Restaurant highlights for December: 12 openings, 2 closings and 5 coming soon

A new seafood-themed restaurant, Blue Crab Juicy Seafood, opened behind the  Dayton Mall in Miami Twp., and Columbus-based Local Cantina opened the Columbus-based chain’s first venture outside of central Ohio with its new restaurant in downtown Dayton adjacent to Fifth Third Field.

Here’s a look at some of the restaurant highlights in December.

Local Cantina 

Local Cantina has opened its downtown Dayton location in the Water Street development on East First Street, and it becomes the first restaurant in the Tex-Mex chain located outside greater Columbus.

The 4,500-square-foot restaurant is located in the Centerfield Flats building in the 500 block of East First Street, across from Brixx Ice Company.

The restaurant serves several varieties and combinations of tacos, and also offers appetizers, fajitas, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, salads, and a self-serve chips-and-salsa station. The taco options include Roasted Carnitas, Grilled Fish, BBQ Beef Brisket, Tinga Chicken, Baja Shrimp, Tempura Shrimp and Nashville Hot Chicken.

>>READ MORE: We take you INSIDE the new restaurant that just opened in downtown Dayton

Singha Thai Homestyle Thai Food 

The Dayton area’s newest Thai restaurant is now fully open to the public in Kettering.

Singha Thai Homestyle Thai Food is located at 4123 W. Town and Country Road in the “Village Shops” section of the Town & Country Shopping Center, behind the main Town & Country retail building. Its smaller retail building also houses First Watch restaurant.

The new restaurant offers an extensive menu of Thai specialties, including a dozen appetizers, eight salads, eight curry options, a dozen entree choices and multiple noodle and rice dishes. Special signature dishes include Ginger Sea Scallop, Basil BBQ Duck, Thai Eggplant Stir-Fried, and Seafood Crazy Noodle, consisting of egg noodles stir-fried with shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels, broccoli, carrot, onion, mushrooms, basil, bell pepper, lime leaves and sweet toasted chili paste.

>>READ MORE: New Thai restaurant now open in Kettering, and here’s what’s on the menu

Pancho’s Place 

A new restaurant that offers both Mexican and American-themed dishes with an emphasis on seafood is now open in Huber Heights.

Pancho’s Place, located in a building at at 4480 Powell Road that previously housed Sweet Home Family Restaurant, offering breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The menu uses seafood in a variety of preparations. Shrimp, for example, is served in a shrimp cocktail, shrimp salad or as breaded shrimp, and can also be ordered in enchiladas, quesadillas and tacos. Garlic Shrimp and “Devil Style Shrimp,” which is sauteed with diablo sauce with onions, tomatoes and cilantro and served with rice, beans, salad and salsa, also are available.

>>READ MORE: New ‘Pancho’s Place’ restaurant now open in Huber Heights

J&J’s Phat Head Foods

J&J’s Phat Head Foods, a new Springfield evening restaurant, is offering curbside service and delivery.

John Hartman and James Smith, co-owners and Springfield natives, opened in the lower level of the Bushnell Building and use a community kitchen.

Best-selling items include wings and potato wedges with made-from-scratch sauces. Other items include chicken Alfredo French bread pizza, pork Philly, chicken Philly and hamburgers.

>>READ MORE: New Springfield restaurant offers curbside service, delivery

Bubby’s Chicken & Waffles 

Bubby’s Chicken & Waffles, a food truck/restaurant, now has a permanent location in the lower level of the Bushnell Building in Springfield.

Kareem Crossley, the owner, has been selling a “rare” combination of chicken and waffles since the end of June — but, the idea originally sparked in 2015.

The waffles he sells are not regular waffles — they contain Fruity Pebbles.

“It’s rare, it’s different; you don’t see it coming,” Crossley said. “It still brings that funny mystery; it gives it some type of nostalgia.”

Stuffed Enuff 

Brooke Coleman has opened “Stuffed Enuff” at 2901 N. Dixie Drive in Harrison Twp., just north of the Keowee Street bridge, in space that previously housed the “Kula!Kula!” eatery. The new restaurant opens every day at 8 a.m., and on Fridays and Saturdays, it stays open until 3:30 a.m. to serve the late-night crowd.

