Home > Blogs > Taste: Dayton food and restaurants > Archives > 2012 > July
July 2012
Sidebar closes, will relocate elsewhere in Dayton area
Sidebar owner Brian Higgins says his restaurant will not reopen at its current location at 410 E. Fifth St., and will reopen elsewhere in the Dayton area, after his landlord started eviction proceedings against the restaurant. For details, click here.
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New Clayton restaurant eyeing mid-August opening
CLAYTON — The chef-owner of the new restaurant to be called Urban Harvest Restaurant & Catering that is under renovation at 8331 N. Main St. in the Randolph Plaza says he is shooting for a mid-August opening.
Owner Matthew DeAngulo said the restaurant, which we first told you about in May, has experienced some construction delays but is now on track to open in the coming weeks.
“We are hammering away and finishing projects every day,” DeAngulo said.
DeAngulo was the founding chef at Olive, An Urban Dive restaurant in Dayton and formerly worked at several other Dayton-area restaurants, including Olivia’s, Neil’s Heritage House, Zola’s, Cafe Boulevard, Benham’s. His new restaurant will be located in a space that previously housed the Uptown Delicatessen.
Urban Harvest’s menu will focus on Midwestern casual food, with a strong emphasis on local sourcing of ingredients, DeAngulo said.
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Pickets, protest outside Oregon District restaurant
DAYTON — A group of ex-employees and their supporters protested Saturday outside Sidebar restaurant, according to this WHIO-TV story.
The action comes less than four months after Sidebar’s landlord filed an eviction lawsuit against the restaurant, claiming Sidebar’s owner, Brian Higgins, owed $34,723 in rent, back rent, late fees, utilities and taxes. That lawsuit, however, was voluntarily dismissed within a week.
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Cassano’s closes Centerville, opens Bellbrook locations
BELLBROOK — Cassano’s Pizza King closed one of its two Centerville restaurants Monday and immediately opened a new restaurant at 4429 Ohio 725, near Drug Mart just east of Wilmington Pike in Bellbrook.
Lora Cassano Hammons, spokeswoman for the Kettering-based pizza chain, said the opening in November of a new Cassano’s on Ohio 48 in south Centerville — along with the age of the Franklin Street restaurant, which has been open for at least 30 years — prompted the decision to close the older Centerville location and open in Bellbrook. The move allows Cassano’s to expand its delivery footprint and better serve Cassano’s customers in the Bellbrook area, Hammons said.
The new Bellbrook location seats about 30 and retained all 15 employees from the Centerville restaurant, Hammons said.
Hammons said there are no current plans to add new Cassano’s restaurants, although plans do call for replacing a handful of existing locations and for remodeling others.
Cassano’s operates 33 pizza restaurants in the Dayton and southwest Ohio region.
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Judges’ ruling keeps Eva Christian in prison
Judges on the Ohio Second District Court of Appeals have rejected a request from Dayton restaurant owner Eva Christian to be released from prison pending her appeal.
Christian, the owner of Boulevard Haus restaurant in Dayton’s Oregon District, was convicted May 22 of five felony counts — including a first-degree felony count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity — related to two incidents of insurance fraud. Christian sought an appeals court order that would have put her prison sentence on hold or that would have allowed her to pay a bond that would have allowed her to be freed while she appeals her conviction. Montgomery County prosecutors had vigorously opposed Christian’s effort to be freed pending the outcome of the appeal, calling her crimes “horrendous,” especially attempts to burn down one of her restaurants.
Appeals court judges Jeffrey E. Froelich and Michael T. Hall denied Christian’s request Monday, according to court records.
The case revolved around break-ins and a fire during 2009 that Christian reported and which prosecutors said were staged in order to collect insurance money: one break-in at her Washington Twp. home and a reported vandalism and fire at her now-defunct Cena Brazilian Steakhouse in Miami Twp. near the Dayton Mall.
Testimony during the two-week trial included a prosecution witness who testified that Christian wanted to “blow up” Cena, which was adjacent to a family-portrait studio and men’s clothing store near the Dayton Mall.
Prosecutors say Christian faces deportation upon her release from prison in 2021 unless the conviction is overturned on appeal.
