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Home > Blogs > Taste: Dayton food and restaurants > Archives > 2009 > April > 24
Friday, April 24, 2009
Clayton restaurant opens second eatery near Dayton Mall
Artisans Cafe in Clayton has opened a second restaurant in Miamisburg across from the Dayton Mall, in the same location as — and in collaboration with — the Taste of Mediterranean Restaurant.
The new Artisans Cafe, 47 S. Springboro Pike in the southwest corner of the Ohio 741-Ohio 725 intersection, opened Thursday, April 23. It is co-owned by Joe and Pam Heintz, owners of the Artisans Cafe restaurant at 8351 N. Main St., and by Akram Fadel, owner of the former Taste of Mediterranean restaurant.
Fadel is cooking for the combined restaurant and oversees Sawa Coffee Shop, the section of the restaurant that includes an outdoor hookah bar.
The restaurant menu combines dishes from both restaurants: specialty wraps, pizzas, soups and salads from Artisans Cafe, and gyros, kabobs and vegetarian dishes from Taste of Mediterranean. The slogan printed on the new menu reads, “Where the Mideast meets the Midwest.”
Joe Heintz said the Taste of Mediterranean’s landlord is a friend of his and suggested the collaboration to the Artisans Cafe owners.
“After much consultation, we decided to give it a whirl,” Heintz said. “It’s a good opportunity for us to get down here (to the south suburbs) without spending a fortune.”
The new restaurant’s owners are still tweaking the menu and getting feedback from customers, Heintz said. The new venture will have no impact on the Clayton operation, although sometime in the future, that restaurant may add some of Fadel’s Middle Eastern dishes, Heintz said.
The new Artisans Cafe will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday. For more information, call (937) 434-9140.
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TweetHoly Cheesecake! Look who has joined the ‘small plates, small prices’ trend
The one restaurant that is among the best-known in these parts for serving up gargantuan servings has joined the downsizing trend.
That’s right: The Cheesecake Factory is poised to roll out a “small plates, small prices” menu, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Here’s an excerpt from the NRN story:
The new Small Plates & Snacks menu is designed as a “pre-appetizer” or to be combined with other dishes to make a meal, The Cheesecake Factory Inc. said Thursday. The offerings follow a growing restaurant industry trend toward smaller and less expensive menu options, as operators attempt to drive traffic at a time when customers are looking for greater value and more healthful options.
Cheesecake Factory’s new menu includes 16 dishes priced from $3.95 to $6.50 each, including beets with goat cheese, hand-battered onion rings, shrimp scampi crostini, ahi tartare, stuffed mushrooms or pizzettes.
“We have actually been developing our Small Plates & Snacks menu for quite some time; however, we thought now was the perfect time to introduce it to help make The Cheesecake Factory even more accessible to Americans looking for reasons to get out and celebrate,” said Mark Mears, the company’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “But don’t let the name fool you, at The Cheesecake Factory we don’t do anything small.”
An employee of the Cheesecake Factory at The Greene in Beavercreek said the Small Plates & Snacks menu is indeed available at his restaurant, and in fact, has been for a couple of months. So apparently Mr. Mears is right — they have been developing the concept for “quite some time” and decided to put the marketing push on it now.
Still, it’s a bit of a departure for the chain, given its reputation for servings that virtually guarantee take-home bags and ample leftovers.
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