You can have fun up or down at The Loft in Columbus, Georgia. My favorite way is dining Downstairs at The Loft. Tom Jones, the executive chef, makes sure each dish is perfect. Our waiter, Seth, made sure we had full glasses, everything we needed to enjoy out meal and to top it off he kept us entertained with his priceless personality and cute humor.
For appetizers we had the Creole Crabcake with roasted red pepper sauce and some fresh-from-the-oven chips. I still dream about that crabcake. Crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside with lots more crab than filling. The bar is well stocked so you could have anything from beer or wine to a fancy cocktail.
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| The Loft's well-stocked bar | Our appetizer |
I had the Unstuffed Chicken, a delicious concoction of grilled chicken breast layered with baby spinach and goat cheese, topped with a lemon butter sauce and served with roasted red pepper couscous. It was lip smacking good and oh so filling.
My friend had the Grilled Wild Gulf Shrimp roasted with garlic herbed brown butter and served with mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach. It was even prettier than my dish. Seth looked as if he would be personally hurt if we didn't have at least one of the homemade desserts. So we forced ourselves to enjoy the chocolate cheesecake. Yeah, it's a hard job but someone's got to do it.
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| The shrimp is as delicious as it looks | Couldn't finish the cake. Had to do a box. |
I found out later we were in good company. Celebrities such as Beyonce , Willie Nelson, Mel Gibson, and Josh Harnett all dined here. But wait, there's more. Upstairs there is a nightclub with top notch entertainment. On any given night, you might hear blues, jazz, pop or even find laugh your posterior off at a comedy act.
What a lot of people even in Columbus don't know is that there is even more than Downstairs at The Loft Restaurant and upstairs The Loft Entertainment. The third floor contains a first-rate recording studio where Willie Nelson once recorded. Local bands as well as other big names have cut their records here too such as the British band, The Heavy.
It's hard to believe that once this Downtown area of Columbus was pretty down and out. The Loft was one of the first places to start it on an upward swing to where today it is a vibrant section filled with top-notch restaurants and clubs as well as a vibrant shopping area. Columbus Stat University has moved much of its campus here which adds to the vibrant spark that is so noticeable today. Buddy Nelms, owner of the Loft, helped start that revitalization when he bought this Broadway building in 1985 for $40,000 and opened the upstairs entertainment venue. Most other people were fleeing the area not investing in buildings let alone an entertainment venue downtown. Nelms plunged in with buying and planning. Time has proven him right. It draws in young and old; visitor and local. What he is offering here is golden.
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