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Popular Mexican restaurant to open second location
TROTWOOD — The popular Taqueria Mixteca, which has operated a single restaurant at 1609 E. Third St. in Dayton for seven years, is expanding to open a second location on Shiloh Springs Road in Trotwood, reports my Dayton Daily News reporting colleague Marc Katz in a story that is scheduled to run in Sunday’s Dayton Daily News.
The new Mixteca Trotwood could open as early as September. The restaurant’s owners reponded to rumors of the new restaurant on their Facebook page back in April before the deal was finalized, assuring customers that they had no intention of closing the existing restaurant in East Dayton.
For more details of the new Taqueria Mixteca and news about other new-restaurant activity in Trotwood, check out Marc’s story in Sunday’s DDN.
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New family-friendly bar & grill opens in Trotwood
TROTWOOD — Jerseyz Grille opened this week in a former Bill Knapps location at 5212 Salem Ave., reports my Dayton Daily News colleague Marc Katz.
Jerseyz owners say the restaurant is a family-friendly bar and grill. The new pub employs 40 people and will hire about eight more.
For more on the influx of restaurants into the Trotwood area, check out Marc’s story in Sunday’s Dayton Daily News.
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‘Wrong’ location forces BBQ restaurant to close, but more on the way
TROY — The OinkADoodleMoo restaurant at 1600 W. Main St. that opened just nine months ago closed Tuesday, although the barbecue chain’s founder said several new restaurants are planned, including one in downtown Dayton.
“We have a very full pipeline,” OinkADoodleMoo Founder and President Mark Peebles said in an email this morning. “We are going to open an OinkADoodleMoo Express Downtown in September, will be signing our first lease in the Cincinnati market in the next two weeks and are in negotiations on our first Columbus location on an eight-to-ten-unit franchise deal. … We are also hoping to secure a location in the Beavercreek and Miami Twp./Springboro markets in the next 12 months.”
Peebles declined to release details, including the location, of the planned downtown Dayton express restaurant because the lease is not yet finalized.
The Troy location, operated by a franchisee, “was on the wrong side of the highway, tough to get in and out of. And some of the opportunities that we thought we were going to have with signage did not pan out,” Peebles said. “Couple this with the economy, and it was tough to make it go.”
Peebles said he believes Troy “is a prime market in the region, and we do plan to re-open a location at some point, but do not have any immediate plans.”
The Troy restaurant had six employees at the time of its closing. Two were absorbed at other OinkADoodleMoo locations, Peebles said.
OinkADoodleMoo was founded in fall 2009 with the opening of its first location at 322 Union Blvd. in Englewood. In 2010, the restaurant chain added a mobile vending unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and a second full restaurant at 3910 Far Hills Ave. in Kettering.
In June, the three-store Englewood-based chain was named one of Forbes “Hot Little Restaurant Chains You Can Buy Into Now” list, one of only five small chains in the country to be mentioned.
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London olympics create opportunity for restaurants
I wrote a story a couple of weeks back about local businesses gearing up for the London Olympics, but I know that at the time, some restaurants and pubs were still formulating their plans. Now, my colleague Jacqui Boyle is looking for any local bars, restaurants and other venues that are offering Olympics-themed special deals, promotions or events now or in the upcoming weeks. Contact Jacqui at Jacqueline.Boyle@coxinc.com or 937-225-2122.
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Dayton steakhouse scores a national shout-out
DAYTON — Okay, we already knew that authors Jane and Michael Stern of “Roadfood” fame were fans of The Pine Club, Dayton’s iconic steakhouse at 1926 Brown St., because they spoke glowingly about the restaurant’s hamburgers in their 2009 book “500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late.”
But Michael Stern has delivered another powerful little shout-out to the Pine Club, this time in this USA Today story entitled “The USA’s best steakhouse.” There, nestled into a longer story about the historic and REALLY iconic Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn, is the following paragraph:
Not all USA TODAY panelists are Luger loyalists. Says restaurant-rating veteran Michael Stern, creator of Roadfood.com: “As much as I like the high-end New York steak houses (when someone else is paying), they can’t hold a candle to eating beef in the heartland.” His top pick: The Pine Club in Dayton, Ohio.
