Little York Tavern & Pizza, a Vandalia staple for four decades, has opened a second location in Kettering, bringing their pizza, subs and salads south of town.

And one of the nation’s largest Mexican quick-serve chains, Del Taco, has opened its first Ohio restaurant in Bellefontaine and promises more to come across Ohio.

Here’s a closer look at the Miami Valley’s restaurant and dining news for October.

OPEN

Loose Ends Brewing Company

Loose Ends Brewing Company was founded in early October by a father-son duo with deep ties to Centerville. John Loose, a 2005 graduate of Centerville High School, partnered with his father, Kent Loose, to launch the region’s newest craft brewery.

The brewery offers its own beers along with a couple of guest taps, along with a restaurant-style menu of dishes prepared in-house.

Loose Ends Brewing is located at 890 S. Main St. (State Route 48) in Centerville, behind the Kabuki sushi and Korean restaurant, in a strip retail center that also includes Centerville Liquor & Wine.

City Barbeque

The third and newest Dayton-area City Barbeque restaurant that opened to the public on Miller Lane boasts a couple of new features that no other location in the Columbus-based barbecue chain has.

In a move that City Barbeque officials say will be repeated with future new restaurants, the Miller Lane City Barbeque is the first to include a drive-thru window, a customer-friendly amenity that many other regional and national restaurant chains are embracing. The window will be open an hour later than the restaurant’s dining room each night.

City Barbeque offers a full array of smoked meats, including ribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, chicken breast, pulled chicken, turkey breast and sausage. Sides include baked beans, collard greens, green beans, three-cheese mac-and-cheese, vinegar slaw and fries. Dessert options include peach cobbler, banana pudding and triple chocolate cake.

Little York Pizza

The new second location of Little York Tavern & Pizza — the popular pub and music destination that has operated for nearly four decades in Vandalia — opened Oct. 1 at 1122 E. Dorothy Lane. It focuses primarily on carryout and delivery, although some inside seating is available, and patio seating also is offered.

“Although the building is much smaller, with a more limited menu, than what is offered in Vandalia, we will still have our same pizza recipe as well as subs, salads, and a few appetizers for our customers to choose from,” owner Matt Hentrick said earlier this month. “Limited dine-in space is available, in addition to a nice deck for outdoor seating when weather permits. We will also be offering carry-out and delivery through our website at www.get-lyt.com.”

Del Taco

Del Taco, one of the nation’s largest Mexican quick-service chains, has opened its first Ohio restaurant in Bellefontaine and is exploring expansion plans across the state, a spokeswoman for Del Taco’s Ohio franchisee told this news outlet.

The taco chain, founded in Yermo, California in 1964, operates 596 restaurants in about a dozen states. The vast majority of those restaurants — about 90 percent — are in its home state of California. However, the chain is no stranger to the upper Midwest: it operates 9 restaurants in Michigan.

Del Taco’s menu features a wide variety of tacos, burritos and quesadillas, but also includes burgers, fries and shakes. The company recently unveiled a handful of new menu items as part of a collaboration with Cholula Hot Sauce.

COMING SOON

Warehouse 4 Cafe and Bake Shop

In just a couple of days, Warehouse 4 Cafe and Bake Shop in Vandalia — which scored a shout-out a year ago as the third-best of the “100 Best Coffee Shops in Ohio” — will open its second location in Kettering.

The new coffee shop and bakery, which is scheduled to open Wednesday, Nov. 4, is located at 3131 Wilmington Pike at Devon Avenue, in space that previously housed a Union Savings Bank branch.

“Since opening our doors in 2013, we’ve striven to provide our customers with great coffee, food, and baked goods in a community-oriented gathering space. We look forward to bringing you the same to our new location in the Kettering community,” the owners wrote on the new cafe’s Facebook page.

Silver Slipper Wine Bar

A new wine bar and late-night food destination is in the works on the increasingly busy Wayne Avenue corridor of Dayton.

The “Silver Slipper” will be located at 1105 Wayne Ave., next door to the Pizza Factory restaurant.

Preliminary plans call for operating for dinner Thursday through Saturday, plus a Sunday brunch, serving a French Bistro-inspired small-plates menu that includes a fresh-fish preparation, local cheeses and breads, salads and charcuterie boards.

The wine list will be focused on international wines, with selections from France and Italy, but also some more obscure sources, such as Greece and the republic of Georgia, the Silver Slipper’s founders said.

Agave & Rye

The fast-growing Agave & Rye restaurant chain has set a projected opening date for its first Dayton-area location on the town square in Troy.

The new restaurant — located in the space at 2 N. Market St. that formerly housed La Piazza Italian restaurant — is expected to open Nov. 27, a spokesman for Agave & Rye told this news outlet.

Each Agave & Rye is in essence a tequila bar and a bourbon bar inside a Mexican-inspired restaurant. The Troy location, like its sister restaurants, will feature a selection of 87 tequilas and 87 bourbons.

The food menu includes 20 specialty double-shell (crunchy corn and soft flour) tacos, including the “Swipe Right Honey,” with lime-grilled chicken, sweet/spicy bacon, aged white cheddar, salsa and sour cream and the “Cat’s Meow White Cheddar,” with grits, Andouille sausage, bourbon shrimp, green onion, jambalaya sauce and crispy bell pepper.

Michael Cui’s Restaurant

A new Asian restaurant is planned for a Wilmington Pike building that has been vacant for years.

Michael Cui’s Restaurant also plans to expand the dining space at the former Norton’s at 2505 Wilmington by adding a patio, records show.

