February area restaurant highlights: Wild boar, savory tarts and deep-dish pizza

Here’s a look at some of the highlights from February’s restaurant news.

Giordano’s 

The Chicago-based deep-dish pizza specialist Giordano’s opened its first Dayton-area location at 2819 Centre Drive near the Mall at Fairfield Commons and Wright State University’s Nutter Center.

The 5,000-square-foot, full-service restaurant offers dine-in, carry-out, and delivery for lunch and dinner, as well as catering options.

Giordano’s has been serving its large-scale pies since 1974, when founders and immigrant brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio introduced their mother’s deep-dish pizza recipe to Chicago. A thin-crust pizza is also on the menu.

Flyby BBQ 

The independent and locally owned Flyby BBQ restaurant opened at the Mall at Fairfield Commons. The new restaurant, which got its start as a food truck, is located between Fusian and Bravo Cucina Italiana near the mall’s front entrance.

Flyby is a fast-casual barbecue restaurant with an ordering system similar to Chipotle. It will serve signature barbecue sandwiches, bowls and platters featuring hickory-smoked meats, a variety of toppings, and regional American barbecue sauces. A vegan option of pulled barbecue jackfruit will be available. The restaurant also will feature homemade comfort-food-style side dishes, banana pudding, craft beer and sodas, according to its founder, David Butcher.

The Bison and The Boar 

The Bison and The Boar, a new steakhouse concept, celebrated its grand opening on Feb. 22.

The restaurant is in the space formerly occupied by Reflections at 3377 U.S. Route 35 East in West Alexandria. The menu includes seafood, fish, pork and Ohio-raised beef, bison and boar.

Bison and boar are in the restaurant’s name, and there are certainly boar and bison options like the wild boar and the bison burgers for $14 and $15.

But beef reigns supreme at the restaurant located about halfway between Dayton and Richmond, Ind.

Kung Fu Noodles

A restaurant that specializes in noodle dishes from northern China is now open at 2801 S. Dixie Drive in Kettering.

Kung Fu Noodle opened “softly” in mid-January. The relatively small restaurant seats 22.

An initial menu featured appetizers such as roasted lamb skewer, dumplings, pot stickers and “Dandan Noodle,” consisting of thin vermicelli-style noodles with stir-fried ground pork, topped with spicy garlic sauce and green onion.

>> READ MORE: New Kettering restaurant serves up authentic Chinese dishes

St. Anne the Tart 

St. Anne the Tart bakery and coffee shop, 1500 E. Fifth St. in the St. Anne’s Hill neighborhood east of downtown Dayton, has opened.

The new bakery serves a variety of baked goods from sweet pastries to lunch-worthy savory tarts, and offers an array of coffee beverages, tea, granola and yogurt.

>>READ MORE: New Dayton bakery St. Anne the Tart sets opening date

Pita Pit

Dain Peters, 23, of Englewood has opened his first Pita Pit location at 1047 Brown St. near the University of Dayton and Miami Valley Hospital.

The business specializes in fresh and healthy pita sandwiches, including Pita Pit’s Dagwood, Gyro, Souvlaki, Philly, Baja Chicken Bacon Ranch, Chicken Pesto, Boom Boom Black Bean (and the vegetarian) vegan hummus sandwiches.