2 new restaurants opened in October and more coming soon

OPEN

Frida’s Mexican Kitchen & Bar

A new restaurant has opened in a former Tipp City eatery location with a brand new face running the place.

Frida’s Mexican Kitchen & Bar has opened in the former space of Greenfire Fresh — formerly known as Greenfire Bistro — at 965 W Main St. in Tipp City. Frida’s owner and Troy resident, Rafael Ramirez, said he loves the people of Tipp City and is excited about the restaurant’s location.

The restaurant will be open seven days a week, Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Frida’s has the classic Mexican restaurant dishes — fajitas, taco salad, burritos and more. It will also serve authentic dishes not found as often in the area including street tacos, sopes and a dish Ramirez said is rising in popularity in Mexico — Mexican sushi served deep-fried.

Reza’s

Reza’s has opened its doors at its second location at 1474 N. Fairfield Road in the same building as IH Credit Union. The cafe’s grand opening was Oct. 25.

The new location has considerably longer hours than its original, downtown Dayton location at 439 Wayne Ave. Reza’s in Beavercreek is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed on Sundays. Also differentiating itself from the downtown shop, Reza’s in Beavercreek has a drive-thru.

In Beavercreek, customers can expect the same product experience as the downtown location. The “toast” food menu will be offered at the new shop in addition to the locally made baked goods, dairy products, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams pints and more.

However, the new Reza’s location will offer fresh-made cannoli in its pastry case.

COMING SOON

Starbucks

Plans filed in September with Miami County for the construction of a new Starbucks restaurant at 1200 E. Ash St. in Piqua have been approved by the city, according to City of Piqua Development Department.

A Starbucks shop is currently open inside the Piqua Kroger at 1510 Covington Ave. However, the new Ash St. location will be the city’s first standalone Starbucks. The next closest shops are located in Sidney and Troy.

Renderings submitted with the plans indicated the new café would include a drive-thru and indoor seating.

Moeller Brew Barn

Moeller Brew Barn announced plans Thursday for a new production facility in Piqua, a 30,000 square-foot building on a 16-acre site along Interstate 75.

The site connects to the Ohio-to-Indiana Trail and downtown Piqua.

The location will provide brewery-goers an inclusive brewery experience offering tours and a tasting room. The facility will be capable of producing 25,000 barrels per year, with potential for adding capacity in the future. The facility is expected to employ 20-25 full-time employees by the end of its first year of operations.

Moeller Brew Barn was founded in Maria Stein, Ohio in 2015. In the summer of 2019, a second taproom opened its doors in Troy. The company’s third location in Dayton’s Water Street District is under construction and set to open in spring 2022 across the street from Day Air Ballpark.

Clifton Crafthouse Co-op

Local entrepreneurs, advised by Co-op Dayton and Fifth Street Brewpub, are looking to open a cooperatively owned taproom and community space in Clifton.

Clifton Crafthouse Co-op is currently seeking members to be part of a community-owned taproom and gathering space, affordable artist housing, and space for a commercial kitchen.

Located on the corner of North and Clay Streets, Clifton Crafthouse is currently run by an 11-member board. It is being incubated as part of Co-op Dayton’s 2021 Co-op and Social Enterprise program. Renovation goals include turning the property into a net zero-waste building as part of the co-op’s environmental sustainability goals.

Estimated renovation cost of the building is $1 million. The co-op will be opened in three phases, the first of which is opening a taproom and community room. The taproom will be stocked exclusively with brews and spirits by local businesses, starting with the Yellow Springs Brewery. The menu also includes a series of non-alcoholic options, including kombucha and tea supplied by Fair Ridge Farms, and goodies supplied by the Neighborhood Nest in Fairborn. The community gathering space will provide an area for local business owners or artisans to host classes and workshops, and give a space for community members to enjoy these activities.

The second and third phases of operation are affordable artist housing, with the goal of having an artist in residence, and opening a shared commercial kitchen for independent bakers, food trucks, and small local food businesses. Entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to rent out commercial kitchen space and equipment, and be able to sell their products and host demos in the taproom.

