Dayton937

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

Bill Franz

Dayton at Work and Play: Simon

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Simon making me a four way at Gold Star Chili (3034 Harshman in Dayton’s Forest Ridge / Quail Hollow neighborhood).

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Simon was born in Jordan, but he’s as Dayton as they come. He has the characteristic Dayton resilience and grit.

Simon was trained as an airplane mechanic and came to Dayton to work for Emery Air Freight. When that company shut down he decided to stay in the town he had grown to like. He opened this Gold Star chili restaurant.

Business was great at first, but then the nearby Meijer’s store closed. Simon reacted to the reduction of walk in traffic by trying to create more loyal customers. While I was there he greeted most people by name as they walked in. He took the time to talk to me and ask why I was carrying a camera. When I return I fully expect Simon to greet me by name and even if I’m not carrying my camera he’ll ask how my photography is going.

Dayton at Work and Play: Brooke Coleman

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Brooke Coleman wants to cook for you.

Brooke has had some rough times in her life, including a stint at a homeless shelter five years ago, but now things are looking up. She’s opened a new restaurant StuffedEnuff LLC (2901 North Dixie). Brooke says the customer response has been great and she thinks she has the experience to make her restaurant a success. She has worked in quite a few restaurants, and she’s taken a lot of culinary classes at Sinclair Community College.

“I always wanted a restaurant but I wanted it to be different. I knew there was no place where you could create your own stuffed burger. I’ve been trying different recipes at home for family and friends, that’s where we got the Chef B’s signature burgers.” I tried one of her signature burgers – the Hawaiian – stuffed with pineapple and jalapeno peppers. It was amazing.

Brooke is trying to build her business without taking on any debt. That’s why the sign out front says “Kula!Kula!. That’s the name of the restaurant that was previously in this space.

To help her get money for a new sign, I plan to stop by regularly. But I will only come when I’m really hungry. One of her stuffed burgers is a big meal. Stuffed Enuff is open for lunch and dinner every day except Monday.

StuffedEnuff LLC

2901 N Dixie dr
Dayton, Ohio 45414
(937) 949-3018

Tuesday- Thursday 10am-11pm

Friday-Saturday 10am- 1am

Sunday 10am-9pm

Dayton at Work and Play: Kendell Thompson – Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

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Kendell Thompson, superintendent of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in the world’s first airplane factory. It’s off West Third Street, in Dayton’s Arlington Heights neighborhood.

It’s amazing to me that these buildings are still here. The Wright Brothers built them in 1910 and 1911 to put what they’d learned about flying to commercial use. Orville Wright sold the business in 1915, after the death of his brother, but airplanes continued to be made here.

In World War I the Dayton Wright Company was formed by Charles Kettering and William Deeds, with Orville Wright as a consultant. They built thousands of planes for the war effort in these buildings and two other locations.

General Motors bought the Dayton Wright Company in 1921 but they didn’t stay in the airplane business. Instead, they made steering wheels here. The business was so successful that GM formed a new division – the Inland Manufacturing Division. This plant grew to cover 54 acres with 1.2 million square feet of manufacturing space. Fortunately, the original Wright buildings were not torn down during this period. They were just surrounded by larger, newer buildings.

Dayton At Work and Play: Allaman Building

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Walking around the Wright Dunbar area, I’ve admired the vacant Allaman building at 1000 West Third. It was built in 1914 by Dr. Allaman and once housed doctor’s offices and apartments. In 2002 it was bought and refurbished by Wright Dunbar Inc. but remained empty.

Now you can add this building to the list of properties recently sold to a developer. Plans are to turn the upper two floors into four condos and rent the ground level to a store or coffee shop. Great news.

ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Ann Rotolante

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK Ann Rotolante, Producer of The Art Show on ThinkTV Network.

Ann originally didn’t plan on a career in the arts. “I was an engineering student,” she told me “and took a film course as an elective. I loved it. As soon as I got my engineering degree I moved to Dayton to enroll in film school at Wright State.”

When I caught up with Ann I took a few head shots because I knew she needed one. When I looked at her entry at imdb.com – the online database of information related to films and TV – her listing had no portrait. Go to https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1367899/ and you can look at all of Ann’s film experience and see if she has used this portrait I sent to her.

I wasn’t sure exactly what a producer’s role was. Ann told me one of her most important jobs on the Art Show was deciding which artists to feature. “We look for artists that our audience will find interesting, and we try to keep it diverse. We want a mix of types of artists and we want artists located throughout the Dayton / Cincinnati region. Season 11 of The Art Show will start airing soon, and I’m excited about the artists we will be featuring.”

Free Coffee At Reza’s

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One of three sitting areas at Reza’s Dayton (438 Wayne Avenue). I followed the progress of their renovation on Instagram, and love the way it turned out.

Coffee is free at Reza’s today, thanks to some kind people from Pittsburgh. One year ago a gunman killed 11 and injured 7 at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue. After the shooting, someone from outside the city arranged an act of kindness, a day of free coffee at a coffee shop near the synagogue.

