The Dayton area’s oldest restaurant is gearing up to add its own craft brewery

The Florentine is located in Ohio’s second-oldest inn that dates to 1816. Only the Golden Lamb in Lebanon traces its lineage back farther than The Florentine.

Clay Alsip and Vanden Berg, the husband-and-wife team that purchased the Florentine at 21 W. Market St. in January 2018, reopened the historic 7,000-square-foot restaurant to the public in March 2018 following some kitchen renovations.

“We are on our way toward making The Florentine a great destination and fine-dining restaurant again,” Vanden Berg said at the time. “Everyone on our staff works great as a team, with everyone focused on excellent service and serving great food.”

Additional details about the new brewery will be available soon. The Florentine’s owners recently applied to the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control for a craft-brewery license that will allow them to operate.

In a 2007 book “A Taste of Ohio History: A Guide to Historic Eateries and Their Recipes,” authors Debbie Nunley and Karen Jane Elliott note The Florentine “has withstood the passage of time.”

“That ornate iron balcony, fabricated at the ironworks in the Oregon District of nearby Dayton, still stands today. In fact, the entire structure looks almost identical to its earlier days. The barn-red clapboard exterior trimmed in taupe looks like something you’d find on the set of an old Western. I kept expecting Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty to come walking out the door.”