This isn’t the first time the Pine Club has scored some love in a national publication. In 2008, an issue of Saveur, a national magazine focusing on food and dining, praised the Dayton steakhouse, saying in a story entitled “Adventures in Good Eating: American Road Trip” that the Pine Club had “classic steak house food: plump strip steaks and ribeyes, sweet-and-sour stewed tomatoes with a topping of buttered croutons, herring slathered in sour cream, creamed spinach, and shredded iceberg lettuce topped with thick blue cheese dressing.”
Do you think the “tastemakers” on the coasts have figured out we’re not just living in flyover country here in Dayton, Ohio?
Nahhhhh.
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Dayton coffee shop adds Saturday night dinners
DAYTON — Ghostlight Coffee at 1201 Wayne Ave. has teamed up with Fressa Food Truck and Thistle Confections to offer a new summertime Saturday night dinner option in Dayton’s South Park neighborhood, according to Ghostlight owner Shane Anderson.
The coffee shop normally closes at 7 p.m. but is staying open until 10 p.m. through the end of the summer. The Fressa Food Truck will be stationed at Wayne Avenue and Clover Street on Saturday evenings, and Thistle Confections will be serving desserts. Ghostlight Coffee will offer its full menu of iced coffee beverages and handmade sodas. There will be live music inside the coffee shop, and seating also is available on the shop’s new patio, which seats 14, Anderson said.
For more information, check out the Ghostlight Coffee Facebook page or call (937) 985-2633.
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Vandalia restaurant has new name, ownership
VANDALIA — The former Mr. Lee’s Fine Dining restaurant at 7580 Poe Ave. has new ownership and a new name: Shen’s Szechuan & Sushi.
Mr. Lee’s owner Peter Lee retired from the restaurant business and sold the restaurant and property to his acquaintance Peter Song and to Shen Xie, who has served as the executive sushi chef at Mr. Lee’s for the last four years, according to a spokeswoman for the new owners.
There has been no change to the restaurant’s regular menu or staffing, but the new owners have added weekly specials, and are planning several events that will spotlight Chinese culture, especially music. Plans call for setting up a stage where Chinese opera performers and musicians can perform.
A grand opening event for Shen’s Szechuan & Sushi is being planned for Sept. 24.
For more information, call (937) 898-3860 or check out the Shen’s Szechuan & Sushi Facebook page at www.facebook.com/shensdayton.
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Coco’s sets date for long-awaited move to new location
DAYTON — Coco’s Bistro is scheduled to open at its new location at 250 Warren St. just south of downtown Dayton on Oct. 29, two days after hosting an open house at the new restaurant, according to Karen Wick-Gagnet, who co-owns Coco’s with her husband Jim Gagnet.
“We are super-excited to have the new space,” Wick-Gagnet said.
The upcoming move from the current location at 515 Wayne Ave. — which has been in the works since 2009 — will bring several advantages, Wick-Gagnet said, including:
— expanded hours: the new Coco’s will open on Saturdays for lunch, and will serve both lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday;
— more parking: the new restaurant will have about 120 dedicated parking spaces, up from 40 at the Wayne Avenue restaurant;
— special events room: a separate dining area will seat up to 80 people or can be split to accommodate two smaller parties of 20 to 30, will have audio-visual hookups and access to an outdoor courtyard;
— more convenient location: customers will have easier highway access from U.S. 35 and diners driving in from the south suburbs of Dayton will have a more direct route, and the strip that connects downtown Dayton with the University of Dayton-Miami Valley Hospital area appears poised for growth, with Easter Seals-Goodwill building a $13 million development across Warren Street on and around the former Benham’s restaurant site;
— expanded bar-lounge area: Coco’s lounge will be called the High Violet Lounge, and will offer seating of about 62 — 22 around the bar, and 40 more in the lounge surrounding the bar. It will have a separate, more casual menu that will likely include crispy flatbread pizzas, and will serve the menu at times when the restaurant’s dining room is closed, such as between lunch and dinner service from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and after 10 p.m.
The new restaurant’s main dining room will seat about 80 diners, which is about the same as the current Coco’s seating capacity. The bistro’s owners will offer a “sneak peek” at the new restaurant at an open house during Dayton’s Urban Nights festivities on Sept. 14, Wick-Gagnet said.
