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Crystal Coppock

Three Birds Dayton Opening June 17th

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Big Bird, Larry Bird and Lady Bird Johnson, what do these 3 have in common?

They all appear on the walls of Dayton’s newest restaurant, Three Birds.  It’s touches like these you’ll find all over the building that clue you in that the thought behind this restaurant is playful and fun.

The Idea Collective, a hospitality development company  who have  brought us Sueño and Tender Mercy downtown are currently in a soft opening previews for their new eatery in the former Carmel’s space on Shroyer Road. I was lucky enough to get an invitation to Thursday nights meal, which would be donating a percentage of the proceeds to The Ruib Girls.

Chris Dimmick

The  4000 sq foot restaurant, which was originally opened in the 50’s as the Parkmoor, has seen massive remodeling. After closing on the property in November of 2024, the Idea Collective started working with Moda4 envisioning how they could respect the building, but modernize it to their vision. Chris Dimmick , one of the owners explains “we stripped the building down to the studs, expanded the kitchen and restrooms and strived hard to honor the mid century feel of the building and feature the light brought in through the windows. The majority of our time so far has just been spent trying to make this concept fit into that building and honoring what’s there and protecting it.”  “The original design for that building actually won architectural awards when it was built as the Parkmoor,” said co-owner David Kittredge said.

The Idea Collective tapped local chef Crystal Coppock to open the restaurant last fall. She’s been cooking in the area for about 20 years at Fleming’s, the sous chef at Meadowlark and most recently as the Chef du Cuisine at The Golden Lamb.
We’ve been impressed with her cooking and attention to detail since she advanced to the finals of our Chef Showdown (Dayton’s local version based on the Chopped TV show)  in 2017.

Crystal Coppock

However not long into their discussions about Three Birds, Crystal had to make the call that she’d suffered an injury that would be career altering and would no longer to be able work up to par daily in the kitchen.  It didn’t take the Idea Collective long to make a decision to offer Crystal the General Manager position for the new restaurant.  Crystal shared, she takes on this challenge “with unbridled excitement. As a chef I’ve always felt connected to front of house and now I’m excited to use my lifetime of experience to move to the front of the house. As chef I was disconnected with guests and diners and now I’ll have the opportunity to really influence the guest experience we offer.”

Coppock explained that the restaurant will feature “New American Cuisine” that is family friendly with a selection of crafted cocktails, wine and beer and a menu that will change seasonally, allowing them to take advantage of local foods.  Here’s the opening menu and some pictures of the dishes we enjoyed:

Opening Menu

The pimento cheese has a bit of a quick and is served with a sleeve of Ritz crackers, which takes you right back to childhood enjoyment of this treat.

Corndog Shrimp with a spicy mustard and mango jam were inspired by owners David Kittredge, and Ginger Roddick’s memories of the dish served in Austin Texas at the Moonshine Grill.

The Steak Frites was perfectly cooked and filling for even the largest appetite.

The Cacio e Pepe was rich and creamy.

 

Be sure and leave room for dessert as the  Basque Cheesecake with poppyseed crumble, and the Chocolate Budino (our tables favorite) were rich and decadent.
For their second night of service I was impressed with how quickly food came out of the kitchen and the smiles and spot on service from the staff.  I look forward to returning and spending many evenings enjoying cocktails on one of the 90 seats on the patio and making my way though the rest of the menu.

Three Birds

1025 Shroyer Road
Dayton, OH 45419
LUNCH + DINNER
Tue to Sat: 11 AM – 10 PM
Dayton’s Next Great Neighborhood Spot

10?’s With 2018 Chef Showdown Champ Crystal Coppock

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The judges with Crystal.

The third times a charm for Wheat Penny Chef Crystal Coppock.  On Sunday afternoon at The Dayton Home and Outdoor Living Show, before a standing room only audience,  Crystal took her mystery bag of Marrow Bones, Gorgonzola Cheese, Bacon and  Angel Food Cake, enhanced by her special anchovy butter and some ingredients from the Whole Food Pantry  and created the winning dish, as judged by James Beard Award winning Chef Anne Kearney, former C’est Tout owner Dominique Fortin and Nestle Corporate Executive Chef George Sideras.

Crystal, a Dayton native, has been been cooking since her childhood. What started as a hobby quickly turned into the passion which paved the path to her eventual career.