Today some anonymous people from Pittsburgh have done the same thing. They’ve arranged for a day of free coffee at Reza’s and at a coffee shop in El Paso. A letter accompanying the money concludes as follows:

Please know that you are not alone as you heal as a community.
All the Best,
A coffee lover from Pittsburgh

Artist of the Week: Eva Lewis

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ARTIST OF THE WEEEK Eva Lewis in her home studio in Dayton’s Burkhardt neighborhood.

Eva currently has a solo exhibition at K12 Gallery and TEJAS titled Nuanced Perspectives. The show runs through October 17. There’s an artist reception Thursday, October 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Gallery Hours are M/W/TH/F 9:30am to 6:00pm.

“I was born in Oregon and grew up in Bellbrook” Eva told me. “Then I went to Wright State and got a degree in Fine Arts, with a concentration in painting and a minor in art history. When I graduated from Wright State, I shared studio space in the Front Street building with four other artists. But they’ve all moved in different direction so I moved out. I rented this house which has great space for a studio – plus a back yard.”

“Through K12, I’ve been teaching art for grades K through 8 at Ascension School. I also teach painting and drawing for grades 3 through high school at K12. I really like the teaching, but I think the next step for me is to be a student again. I’m applying for graduate art programs.”

Eva is one of the artists participating in the “Behind the Scenes” exhibition at K12 Gallery and TEJAS which runs from October 24 through November 14

Dayton At Work & Play: The Victory Project

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I’ve always wondered what this building was all about, The Victory Project building at 409 Troy Street in the Old North Dayton neighborhood. My friend Bk Elias was just finishing up a mural on this building, part of a project for K12 Gallery and TEJAS. He offered to take me inside and introduce me to the Victory Project people.

The first thing I learned from Victory Project founder Monnie Bush was that this large building was built around five existing buildings. “One of those buildings was the old Elite Theater, the first cinema built after the Dayton Flood” he told me. “The city records show that the Elite Cinema building was torn down in the 1980’s, but it wasn’t. This large building was just built around the cinema and four other buildings.”

“We moved into this building about 5 years ago. We’re an after school program for boys 12 to 18. We help these young men keep up in school and we operate landscaping and construction businesses that provide them entry level jobs. We do have some court-involved youth, but everyone is here voluntarily.”

“We’re a faith based nonprofit. We have a great track record working with these young men, but we don’t accept any government money. That means I spend a lot of time fund raising.”

Artist of the Week: BK Elias

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK Bk Elias looking over a mural he just finished on The Victory Project building at 409 Troy Street in the Old North Dayton neighborhood

“I have been painting since I was 10 years old and taking classes at K12 Gallery and TEJAS” Bk told me. “Then I painted as a student at Stivers School for the Arts. After that I took lessons from several local professional artists like Scott Gibbs, Bing Davis and James Pate.”

“I helped Scott Gibbs paint murals with the HAALO kids. HAALO stands for Helping Adolescents Achieve Long-Term Objectives. It’s a program K12 has for kids involved in the court system. I really liked working with the kids on murals, and Jerri hired me to work at K12. I’ve done maybe 10 murals for K12. After this one is done I’m going to do some touch up on Amy Deal’s RiverScape mural. Then I think there are two more murals to do this year. In the winter I usually teach at K12, but this year there may be an indoor mural for me to do.”

Bk is one of the artists participating in the “Behind the Scenes” exhibition at K12 Gallery and TEJAS which runs from October 24 through November 14

Artist of the Week: Steve Wohleer

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK Steve Wohler of Steve Wohler Fine Art in his home studio.

Steve is the featured artist this year at the Dayton Concours d’Elegance which will be held Sunday from 10:30 am to 4:00 pm at Carillon Historical Park. The large framed painting in the background of this photo is the official poster for this event.

“All of my paintings come from photos” Steve told me. “For the show’s poster we had a photo shoot at Carillon last May. One of the cars in the poster is from the Packard Museum.”

“I really love car art, and I’ve been exhibiting at Concours d’Elegance for years, but I also do other things. On my website you can see my landscapes and what I call townscapes. I work in oil on canvas, and make prints of most of my pieces.”

On First Friday, November 1, Steve will have paintings and prints on display at the gallery of Mikee Huber Artist (903 N. Keowee). Steve is also one of the artists participating in the “Behind the Scenes” exhibition at K12 Gallery and TEJAS which runs from October 24 through November 14

ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Erin Holscher Almazan

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK Erin Holscher Almazan in one of her home work spaces.

“In the summer I take over the garage and do oil painting” she told me. “When the weather gets cooler I move to a basement space and do linocuts. I don’t want to fill the house with paint fumes. I do the actual printmaking from my linocuts at the University of Dayton, where I am an associate professor of Printmaking and Drawing.”

I looked at the paintings in the garage and said I hadn’t seen anything quite like them on Erin’s website (http://erinholscheralmazan.schmolio.com/).

“These are new this summer” she said. “For the last few years I have been focused on women’s relationships, the dynamics of groups of women. This year my friend Anna who is a fashion designer visited and brought these amazing floral hats. We took lots of photos of a group of women wearing her hats to use as the beginning point of these paintings. I took some of the smaller ones to a solo show I just had at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts in Grand Junction.”

