CiCi’s Pizza poised to reopen under new ownership

By Mark Fisher | Thursday, March 11, 2010, 03:05 PM

CiCi’s Pizza will reopen at its former Huber Heights location at 7631 Old Troy Pike under new franchise ownership.

The tentative target date for the opening of the pizza buffet restaurant is March 29, CiCi’s manager Frank Palmer said this afternoon, March 11, between job interviews. The restaurant will open with about 50 employees, Palmer said.

The new CiCi’s franchise is owned by a partnership led by Suresh Balachandran of Centerville, and has no connection with the previous owners of Dayton-area CiCi’s locations, Marwin Management, Palmer said. Four Dayton-area CiCi’s closed abruptly last May in an action that surprised both customers and many employees.

“We plan on making it a lot better this time,” said Palmer, who was a CiCi’s manager for Marin Management. “We are more focused on cleanliness, and on accountability.”

There are no current plans on opening any of the other three CiCi’s that closed last year, although if the Huber Heights restaurant is successful, franchise owners will look for a good location to open a second restaurant “from the ground up,” Palmer said.

Restaurant officials are planning a special offer for the opening day for the first 100 customers through the door, but details and a confirmation of the opening date are still to come.

But Palmer is encouraged by the response of passers-by who notice the activity going on inside the restaurant and the “opening soon” sign on the door. “People are very excited,” he said.

The new CiCi’s will seat about 180. For more information, call the restaurant at (937) 236-2424.

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L’Auberge hires new executive chef who launched his own career there 3 decades ago

By Mark Fisher | Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 07:11 AM

DAVID LEASE

KETTERING — David Lease’s 30-year culinary career has spanned the globe. Now he has returned to l’Auberge, where it all started.

“I have come full circle,” said Lease, who has been hired as l’Auberge’s new executive chef. “This building is filled with memories for me, every square inch of it.”

Lease, 52, was a 17-year-old Centerville High School student when he started working at l’Auberge busing tables. He worked his way up to line cook for the restaurant’s co-founder and executive chef, the late Dieter Krug, who saw promise in young David and sent him off to a restaurant in Chicago to hone his skills. His career then took him to Germany, Italy, San Francisco, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Belize over the next three decades.

The chef returned to the U.S. to explore opportunities here and was visiting his parents in Washington Twp. when he ran into l’Auberge owner Josef Reif at Dorothy Lane Market. Reif invited him to stop by the restaurant and talk. Within a week, Lease was hired.

“He stayed in touch with us as his career went up the ladder,” Reif said of Lease, who returned to l’Auberge to cook for a one-night “culinary olympics” event in 1996, when he was working in Thailand. “A restaurant like ours needs a chef with worldwide experience. He has the talent to create and to make a difference.”

Lease will replace Jared Whalen, who has accepted a position of executive chef at the Kenwood Country Club in suburban Cincinnati. The two are working together for this weekend’s Opera Guild of Dayton Masterpiece Ball: An Evening with the Great Chefs, for which the l’Auberge chefs will serve Chef Dieter’s signature dish, Veal Orloff, Lease said.

Lease said Whalen has established relationships with several local growers, and he’s looking forward to putting his own touch on some of those local ingredients. He also is looking forward to getting back behind the stove, after supervising large staffs and performing administrative duties at luxury hotels in some of his international positions.

“I’ve got a plethora of flavors floating around in my head,” the new executive chef said.

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Caffe Anticoli looking for new home

By Mark Fisher | Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 06:23 AM

CLAYTON — Leo Anticoli, owner of Caffe Anticoli, is pondering his next move — literally.

Anticoli said he has chosen not to renew the lease on his restaurant at 8268 N. Main St. in Clayton and is now looking for a new home for Caffe Anticoli. The move will likely occur on or shortly after Aug. 31, the restaurant owner said.

Until then, “We are open for business as usual now and will continue to be as we anticipate a move in the fall when our current lease agreement expires,” Anticoli said.

Next year, 2011, will mark the 80th consecutive year Anticoli’s/Caffe Anticoli has been in business in the Dayton area, but Anticoli noted that the eight decades included three different locations: from 1931 to 1951, on East Fifth Street in the St. Anne’s Hill District of Dayton; 1951 to 2000 on Salem Avenue in north Dayton; and from 2000 to 2010 at its current location in Clayton.

“Although our fourth location is yet to be determined, we are confident we will find the perfect spot to continue what has become an 80-year restaurant odyssey spanning 3 generations of my family,” Anticoli said.

