DAYTON EATS
Turn to us every Sunday in Life & Arts for the latest menu updates, special dinners and events, new chefs, interesting new dishes, and food adventures brought to you by contributing writer Alexis Larsen. Bon appetit!
How to go
What: Citilites at The Schuster Center
Where: 1 W. Second St., Dayton at the corner of Second and Main streets
When: Hours vary. Citilites offers lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and dinner 2½ hours prior to performances in the Schuster Center’s Mead Theatre and Broadway Series performances at the Victoria Theatre.
Reservations: Call (937) 222-0623 or visit www.schustercenter.org/citilites/reservations.
Lunch recommendations: The fried green tomato BLT ($8.95) served on DLM Rustic Country Bread with pimento cheese spread and watercress or try a pick two special ($6.95) featuring your choice of a cup of soup, small kale Caesar salad, small Citilites house salad, small Wintergarden salad, half of a grilled cheese, half of a tuna sandwich or half of a pretzel panini.
About Flashdance
“Flashdance – The Musical” tells the story of Alex Owens, a Pittsburgh steel mill welder by day and a bar dancer by night with dreams of one day becoming a professional performer. When romance with her steel mill boss threatens to complicate her ambitions, Alex learns the meaning of love and its power to fuel the pursuit of her dream. With electrifying dance at its core and a score that includes the biggest hit songs from the movie, in addition to 16 brand new songs written for the musical with music by Robbie Roth and lyrics by Robert Cary and Roth. Recommended for ages 13 and older.
Tickets: “Flashdance” will be at the Schuster Center Jan. 20-25. Tickets are $25-$97 (plus service fees, prices subject to change). Call (937) 228-3630, (888) 228-3630 or visit www.ticketcenterstage.com.
It only makes sense that one of the most artistic chefs in town would be employed at the restaurant housed in our performing arts center.
For nearly the last four years since he was hired on, Tim Schonsheck, executive chef for Citilites at The Schuster Center, has been creating interesting and exciting dinner specials to compliment the various theatrical productions going on that evening.
Earlier last year when the Tony award-winning “Memphis” was in town, Schonsheck created a special Southern-inspired menu that included a delicious smoked blackstrap molasses quarter chicken with a refreshingly simple black watermelon relish salad and a wonderfully flavorful and rich fingerling manchego potato salad.
As he prepares for a new year, he says word has continued to spread.
“Our customers have learned that they’re going to get something fun and exciting when they come to Citilites. They want to come in to see what kind of things we’re doing that night,” said Schonsheck.
For “Flashdance — The Musical,” which will be in town Jan. 20-25 at The Schuster Center, Schonsheck will be presenting an imaginative dish he is calling “Flash in the Pan Paella.”
The dish isn’t a typical paella that diners have encountered on a menu before. The deconstructed dish draws on Schonsheck’s background as a chef trained in French, southern cuisine.
A generous helping of scallops, mussels, crawfish and Littleneck clams are cooked in a flash by one of the team of chefs in the back, with flames licking up around the pan every time a fresh dousing of white wine is administered. The tender seafood is served in a tomato brandy reduction sauce next to a helping of green lentil ruby red rice and creamed collard greens mixed with a spicy andouille sausage and buttery Manchego cheese. The entire dish, served on a long narrow plate is bookended by fresh Blue Point Oysters that have a sweet, slightly salty finish and are the crowning jewel to the clever plate.
The paella special will be priced at $36.95 and will include the restaurant’s popular housemade Tiramisu ($6) that is regularly featured on the menu. If you haven’t had this before it is a real treat. Desserts are not often surprising, but this one has a lot going on in a way you find yourself wishing more desserts did. Made with a powerful Boston Stoker Highlander Grogg reduction by Pastry Chef Josh Cox and dusted with a cinnamon cayenne mixture, this is the kind of treat you end up telling your friends about. I’m not a fan of tiramisu generally, but this preparation packs layers of flavor that you don’t often find and the strong gourmet coffee offsets the sweet, rich ingredients in just the right way.
The seafood comes fresh from Foremost Seafood in Kettering and 25-30 of these special meals will be prepared each evening, so get your order in.
The restaurant puts through a sell-out crowd of around 130-140 people during a typical evening it stays open for dinner service in conjunction with a performance and these special menu items geared especially to the shows are very popular with diners according to Schonsheck.
The regular entrée menu, which was updated in October, also has several standouts that will warm diners up this winter including a house made butternut squash lasagna with sage cream sauce and red onion marmalade garnish ($21.95), a pork Osso Bucco served with a roasted root vegetable hash ($26.95), a monkfish Thermidor ($31.95) and a deep dish lobster cobbler ($32.95) filled with lima beans, fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, and lobster topped with a golden brown crust. Schonsheck plans to debut the Citilites spring menu on March 21.
The Fairmont High School graduate came back to Dayton in 2011 after working for 18 years cooking in various kitchens in Charleston, S.C. Most notably he served as Sous Chef at the Hominy Grill working with James Beard Award winning chef/owner Robert Stehling and as Sous Chef at the old-world luxurious Peninsula Grill in the Relais & Châteaux Planters Inn in the heart of Charleston’s beloved Historic District.
“The arts audiences are willing to delve into innovation,” says Schonsheck. “They want an experience where great art and great food meet.”
Throughout the year diners can expect to see Schonsheck and his team work to create other playful dishes to compliment the shows.
“We’ve really been trying to stay in touch with other chefs — discussing our dishes, going out to eat and seeing what’s going on in other markets,” said Schonsheck who says the goal is to never stop learning.
For the Feb. 10-15 run of “Nice Work if you Can Get It” he is planning a classic lobster Thurmidor paired with a glass of Basil Hayden bourbon poured neat or on the rocks — a play on the bootlegging theme of the musical. The restaurant will also be bringing back the soft shell crabs they served for Wicked.
Schonsheck the restaurants rotating daily features have been Citilites best sellers for the last two years selling out almost every evening. These specialty dishes sourced from local, fresh ingredients — including many from the home gardens of Citilites staff during the summer — are themed around the shows people are coming to see and are only available during the special performances playing at the Schuster Center on those evenings.
It’s worth the price of admission.
Dayton Eats looks at the regional food stories and restaurant news that make mouths water. Menu updates, special dinners and events, new chefs, interesting new dishes and food adventures. Do you know of new exciting format changes, specials, happy hours, restaurant updates or any other tasty news you think is worth a closer look at? E-mail Alexis Larsen at alexis.e.larsen@hotmail.com with the information and we will work to include it in future coverage.
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