“I have been painting some portraits of women with the hats, and some pairs of women. The one I’m working on today shows Anna with her head on my shoulder. I haven’t painted larger groups of women yet. I will probably do linocuts of those more complex images.”

Erin will be one of the artists participating in the “Behind the Scenes” exhibition at K12 Gallery and TEJAS which runs from October 24 through November 14. Maybe she’ll bring the piece she was painting when I visited her at work.

Dayton at Work and Play: Bicycles For All

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We all know that Dayton is a bike friendly community. Bicycles For All may be the friendliest part of that bike community. They give bikes to kids and they sell reconditioned bikes to adults at reasonable prices.


Bicycles For All is a nonprofit – a good place to donate your old bike, or your helmets or other bike gear. Most of their bikes are fairly new, but Matthew is showing me a classic Huffy bike that was recently donated. It has a 1972 City of Dayton license plate. All of the workers at Bicycles For All are volunteers. When Matthew isn’t fixing bikes he’s making my favorite apple turnovers at Evans Bakery.

Bicycles For All is located in the basement of the red Armory building at 201 E. 6th Street, Dayton, Ohio 45402. Access to the entrance is off of Patterson in the parking lot behind The Armory Building. They are open on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-9 pm.

Dayton at Work and Play: Super Bloom

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Whatever else you do today, take a few minutes and drive to Morris Reserve (3151 Lower Bellbrook Road). And bring your camera, because this prairie is experiencing a super bloom.


Super blooms occur when multiple species of wildflowers bloom at the same time. I have spent a lot of time in area parks, but I’ve never seen a super bloom before. Kendra Schide, the park’s naturalist, told Dayton.com that she’s never seen one either. She said a super bloom like this might only occur once in the life of a prairie.

When I visited Morris Reserve yesterday, several other photographers were taking photos. All told me the same thing. Our photos could not convey how wonderful it was to be surrounded by all these blooming flowers. So don’t just look at this photo. Go to Morris Reserve and experience this for yourself

Dayton at Work and Play: Gerstner & Sons

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Gerstner & Sons, at 20 Gerstner Way in Dayton’s Five Points neighborhood, is one of the most interesting factories I’ve visited. The famous Gerstner tool chests have been made there since 1913. Their customer list includes the Wright Brothers.

You can tour this factory today from 9am to 4pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm during the annual Gerstner & Sons Warehouse sale.

Browse this historic Dayton factory and save on ALL Gerstner products during this once-a-year event! Choose from their most popular products, including first-class and factory-second pieces, with savings up to 50% off.

Save up to 75% or more on damaged or unfinished products—while supplies last! Gerstner stockpiles items all year long to sell for this event. These are only offered on-site at the Annual Warehouse Sale.

Gerstner Chests make great Father’s Day gifts or bring dad and let him shop.

(937) 228-1662

The 2610 Journeyman Chest. The most recognizable and sought-after design by Gerstner since its introduction in the 1930s.

Dayton At Work And Play: St. Helen Spring Festival

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I stopped in as volunteers were setting up for the annual St. Helen Spring Festival 2019 (5100 Burkhardt Road). The event starts tonight at 6:30 pm and ends Sunday at 9 pm.

I read that some questioned the decision to move ahead with the festival this year. I love the way the parish stated their decision to proceed.

“We are a church of joy and of hope. So many in our area, especially the more impoverished among us, are unable to travel on vacations during the summer. Activities like the St. Helen Festival are a way for them to relax, have fun, make memories. This year ESPECIALLY, we believe, that is very necessary!”

I talked with the event chairman who told me that his parish had already given quite a bit to tornado relief efforts and was giving 10% of the proceeds from this event. He said they have planned a great festival this year with 22 entertainment acts, great foods like the famous St Helens cabbage rolls and 17 different craft beers.

Rides, games of chance, food galore, a wide selection of craft beers, margaritas and wine – plus 20+ musical acts on 2 stages.

6:30PM – midnight on FR 6/7/19  Spungeworthy will play from 7 -1pm
1:00PM – midnight on SA 6/8/19 The Driving Force Band (classic rock) plays from 3:30 to 5pm.
1:00PM – 9:00PM on SU 6/9/19  Ithika plays Sunday

Dayton at Work and Play

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Here’s a Dayton neighborhood success story.

Driving down Burkhardt Avenue just before sunset I came across this soccer game. Everyone from grandparents to young children were playing.

This soccer field was once part of the city’s Burkhardt Community Center, which was shut down in 2009. When the center became vacant, neighbors say it was overrun with drug dealers and crime, and this field was filled with tall weeds. The city considered demolishing the building.

Audrey Starnes, a woman born and raised in this neighborhood, saved the day. She rented the community center from the city and turned it into a daycare facility for the neighborhood children. She also maintains this field so that kids of all ages can play there. Stepping Stones Learning Center, is located at 215 Burkhardt Avenue in Dayton.

This field will be the site of the Burkhardt Festival on August 10. I can’t wait to photograph the contestants in the Strongman Competition.