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BEVERAGES
Whether you prefer beer or liquor, Dayton has got you covered. Let’s kick off with beer.
🍺BEER
The Miami Valley now has a ton of options with which to flex a little barley and hops muscle. Among them are Hairless Hare Brewery, 738 W. National Road, Vandalia; Toxic Brew Company,431 E. Fifth St., Dayton; Warped Wing Brewing Company, 26 Wyandot St., Dayton; Yellow Springs Brewery, 305 Walnut St., Yellow Springs; Carillon Brewing Company, 1000 Carillon Park Blvd., Eudora Brewing Company, 3022 Wilmington Pike, Kettering, The Dayton Beer Company, 41 Madison St., Dayton, and Lock 27 Brewing, 1035 S. Main St., Centerville and 329 E. First St., Dayton.
Dorothy Lane Market and Whole Foods, plus select Kroger Marketplace locations also offer growler stations with local and craft beers on tap.
The Barrel House, 417 E. Third St., Dayton, offers growler fills from 17 beer taps and beer and wine bottle sales for carryout. There is an insta-chill cooler to chill a shelf bottle within seven minutes.
Lucky’s Taproom, Trolley Stop, Blind Bob’s and Thai Nine, all residing in the Oregon District, as well as nearby South Park Tavern and Peach’s Grill in Yellow Springs, sell craft beers from local and nationally known breweries and participate in growler programs, allowing you to take home more of the good stuff.
>> Gas station adds growler refill station
🍸SPIRITS
Credit: Chris Stewart
Credit: Chris Stewart
If you'd prefer some spirits to go with your OSU spirit, it gets no more Buckeye than Dayton-based Buckeye Vodka. Compared in taste and smoothness to the higher-priced Grey Goose, Buckeye has been turning heads locally and nationally since 2011.
Why not give the Buck Nut Mocha Martini a try?
Needs:
-1 ounce Buckeye Vodka
-3/4 ounce Bailey’s
-3/4 ounce Mocha Kahlua
Prep:
Put the Mocha Kahlua in the bottom of a martini glass. Combine vodka and Baileys in shaker and chill. Layer mix over Mocha. Serve with stir straw.
Belle of Dayton Distillery, 122 Van Buren St., Dayton, has been proudly displaying the city's name in their vodka, rum, whiskey and gin products since they opened up shop in 2010.
🥨SNACKS
Who doesn’t like blindly cramming their hands into an OSU-colored bowl for sustenance in effort to not miss a single play of the game?
Generations of Dayton-area sports fans have been crunching their way to victory with Mikesells Potato Chips since 1910, when the producer of dried beef and sausage started selling "Saratoga Chips". The new product caught on, and more than 100 years later, Mikesells has nearly 20 varieties of potato chips that are sold in seven different states, with special orders being shipped nationwide.
Mikesells has even teamed up with local chocolatier Esther Price to offer two kinds of chocolate-covered chips. Price opened her first store on Wayne Ave. in 1952, after decades of selling her homemade sweets to coworkers. Her candies have been a Dayton treasure ever since.
Credit: Hannah Poturalski/ STAFF
Credit: Hannah Poturalski/ STAFF
But she wasn't the first one on the local sweets scene that's turned into a business that's still active today. Winans Chocolates and Coffees, established in the late 1800s, holds that distinction. With various locations throughout the Miami Valley, some say Winans' chocolate and peanut butter Buckeyes are the best around.
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
If you're throwing a Dayton-themed Buckeyes party, there are pretzels and then there are Smales Pretzels. Any Gem City-proud snack expert will tell you there is no comparison. The bakery was founded by current owner Emma Smales' German-born great-great grandfather in 1895, and has been at its 210 Xenia Ave. location since 1926. People actually set their alarms to get up early enough for the freshest batch of the beloved pretzels.
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