Crystal’s childhood memories of the kitchen revolve around her grandma, Clarine Baldwin. She can recall standing at her grandma’s side as Clarine would cook Southern family favorites from scratch, such as chicken and dumplings or cornbread. Crystal was completely enamored by Clarine’s ability to transform things as simple as flour and eggs into healing and delicious meals which would then be celebrated by family and friends.

Qualifying round of Chef Showdown with Crystal, Rae Rosbough and Jon Mezera on Sat, March 17th

Crystal would later go on to pursue Culinary Arts at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center in Clayton, Ohio, graduating in 2008. She worked in several kitchens, both corporate and local before eventually finding her place as Sous Chef at Wheat Penny Oven and Bar. The passion for food and people displayed at Wheat Penny by its owners Elizabeth Wiley, Elizabeth Valenti, and Dave Rawson resonated with Crystal.  The message is simple and powerful: Cook great food for great people. 

After entering the showdown in 2016, making it the finals in 2017, in 2018 Crystal walked away with the $500 grand prize and bragging rights.  Right after her win, we asked her to answer our Chef 10 Questions and here are her answers:

What is your favorite ingredient to cook with?

2017 Chef Showdown Finals

 
I’m a huge fan of fish.  It’s so versatile, but also requires some technique to execute properly. Additionally,  I really enjoy using vinegars, they can breathe a new life into some pretty dull things. 
 
What ingredient do you dread?
Oh man, I truly don’t know.  I don’t care for chicken breast, but I can’t say I dread it. 
 
What’s your favorite dish to make?
I love making fresh pasta,  equally I love sauce making.  I care a lot about texture and depth of flavor. 
 
What’s your favorite pig out food?

Cooking at Wheat Penny

Dips of all kinds.  I’m a sucker for a good guacamole.
 
What restaurant, other than your own, do you like to dine at in the Miami Valley?
Corner Kitchen,  without a doubt. 
 
What’s your best advice for home chefs?
Challenge yourself and accept that you’re going to mess some things up.  Cooking should be fun, and you should explore it. 
 
If you could invite any 4 guests to a dinner party who would they be and why?
Hmmm… I don’t have a good answer for that.  I really enjoy sharing food with people, that’s why I do this work.  So really,  anyone who genuinely appreciates good food. 
 
Who do you look up to in the industry and why?

Marysa & Crystal – photo by Megan Powell


 A lot of people, but in particular Dave Rawson. He is so knowledgeable but very modest.  I try to model my management style after him.  He’s a really spectacular chef and mentor. 

What do you do in the Miami Valley on a day off?
I hang out with my wonderful wife,  Marysa and we like seeing movies,  going to dinner,  going to museums or just hanging on the couch with our dog. 
 
Share a kitchen disaster, lucky break or other interesting story:
Well, who could forget about the time I forgot the sauce during the first chef showdown? I’ve learned a lot about focus since then.  

 

Chef Showdown Returns This Wekend

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Home and Garden Show owner, Randy Phillips with Mariah, Candace and Matt at 2016 Showdown.

If you’re a fan of the FoodNetwork show Chopped, you’ll want to see this live, local version of the culinary face off where Dayton chefs face off against each other in three rounds of preliminary competitions.  Given just 20 minutes to turn a surprise basket of  ingredients and use of the Whole Foods Pantry  into a palate pleasing appetizer, as judged by a panel of local foodies.

This Chef Showdown will take place at the Dayton Home and Garden Show at the Dayton Convention Center this Saturday.  Dayton’s best chefs battle it out for $500 and bragging rights.  Preliminary Competition rounds are Saturday at 11am, 1pm and 3pm and one contestant from each round will advance to the finals, which will take place on Sunday at 1pm.  In the final round, the time is increased to 30 minutes, but so are the expectations, and chefs will have 4 ingredients to turn into an entree.

 

Meet the Chefs:

 

Defending her title, last year’s champion is Chef Candice Rinke, chef and owner of the seven-year-old Kettering restaurant Hawthorn Grill.

Chef Candace Rinke found herself drawn to the kitchen at a young age. Her first award was at twelve when she won a blue ribbon for a decorated cake at the county fair. Fostered by her grandmother’s love of entertaining the family and inspired by travels through Europe, her food reflects both warmth and elegance.

