The Continent & French Market (Winter, 1988) Columbus, Ohio 

I remember the very first time, I visited "The Continent" & "French Market" back in 1980. I was in the 5th grade I was 12 years old. we went there on a field trip to see "The Empire Strikes Back!" I remember seeing it with my class, at the now-defunct movie theater " The Screens At The Continent" on the corner across from the fountain. There was an "Alien" movie poster framed in the lobby, from the previous year, it was still playing. I remember they had an awesome assortment of video games and pinball machines!! Believe it or not, I did not visit The Continent again until some 14 years later, in 1994!! I went there to see one of the most boring movies ever made: "The Shadow" starring Alec Baldwin, I fell asleep in the first 25 minutes and literally started snoring so loud, I ended up going straight home to bed! I went there with this girl, I stupidly moved in with and ended up having a child with her a year later! She turned out to be a slut and a real bitch, but that's another story. Anyhow, after that and after she kidnapped our child and moved to Utah, to become a Morman, I started going there on the weekends, I remember partying and dancing at the "Yucatan Liquor Stand, ( Sadly, in May of this 2017, a shooting happened at that club, which seems to have closed permanently just a couple of weeks later)."Crazy Louie's" was another club/bar I used to frequent and the "Patio" was another hot spot back in the heyday of this shopping center. There were several restaurants there like "Schmidt's Sausage Haus" (I used to work at their Ohio Center downtown location, back in 1987). And "Damon's the Place for Ribs" and "Houlihan's." I put Columbus, Ohio in my rearview mirror over 20 years ago for good! I now live and work in Boston, Massachusetts. But The Continent & French Market" remains an indelible part of my early life and adulthood! It's so sad to see this once glorious and vibrant place turned into a "Ghost Town!" R.I.P. The Continent & French Market.

I know, I still see the sign and have a feeling like that place use to be popular. Have you been there within the last couple years? It looks like a strip mall with an indoor mall? Kind of like how Northland mall started? These are questions more than facts.

My dad worked at the Turman club hotel across the street for years. Boy has this area died.

Where are you at now? You still in Columbus?

I bet that video is a trip, I know it is for me.

Pressed Steel yes! had an upstairs and a downstairs???

It was called The Toy Box, they show the outside of it in this video, one of the places I'd hang out after work when had my summer job bussing tables in The French Market.

Larsons.

My boyfriend, Joe, was the owner of The Toy Box from 1985 until it closed. That store was/is the “love of his life”. Part of what made it such a great store, he said, was the employees...everyone who worked there took pride and saw it as their own. In a lot of ways, it was so much more than just a store. Many people-customers and employees-have shared fond memories of The Toy Box with him.

Definitely a lack of cellphones, but not completely missing. I used to bus tables at The French Market back then, it was my first summer job as a kid, my boss had a cellphone, mainly as a bragging right to show how rich he was, he'd often talk about how expensive the bill was, $50.00 / minute for a call on a cellphone back then.

Smart phones killed human interaction.

Yes there’s also a lack of literature being read, and also if you notice, there’s no dinosaurs either!

Laser One, they eventually got a 2nd Laser One inside The French Market in 89. That was my first summer job, bussing tables at The French Market, I spent my breaks at one of the two Laser One arcades.

It was replaced by Silver Ball sometime later.

YES!! Used To Walk To That Arcade Thee Time When I Was six.

yep hung out there all the time

D2SProductions Totally! Went there all the time then used to pay phone right out front to collect call my mom to pick me up because I spent all my money at Laser one.

I attend otterbein now and go through this place on my commute. I long for the existence of such a cool place

Was it safe ish

Yes, it was back then.

Haha we found the same video

lol...Work ther one summer after high school in the 90s.

*there

Did you mean "Houlihan's?"

@@bethpowell85 I worked at Houlihan's (old place) from '87-'89 when I moved down from Cleveland. The Continent was the place to be back then.

Don't recall but as working twenty-somethings we probably went out on the weekend, so Sunday seems the most likely.

Glad you like it.

I lived there right after the French Market was bulldozed. The rubble was right next to the building that I lived in. God Rest its soul.

I worked there as well.

What was the name of the burrito place next to the Black Olive?

R&R, and then In Cahoots

There was also Crazy Loueys, Yucatan Liquor Stand, Bombay Bicycle club, &Elephant Bar

Made in the USA, Houlihan's, Funny Bone comedy club.

@@pennypokey I used to pick up the finest women in Columbus back then, at every single one of those clubs you named,!! I remember when back in 1997, "The Notorious B.I.G.'s" hit song 🎵 "Mo Money, MoProblems" came out! They used to blast this song at the " Yucatan Liquor Stand" and all the sexy , "well built" girls would scream and dance with me and my friend , Barry! 💃 Good Times!! Great Memories!!

I was the DJ at RnR USA from opening in 87 until mid 89 - then I moved to spin at ClubLand in Detroit (now the Fillmore Detroit). RnR held 900+ and Clubland was in a 3,000 seat 1920s movie house, The State Theater, next door to the Fox Theater. Was live on the air from RnR Friday nights on WNCI. Good times!

I would’ve gone to Northland. HS, but we moved to Medina in 1984. I rode a bus from near Karl and Morse to Champion Middle School on the near east side prior to moving.

Beechcroft for one year

The "Tinder Box" was the name. They were actually a huge national chain until the "The Evils and dangers of smoking Tobacco" were realized. Good luck finding this store anywhere on the planet today!! R.I.P. "Tinder Box!"

Oh yeah, some hung around even up till the 2000's but its mostly a poverty zone now. Very sad, my childhood in this area was amazing.

Bummer, sorry to hear that. Yeah we enjoyed going there when I was a kid.