Group lists 5 most unhealthy fast-food meals for kids

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 02:23 PM

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine today, Aug. 31, released what it calls the The Five Most Unhealthful Fast-Food Kids Meals of 2010, firing a PR broadside at huge fast-food chains such as McDonald’s (which had the “worst” kids meal), Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC and A&W.

Some of the committee’s detractors call the PCRM the “food police,” and this organization does like its lists of “worsts,” with news releases just this year entitled “Dietitians Rank Five Worst School Lunches” and “Doctors List Best and Worst Cookbooks of Decade.”

Still, with the most calories, fat, and saturated fat of any meal analyzed, the McDonald’s “Mighty Kids Meal” certainly is, well, mighty. And childhood obesity is a problem that can’t be ignored.

Whatever happened to “Moderation in all things”?

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Springboro pizza restaurant to close

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 09:00 AM

SPRINGBORO — The Rosati’s pizza restaurant at 40 E. Central Ave. will close permanently in September, its owners announced this morning, Aug. 31.

For details, check out my colleague Larry Budd’s story about the restaurant closing.

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‘The Taste’ brings more than 40 restaurants to the Fraze on Thursday

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 05:46 AM

We’re only two days until “The Taste,” in which more than 40 restaurants and catering companies will strut their stuff by offering samples of dishes on their menus from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 2, at Fraze Pavilion. And you can find out all the essentials by clicking on this story headlined ‘The Taste’ offers plenty of ’em at event spotlighting restaurants.

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New Frisch’s opens today in Beavercreek

By Mark Fisher | Monday, August 30, 2010, 09:23 AM

A new Frisch’s Big Boy restaurant opened this morning, Monday Aug. 30, at 1231 N. Fairfield Road in Beavercreek.

The 5,000-square-foot restaurant, located across from the Beaver-Vu Bowling Alley north of U.S. 35, is the 19th in the Dayton area for the Cincinnati-based restaurant chain. The new Frisch’s employs about 75 people, and has seating capacity of 148, company officials said.

In addition to its carryout menu, the area’s newest Frisch’s includes a “Soup, Salad ‘n Fruit Bar” that converts to a breakfast bar in the mornings.

“Frisch’s Big Boy has been an iconic part of the Miami Valley since the late 1950s when we opened our first drive-in restaurants in the area,” Karen F. Maier, vice president of marketing for Frisch’s, said in a news release. “We’ve changed with the times and had the pleasure of serving generations of Dayton area customers.”

Hours are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. The restaurant offers dine-in in carry-out, including a drive-through window. For more information, call (937) 429-4939.

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New all-vegan restaurant opens inside Dayton Mall

By Mark Fisher | Monday, August 30, 2010, 07:50 AM

A vegan restaurant called Loving Hut has opened in the Dayton Mall’s food court.

Loving Hut is part of an international chain of vegan restaurants, but is the first in Ohio, according to Jay Picagli of Hamilton, who owns the local franchise with his wife Jody. There are 42 Loving Hut franchise restaurants in the U.S.

“This gives us a lot of opportunities to promote a plant-based diet,” Picagli said. “And a healthier diet equals a healthier lifestyle.”

The restaurant’s menu includes soups, salads, sandwiches, appetizers, entrees, many of which use soy-based products to stand in for seafood or meat. The most popular items have been Southwest Eggrolls, Coconut-Crusted Veg-a-Shrimp and the Portobello Panini sandwich, along with side dishes such as sweet potato fries and a tropical sweet-spicy slaw, Picagli said.

Loving Hut opened last week and is planning grand opening festivities “in a week or two,” Picagli said.

Plans call for opening a second location just outside the Dayton Mall, near First Watch and a Time Warner Cable office, perhaps in November, Picagli said. That restaurant would offer an expanded menu, he said. And Picagli would like to open a third restaurant in or around the Mall at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek, which, like the Dayton Mall, is operated by Glimcher Realty.

Picagli acknowledged that the Dayton Mall food court was not his first choice for Loving Hut’s first location. He nearly opened in a location on Brown Street near the University of Dayton, and also looked in the Oregon Historic District and at other locations along Ohio 725. But he noticed the food court, saw the mall’s crowds, approached Glimcher “and here we are,” Picagli said.

