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The new restaurant is the brainchild of Alberto Arenas and his family. Arenas has worked for several years in the local restaurant industry, including as a manager at El Toro Bar & Grill. Last year, he provided some of his Peruvian street-food specialties at Dayton’s Hispanic Heritage Festival. The food was well-received, and Arenas decided to fulfill his dream to bring his native country’s South American food to Dayton-area diners.
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Fino Sur had its soft opening last week.
“The response has been great so far,” said Fabrizzio Arenas, Alberto’s son: “People really seem to like the food.”
The menu includes Anticuchos combo plates, which offer skewers of marinated chicken or pork anointed with chalaca and chimichurri sauces. The Salmon Anticuchero offers a different preparation, featuring a grilled salmon filet laid upon a bed of salsa served with quinoa salad and cherry tomatoes. Appetizers include Empanadas and Yuca Frites.
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Sauces include a spicy Crema de Rocoto, made with Peruvian red chili pepper; Huancaina, a classic Peruvian cream sauce made from Peruvian Yellow chili pepper and pasteurized white cheese; and Golf, made from made from mayonnaise, a tomato-based sauce and other spices.
Drink options include Chicha Morada, described by Alberto Arenas as a signature drink of Peru. It is a sweet beverage made from purple corn, but it finishes with an intriguing bite of clove and cinnamon.
Credit: Mark Fisher
Credit: Mark Fisher
Scott Wright, leasing manager for Don Wright Realty, owner/broker of the Cross Pointe Centre, said after the lease was signed in November 2019 that the retail center was pleased to bring a new and different dining option to the region.
The Dayton area has a handful of restaurants that serve South American dishes, including several that focus on Colombian food, but none focus exclusively on Peruvian food. The menu of Salar Restaurant & Lounge in Dayton’s Oregon District is deeply influenced by founder and executive chef Margot Blondet’s Peruvian roots, but the web site of the fine-dining restaurant describes its menu as “world fusion cuisine with strong Peruvian, French, and Mediterranean influences.”
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Customers place their orders at a counter. There are currently a handful of tables available for outdoor dining on a front patio, and tables for interior seating will be installed soon, the restaurant’s founder said.
“Dayton is ready to try new things,” Arenas said in November, when plans for the new restaurant were first confirmed. “My idea is to try to educate people and offer many different flavors of Peruvian food that Dayton has not had before.”
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Fino Sur Peruvian Street Food is open every day from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, check out the restaurant's Facebook page, facebook.com/finosurdayton, or its web site, finosur.com.
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