Dayton Club set to reopen
The Dayton Club is slated to reopen Sept. 1.
The Dayton Club had closed in mid-March as government-imposed quarantine orders and spreading fears of COVID-19 were first starting to be keenly felt in Dayton and across the United States.
The club, atop the Stratacache Tower in downtown Dayton, will reopen with new guidelines on social distancing and safety, a new email from general manager Bradley Alexander tells customers.
Dues payments that had been suspended will also be reinstated effective Sept. 1, Alexander also said.
Indian restaurant to open at CareSource
The owner of an Indian restaurant in Richmond, Ind., is moving ahead with plans to open a second location in downtown Dayton, despite delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
A.J. Singh, owner of Gulzar’s Indian Cuisine, has applied to the Ohio Division of Liquor Control for a license to serve alcohol at 217 N. Patterson Blvd., in the ground floor of a CareSource building in downtown Dayton, where he would join a Winans Chocolates + Coffees shop and a Flyboys Deli restaurant if all goes as planned. He opened Gulzar’s Indian Cuisine, named for his grandfather, about five years ago. His father, Paramjeet Singh, opened Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine about 20 years ago in Cincinnati.
Company to invest in Fifth Street building
Fifth Street in the area of Sinclair Community College west of the Oregon District could be “booming” in the near future, despite the pandemic — and the renovation of the Reed-Steffan building can play a part in that, Dan Mayer, a project manager of Triad Architects, said.
Triad, a Columbus architectural firm, plans to invest $3 million in the renovation of the Reed-Steffan Building on West Fifth Street in downtown Dayton, the property which houses the Dayton Chess Club, very near the Spaghetti Warehouse.
Triad purchased the 100-year-old Reed-Steffan Building at 18 W. Fifth St. in 2018, and renovation work will begin in early 2021.
The firm’s vision: Create space for office and residential uses on the building’s top two floors. First-floor tenants may include restaurants, specialty retail and light manufacturing.
Bakery to open downtown
A bakery-restaurant that will serve a breakfast and brunch menu as well as some evening fare on Friday and Saturday nights is poised to open in downtown Dayton.
Salt Blocks Biscuit Company, at 115 E. Third St. in Dayton’s Fire Blocks District, is the brainchild of Justin Mohler, a pastry chef who has worked at Dayton-area restaurants such as the former Blue Moon, Christopher’s Restaurant, and the former Olive, An Urban Dive.
Mohler said he is planning to
host some invitation-only events after Labor Day, starting around Sept. 10. A ribbon-cutting is in the works with the Downtown Dayton Partnership. The date to open to the public has not been set, but could come as early as Sept. 21, Mohler said.
A previous plan to open Salt Block Biscuit Company in the District Provisions building on Wayne Avenue fell through.
Tank’s to reopen
Tank’s Bar & Grill, which had pushed back its July reopening plans to make some unexpected HVAC repairs, is finally poised to reopen its dining room, although there will be some safety precautions and restrictions in place to protect diners and employees, Tank’s owner Debra Tankersley said in an email.
The popular Dayton pub at 2033 Wayne Ave. will re-launch dine-in service at 8 a.m. Aug. 26, Tankersley said.
Here are the safety precautions and restrictions Tankersley described in an email: The restaurant will have about 60 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity because of social distancing. It will be taking reservations and callahead seating only. No parties of more than 10 can be seated at one table. Masks will be required for diners to get to their seats and if they get up to use the restroom or look at the beer list.
The menu has changed slightly, but breakfast will still be served all day.
Crooked Handle unveils kitchen
Crooked Handle Brewing Co. in Springboro has launched its own in-house kitchen and a relatively extensive food menu to accompany its craft beers.
Jason Moore, co-founder and head brewer, and his partners enlisted help from local restaurateur and restaurant consultant Chris Cavender to design the kitchen and hired James Tam as kitchen manager and lead cook. The result is a menu of scratch-made brewpub fare that Moore said includes “some familiar favorites as well as signature Crooked creations only found at Crooked Handle, such as the Bacon Bleu Bomber Burger or Dry Rubbed Wings” that are slow-smoked, then deep-fried.
There is also a “Green Eggs and Ham Sammie” consisting of grilled ham and Swiss topped with chimichurri aioli and an overeasy egg, served on Dorothy Lane Market farmhouse sourdough bread.
The menu includes eight burger options, a halfdozen sandwiches, appetizers, soups, salads and sides.
The craft brewery at 760 N. Main St. in Springboro also has a second patio installed in part of the parking lot in front of the brewpub’s entrance to help accommodate social distancing.
Golden Nugget for sale
It‘s been more than two years since the owners of the popular Golden Nugget pancake house in Kettering quietly put the property and building that houses their restaurant on the market, but no “for sale” sign ever appeared on the property at South Dixie Drive and West Dorothy Lane in Kettering.
That has changed. Recently the “for sale” sign was installed, the asking price is $1.5 million, and the Golden Nugget may have served its last stack of pancakes and perfectly cooked bacon at that location at 2932 S. Dixie Drive, although the restaurant’s owners say they want to reopen a smaller Golden Nugget elsewhere at some point in the future.
The listing price has dropped by nearly half from the original asking price of $2.9 million when the property was first listed in August 2018.
The listing agent for the property, David Nianouris of HER Realtors, said he has seen some interest in the 1.9-acre property and 7,238-square-foot building during the time it was quietly for sale, but that interest didn’t culminate in a purchase. The property is now being marketed to buyers who may not have a successor restaurant in mind for the tract.
New restaurant to open in Troy
The fast-growing restaurant chain Agave & Rye will enter the Dayton-area market this fall with a new location on Troy Public Square, Chris Britt, Agave & Rye’s corporate regional manager, confirmed.
The new restaurant, which promises “epic” tacos and an extensive bourbon and tequila list, will fill the space at 2 N. Market St. that has been vacant for more than twoand-a-half years. It formerly held La Piazza Italian restaurant, which shut down in February 2018 after a run of more than 25 years.
Britt said the Covington, Ky.-based Agave & Rye has had its eye on the Dayton market in part because its northernmost location in Liberty Center in Butler County was wildly successful after opening in October 2019, and that success continued after it reopened after the coronavirus-related statewide shutdown of dine-in service at bars and restaurants earlier this year. In fact, the Liberty Township location set a one-day sales record for the fourstore chain just this weekend, on Saturday, Aug. 15, Britt said.
Agave & Rye opened its first restaurant in Covington in February 2018, and has added locations in Louisville and Lexington as well as Liberty Township.
Plans call for opening the new restaurant perhaps as soon as late November, Britt said. It will employ up to 50 people.
Kroger property sold
The property where a Kroger store sits at 1024 S. Smithville Road has a new owner after a $6.1 million sale, county records examined by the Dayton Daily News show.
Local property records show that Y&O Pinewood 1, a foreign limited liability company, with three other entities, purchased the nearly 50,000-square-foot Pinewood Plaza property for that amount from Gar Pinewood Limited Partnership.
“We have no plans to close the store at this time,” Kroger spokeswoman Erin Rolfes said in response to a question Thursday. She added that Kroger is a tenant on the property, not an owner.
Nearly six acres of land were included in the transaction.
The last time the property changed hands was for $5.15 million in May 2011.
The store was built in 1979, according to records.