The Loving Hut chain of vegan restaurants is affiliated with the Supreme Master Ching Hai International, overseen by Ching Hai, a native of Vietnam who pioneered a meditation method called Quan Yin and who describes herself as “spiritual teacher, artist, and humanitarian.” On the Loving Hut Dayton’s web site, Jody and Jay Picagli say they “have grown to believe in Master Ching Hai’s commitment to a plant-based diet through their burning desire to help save the planet and fight for the ‘Go Green’ cause.”

Loving Hut employs five, and Picagli expects employment to grow to 10 this fall when the second restaurant opens. The restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

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Restaurant owner admits tax fraud, pleads guilty to four felony counts

By Mark Fisher | Thursday, August 26, 2010, 04:34 PM

George Argue, co-owner of the now-closed Madison’s Bistro and Truffle’s Catering, pleaded guilty today, Aug. 26, in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to four felony counts related to theft of more than $200,000 in Ohio sales tax and income tax receipts, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s office.

Pleading guilty to a bill of information before the case was presented to a grand jury, Argue admitted to failing to forward to the state more than $170,000 in sales taxes collected from restaurant customers, and failing to forward to the state nearly $42,000 in income taxes withheld from employees’ paychecks, between 2005 and 2009, the prosecutor’s office said.

The charges resulted from an Ohio Department of Taxation investigation.

Argue pleaded guilty to:

— aggravated theft of sales tax in excess of $100,000, a third-degree felony;

— aggravated theft of income tax in excess of $5,000, a fourth-degree felony;

— failure to remit sales tax, a fourth-degree felony; and

— failure to remit income tax, a fifth-degree felony.

The four felony counts carry a maximum penalty of nine years in prison and a $22,500 fine. Sentencing has been set for Oct. 5 in the courtroom of Judge Frances E. McGee.

Greg Flannagan, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said prosecutors and tax department officials will ask the judge to include at least some prison time as part of the sentence, as well as full restitution to the state for the sales tax and to the employees for the income tax.

Argue’s attorney, Dave Williamson, could not be reached for comment this afternoon, Aug. 26. Argue is free on his own recognizance.

In April, Argue pleaded guilty in Kettering Municipal Court to keeping a place where alcohol was sold illegally and was fined $500. The charge followed a Jan. 14, 2010 raid by agents of the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Ohio Investigative Unit who were acting on a tip that Madison’s Bistro was serving alcohol without a license. The restaurant’s license to serve alcohol was revoked a year earlier, on Jan. 12, 2009. At that time, state officials said the non-renewal resulted from the restaurant not forwarding to the state tax money it had collected.

Madison’s did not reopen following the raid.

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Rue Dumaine scores more national attention

By Mark Fisher | Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 07:23 AM

Rue Dumaine has gotten another shot of love from a national food-and-dining magazine.

In its September 2010 issue, Bon Appetiit magazine listed Rue Dumaine in its story on “The Country’s Best Daily Specials”. The article focuses primarily on seven other restaurants across the country, but includes Rue Dumaine in a category it called “10 More Spots for Fantastic Daily Specials.” Rue Dumaine is the only southwest Ohio restaurant mentioned in the piece.

The magazine is mute on which Rue Dumaine daily specials caught Bon Appetit’s eye, but we can tell you that tomorrow night, Thursday Aug. 26, the restaurant is scheduled to serve up a griddled chicken burger with oven roasted tomatoes and Gruyere, served with rosemary-black pepper French fries for $14 (both the chicken and tomatoes sourced locally); on Friday, it’s grilled herbs de Provence-marinated duck breast, creamy eggplant gratin, wilted kale and a relish of oven roasted tomatoes and Nicoise olives for $24 (vegetables locally sourced), and on Saturday, a pan-seared prime ribeye with blue cheese-thyme crumble, thick tomato slices, and Blue Lake green beans for $27, with the tomatoes and beans sourced locally, according to the Rue Dumaine menu’s weekly specials link.

Earlier this year, Rue Dumaine co-owner and executive chef Anne Kearney earned a spot on The 2010 SAVEUR magazine Top 100 List put out by Saveur magazine.

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New deli comes to Cross Pointe Center

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 10:21 AM

The Culinary Company in Centerville has added a deli.

The store at 101 E. Alex-Bell Road, Suite 132, in the Cross Pointe shopping center sells cookware and kitchen equipment, and also has an extensive craft beer selection and sells wines at retail.

Jeff Aylor, Culinary Company’s owner, said adding food service has been part of his business plan.