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New-concept Fazoli’s opens today

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 10:25 AM

The new Fazoli’s restaurant that we wrote about last week opens today at 2419 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, across from the Dayton Mall in Miami Twp.

The prototype restaurant’s hours will be Sunday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more information, call (937) 439-4645.

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Centerville pizzeria relocates

By Mark Fisher | Monday, March 8, 2010, 01:44 PM

CENTERVILLE — Johnny’s Slice of New York Pizzeria has relocated to 57 W. Franklin St., around the corner of sorts from its original location at 298 N. Main St.

Michele Rivera, the pizzeria’s co-owner, said this afternoon, March 8, said the move was a good opportunity to get closer to the heart of town and to locate to closer proximity of nearby schools. The new Johnny’s is located in a 200-year-old brick two-story building adjacent to Centerville Insurance. The restaurant seats 30, about the same as the previous location, and has two rooms, one of which will be a student lounge, Rivera said.

The restaurant’s menu includes pizza, calzones, sandwiches and salads. Rivera said she intends to add two pasta dishes within the next month.

Hours of the new Johnny’s are Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8 p.m.

The phone number remains the same: (937) 567-8840.

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EO Burgers now open at The Greene

By Mark Fisher | Friday, March 5, 2010, 05:01 PM

EO Burgers, which had to postpone its opening at The Greene in Beavercreek earlier this week until Greene County health inspectors made sure everything in its new kitchen was up to code, opened today, March 5, at 5 p.m.

The restaurant’s hours starting tomorrow will be 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11:30 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. For more information, call (937) 431-1242, or check out the EO Burgers web site.

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Judge evicts Miami Twp. restaurant, orders liquidation

By Mark Fisher | Thursday, March 4, 2010, 04:46 PM

A U. S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Dayton ruled Thnursday, March 4, that the assets of Cena Restaurant, 2854 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, will be liquidated, and the restaurant property itself reverts back to the landlord, Glimcher Properties.

The order — agreed upon by attorneys for Cena’s owner, Eva Brcic-Christian; Glimcher, which also owns the Dayton Mall; and PNC Bank, successor to National City Bank, which was a creditor of Cena’s — calls for Cena to “immediately surrender the leased premises” to Glimcher, and allows the company to “take any an all necessary actions to compel eviction.” Some of the restaurant’s contents considered collateral for the bank loan will be surrendered to PNC Bank, according to the order, which was effective immediately.

Brcic-Christian said Thursday she was “devastated by the situation that caused the ultimate closure of Cena. Had the break-in not happened, I’m sure we would have pulled out of bankruptcy by the end of the year.”

The restaurant owner said she has not received insurance money that would have allowed her to make timely repairs to the steakhouse. “It is really unfortunate because of the 20 staff members who have been displaced because of this criminal act,” she said..

Cena, which opened in late 2007, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in August 2009 and continued operating through Christmas Eve. It has been closed since a burglary, vandalism and fire Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. No one has been charged in the incident.

Click here for the Feb. 24 story entitled “Creditors push for liquidation of Cena”.

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EO Burgers’ opening at The Greene postponed

By Mark Fisher | Thursday, March 4, 2010, 10:38 AM

The EO Burgers restaurant at The Greene that we mentioned on Monday was “tentatively scheduled” to open yesterday (Wednesday, March 3) is in fact not yet open and is awaiting final approval by Greene County health inspectors, Michael Gibbons, president of Ann Arbor-based Mainstreet Ventures, said this morning, March 4.

“We worked all night correcting things,” Gibbons said, but at this point, the opening is on hold until health inspectors give their final approval.

Whenever it does open, EO Burgers’ hours will be 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11:30 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. For more information, call (937) 431-1242.

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New Five Guys Burgers opens Monday in Dayton

By Mark Fisher | Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 02:27 PM

The Miami Valley’s third Five Guys Burgers and Fries is scheduled to open Monday morning, March 8, at 1143 Brown St. near the University of Dayton, franchise owner Chris Mastin said this afternoon, March 3.

The previous two openings of Five Guys restaurants in Washington Twp. and Beavercreek generated long lines during the opening weeks, and Mastin said he is bracing for the same at the UD location.

“People have been coming to the door all day long, thinking that we’re open,” Mastin said. “We’re looking forward to it.”

The new restaurant seats 43, and will open with about 40 employees, Mastin said. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, although Mastin said he will consider staying open later on weekends if there is customer demand for later hours.