Coco’s existing location has been for sale, and Wick-Gagnet said, “There is a lot of interest in the current space. We are expecting something to happen in the next 30 days.”
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Dorothy Lane Market unveils new rewards program
Dorothy Lane Market this morning unveiled the Club DLM Rewards Program that offers customers who use the free Club DLM loyalty card price breaks on everyday items such as milk, eggs, soda pop and bananas and several other items.
Here’s how the program works: Customers who have a DLM loyalty card will accrue points every time they shop. Shoppers can then cash in the points to receive the price breaks. Shoppers earn one point for every $2 spent, although on the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month, customers can accrue 10 points for every $2 of their grocery bill. Customers can redeem 100 points to purchase up to five pounds of bananas (conventional or organic) at the special discounted price of 9 cents a pound, saving up to 64 cents a pound.
Customers who have items in their basket that are eligible for the price breaks will be asked at the checkout if they want to use their points to obtain the discount, or they can opt to save their points for a later purchase, DLM officials said. The points never expire.
“We think this will allow us to be more attractive from a price perspective,” said Calvin Mayne, DLM’s vice president and chief operating officer and grandson of DLM’s founder.
The Club DLM Rewards program takes effect today, and customers who already have DLM loyalty cards are automatically enrolled. Those wishing to sign up for the program can obtain a DLM loyalty card at no charge by filling out an application at any DLM checkout lane or by applying online at www.dorothylane.com, store officials said. DLM operates grocery stores in Oakwood, Washington Twp. and Springboro.
Dorothy Lane Market was among the earliest adopters of loyalty cards, launching its Club DLM program in 1995. Many retailers, including Kroger and Speedway, offer special deals or savings based on points earned through loyalty-card purchases.
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Boulevard Haus owner should stay in prison, prosecutors say
Montgomery County prosecutors are urging appeals court judges to keep Dayton restaurant owner Eva Christian behind bars while she appeals her nine-year prison sentence and her conviction on five felony counts related to insurance fraud.
“The nature and circumstances of her crimes were horrendous, most notably the fire that was started at her restaurant … in a heavily populated strip mall where the lives of several bystanders were put at risk,” assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor Andrew T. French said in court documents. “After the fire, when the fire department had shut off the gas lines, the gas was somehow ‘mysteriously’ turned back on — three separate times — resulting in three evacuations of the area.
“Proof of her guilt was also strong, as evidenced by the quick guilty verdict — less than five hours (of jury deliberation) — following 10 days of testimony.”
French also said Christian is a German national “who, despite several requests that she do so, has never surrendered her passport,” which makes her a flight risk if she would be released from prison pending the outcome of her appeal.
Springboro attorney Marshall G. Lachman wrote in his earlier request to suspend the restaurant owner’s prison sentence that Christian “has been a productive member of the community for a number of years, owning businesses and employing many citizens … (She) posted bond during the course of her trial court proceedings and appeared at every required court proceeding … it is (my) understanding that much of the evidence against (Christian) that led to her conviction was based on the testimony of less-than-credible witnesses.”
Christian is seeking a court order putting her prison sentence on hold and blocking the forfeiture of her Washington Twp. home that would help repay more than $80,000 in restitution that she has been ordered to repay to two insurance companies and to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Miami Twp. Fire Department.
Christian, the owner of Boulevard Haus restaurant in Dayton’s Oregon District, was convicted by a jury on May 22 of five felony counts — including a first-degree felony count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity — related to two incidents of insurance fraud. The case revolved around break-ins and a fire during 2009 that Christian reported and which prosecutors said were staged in order to collect insurance money: one break-in at her Washington Twp. home and a reported vandalism and fire at her now-defunct Cena Brazilian Steakhouse in Miami Twp. near the Dayton Mall.
Testimony during the two-week trial included a prosecution witness who testified that Christian wanted to “blow up” Cena, which was adjacent to a family-portrait studio and men’s clothing store near the Dayton Mall in Miami Twp.
Prosecutors say Christian faces deportation upon her release from prison in 2021 unless the conviction is overturned on appeal.
