New Dayton pizza restaurant sets opening date, and we peek inside

Old Scratch Pizza, the independently owned restaurant in the works at 800 S. Patterson Blvd. in Dayton, will open to the public on Oct. 18, co-founder Eric Soller told this news outlet this morning.

Soller cautioned that the restaurant will be in a soft-opening mode for the first week, serving about 90 percent of its dine-in menu, and will not offer carry-out orders during the first week. The restaurant will host a handful of friends-and-family and reservations-only events in the days leading up to the Oct. 18 public opening.

The restaurant will specialize in Neopolitan-style pizza cooked in wood-fired ovens that reach an interior temperature of 800 to 1,000 degrees and can cook a Naples-style pizza in two minutes or less, Soller said. The 6,000-square-foot, 125-seat pizzeria and beer hall will have communal seating at picnic-style tables and a casual, open environment. It will feature a variety of craft beers on tap.

Old Scratch Pizza has hired 30 and is still looking to hire cooks, Soller said.

Hours for the new restaurant going forward from Oct. 18 will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. It will be closed on Mondays.

The restaurant is owned and operated by Soller and his wife Stephanie Soller of Oakwood, who met while both were attending and later graduating from the New England Culinary Institute.

Eric Soller served as operations manager for Dayton-based Solganik Food Group for six years until 2006, and has managed hotel and catering kitchens in Oregon, Michigan and Colorado. Before launching Old Scratch Pizza, he was employed by Troy-based Hobart Corp.

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