After opening three Dayton-area locations in six months, Mastin said there will be a pause before a fourth Five Guys opens locally. He is looking for a location in northern Montgomery County, perhaps in the Huber Heights or Miller Lane area, the franchise owner said. He’d like to open a fourth restaurant in late summer or early fall.

The new restaurant’s phone number is (937) 222-2325.

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Here’s why they call it AleFEAST

By Mark Fisher | Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 06:53 AM

My colleague Katie Wedell has written a story entitled “A fine food feast awaits beer lovers at winter tasting festival” about the 2nd Annual AleFeast to be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, March 6, at the Dayton Masonic Center.

Why is this event an ale feast rather than an ale fest? We’re glad you asked. Here’s an excerpt from Katie’s story summarizing the eats that will be available to AleFeast attendees:

Chefs David Glynn and Mike Wilhelm: Jambalaya and seaweed salad with scallops

The Pub: Yankee Pot Roast

That’s one fine food menu. I wonder whether we’d be able to find a beer to wash it down?

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L’Auberge warms up for Oscar Night with Julia Child menu

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 12:09 PM

L’Auberge will feature a Julia Child tasting menu this Friday and Saturday, March 5-6, to put diners in the mood for Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony, in which “Julie and Julia” is nominated.

The restaurant originally had scheduled a Sunday night bash to coincide with the televised awards program, but has canceled that event and is offering the tasting menu instead. Here are the details from a l’Auberge email:

Due to a number of scheduling conflicts this coming Sunday, l’Auberge will be canceling the Oscar Party but we will be featuring the Julia Child tasting menu on Friday March 5th and Saturday March 6th in The Main Dining Room

Oscar’s Weekend at L’Auberge

Friday March 5th & Saturday March 6th

To celebrate this years Academy Awards L’Auberge will proudly Feature a 5 course tasting menu in The Main Dining Room from the recipes of the Oscar Nominated movie Julie & Julia.

Julie & Julia Menu

Amuse Bouche

First Course Quenelles of Halibut Lobster Essence and Caviar

Second Course Potage Veloute au Champignon “A very fine rich mushroom soup for our grand occasion made with 5 differnet European mushrooms” Served with Creme Fraiche

Third Course Moules Parisiienne “Mussels with Fennel” Curry, Sauce Bernaise

Fourth Course Escalopes de Veau Chasseur “Veal Scalopinni” Eggplant, Haricot Vert, Tomato

Fifth Course Souffle Julia

Bon Appetite

$85.00 per person

Reservations are required so call Josef or Brian at 299-5536

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Fazoli’s chooses Dayton to launch new restaurant concept

By Mark Fisher | Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 11:33 AM

Fazoli’s has chosen Dayton to roll out its new concept stores — starting with a new restaurant that will open next week across from the Dayton Mall — and is investing $750,000 total in its five Miami Valley restaurants.

“We think Dayton is a great market for us,” said Carl Howard, president and CEO of the Lexington, Ky.-based chain of 243 Italian restaurants across 30 states. “Our restaurants have performed very well there, and they’ve held their own through the recession.”

Despite relatively high unemployment and foreclosure rates and some high-profile business departures, the Dayton area remains an attractive market for restaurant operators, especially casual restaurant chains. In 2009, upscale burger chains Smashburger and Five Guys Burgers & Fries opened the first of what chain officials say will be several locations across the Miami Valley, following on the heels of a rapid expansion of Sonic drive-thru restaurants. And EO Burgers, a first restaurant of its kind for a small Ann Arbor-based chain, is scheduled to open this week at The Greene in Beavercreek.

The newest Fazoli’s is scheduled to open to the public Tuesday, March 9, at 2419 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, across from the Dayton Mall in Miami Twp. The restaurant will open with 50 employees, and Fazoli’s total employment in the Miami Valley has grown to 160. The other four Fazoli’s are located in Sugarcreek Twp., Moraine, Huber Heights and Troy.

All of the Miami Valley Fazoli’s are among the first in the chain to adopt upgrades that are likely to spread to other restaurants in the coming months, Howard said. Plates, glassware and silverware have replaced plastic and paper, and servers now deliver meals to guests’ tables orders are placed at the counter, replacing the former self-serve style.

While the experience may be a bit more formal, Fazoli’s CEO deflects the idea restaurant chain is going upscale, pointing out that its menu in some cases reduced prices. All salads and sandwiches are now $4.99 or less, Howard said. “It’s a very affordable place to eat,” the CEO said.

And it will be a homecoming of sorts for Howard when he comes to Dayton next week for the grand opening ceremonies Tuesday: He grew up in Kettering and is a 1983 graduate of Fairmont East High School.

