I’m Xia. X-I-A
Xia joined The Neighborhood Design Center in September 2015 as an Intern while he was working toward his Interior Design degree at Ohio State University. In July 2017, he was promoted to full-time staff member at NDC. Xia is usually a pretty quiet guy, until you start talking to him about food…
What drew you to the NDC while you were still in school? Isabela was my “co-professor” for a semester, as one of my interior design professors invited her to guide us through one of the fundamental interior design classes. When the NCR program expanded to include interior improvements, NDC was looking for someone to help and Isabela reached out to the interior design department. I was super interested and, luckily, I think I made good impression during that class because she remembered me.
What is your favorite project at NDC so far? Glamour Girlz on the Go- it was the 3rd project I worked on at NDC. I worked with another intern at the time and helped build the store renders based on hand sketches. The owner of the store, who was super nice and easy to work with, loved it. She came back in 2016 and asked NDC to help design a salon shop, which I also worked on. She’s very open to suggestions and also very clear about what she wants. The overall experience was great. She came back in 2017 to NDC once again and I designed a small office space for her.
If your coworkers could describe you in 3 words, what would they be? Direct, easygoing, laconic
Thanks for putting aside that “laconic” trait for the purposes of this interview!
What do you like to do in your free time outside of work? Try new restaurants!
Can you share some of your favorites with us? Sure! Bonifacio, Katalina’s, Bonsai, Boiling Seafood Crawfish, Condado, and Non’s Hunan Express Thai dishes are some of the best I’ve had so far. I really want to try Lupo, Wolf Ridge Brewing and Watershed Distillery.
You’ve clearly tried a lot of restaurants around Columbus. How long have you lived in the city and what brought you here? I moved to Columbus in 2009 for school, so I’ve had a few years to check out the restaurants scene.
What are your favorite “hidden gems” of Cbus? Bangkok Grocery & Gift’s side restaurant- they have the best Pad Thai in Columbus.
(Why am I not surprised that your favorite hidden gem is related to food?…)
What do you look forward to each week? It varies, depending on the tv show season!
What are you currently watching? Happy Endings… for the 86th time.
86th time? (Laughs) That’s a lot of times, but we’re not judging.
Xiah, is there anything else about food that you want to share with us? Sugar makes everything better, add some to your spaghetti sauce!!!
Well, there you have it folks. Sage advice from the mouth of our resident food connoisseur. Thanks to Xia for sharing his expert food knowledge and giving us a little insight into his life at NDC!
Comments