Cui said he has obtained a building permit and has hired a general contractor to remodel the site. But he doesn’t plan to open the restaurant for about a year, citing issues related to the economy and the coronavirus pandemic.

Wiley’s Wings Tenders Fries

Ray Wiley is back with another new restaurant concept and brand called “Wiley’s Wings Tenders Fries,” and he is planning to open his first location at 6315 Brandt Pike (State Route 201) in Huber Heights by the end of the year, Wiley confirmed to this news outlet.

The restaurant entrepreneur launched the Hot Head Burritos restaurant concept in 2007, just as Chipotle Mexican Grill was expanding nationwide. Then in 2015, Wiley founded Rapid Fired Pizza in a Dayton-area market already saturated with pizza options.

The new eatery will have a relatively limited menu that in addition to its core items of, yes, wings, tenders and fries, will include cole slaw and Texas toast. The sauce choices, however, will be abundant.

“I don’t know the final number, but I think we’re up to 18 or 20” sauces, Wiley said.

Thai Table Restaurant and Bar

The current owner of Thai Kitchen on Kingsridge Drive in Miami Twp., intends to open a second restaurant called Thai Table Restaurant and Bar at 5841 Far Hills Ave. in Washington Twp. in the coming months.

“Thai cuisine is becoming more popular in the Dayton area, and I want to explore some new ideas,” owner Suwapat “Sue” Whitted said.

Thai Table Restaurant and Bar will have a slightly more upscale menu than other local Thai restaurants, the restaurant owner said.

Nutmeg Café

A love of cooking combined with positive experiences while traveling abroad sparked a Washington Twp. couple to launch their own European-style restaurant to be called the Nutmeg Café.

Erin and Bill Russ are partners in the new venture, which is coming soon to the Centerville Shoppes on State Route 48 just south of Centerville. The couple has signed a lease for a 1,400 square-foot space at 9166 Dayton-Lebanon Pike next door to a Sherwin-Williams paint store in the retail center. If all goes well, it could open as soon as mid-December, according to Erin Russ, who will oversee the café.

Nutmeg Café will offer breakfast and lunch items as well as a variety of cookies, tarts, tortes, and pies throughout the day. The menu will include quiche; a breakfast sandwich of egg, sausage, and cheese on a house-made English muffin; yogurt parfait; panini sandwiches; salads; and house-made soups. Espresso-based coffee beverages, hot and cold teas, drip coffee, and bottled water and soda will be available, Russ said.

Entropy Brewing Co.

A multi-generational-focused brew pub aims to open inside a historic downtown Miamisburg building.

Entropy Brewing Co. will be located on the first floor of the former Suttman Men’s and Boy’s Wear at 24-32 S. Main St.

The new business, which is slated to open by next fall, will offer a Southwest-style menu and house-brewed craft beer, along with morning hours when it will serve coffee, mimosas, pastries, avocado toast and breakfast burritos, said Jordan Joo, founder and owner of Entropy Brewing.

Megumi Hibachi

A new hibachi-style restaurant is gearing up to open in Troy.

Megumi Hibachi will be located at 12 S. Dorset Road. A menu posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page promises “Fresh Hibachi Every Day” with steak, shrimp, chicken and vegetable options.

The restaurant has already joined the Troy Chamber of Commerce, according to the organization’s Facebook page.

“If you are a Japanese food enthusiast, this is the place for you,” chamber officials said.

Lefty’s Eats & Espresso

A restaurant that has been serving customers in downtown Fairborn for two and a half years will open a second location in downtown Xenia in mid-November.

The new Lefty’s Eats & Espresso will move into the space now occupied by Courthouse Coffee, which has operated at 29 E. Main St. since July 2018.

“I was looking to open another location, and Xenia was option one,” said Lawren Williams, founder and owner of Lefty’s. “I always knew I wanted to get into a larger space after figuring out that people like what we are doing.”

If all goes as planned, Williams will take over the space on Nov. 16 and will immediately begin serving the same breakfast and lunch menu items currently offered at the Fairborn restaurant.

CLOSED

Fatback’s

Fatback’s BBQ, a locally owned barbecue restaurant and catering operation that has operated at for seven years at 1334 Linden Ave. west of Smithville Road in Dayton, posted a sign on its door and a photo on its Facebook page that read it was “temporarily closed until further notice.”

The Facebook post prompted an outpouring of support from Fatback’s customers. There has been no mention of a timeline for reopening or reason for the temporary closure.

“First and foremost I hope everyone is OK,” one customer wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “And secondly, please don’t go. We all love you in my family and will be very sad if we can no longer come to your special place.”

Mila’s Suburban Café

Michael and LaTasha Perry opened Mila’s Suburban Cafe “on a leap of faith” in the summer of 2018, and the reception was a warm one, Michael Perry told this news outlet at the time. “The one thing we’ve heard most often from customers is, ‘This is exactly what Englewood needs,’” he said in the days following the cafe’s opening.

But Mila’s Suburban Cafe, located at 606 Taywood Road in the Northmont Plaza, has suspended operations and is now seeking donations from the public to relocate the small restaurant and live-music venue to another undisclosed location in Englewood, the Perrys said on the Mila’s Suburban Cafe Facebook page.

“Mila’s Cafe needs to RELOCATE!” its owners wrote. “After operating in the Northmont Plaza for over two years, we are being forced out. We could not come to an agreement with the landlord, so we have decided to leave our current location. ... With your support we can make a new home.”