“My dad still lives there, so I’ll see plenty of family and friends when I come back,” he said.

The newest Fazoli’s will be open Sunday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more information, call (937) 439-4645.

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New restaurant poised to open at The Greene

By Mark Fisher | Monday, March 1, 2010, 08:29 AM

BEAVERCREEK — EO Burgers, a specialty burger restaurant with a full bar that we told you a bit about back in August, is tentatively scheduled to open at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 3 at 4482 Glengarry Drive at The Greene, Michael Gibbons, president of Ann Arbor-based Mainstreet Ventures, said this morning, March 1.

EO Burgers — the EO stands for ExtraOrdinary — will open with about 50 employees, Gibbons said. Located between The Greene’s movie theaters and the town square fountain, the new restaurant will seat 124.

Gibbons — whose Mainstreet Ventures operates three restaurants in the Toledo area and a dozen others in Michigan and West Virginia, all more upscale in concept than EO Burgers — said this is the first restaurant of its kind in the small regional chain. It’s aimed, he said, at “people who grew up with McDonald’s and Wendy’s” but who are looking for more.

“We’re going to kick it up a notch,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons said Yaromir Steiner — CEO of Steiner + Associates, developer of The Greene — approached him with the idea of developing a specialty burger restaurant at the Beavercreek shopping, entertainment and residential complex. Gibbons was already familiar with the region — his son attended the University of Dayton, and his niece is enrolled there — and when he visited, he liked what he saw.

The Mainstreet Ventures president and his colleagues got busy testing dozens of food products such as various beef grades and blends, multiple varieties of potatoes, different frying oils, dipping sauces and sandwich buns, to determine which would work best for the new restaurant.

The beef in EO’s burgers is 100 percent USDA prime grade, Gibbons said. The burgers come in six-ounce size ($5.99, or $6.99 for a cheeseburger) or nine-ounce size — slightly more than a half-pound ($7.99/$8.99). A Kobe beef burger is also available for $9.99. Other options include chicken sandwiches, a Portabello Burger ($8.99) and the Gobble Burger, made from ground turkey ($7.99).

The menu’s Hand Cut Yukon Gold Fries come in regular ($2.99) and large ($4.99) sizes and are served with a choice of dipping sauces, including chipotle and mango.

Asked what will distinguish EO Burgers from two other upscale burger restaurant chains that opened in the Dayton-area market in 2009 — Smashburger and Five Guys — Gibbons pointed to the full-service bar, the use of USDA prime beef, and high-quality cheeses and toppings. The restaurant will serve a dozen bottled beers, including craft beers such as Buckeye, Goose Island and Great Lakes, and its wine list includes two dozen wines by the bottle, including a Wold Blass “Gold Label” Cabernet Sauvignon and a Perrin et Fils Reserve Cotes du Rhone.

EO Burgers’ hours will be 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11:30 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.

For more information, call (937) 431-1242.

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Downtown Dayton sub shop closing today

By Mark Fisher | Friday, February 26, 2010, 10:21 AM

The Quiznos Sub shop at 38 N. Main St. in downtown Dayton will close this afternoon after lunch, the franchise owner, Allen Elifritz, said this morning, Feb. 26.

The sub shop is in the Key Bank building, the managers of which notified the restaurant and the adjacent convenience store called The Main Stoppe that is closing the street-level retail storefronts, Elifritz said.

“At first they said we could stay, but they changed their mind,” Elifritz said.

Late last year, owner Aegon USA Realty Advisors Inc. announced plans to close all but the ground floor of the 14-story office tower, which sits downtown near East Second Street, because the building costs more to operate than it generates in revenue. At the time, Gem Real Estate Group officials said they were working to find offices for the tenants displaced from the upper floors of 32-34 N. Main St. KeyBank vacated the building and moved its Dayton headquarters to 10 W. Second St. in 2008.

Sheri Simpson, property manager for Gem Real Estate, which manages the Key Bank Building, said the initial plan was indeed for the two retail stores to remain open. But the building’s heating and cooling systems could not be isolated for just the two ground-level storefronts, and the cost of installing individual units was prohibitive. So the building’s owners decided to close the two storefronts, Simpson said.

The owner of the The Main Stoppe could not be reached. Simpson said the store will relocate in the nearby Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority Wright Stop Plaza and could reopen as soon as next week.

Elifritz also is the franchise owner of the Quiznos at 2840 Col. Glenn Highway across from Wright State University. The four employees of the downtown Quiznos will be offered positions there, Elifritz said.

