Columbus Monthly just published a beautiful look back at The Refectory’s first fifty years — and it reminded us how much of our story is still being written by the same people who started it.

It begins, fittingly, in 1976: a converted 19th-century church on Bethel Road, a fledgling restaurant called the Olde Church-House, and a teenage line cook named Kamal Boulos who had no idea he’d spend the next five decades shaping it into one of Ohio’s most celebrated dining destinations.

A wine cellar built from a dozen bottles and a metal locker

Long before The Refectory was known for its acclaimed wine program, it was known for not having one — at least not much of one. A 1977 review in this very magazine called our original wine list “above average,” then added the very Columbus caveat: “average in Columbus is quite poor.”

Kamal took that as a challenge, not an insult. Working alongside our late general manager, Jeff Elasky, the two of them started small: a dozen bottles, a metal locker, and a lot of ambition. “I told him this was our wine cellar,” Kamal recalls. Elasky ran with it, and within a few years he knew more about wine than Kamal did.

That early experiment paid off in 1991, when The Refectory received a Wine Spectator Grand Award — one of only 91 restaurants in the world to be recognized that year, and the first in Ohio. It remains one of the proudest moments in our history, not because of the award itself, but because of what it proved: that a world-class wine program could be built right here in Columbus.

The chef who came for a job and stayed for a legacy

A year after that first Grand Award, a young chef from Lyon, France named Richard Blondin walked into our kitchen. Thirty-plus years later, he’s still here, still innovating, and still surprising us. As Kamal puts it, “it still amazes me that every few weeks he’ll do something he’s never done before.”

What carried us through 2020

Every restaurant has a chapter it didn’t expect to write. Ours came in March 2020, when Kamal genuinely thought we might not survive. Rather than close quietly, our team decided to spend whatever time we had left thanking the community that had supported us for over forty years.

So we opened our doors differently: selling what food we had out front, and giving meals away out back to anyone who needed them. That impulse — generosity over survival math — became the carryout business that, paired with more than $100,000 in community donations, carried us through. Some of what we learned that year never went away: daily-changing menus, adjusted hours, and the food-and-music evenings we now host on select Mondays and Tuesdays.

Celebrating now, building for later

This anniversary year, we’ve leaned into our history rather than away from it. We commissioned a commemorative champagne from Gratiot-Pillière in France. Chef Blondin brought back classic dishes from our earliest days, including the veal preparations that defined the original Olde Church-House menu — and yes, we filmed it, because some traditions deserve a Reel. On June 27, we’re hosting a reservation-only champagne dinner under the stars to mark the occasion properly.

And behind the scenes, our team is assembling five decades of articles, awards, and memories into a timeline that will live on permanently as an art piece for guests to see when they visit. It’s also given us a clearer picture of something we’re quietly proud of: over the years, our community contributions — monetary and in-kind — add up to more than $1 million.

Fifty years in, still not finished

Asked what’s next, Kamal doesn’t talk about expansion or reinvention. He talks about staying exactly as relaxed, unhurried, and a little surprising as we’ve always tried to be. “I would love to see this place continue,” he says, “and others will one day build, hopefully, on the foundation that we put here.”

We couldn’t have said it better. Here’s to the next fifty.

Read the full feature from Columbus Monthly, written by Linda Lee Baird: The Refectory Restaurant Reflects on 50 Years

Join us for our Champagne Under the Stars dinner on June 27, or stop by to taste our commemorative 50th anniversary champagne, available by the bottle or by the glass.