Metsi's Wood-Fired Italian is getting a second act each day, and it starts before the sun sets on wood-fired pizza. The Short North restaurant at 36 E. Lincoln St. is teaming up with Park Service Coffee to open a daytime café inside its dining room this Friday, serving espresso, matcha and grab-and-go Italian bites from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. before the space flips back into dinner service.
The café's official opening is set for Friday, Sept. 25, according to Columbus Underground. That timeline doesn't fully square with an earlier account from Best of 614, which reported that neither a public preview from Business First nor Metsi's own website had published a firm opening date at the time it checked. Once open, the café will run Wednesdays through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., per The Columbus Dispatch, with Metsi's transitioning back to its regular wood-fired Italian dinner menu at 4 p.m.
What's Actually On the Menu
The beverage side leans on Park Service's full lineup: espresso, drip coffee, pour overs, cold brew, chai, loose-leaf tea and matcha, the Dispatch reports. One standout drink ties the two businesses together directly — a maple hazelnut budino cappuccino inspired by Metsi's popular budino dessert, alongside a food menu for the daytime concept.
Savory grab-and-go options include slices of wood-fired pepper quiche, a mortadella sandwich on house-made sourdough focaccia, a chicken Caesar wrap and a farro and stone fruit salad, according to the same Dispatch report. For something sweet, the café will stock zeppole ricotta doughnuts and a gluten-free almond cake — items that lean on Metsi's kitchen while letting Park Service handle the drinks. The overall approach, the outlet notes, pairs coffee with a new grab-and-go menu rather than building an entirely separate operation.
Two Columbus Food Names Joining Forces
Lieberman opened Metsi's in 2025 inside what was previously the Hiraeth space. The daytime café extends Metsi's service into the morning, with Park Service providing the coffee.
Park Service Coffee has its own winding path to this partnership. The business began as a mobile coffee trailer in 2021 before moving into Woodhouse Vegan at 19 W. Russell St. in 2022. Woodhouse Vegan closed over the summer, and Park Service is now partnering with Metsi's on its daytime café.
A Short North Restaurant Scene in Flux
The daytime café concept effectively layers breakfast, lunch and coffee service into a footprint that already runs dinner later in the day, as Best of 614 characterized it. That kind of dual-use space isn't happening in a vacuum — Chapman's Eat Market closed in August 2025, a reminder of how much turnover the neighborhood's food scene has seen recently.
For now, the plan is straightforward: mornings and early afternoons belong to Park Service Coffee and its espresso bar, while evenings still belong to Metsi's wood-fired kitchen. Whether the daytime hours expand or shift beyond opening week hasn't been addressed publicly, but the Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule gives Short North regulars a new reason to swing by 36 E. Lincoln St. long before dinner reservations start.