“We were doing okay down here, but it was not worth rebuilding elsewhere downtown,” Elifritz said. “We would have to put $60,000 to $70,000 into retrofitting someplace else, and that’s just not feasible in downtown Dayton at this time.”

Quiznos closed at least three other restaurants in late 2009. Elifritz said there are three Quiznos remaining in the Dayton area — Vandalia, Washington Twp. and the WSU location — out of a peak of about 15.

The WSU Quiznos is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

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Creditors push for liquidation of Cena restaurant assets

By Mark Fisher | Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 03:27 PM

MIAMI TWP., Montgomery County — The owner of Cena Brazilian-Mediterranean Steakhouse said today, Feb. 24, that she is considering closing the restaurant for good.

Federal officials, her landlord and a lender all want to take the decision out of her hands: they’re urging a bankruptcy court judge to liquidate the restaurant’s assets.

The Department of Justice’s Office of the U.S. Trustee said in a filing Tuesday, Feb. 23, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dayton that Cena and its owner, Eva Brcic-Christian, failed to comply with tax filing requirements, failed to pay fees to the bankruptcy trustee’s office, lost more money last fall than its monthly bankruptcy-court reports suggested, and has failed to file mandatory reports since the fire. The U.S. trustees office asked a bankruptcy judge to shift Cena’s current bankruptcy case from a Chapter 11 reorganization — which provides some protection from creditors and allows a business to continue to operate while reorganizing — to a Chapter 7 filing, in which the business is closed and assets sold off to partially pay off debts.

Brcic-Christian said she initially had hoped to reopen Cena within a month of the vandalism and fire, but has not received payment on her insurance claim.

“The longer it takes, the more difficult (reopening) becomes — it would be like opening a brand new restaurant,” she said. “I’m thinking about possibly not reopening Cena.”

Adding to Cena’s bankruptcy-court woes: the restaurant’s landlord, Glimcher Properties — which owns the Dayton Mall and the building that houses Cena — has asked a judge to evict Cena and to seize any personal property left behind following the eviction. Glimcher said in court papers that Cena’s lease has expired. And National City Bank (now PNC Bank), which loaned Cena $381,000 in July 2006, also filed documents this week in support of converting the case to a Chapter 7 liquidation.

The restaurant at 2854 Miamisburg-Centerville Road filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in August and continued operating through Christmas Eve. The restaurant reported a burglary and vandalism that occurred after closing on Christmas Eve, and shortly after investigators left the scene Christmas Day, firefighters were called to put out a small fire at the restaurant. Investigators said the fire was likely the result of careless smoking.

No one has been charged in the burglary and vandalism incident, but Miami Twp. Deputy Police Chief John DiPietro said this afternoon, Feb. 24, that detectives “are still working leads” in the case, and he invited anyone with information about the incident to call (937) 434-TIPS (8477).

Water damage from the fire destroyed Cena’s computer, the bankruptcy case attorney said in court filings. Monthly operating reports for November and December have not been filed. And the office of the U.S. Trustee said in a court document filed Tuesday, Feb. 23 that three earlier monthly operating reports that Brcic-Christian filed for August, September and October 2009 — which showed Cena losing $8,470 during the period — overstated the restaurant’s revenues. Cena actually lost $37,512 during those three months, the U.S. Trustee’s office said.

Brcic-Christian disputed those numbers, saying Cena did not lose that much money during the three-month period. She also said a former bookkeeper made errors, and Brcic-Christian was in the process of redoing the reports when the computer system was damaged.

The U.S. Trustee’s office said when Cena was operating, “ … they were not profitable, were behind on their tax obligations and/or failed to comply with tax return filing requirements, and were not paying U.S. Trustee quarterly fees,” and said there’s no indication “what efforts the Debtor is taking to remedy the situation other than attempting to collect the insurance proceeds, and how they will ultimately make this enterprise profitable.”

Cena didn’t have the money to pay fees and other bills after it was forced to shut down, Brcic-Christian said. “We can’t pay anything when we don’t have income coming in because the restaurant is closed,” she said.

Brcic-Christian also owns Boulevard Haus, formerly Cafe Boulevard, at 329 E. Fifth St. in Dayton’s Oregon Historic District. That restaurant is open and also has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Brcic-Christian said Wednesday that sales are way up at Boulevard Haus; the most recent monthly operating report for January filed with the bankruptcy court showed a $3,521 profit for the restaurant, which changed its name and adopted a German-food concept in November.

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