“We’ve said all along that we’re a culinary store, not a kitchen store,” Aylor said. “We have chefs in this store, so why are we not preparing food? This will give them a chance to show their creativity.”

The deli opened quietly this spring. “We started small and wanted to refine the concept,” Aylor said.

The deli’s “signature sandwiches” include a club, with turkey, Swiss cheese and bacon; French onion and London port roast beef, with caramelized onions and smoked Gouda cheese; a “Blazing Buffalo Chicken sandwich; and a grilled portobello mushroom sandwich, each $7.95. The deli also offers “premium items” such as “Mel’s Crab Cakes” ($5.95 cooked, $4.95 to take home and cook) and “Ninny’s Coconut Cake” ($3.95 per slice).

Wine and beer is available, and Aylor said he intends to add a draft beer cooler soon that will allow him to offer eight to 10 draft beers on tap.

The deli seats 20. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call (937) 433-4335.

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Downtown Dayton sandwich shop closes

By Mark Fisher | Monday, August 23, 2010, 03:02 PM

The Roly Poly sandwich shop at 33 N. Main St. has closed after five years of serving wraps in downtown Dayton.

The sandwich shop’s franchise owner, David Guehl of Vandalia, said in a news release that Citywide Development, which owned and developed the former Elder Beerman department store building before selling it it a New York-based real estate firm, “misrepresented economic conditions and development plans” to induce Guehl into signing a lease for his Roly Poly sandwich shop. A real estate tax dispute and legal fees as a result of a lawsuit that Guehl filed against Citywide in early 2009, which was later withdrawn, drained Guehl’s financial resources, so that he “is now forced to close down” the business, Guehl wrote.

Steve Budd, president of Citywide Development, said Citywide officials had no way of foreseeing the recession or the departure from downtown Dayton of Mead Westvaco and Reynolds + Reynolds jobs, among others. And Budd noted that Guehl withdrew the civil lawsuit prior to a final judgment in the case. The withdrawal means Guehl can reinstate the lawsuit.

Guehl, who could not be reached for comment beyond his news release, said the loss of jobs was painful. The sandwich shop’s employees “have worked loyally and diligently from the opening day” and “will be assets to their next employers.”

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New restaurant to open in Centerville

By Mark Fisher | Monday, August 23, 2010, 06:53 AM

CENTERVILLE — A new restaurant named House of Kabab is scheduled to open next month at 298 N. Main St. (Ohio 48) in the former Johnny’s Slice of New York Pizzeria location.

The restaurant will offer several different kinds of kebab sandwiches and platters, along with vegetarian dishes and daily specials, for both lunch and dinner, according to the restaurant’s owner, George Ephrem. The menu will be available for dine-in or carryout.

House of Kabab will seat about 50, and there are plans to construct a patio later this year that will add outdoor seating, Ephrem said. The restaurant will employ four or five people, he said.

Ephrem, of Beavercreek, said he liked the former Johnny’s location and the area surrounding it. The site has been vacant since Johnny’s relocated earlier this year.

“I think when I offer good-quality food here, people will stop in, and we’ll have a good chance for success,” Ephrem said.

The House of Kabab will be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.

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Subscribers to get refunds after Farm2Fork Fresh CSA deliveries suspended

By Mark Fisher | Friday, August 20, 2010, 10:45 AM

The Dayton-based community supported agriculture program known as Farm 2 Fork Fresh has suspended deliveries of its fruits and vegetables to subscribers who picked up the produce at Dorothy Lane Market stores.

Calvin Mayne, whose family owns DLM, said store officials “learned rather suddenly a few days ago that our vendor was ceasing operations and would no longer deliver the CSA boxes.

“Since our customers picked up the CSA boxes at our stores, we (DLM) felt obliged to reimburse those customers who had pre-paid the vendor for the program. We have contacted all of these customers directly, and they are aware of how they will be reimbursed by Dorothy Lane Market.”

The suspension of deliveries will affect 117 people who had signed up for the CSA through Dorothy Lane Market, Mayne said. Mayne said DLM officials and Farm 2 Fork Fresh officials “worked out the situation amicably to get our customers refunded.”

Howard Solganik, executive director of Farm 2 Fork Fresh, said today, Aug. 20 that the program was part of a non-profit corporation and stumbled because of lack of outside funding.

“It was our expectation that we would have grants, gifts and or other funding in place by now,” Solganik said. “The cost of the membership and weekly fees did not cover the cost of operations. It was our goal to become sustainable operationally but we needed additional support for that to happen. It hasn’t.

