Local restaurant highlights for March: New carryout eateries open; a longtime classic shuts down

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the restaurant landscape in the Dayton area and across the country.

A March 15 order from Gov. Mike DeWine closed restaurants and bars to dine-in customers. To survive, many restaurants have revamped their concept to offer carryout and delivery options.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, two brand new restaurants opened with a carryout business model in March: Dayton Street Eats in south Kettering and Roma’s Pizza & Pasta in Springboro. But a six-decade old Dayton-area treasure, El Greco's Pizza Villa in Harrison Twp., has closed, although its owner left a door cracks to a potential return someday.

Now (and in the weeks to come) is a good time to remember our local restaurants and put in a carryout, curbside pickup or contact-less delivery order.

“These restaurants get asked all the time to donate to the community, and now is the time to return the favor and help out restaurants during this time,” Amy Zahora, executive director of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association, told this news organization. “We have a lot of independently owned restaurants in town, and this is their only source of income.”

Some of the plans for the “coming-soon” restaurants on this list were disclosed prior to the statewide temporary stay-at-home order and temporary ban on dine-in service. We’ll check in after the pandemic orders are lifted to see if any plans have changed.

>>Which Dayton-area restaurants are offering carryout, delivery and curbside service? 

New

 

Dayton Street Eats 

Credit: Mark Fisher

Credit: Mark Fisher

Dayton Street Eats, a carryout restaurant, opened its doors at 5993 Bigger Road in south Kettering.

When Scott Green, who has operated a popular local food truck for eight years, and partner Jerika Witt decided to open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, they chose a space that did not have a dining room.

“We are super thankful we went this (carryout) route,” Green told this news outlet Monday. “The circumstances are unfortunate, but we will make the best of it and try and help our community the best way we can.”

The Dayton Street Eats menu includes pizza and nearly a dozen sandwiches, including a reuben-like “Bearded Lady,” the restaurant’s signature sandwich; the “Mother-In-Law,” chicken salad with grapes, celery and onions served on toasted French bread; a spicy “Fire Eater” grilled cheese; a Cuban; a Meatball Sub; and a BLT. Side dishes, salads, kids meals and desserts, including a funnel cake topped with powdered sugar.

Sassy Acai Bowls (Note: Closed temporarily during the stay-at-home order)

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

The founders of a new healthy-options carryout-and-delivery restaurant have opened their first location in south Kettering, and they are hoping to expand the concept throughout the region.

Sassy Acai Bowls opened quietly last month at 5707 Bigger Road in an outlot in the Oak Creek Plaza.

The specialty bowls are made from either Acai or Pitaya (Dragon Fruit); granola (regular or gluten-free); fruit options that include banana, blueberry, peach, strawberry, pineapple, kiwi and mango; and choice of toppings such as agave, sliced almonds, cacao nibs, chia seeds, coconut flakes, caramel, peanut butter or raisins.

***NOTE: Sassy Acai Bowls is temporarily closed due to the statewide stay-at-home order.

Verona’s Pizza 

Credit: Mark Fisher

Credit: Mark Fisher

Downtown Bellbrook has a new, locally owned pizza and pasta carryout and delivery shop.

Verona’s Pizza opened at 18 E. Franklin St., in space that previously housed Gardina’s Pizza and Bellbrook Pizza Cottage.

The Verona’s Pizza menu includes the shop’s signature New York-style pizza, and also includes Calzones, Subs, salads and several baked pasta dishes, including Lasagna, Manicotti, Ziti, Ravioli, Spaghetti and Stuffed Shells. Cannoli and Tiramisu also are available.

>>READ MORE: New, locally owned pizza shop now open in Bellbrook

Roma’s Pizza & Pasta 

Credit: Mark Fisher

Credit: Mark Fisher

Roma’s Pizza & Pasta, a carryout and delivery restaurant at 282 W. Central Ave. in Springboro has opened.

The new Italian restaurant is located in a storefront at 282 W. Central Ave. that formerly housed Pizza-N-Motion, which shut down in January. Its founder and owner, Labinot Troni, has worked at several other Italian restaurants in the region, including most recently Troni’s Italian Restaurant in Kettering, which is operated by his brother Nick.

Roma’s menu includes pizza, stromboli and calzones, as well as pasta dishes such as lasagna, stuffed shells, spaghetti, manicotti and other Italian specialties. Salads, sub sandwiches and desserts also are available.

Coming Soon

 

Victor’s Taco Shop

The Dayton area’s sixth Dayton-area Victor’s Taco Shop is coming to Kettering, within a few hundred feet of another new restaurant launched in February by the same owners.

