Dayton Food & Dining | Foodie festivals , new restaurant openings & more 🍴🍕

Hey Dayton!

Welcome to our weekly Dayton Food & Dining Newsletter! I’m Dayton Daily News Staff Writer Zoe Hill. I’m stepping in for Natalie Jones this week while she’s off on PTO celebrating her elopement in Marquette, Michigan! One thing about me is that I will douse almost anything I eat with hot honey. I graduated from University of Dayton in the winter, but when I was a student there, Hunny Bee’s Chicken on Brown Street opened and introduced me to the spicy dipping sauce. Since then I have been buying it from the grocery store to use when cooking at home.

When I learned that Old Scratch Pizza makes its own hot honey to use as a pizza topping, I knew I had to try it out.

The Neapolitan-style pizza and craft beer restaurant has an artisan pie using hot honey as its key ingredient — The Angry Beekeeper — but I personally love white pizza. I ordered the “Shroom” white pizza complete with forest mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, roasted garlic, thyme and white truffle oil. I topped it off by adding the house-made hot honey, and it was a heavenly combination.

Other than the fantastic pies, Old Scratch has one of my favorite patios for dining out. The wide-open, warehouse look at the Centerville location includes a wall of garage doors that come up in the warmer months to connect the dining room with the patio. Owners wanted to ensure the patio was “thoughtfully incorporated” at the Dayton location when it first opened in 2016, and that continued when they added a patio to the Centerville location.

Click here to check out more patio dining spots for summer.

5 summer festivals happening this weekend across the Dayton area

Dayton festivals this weekend are foodie-focused with five separate events celebrating all things yummy. From Dayton’s Mac N’ Cheese Fest to Honey Harvest, there are several food truck rallies and food festivals happening across the Dayton area this week.

The second annual Mac N’ Cheese Fest in downtown Dayton will celebrate National Mac N’ Cheese Day at Yellow Cab Tavern from 5-9 p.m. July 14. Friday’s event is one in a series of food truck rallies at Yellow Cab Tavern, and Mac N’ Cheese Fest will feature everything from traditional mac n’ cheese, seafood mac, mac n’ cheese calzones, and so much more.

Another new food festival is headed to Austin Landing. Celebrating all things pineapple, the festival from 3-10 p.m. Saturday, July 15. It will include several local food vendors, live music from bands Classic Jam and Party Punch. Guests 21 and older can also enjoy a pineapple-centered beer garden.

Also coming Saturday, July 15, is Berryhill’s Blueberry Festival in Xenia, the Springfield Noodle Fest and Honey Harvest in Yellow Springs.

New Huber Heights seafood sports bar kicks off opening events

Sands Seafood and Sports Bar in Huber Heights is almost ready to serve up fine dining seafood in a gameday atmosphere with opening events starting as early as Saturday, July 8.

The restaurant’s novel concept came out of a combination of owner Myron Rankins II’s two loves: sports and seafood. He also wanted to create a space where people could come and sit down for a date but also enjoy an evening out watching your favorite team play.

The menu brings the best of both worlds, according to Rankins. With a full menu of seafood staples including oysters, po’boys, seafood boils and fried platters, the restaurant staff will also shake things up with a specialty menu item every three weeks. Rankins said he encourages his chefs to be creative in the kitchen, which has inspired the limited-time seafood dishes. Chicken wings, a sports bar essential, will of course be served, Rankins assured.

Sands Seafood and Sports Bar debuted with a pre-opening watch party for the UFC fight Saturday, July 8 with main card opponents Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodríguez. The event featured a limited menu for the evening with Sands’ signature shrimp, shrimp spring rolls, Cleveland “Polish boy” sausage, seafood alfredo and chicken wings.

Aside from providing a venue for a fight watch party, the monthly UFC events will sponsor local fighters trying to break into the world of mixed martial arts. MMA fighter TJ Conner, a Huber Heights native, came front-of-mind to Rankins when promoting the event.

The soft opening begins July 20, and the restaurant will be open Thursdays through Sundays. Sands plans to celebrate its grand opening on Aug. 31, just ahead of football season.

Sands Seafood and Sports Bar is located at 6254 Chambersburg Road, Huber Heights. For more information, visit the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Ann Heller’s favorite recipes: Flank Steak Dijon

Ann Heller’s career at the Dayton Daily News spanned three decades where she wrote about food and restaurants. She also published two cookbooks.

For cookout season, I wanted to share a recipe destined for the grill. In her cookbook, Heller says this cut of beef isn’t for those who want a well-done steak, but it cooks fairly quickly to a nice medium rare. This one requires marinating the flank steak for several hours, so advanced preparation is needed.

Ingredients:

Directions: Combine the mustard and vinegar and whisk in the oil. Add the garlic, parsley and pepper and mix. Spread the mixture over both sides of the flank steak and marinate, in the refrigerator, for at least 6 hours. Grill the steak over hot coals. The timing depends on the thickness of the steak, but begin with five minutes on one side and three to four minutes on the other. Do not cook beyond medium rare. Slice on the diagonal and sprinkle with coarse salt before serving.

Quick Bites:

🍚 Bibibop Asian Grill opening in Washington Twp.: The build-your-own Korean bowl restaurant is opening its third Dayton-area location July 13 on Miamisburg-Centerville Road.

🍻Eudora Brewing Company kicks off corn hole leagues: The Kettering brewery has brought back its Tuesday evening corn hole tournaments. Click here to check out the leagues.

🍕Huber Heights Cassano’s Pizza moves to new location: Cassano’s Pizza moved a mile up Brandt Pike to a free-standing building with greater visibility and a pick-up window.

🍝 Est! Est!! Est!!! opening at the Arcade: The Italian eatery announced it will begin serving guests at the Dayton Arcade July 13. For more information, click here.

Best of Dayton:

Thank you for nominating your favorites for Best of Dayton!

We are working on selecting finalists based on nomination tallies. Voting will begin on Monday, July 24 and will be open until Friday, Aug. 11. WInners of the Best of Dayton contest will be announced on Friday, Sept. 15.

This is our eighth year of celebrating the best, brightest and most important things in the area. This year we have 152 contests in nine categories: Around Town, Auto, Beauty & Wellness, Food, Dining & Drinking, Health & Medical, Home Improvement, Professional Services, Recreation and Retail.

» WHAT TO KNOW: How to get involved in this year’s contest

Tell Us:

Thank you so much for reading my take on Natalie’s weekly newsletter! If you see a new restaurant opening or are wondering when an establishment is expected to open up, feel free to email Natalie here, and she’ll check it out.

Also, remember to follow Dayton Daily News on Facebook or search our Food & Dining section for the latest stories. Natalie will have continuous updates on her Facebook or Twitter pages.