The three-year lease on the Germantown restaurant is nearing its end. “We wanted to try it in a small town, but the numbers are not there” to justify keeping the restaurant open, Rodriguez said.
The Germantown location has 19 employees, and Rodriguez said those workers will be offered positions at other El Rancho Grande locations, probably in West Carrollton and Middletown. El Rancho Grande also operates restaurants in Fairborn and in Washington Twp., in addition to seven locations in the Cincinnati area.
The Poe Avenue location, which opened seven years ago, will reopen Monday with a “fresh start” that includes a remodeled interior and new staff members, including new management and cooks, Rodriguez said. The restaurant closed last weekend for the one-week project, he said.
The Cincinnati-based regional chain “is looking for locations in Dayton” — it is considering a downtown Dayton location and a Bellbrook location — to open, perhaps within the next year, Rodriguez said. El Rancho Grande officials haven’t chosen the locations yet, he said.
In other restaurant news, Sa Bai restaurant at 200 S. Jefferson St. has closed temporarily but is scheduled to reopen with a new menu on Oct. 16, according to a sign on the Asian restaurant’s door and to a Dayton city official. The posted notice alerted diners that the restaurant was closed until Oct. 16 “in order to start new menu and training of staff.”
Sa Bai officials could not be reached. Bart Shaw, director of the Dayton Convention Center, said restaurant managers told him the restaurant would be closed for about two weeks. Because of Sa Bai’s location on the ground floor of the city of Dayton’s transportation center, the city and convention center act as the restaurant’s landlord. Sa Bai opened in June 2011 in space that previously housed Chin’s Oriental Grill and Elbo’s nightclub.
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