

Downtown Delaware offers lots of shops, restaurants, and activities to entice visitors. Main Street Delaware also hosts a Farmers’ Market every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning through Oct. 25. (Photo by Caleb Dorfman ’15)

Are you hungry and thirsty to explore Delaware? Here’s what’s on the menu for Ohio Wesleyan students and employees.

One of the first stops should be the Delaware County Convention and Visitors Bureau at 34 S. Sandusky St., located under the turquoise awning near OWU’s downtown dance studio.

The bureau provides information about all of the dining, shopping, outdoors, and entertainment options the county has to offer. While you’re there, be sure to say hi to Ohio Wesleyan alumnae Debbie Shatzer and Stephanie Bell.

Students are able to use their off-campus dining points at six nearby businesses: Hamburger Inn, Subway (16 S. Sandusky St. location only), Opa Grill and Tavern, El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant, Something Sweet Coffee & Bakery, and now J. Gumbo’s. (Students who want to use points to enjoy J. Gumbo’s Cajun cuisine will need to wait until the second week of September, when the restaurant will open at its new location at 9 N. Sandusky St. in the central block of downtown.)

Also new since spring is the opening of 12 West, offering food with a Mexican flavor, at 12 W. William St., the former location of Fiesta Mexico. In addition, The Backstretch Bar has added a daily menu of farm-to-table lunch and dinner items using produce from local farms.

For those who like to purchase their own fresh fruits, vegetable, and flowers, Main Street Delaware’s downtown Farmers’ Market is held twice a week through Oct. 25. The market is held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturdays on the east side of North Sandusky Street and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays on the west side.

Main Street Delaware also hosts a First Friday celebration each month, with September’s event scheduled to include a pet walk. Other First Friday highlights include a Christmas Tree lighting in December and a ticketed chocolate walk in February. Each month’s celebration is held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Also new this fall, Solar Saloon, a sports lounge that also offers portable solar-power products, will be opening above Something Sweet Coffee & Bakery and The Treasure House, a local thrift shop, has moved to 20 S. Sandusky St., the former location of Keiko’s Bead Box.

Finally, OWU students still are able to enjoy first-movies at downtown Delaware’s iconic Strand Theatre for $4.50 per ticket before 6 p.m. and $5.50 after 6 p.m. with their university IDs. The cinema is nearly 100 years old and is one of the longest continually operating movie houses in America.

Learn more about the community at www.visitdelohio.com and www.mainstreetdelaware.com.