Most items on the menu are available stuffed with a variety of ingredients, leading to nearly infinite possibilities. Breakfast sandwiches, for example, are served on a choice of “breakfast bun” of waffles, pancakes or French toast. Meat selections are pork sausage, turkey sausage, chicken breast or steak. Additional stuffing options include onion, green pepper, jalapeno pepper, banana pepper, mushrooms, bacon, spinach, eggs, tomatoes, hash browns or pineapple.

>>READ MORE: Once homeless, this single mom has just launched her own restaurant

Thai Street Noodles 

A new Thai restaurant — the second to open in Kettering in December— has opened.

Thai Street Noodles is located at 5844 Bigger Road next to a recently-closed Marco’s Pizza, just north of Seajax Tavern in south Kettering. The Bigger Road space previously housed KH Empire Asian Restaurant, which shut down in early 2019. The new restaurant is the second location for founder Pirom Tintong, who also operates Nida Thai Cuisine in Centerville.

“Our main focus will be to introduce the popular and world famous Street Noodles of Thailand, which are fresh, tasty, healthy and affordable,” Tintong said.

Tropical Smoothie Café

The area’s newest Tropical Smoothie Cafe is located at 2309 W. Main St. in Troy, and it is the second cafe launched by an operator who won one of the restaurant chain’s “Franchisee of the Year” awards earlier this year.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe is “a healthy alternative. We have smoothies made with real fruit and vegetables,” Tim Poulos, the franchise owner said.

The cafe’s menu will include wraps, sandwiches, flatbreads and quesadillas in addition to the chain’s signature smoothies.

Power Plant Juice Bar 

A Centerville-area couple that launched a mobile juice truck in 2013 has made the jump to a bricks-and-mortar store.

Earl Hatmaker and Megan Lees opened the Power Plant Juice Bar at 430 Miamisburg-Centerville Road (Ohio 725), next to Old Scratch Pizza in Washington Twp. just west of Centerville.

The fruits, vegetables and other ingredients that go into Power Plant’s juices and other dishes are organic or local, and most often, they’re both, Hatmaker said.

>>READ MORE: Husband-and-wife team opens new juice bar on State Route 725

Fretboard Brewing & Public House

A new restaurant and microbrewery that will serve “upscale pub fare with a twist” has opened in Hamilton.

Fretboard Brewing & Public House opened at 103 Main St. It will be the second location for the Blue Ash-based brewery, replacing the former Quarter Barrel Brewery + Pub, which closed Jan. 3. Besides food and beverages, the new restaurant will offer live music and panoramic rooftop views of the Great Miami River and Hamilton’s downtown.

A Fretboard menu features shareables, greens, mains, sides, desserts and a kids menu. Some dishes are vegetarian or gluten free while others may be made that way upon request.

>>READ MORE: New Hamilton restaurant, microbrewery opens this week: Here’s what it offers

The City Coffeehouse 

An independently owned coffee shop has opened in an 1850s-era Huber Heights brick farmhouse once owned by the late state legislator and journalist Clara Weisenborn.

The City Coffeehouse, 4940 Chambersburg Drive, is in soft-opening mode and serving customers as it gears up for its grand opening on Jan. 3, according to the shop’s founders, Whitney Caudill and Danius Williams.

The farmhouse, built in 1850, was once owned by a trailblazing community activist who served as a journalist for The (Dayton) Journal Herald and a Republican state legislator in the Ohio General Assembly for 20 years.

>>READ MORE: Locally owned ‘The City Coffeehouse’ now open in 1850s-era farmouse

Blue Crab Juicy Seafood 

A new seafood-themed restaurant is now open in a space behind the Dayton Mall that decades ago was home to one of the most popular restaurant-bar hangouts in the region.

Blue Crab Juicy Seafood Dayton is serving customers lunch and dinner seven days a week at 8901 Kingsridge Drive in Miami Twp. The space behind the Dayton Mall once housed Max & Erma’s, which shut down the location in 2009.

The new restaurant’s Cajun-inspired menu offers multiple seafood options available boiled or fried, including crab, shrimp, crawfish, mussels, clams, oysters and catfish. Soups, including Lobster Bisque, New England Chowder and Shrimp or Crawfish Etouffee, also are available.