“We are not finished yet and we continue to look for funding. If and when that takes place, we will offer a choice of options to fulfill the balance due to the 30 customers who have not received refunds. All of the customesr who picked up through Dorothy Lane Market received full refunds. We also have a few farmers that are owed money. I plan to work to see that these funds are paid.”

Solganik said he was “naive about the timing on such a project” but is optimistic about the future.

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Planet Smoothie to open near UD

By Mark Fisher | Thursday, August 19, 2010, 10:41 AM

Planet Smoothie will open a location at 1105 Brown St. near the University of Dayton’s campus, franchise owner Rhonda Everitt said this morning, Aug. 19.

Everitt said she is “shooting for November” to open her third Planet Smoothie, this one in the former Dairy Queen location on Brown Street. Construction could push back the opening to January, she said.

Everitt operates Planet Smoothie locations at 430 Miamisburg-Centerville Road in Washington Twp., and on Cox Lane in West Chester.

The new store will hire about eight employees, Everitt said.

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New BBQ restaurant in Kettering will employ 15 to 20

By Mark Fisher | Thursday, August 19, 2010, 09:49 AM

OinkADoodleMoo Smoky BBQ, which we mentioned a couple of weeks ago was eyeing a prominent spot in Kettering for expansion, has signed a lease and started renovations on the former Chipotle restaurant site at 3910 Far Hills Ave. in Kettering, OinkADoodleMoo’s founder and president, Mark Peebles, said this morning, Aug. 19.

Peebles said the new OinkADoodleMoo could open as early as October. It will employ an estimated 15 to 20 people, he said.

OinkADoodleMoo opened its flagship Englewood BBQ restaurant in fall 2009 and earlier this year added a lunch trailer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s Area B.

In addition to its BBQ menu that includes pulled pork, ribs, chicken, and beef brisket, the new Kettering restaurant will serve a custom line of JD’s Old Fashioned Frozen Custard products, including frozen custard pies, Peebles said.

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Grand opening today for Oregon District restaurant

By Mark Fisher | Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 08:13 AM

The Las Americas Caribbean Cuisine restaurant at 524 E. Fifth St. in the Oregon Historic District that we first told you about in May will host a grand opening at 10:30 a.m. today, Wednesday Aug. 18.

Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell, Oregon District Business Association President Michael Martin and restaurant co-owners Delores Quinones and Roxanne Torres are scheduled to speak at the grand opening. Quinones operated the Las Americas booth at the PNC 2nd Street Market prior to moving the business to the former Blue Moon restaurant location. Torres founded and ran a catering and delivery business in Puerto Rico prior to coming to Ohio.

Guests at the open house can sample items from the Las Americas Caribbean Cuisine menu. Items to be given away include cooking spices, salsas, Maracas, and souvenirs from Puerto Rico, according to a news release from the Oregon Arts District.

Las Americas Caribbean Cuisine is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and offers catering. For more information, call (937) 286-8007.

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New Italian restaurant coming to The Greene

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 04:42 PM

An Italian-themed restaurant to be called Joya’s Bistro is coming to The Greene in Beavercreek.

Mike Duffey, spokesman for The Greene, confirmed today, Aug. 18 that Joya’s Bistro has signed a lease to occupy a 3,100-square-foot retail space at 81 Magnolia Lane on the eastern end of the shopping-entertainment-residential complex, near the Von Maur department store.

The new restaurant is scheduled to open in mid-fall, Duffey said.

“We’re excited that they’re coming,” Duffey said. “We think Joya’s Bistro will fill a niche that is currently unfilled at The Greene.”

Duffey referred further questions to Joya’s Bistro’s owners, Greg Januleski and Kevin Ketterer. Ketterer said he and his business partner were not ready to talk about details of their restaurant venture.

But Joya’s Bistro’s owners are poised to give Dayton-area diners a sneak peek to their menu in the coming weeks. They have signed up to provide samples of their food at two upcoming events: the Miami Valley Restaurant Association’s Taste of Miami Valley, and the Kettering-Moraine-Oakwood Chamber of Commerce’s event known as The Taste.

The MVRA’s web site says Joya’s Bistro will be serving samples of three dishes at the Taste of Miami Valley event: Sausage and peppers, Spaghetti and Meatballs and Meatball Sliders.

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