Membership costs $250 for both businesses and community members, and benefits include access to member-only pricing, events and patronage dividends. The cooperative already has a few members, including local artists, artisans and entrepreneurs, and has a goal of 1,000 members by the end of 2021. Further plans for the co-op would be developed with the input of artists and artisans who use the space.

The taproom is expected to open sometime in 2022.

Manna Restaurant & Bar

Plans for a 149-seat restaurant owned by the executive chef of a popular upscale Dayton Oregon District business are moving forward in Uptown Centerville.

A proposal for the Manna Restaurant & Bar that Salar Restaurant and Lounge co-owner Margot Blondet wants to open by combining two historic West Franklin Street buildings was accepted by a Centerville board Tuesday night.

The restaurant is planned for 57-59 and 63 W. Franklin St., two buildings in the city’s Architectural Preservation District that are both more than 120 years old, City Planner Mark Yandrick said.

Dorothy Lane Market

Dorothy Lane Market isn’t your traditional restaurant, but it’s still a local foodie favorite worthy of your attention. The big news: the Greater Cincinnati area will finally get its own DLM grocery store.

On Oct. 27, DLM announced plans to expand to Mason as a part of a new $150 million mixed-use planned community. The site is located at the corner of Mason-Montgomery and Western Row Roads—formerly the Western Row Golf Course.

Pending final planning commission, governmental and final city council approvals, the project is anticipated to break ground in 2022, according to a DLM release.

CLOSED

Fino Sur Peruvian Street Food

Fino Sur Peruvian Street Food in the Cross Pointe Centre in Centerville announced its last day would be Oct. 15. The restaurant, located in tenant space that previously housed a chiropractic office near the southwest corner of the retail center, opened in late May 2020.

Fino Sur was the brainchild of Alberto Arenas and his family. Arenas worked for several years in the local restaurant industry, including manager at El Toro Bar & Grill. In 2019, 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.

937 Delivers

937 Delivers was founded last year during the pandemic as local restaurants saw a surge in carryout orders. It was an alternative to larger third-party delivery companies like UberEats and Door Dash that take a larger cut of the profit made by restaurants on each order.

On Oct. 14, the service posted this statement to its Facebook page:

“In the Fall of 2020, 937 Delivers was established as a restaurant-and employee-owned food delivery cooperative. The need for 937 Delivers was great, coming after months of restaurant owners and their employees struggling to keep their doors open through extremely difficult times.

As the weather grew colder, Covid-19 cases surged and people became reluctant to eat indoors. The founding members of 937 Delivers knew they had to work fast to provide an alternative to the costly national delivery options. Working with the nonprofit developer Co-op Dayton, and with support from the City of Dayton, Downtown Dayton Partnership and Montgomery County, this team of entrepreneurs and eternal supporters of Dayton, quickly developed the plan to start this local service where all the money would stay in the Dayton market. 937 Delivers was born: a collective response, and an economic model based on putting people -the employees, small business owners, and restaurant customers - first.

We are so proud that 937 Delivers was able to deliver so many tasty meals to your homes, to bring our restaurant partners hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales, to pay fair wages to employees that would otherwise have been un- or under-employed, and to keep this money in the local Dayton economy.

As winter has turned to Spring and Summer 2021, our restaurant partners came roaring back. We’re thrilled to see full patios and bustling dining rooms - and while it’s meant fewer deliveries, lower sales, and reduced staff for 937 Delivers, we have always existed to serve this important sector in an unprecedented time.

937 Delivers was created and designed as a pandemic response, but now this response is not what our restaurants and workers need. In consultation and discussion with both groups, we have decided to put 937 Delivers on a hiatus and will no longer be delivering - at least for the time being.

We will be taking time to explore better systems and models that speak more to the current needs of our local restaurants and our employees. There are groups in cities around the country working to create sustainable models for local cooperative delivery services, and we will continue to be part of this conversation and look for innovations we can try here in Dayton. We’re proud of what we have accomplished, and realistic about what it will take to move forward. We feel deep love and gratitude to our loyal customers, our restaurant partners and most of all our team of drivers and dispatchers. And we are thrilled that our co-op helped this vital sector come together to weather a tough season.”