Hector Gonzales, who oversees five other Victor’s Taco Shop locations in the Dayton-Springfield region and is founder of Hector’s Taco Shop in Fairborn, told this news outlet he plans to open a Victor’s Taco Shop location on Bigger Road in the Oak Creek Plaza in south Kettering.

Victor’s Taco Shop’s menu features a variety of Mexican specialties, including tacos, enchiladas, burritos, taquitos and tostadas, as well as omelets and breakfast burritos.

Flyboys Deli 

Flyboys Deli has signed a lease to open a new restaurant on the ground floor of a CareSource building at 219 N. Patterson Boulevard, CareSource officials and the restaurant’s owners announced in a joint release.

The new deli will open next to the Winans Chocolates & Coffee shop that opened Jan. 13 at 221 N. Patterson Blvd.

Flyboys’ downtown location will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week, closed on Sundays.

>>READ MORE: Flyboys Deli signs lease for new restaurant in downtown Dayton

IHOP 

The IHOP franchisee that brought the restaurant chain back to the Dayton market three months ago with the opening of a location on Miller Lane in Butler Twp. will reopen the Springfield IHOP restaurant that has been closed for more than a year.

The Butler Twp. and Springfield IHOPs are operated by The Nazarian Group, which oversees 10 IHOP restaurants in the Cincinnati-area market and several more in the Houston area, as well as some other restaurant concepts in southern California.

>>READ MORE: IHOP will open Springfield restaurant eyes more Dayton-area locations

Little York Tavern 

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

Little York Tavern & Pizza, the popular pub and music destination for nearly 40 years in Vandalia, is planning to add a new location at 1122 E. Dorothy Lane in Kettering.

Plans call for the second location to focus more on food; carryout and delivery will be an important part of the business in Kettering, although it will also offer a dine-in option and drinks, when permitted.

Closed

 

Ruby Tuesday

A national chain restaurant that has operated for nearly 15 years on Far Hills Avenue in Washington Twp. shut down permanently.

“We are sorry to any inconvenience that this may have caused you,” a sign on the entrance to the Ruby Tuesday restaurant at 6061 Far Hills Ave. tells disappointed customers.

An employee of one of the Dayton area’s two remaining Ruby Tuesday restaurants, on Miller Lane in Butler Twp. north of Dayton, confirmed the Washington Twp. location is “closed permanently.” Its phone number has been disconnected, and it is no longer listed on the national chain’s web site. Ruby Tuesday also operates a location in Troy.

>>READ MORE: CONFIRMED: Restaurant shuts down permanently after 15 years on Far Hills Avenue

El Greco’s Pizza Villa 

Credit: Lauren Rinehart for Dayton.com

Credit: Lauren Rinehart for Dayton.com

The one-two punch of the Memorial Day tornadoes and the coronavirus pandemic-related forced shutdown of its dine-in service may have been a knockout blow for one of the Dayton area’s longest-established restaurants.

El Greco's Pizza Villa, which has operated at 3976 Salem Ave. in Harrison Twp. for more than six decades, held what its owners called a “going out of business sale” last week, when everything on the menu was half off.

“Well, we held on as long as we could, folks, but this just isn’t sustainable for us,” the restaurant’s owners said in a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Rahn’s Artisan Breads 

Rahn Keucher has served his last giant pretzel, bagel, and chocolate-filled croissant at Dayton’s 2nd Street Market.

“We’re done,” Keucher said Monday, two days after an emotional final day at the Five River MetroParks 2nd Street Market, where he had set up shop every week for 17 years.

Financial considerations were the primary factor in his decision, Keucher told the Dayton Daily News. Restaurant demand for his products took a hit in 2019 because of the Memorial Day tornadoes, the Oregon District mass shooting and the KKK rally in downtown Dayton. But the final blows came from a rash of equipment failures at his commercial bakery and breakdowns of delivery trucks, all of which would have been prohibitively expensive to repair or replace, the bakery’s owner said.

>>READ MORE: END OF AN ERA: Local bakery owner says ‘We’re done’ after 17 years

Double Deuce Tavern & Family Pizzeria 

After more than a decade in business, first in Dayton and for the last two years in Huber Heights, the Double Deuce Tavern & Family Pizzeria is now permanently closed.

The pizzeria at 5186 Brandt Pike (State Route 201) had continued to operate briefly as a carryout and delivery restaurant after the March 15 statewide order to shut down dine-in service at all Ohio restaurants due to the coronavirus pandemic. But it closed for good on March 20.

This restaurant closure, however, was not related to the coronavirus pandemic. Owner James Williams had decided he wanted to sell the business and property before the end of 2019. And a sales agreement was reached in recent weeks with a new buyer who intends to construct a new convenience store and gas station at the location, Williams said in a Facebook post.

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