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Dominic’s case resurfaces: Judges reject Duke’s restaurant owner’s appeal
CINCINNATI — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the personal bankruptcy filing by the former owner of Duke’s Restaurant in West Carrollton does not shield him from a federal judge’s rulings in his long-simmering legal dispute with the former owner of Dominic’s Restaurant.
The trademark-infringement and breach-of-contract federal lawsuit — first filed in April 2009 by former Dominic’s owner Anne Mantia against her stepdaughter, Christia Mantia, and former Duke’s owner Reece Powers III — is still not fully resolved. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas M. Rose granted a default judgment against Powers, Christie Mantia and a third defendant, former Dominic’s chef Harry Lee, in March 2010. Judge Rose found Powers to be in contempt of court and ordered his restaurant, Duke’s, to shut down. But the issue of monetary damages was never fully resolved, in part because Powers filed for personal bankruptcy. Powers’ chapter 7 liquidation case is still pending in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dayton.
The court of appeals decision upheld Judge Rose’s rulings and said Powers must still abide by the district court’s orders and injunctions, although Judge Rose indicated in an earlier ruling that he will not attempt to require Powers individually to pay monetary damages because of the declaration of bankruptcy.
Anne Mantia’s attorney, James Morris of Lexington, Ky., said, “We are extremely pleased that the Court of Appeals has affirmed the District Court’s ruling, and we look forward to finally being able to proceed with the case and obtain a judgment on the claims presented.
“It has been a long and difficult delay … . Hopefully we will be able to schedule a hearing promptly and reach a conclusion to this matter, and can finally close this difficult chapter.”
Powers’ attorney for the appeal, John Scaccia of Springboro, said his client “is disappointed with the ruling, and he is examining his options to find alternative forms of relief,” which Scaccia said may include appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Anne and Christie Mantia co-owned Dominic’s restaurant on South Main Street in Dayton, but the partnership ended in 2005 with a buyout agreement in which Christie Mantia accepted $460,000 in part in exchange for agreeing to not use the term “Dominic’s” in any future restaurant ventures. Dominic’s closed in 2007 under Anne Mantia’s sole ownership. It had been in business for 50 years.
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Beer shop owner teams up with relative to open restaurant
DAYTON — A new sandwich shop called Stackers Subs & Grub opened Sunday at 2615 S. Smithville Road, in the same building that houses Belmont Party Supply and BrewTensils.
The independently operated sub shop is owned by Mike and Donna Schwartz, owners of Belmont Party Supply, and Doug Magoch, the restaurant’s chef and manager who is also second cousin to Mike Schwartz. Magoch has more than 30 years of food-service experience, including stints at Bob Evans restaurants and at Studebaker’s Country Restaurant in New Carlisle.
Taking a break Sunday afternoon from slicing potatoes for Stackers’ fresh-cut fries, Magoch said he and Schwartz have been talking for about a year about opening a restaurant or a restaurant-bakery in Dayton, and settled on an empty space adjacent to the Belmont carryout. Plans are in the works for a special beer-and-sandwich pairing event in the beer shop later this year, the restaurant manager said. Stackers’ menu includes subs, wraps, paninis and salads, and includes multiple vegan and vegetarian options.
Magoch said he and Schwartz are already looking for a location for a second Stackers. “We hope open two more shops within the next three years,” most likely in the Beavercreek-Fairborn area, he said.
Stackers employs seven people. It’s carryout-only now, but will soon offer delivery service and is also working on an online ordering system, Magoch said. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
For more information, call Stackers at (937) 424-4611 or check out the Stackers Subs & Grub Facebook page.
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Centerville restaurant to close for four days for renovations
CENTERVILLE — Sweeney’s Seafood Restaurant at 28 W. Franklin St., which has been under new ownership since April, will close for renovations from Sunday, July 8 through Wednesday, July 11, according to Lisa Long, general manager of the restaurant.
The renovations will include painting the entire interior of the restaurant, replacing carpet, renovating the bathrooms, repairing and painting the ceiling, adding ceramic tile replacing two old large sails with 6 new sails that will be accented with white lights, Long said.
Sweeney’s is scheduled to reopen on Thursday, July 12.
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