The pizza carryout was closed over the dinner hour Monday night, Feb. 8, with no sign on the door alerting customers as to the closing.
When asked via email whether he had shut down the carryout, franchise owner Patrick Curl of Dayton responded, “Sadly, I think so.”
The carryout had been losing money, had an investor pull out and faced a balloon payment this month to the original owners of the restaurant, Curl wrote. Health concerns and family issues also contributed to the decision, although Curl added, “If banks were lending, it might be a different story.”
The Kettering location was the only Fox’s Pizza Den that Curl owned along with members of his family. In an interview at the restaurant last week, Curl said he would like to expand to open sit-down Fox’s pizza restaurants near the Dayton Mall and the Mall at Fairfield Commons.
Mesh Restaurant at 6200 Mulhauser Road in West Chester will close for business after dinner service on Saturday, Feb. 13, the restaurant announced today, Feb. 8.
The restaurant has been bought out by Indianapolis-based Stone Creek Dining Co., which operates a restaurant in Montgomery, Ohio, according to Cody Stacey, the maitre d’ at Mesh. Stone Creek will open a restaurant in the space that currently houses Mesh sometime in May, Stacey said.
Stacey said the poor economy was the driving factor behind the closing of Mesh, which was a fine-dining restaurant with many dinner entrees costing between $30 and $50.
The restaurant opened in August 2006. Cincinnati chef Paul Sturkey was a co-owner of the venture, but sold his ownership interest about seven months ago to co-owners Richard and Cynthia Grow, Stacey said.
Mesh employs between 30 and 40 people. Employees will be considered for positions at Stone Creek Dining Co. when it opens in May, Stacey said.
Stone Creek will honor Mesh gift cards, Stacey said.
To make reservations at Mesh prior to its closing, call (513) 777-7177.
The 6,336-square-foot restaurant is located in Miami Twp. at 2148 Miamisburg Centerville Road (Ohio 725), just east of the Dayton Mall where a former Bravo Italian Kitchen once stood. It will employ about 130 people.
Logan’s Roadhouse opened a restaurant in 2006 at 2819 Centre Drive near the Fairborn-Beavercreek border, just east of the intersection of North Fairfield Road and New Germany-Trebein Road. The chain runs more than 180 company-operated and 25 franchised Logan’s Roadhouse restaurants in 23 states. The restaurants are known for its mesquite-grilled steaks and chicken, baby-back ribs and “bottomless” buckets of in-shell peanuts.
A new restaurant called Char Broast Chicken opened today, Feb. 4, just off South Main Street between Third and Fourth streets, in the Miami Valley RTA’s Wright Stop Plaza in downtown Dayton.
The menu includes chicken by the piece; chicken, pork and fish sandwiches; sides such as potato wedges, onion rings, corn and turnip greens with onion; salads such as cole slaw and tabouli; and breakfast items such as sausage and biscuit sandwiches and breakfast burritos.
Char Broast Chicken’s hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call (937) 610-2800.
You can read the Domino’s press release here about the “independent, blind taste test of nearly 1,800 random pizza consumers from eight U.S. markets” that led to Domino’s victory claim.
After writing about the new Domino’s recipe in December, I tried the “new” pizza in January, and must admit, I was pleasantly surprised — the sauce, in particular, had a nice red-pepper kick to it. It was a distinct improvement over what I remember of the “old” Domino’s pizza, although it had been quite a while since I’d tasted Domino’s.
Was it better than the pizza served by some of this area’s finest pizzerias? It was not. But it was pretty darn tasty pizza — better than I expected.
The kitchen equipment and dining room furnishings of the former Pacchia restaurant are being sold through online auction, but the owner of the new venture says customers of the Oregon District coffee shop will not notice any impact.
“The auction will not affect our ability to operate the coffee house, or our ability to move forward with the new restaurant,” Brian Higgins said this morning, Feb. 3.
The items that are being auctioned through Feb. 14 include sinks, refrigerators, a dishwasher, gas stoves, dining chairs, dining tables and other items. Items must be removed Feb. 15.
The auction is part of the separation of the former owners of Pacchia, Stephen Ramsey and Carla Carnahan, from the current business, which is owned by Higgins, according to both Ramsey and the building’s owner, Dr. Michael Ervin. Higgins later this year will move his Sidebar cocktail lounge to the former Pacchia location at at 410 E. Fifth St. and develop a full-service restaurant there. The establishment’s coffee shop reopened Jan. 11 and has not yet been formally named.
Higgins said he will likely bid on some, but not all, of the former Pacchia equipment, and has backup coffee-related equipment available so that there will be no interruption of service at the coffee shop.
KETTERING — The Fox’s Pizza Den at 3602 Wilmington Pike has a new franchise owner, expanded hours and new menu items.
Patrick Curl of Dayton said he and family members purchased the carryout-only franchise restaurant in December from owners who still operate a Fox’s Pizza Den in West Milton. Curl said he has introduced or re-introduced several menu items such as
Mozzarella Sticks, Jalapeno Poppers, Fried Pickles, Breaded Cauliflower, Breaded Mushrooms, Bacon Sticks, Onion Petals and “The Bambino,” a six-inch personal pizza to add to the existing menu of pizzas, salads, wings, and stromboli and hoagie-style sandwiches.
Fox’s is a Pittsburgh-based pizza and sandwich chain with over 220 franchise locations nationwide, including Vandalia, Huber Heights, Troy, Tipp City and Enon. Curl, who along with family members owns the Kettering franchise only, said he would like to expand to open sit-down pizza restaurants near the Dayton Mall and the Mall at Fairfield Commons.
Curl also expanded the hours in order to open for lunch six days a week. The Kettering store’s new hours are Sunday 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight. For more information, call (937) 395-3697.
Mark Fisher writes about restaurants, food and wine for the Dayton Daily News. If you have a news tip about a local restaurant, email Mark or call (937) 225-2258.
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