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Home > Blogs > Taste: Dayton food and restaurants > Archives > 2011 > August > 16 > Entry
New independent restaurant to open in former Applebee’s location
TROTWOOD — A new, independently owned restaurant called Taste is scheduled to open Sept. 17 in a former Applebee’s location at 2555 Shiloh Springs Road near Ohio 49 and Salem Ave., according to the new venture’s owner, Jason Thomas of Englewood.
Trotwood Mayor Joyce S. Cameron and the city’s economic development administrator, Rhonda Finley, said they welcomed the new restaurant, which they said could serve as a catalyst for retail and commercial development in the area. The former Applebee’s building has been vacant for at least five years, and “was turning into a blight on our main corridor, Cameron said. “This will be a huge boost for the area.”
Taste will seat about 160 and will employ 20 to 25, Thomas said. The former Applebee’s building required extensive work: “We renovated everything on the inside of the restaurant,” Thomas said.
Thomas, a Dayton native, works for LexisNexis and has traveled extensively as part of his job. He said he found the lack of non-chain restaurant options in the Trotwood and Englewood areas frustrating. “There is a need for fine dining in this part of town,” Thomas said.
Family members — including a cousin, Roger Smith, who has worked in the dining industry for 25 years as a chef — will help run the restaurant, Thomas said.
The Taste web site describes the new restaurant’s cuisine as “gourmet Soul Food, Cajun and Creole cuisine.” Thomas said the focus will be on tapas and entrees made in a health-conscious way — “creative cuisine and an array of meals that cater to everyone,” he said.
The restaurant also will feature live music — jazz, blues and R&B — that will be a focus on weekend evenings, and is also planned for weekday evenings, Thomas said.
Taste will have a full liquor license, Thomas said. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday “for a jazz brunch,” the new restaurant’s owner said.
For more information, call (937) 854-7060.
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