March restaurant highlights: 7 new, 10 coming soon and 4 closing

New

Troll Pub at the Wheelhouse 

The new Troll Pub Wheelhouse isn’t some cozy little hole-in-the-wall. It’s a 6,500-square-foot restaurant and bar that is expected to seat as many as 250. The second location for the popular Troll Pub Under The Bridge in Louisville, Ky., the Dayton pub will offer an extensive selection of craft beers and bourbons and will offer a food menu that General Manager Ben Barker has described as “pub grub, but made from scratch.”

The Famous Restaurant 

The Dayton area’s newest dining destination — “The Famous Restaurant” from the owners of Doubleday’s Grill and Tavern — is now open for business in south Centerville.

The new restaurant in the former Paddy’s Irish Grill at 953 S. Main St. in Centerville is an homage of sorts to the earlier generations of restaurant operators in the family of Jon, Steve and Stephanie Thomas, who own the Doubleday’s pubs in Centerville and Springboro.

The menu has a throwback comfort-food feel. Slow-cooked pot roast pops up in various locations on the menu, from a topping on the “Pot Roast Burger” to the new restaurant’s take on a Hot Shot called the Pot Shot, to a topping on French Fries or Tater Tots (“almost Poutine”).

5 Points Cafe 

A locally owned, independent breakfast-and-lunch restaurant closed and moved to a new location in Xenia.

Linda’s Restaurant closed at 51 E. Main St. in downtown Xenia and reopened at 131 Cincinnati Ave., under the new name of 5 Points Cafe. The space previously housed a handful of other restaurants, including Soular Flare Bistro and Uncle Sunny’s Homestyle Cajun Fish & Chicken.

5 Points Cafe will have the same menu style, the same staff and the same hours as Linda’s Restaurant: 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturday 5 a.m. to noon. But unlike Linda’s, it will accept credit cards.

OinkADoodleMoo Barbecue

OinkADoodleMoo Barbecue’s new Kettering location at 912 E. Dorothy Lane is now open.

The new restaurant is located in space that previously housed the original Dayton Beer Company taproom. It will seat 35 to 40 inside and will employ about 13, and will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Last month, OinkADoodleMoo opened a restaurant in a facility near the food court in Area A of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, after operating out of a mobile trailer since 2010 at WPAFB.

Burger King 

A Whopper of a new restaurant has opened its doors in Washington Twp. south of Centerville.

The new Burger King, at 9189 Dayton-Lebanon Pike, will have plenty of company along that stretch of road. The location near the Skeeter Lane intersection is virtually surrounded by other fast-food chain restaurants. Arby’s, McDonald’s and Taco Bell are the three consecutive businesses to its south, and Subway, Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen are with a block or two to the north. Starbucks and Skyline Chili are across the street.

Jack Lukey’s Oyster Saloon & Caviar and Local Hero Butchery & Fare 

The food purveyor and dining spot at 521 Wayne Ave. in the Oregon District opened Glasz Bleu Oven in late 2017, and in recent weeks has added offerings from Jack Lukey’s Oyster Saloon & Caviar and Local Hero Butchery & Fare.

The new retail ventures are located in the Dietz Block building, built in 1886, which years ago housed Norman Miller & Sons Interiors store. Crafted & Cured, a growler-fill craft beer and cured meats bar, opened a year ago in the southeast end of the District Provisions building.

Coming Soon

Scissor Tail Sandwich Shop 

The founder of Meadowlark and Wheat Penny restaurants is gearing up to open a new restaurant in Kettering.

Elizabeth Wiley’s newest venture will be located at 3141 Far Hills Ave. (Ohio 48) in the Fountain Square shopping center just south of Dorothy Lane. The space previously housed Fresco catering and carryout.

ScissorTail Sandwich Shop will focus on breakfast and lunch sandwiches, and will open at 7 a.m. and close at 5 or 6 p.m., Wiley said. It will focus mostly on carryout, although there will be counter-style seating for about 15. Elizabeth Valenti, chef who oversees Wheat Penny, and Dave Rawson, chef who oversees Meadowlark’s kitchens, are working on the project.

Wiley said she is shooting for a July opening.

Giordano’s and Jason’s Deli 

Chicago-based pizza chain Giordano’s and Texas-based Jason’s Deli have signed leases to open their first Dayton-area locations near the Mall at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek.

Giordano’s, a deep-dish pizza specialist, will occupy 5,300 square feet of the former Logan’s Roadhouse restaurant and an addition that is being built onto it on Centre Drive near the mall. Jason’s Deli will occupy 4,800 square feet. If all goes as planned, the restaurants could open by the end of the year.

Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Ace Asian Café and Sinful Orchard 

Three restaurants coming to The Greene Town Center — including two that are locally owned — are gearing up to open.

Signage has popped up for both Sinful Orchard, a locally owned restaurant coming to the east side of The Greene near the Von Maur department store, and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, a Texas-based chain coming to one of the retail center’s most highly visible spaces near the front entrance of The Greene. And work is underway on Ace Asian Cafe, a successor restaurant to Choe’s Asian Gourmet.

Elsa’s Corner Cantina

The Dayton area’s newest Elsa’s Mexican Restaurant is gearing up to open.

Elsa’s, which operates four restaurants and sports bars in and around Dayton, will open its fifth location, Elsa’s Corner Cantina, at 6204 Wilmington Pike in the Sugarcreek Plaza in Sugarcreek Twp. The space previously housed Caramella’s Italian Kitchen, and, before that, Murphy’s Irish Pub and Barleycorn’s.

Which Wich Superior Sandwiches 

A spokesman for a sandwich shop that is gearing up to open in the Cornerstone of Centerville development say the owners’ plans call for adding three to five more restaurants across the Dayton area over the next five years.

That’s the word from Dustin Griffiths, director of real estate for Which Wich Superior Sandwiches. The Dallas, Texas-based sandwich chain is gearing up to open a 30-seat restaurant at 5409 Cornerstone North Blvd. in the next few weeks.

Scratch Bakery by Justin Tyler 

The owner of a dessert and confection bakery on the Dayton-Oakwood border is heading north to his hometown in Miami County to open a second location.

Justin Livingston, who operates Moore Dessert Please at 1003 Shroyer Road in Dayton just inside the Dayton-Oakwood border, is gearing up to open Scratch Bakery by Justin Tyler (“Tyler” is Livingston’s middle name) in Tipp City.

The new bakery will open in a 600-square-foot space at 29 E. Main St. that is now occupied by Sweet by Kristy. Plans call for Livingston’s new bakery to open on or about April 9, with a grand opening in the works for April 21, Livingston said. There are no plans to shut down the Dayton location, he said.

Hunger Paynes Beer & Wine Garden 

A local food truck is moving closer to launching its first location that isn’t on wheels, and is now shooting for an April opening inside the Dayton Mall, mall and restaurant officials said.

Andrew Payne, owner of Hunger Paynes food truck, said he would like to open his Hunger Paynes Beer & Wine Garden — locate inside the Dayton Mall near Macy’s on the mall’s lower level, near Center Court — in late April.

Closing

LaRosa’s Pizzeria 

The closing of LaRosa’s Pizzeria restaurant that had operated for 14 years in Beavercreek is the second such closing of a suburban Dayton LaRosa’s in the last 16 months — and it comes less than four months after another pizza restaurant, Papa Murphy’s, closed its Beavercreek location.

But a spokesman for LaRosa’s told this news outlet in a phone interview Sunday that the Cincinnati-based chain remains “committed” to LaRosa’s three remaining Dayton-area restaurants are located: Kettering, Centerville and Englewood.

Rocky’s Pizza Ring 

A restaurant that has operated for more than four decades in Beavercreek will shut its doors this summer.

“We want to thank you for allowing us to be a part of your family and for over 40 years of memories,” the owners of Rocky’s Pizza Ring in the Beaver Valley Shopping Center said on its Facebook page.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce Rocky’s will be closing on Saturday, June 30, 2018.”

The Wine Gallery and Café 

A wine bar and restaurant that has operated for 12 years in two locations in downtown Dayton is about to get new owners.

Brian Linnean, co-founder of The Wine Gallery and Cafe, said he has reached an agreement to sell the business along with the building and property for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is scheduled to close before the end of April.

Linnean opened The Wine Gallery at the Cannery at East Third Street and Wayne Avenue in 2006, then moved the business to its current address at Main Street and Monument Avenue in January 2010 after buying the building at 5 W. Monument Ave.

Schlotzsky’s Deli 

A sandwich restaurant that opened in 1998 in the Cross Pointe Center in Centerville has shut its doors for good.

Scott Wright, property manager for the Cross Pointe Center, confirmed to this news outlet, that Schlotzsky’s Deli, which has one of the most visible end-cap tenant spaces in the retail center, has closed, and the space is now for rent.

Two restaurants — one a deli concept, another a primarily breakfast concept —have expressed interest in the space, Wright said.

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