Condado Tacos 

Condado Tacos has signed a lease to open its first Dayton-area location at The Greene Town Center, according to a spokeswoman for the Columbus-based restaurant chain.

Plans call for a 3,859-square-foot restaurant that seats about 173 inside and another 80 on a patio. The new restaurant could open as soon as summer 2020, and will employ 60 to 80.

Condado Tacos says it specializes in creating “unique tacos, guacamole, tequila and margaritas at affordable prices. Fresh, high-quality ingredients including salsas, toppings, proteins and tortilla chips — all made from scratch daily — are staples to Condado’s cuisine.”

>>READ MORE: New 250-seat restaurant coming to The Greene

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers 

Plans call for the new Raising Cane’s to open at 7841 Old Troy Pike in Huber Heights, the site of a former PNC Bank branch that closed in April.

Raising Cane’s Ohio opened its first Dayton-area location on Ohio 725 in Washington Twp. in 2017, and opened its second Dayton-area location across from The Greene in Beavercreek in 2018.

>>READ MORE: Raising Cane’s, Starbucks get good news about their local expansion plans

Texas Roadhouse

With two national steakhouse chains already represented, the I-75-State Route 41 interchange already serves as somewhat of a destination for beef enthusiasts — and now, a third steakhouse chain is in the works to join its two competitors there.

Site plans for a new Texas Roadhouse steakhouse restaurant have been submitted to the city of Troy for a 7,462-square-foot restaurant to be built at 1809 Towne Park Drive.

No projected timetable for the project was immediately available. Messages left Wednesday and Thursday with a spokesman for Texas Roadhouse had not been returned by this morning, Friday Dec. 20. Some national restaurant chains are hesitant to publicly discuss plans for new locations until their plans are fully approved by local communities.

Which Wich Superior Sandwiches 

Which Wich Superior Sandwiches, the restaurant chain that opened its first Dayton-area deli in April 2018 in Cornerstone of Centerville, is gearing up to open its second location in Beavercreek, perhaps as early as next month.

The region’s newest deli-style restaurant is scheduled to open in Beavercreek Towne Center at 2820 Centre Drive, Suite 200, perhaps as early as mid-January, according to Jeff Vickers, senior vice president for franchise development.

Which Wich opened its first restaurant in Dallas in 2003. It now operates more than 400 locations. The menu includes specialty sandwiches such as the “Ultimate BLT,” Philly Cheesesteak, Superfood Wich, Meatball Grinder, Cobb Salad Wrap, Reuben and Gyro.

>>READ MORE: ‘Which Wich’ gearing up to open 2nd Dayton-area location

Elsa’s Mexican Restaurant 

An Elsa’s Mexican Restaurant is coming to Springboro to take over the space in the Settler’s Walk retail center that was vacated Oct. 20 by Buffalo Wild Wings.

Early plans call for a cantina-style restaurant similar to the Elsa’s Corner Cantina off Wilmington Pike in Sugarcreek Twp. “It is set up for awesome sports viewing and will have a varied menu of ‘our’ Mexican food, as well as wings, pizza, and sandwiches,” co-owner Jason Hemmert said.

The partners expect the new restaurant to open in late spring 2020.

Flyboys Deli (Beavercreek location ONLY)

The locally owned and independent Flyboys Deli at the Mall at Fairfield Commons announced it will shut its doors Dec. 31 after nearly two years and is planning to relocate to downtown Dayton. The Flyboys Deli in Oakwood, which was launched in 2013, remains open and operating.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Eunice and I will be closing our Flyboys Beavercreek location on the 31st of December,” Steve Crandall said in an email to this news outlet. “New plans and arrangements are already in the works for opening our new location in downtown Dayton in the spring of 2020.”

>>READ MORE: Beavercreek mall restaurant to shut down, plans to relocate to downtown Dayton

Marco’s Pizza 

Marco’s Pizza has shut down two of its 13 pizza shops in the Miami Valley.

Customers of the Marco’s Pizza carryout restaurant at 5860 Bigger Road in south Kettering encountered a sign announcing its shutdown, and a phone message alerts customers of the Marco’s Pizza shop on East Main Street in Xenia that that shop also is closed. The two restaurants are not part of the same franchise group.