She competed in last years first round in the morning and despite the challenge of opening canned ingredients without a can opener, she managed to advance to the finals with her chicken appetizer on a pita triangle. In the finals she turned the five mystery ingredients that had to be used to create an entree — shrimp, asparagus, black beans, canned peaches and canned tomatoes into a fresh, flavorful dish with a beautiful presentation into an Italian-inspired bread salad.

When asked the key to her success in a Dayton Daily News article by one of the judges Alexis Larson, Rinke said “my flavors were solid. I took time to make the plates as beautiful as possible — you eat with your eyes first — and I just tried to make the best dishes I could, given the constraints of the competition.”

 

Chef Mariah Gahagan is an Executive Chef who’s worked at many of Dayton’s finer restaurants. She grew up in Yellow Springs and started working at the Wind’s Cafe in high school, but had always planned to pursue an art degree. Flash forward years later and Gahagan will tell you that while she never imagined becoming a chef, she now couldn’t see herself being anything else, and that her love of art (specifically color combinations) plays a substantial roll in her approach to cooking. Her other culinary ethos is a focus on seasonally-oriented cuisine, as it encourages enjoying food when it is at its best.

Chef Mariah was victorious last year in her preliminary round with a salmon dish that flowed with a perfect melody of flavor, from edge to edge with greens and avocados.  This year she’s back, but a change of employment has her competing for Wheat Penny.

 

Chef Matthew Hayden has a reputation as an innovative, forward-thinking Chef who makes  unforgettable food. He catered such flagship events as ARC Ohio’s “party of parties”, Masquerage and  Antioch College’s Reunion Weekend. Chef Matthew proudly offers his talents to his native city and devotes a healthy amount of time to the community. He supports numerous non-profit services in Montgomery County as well as being an ardent patron of the local arts.  After 15 years of operating successful food service businesses in the Miami Valley, Chef Matthew Hayden decided to create his dream business.   Scratch Food uses his entrepreneurship and culinary creativity to provide prepared meals with a cutting edge model of nutrition that benefits cancer patients as well as reducing risk of numerous other lifestyle dependent diseases, most notably Type II Diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

 

Also back for a second chance at the title, from Wheat Penny is Chef Crystal Coppock.  Just celebrating her 3rd anniversary at Wheat Penny where’s she is the Sous Chef, Crystal has loved cooking since a young age, noting her late grandmother as her first major culinary influence. Today, Crystal still finds inspiration in her grandmother’s Southern-influenced cooking, but also thrives on continuously learning new concepts, such as making pasta by hand. It’s been a big year for Crystal, as she’s bought her first house and recently become engaged. She shared that after last year’s event she bought a copy of The Flavor Bible and has really been educating herself about culinary creativity.

 

Chef Aaron Braun‘s culinary interest began in his Mother’s kitchen in Kettering, but was probably inherited from his Grandfather, who immigrated and opened a small restaurant in Dayton. Appreciation for good food and gatherings around the family dinner table inspired Aaron to seek employment in local restaurants at an early age, and later to obtain Culinary and Business Degrees from Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio. He further broadened his cooking horizons on Put-in-Bay and then moved on to San Diego. In California, Aaron promptly found employment at Silvergate Yacht Club, and then a 44-acre, private island resort; Paradise Point.

It was at this luxury resort that he was able to really grow, eventually becoming the Chef of their fine dining establishment. After getting married and traveling across the country, Aaron’s dedication to family and devotion to his hometown have brought him back to Dayton, where he has had the privilege of working for Wiley, as Meadowlark’s Sous Chef, for the past four years.  This is also Aaron’s 2nd chance competing in the Showdown.

 

New to the Showdown Competition This Year:

Chef Maria Walusis is the  chef and owner of Miamisburg’s  Nibbles restaurant, which just announced an upcoming move and expansion for the 2 year old eatery. Before that she owned and operated Nibbles Catering for about 5 years, She received most of her training by a combination of apprenticeships with Dayton and Cincinnati top chefs, and by studying culinary textbooks from the Culinary Institute of America. This is her second career and it took a lot of time, focus, passion and drive to become chef /owner of a fine dining restaurant in a fairly short time frame. In her free time she likes to study and read constantly to continue to learn and grow as a chef and keep up with the industry and trends.
Another newcomer to the competition, Chef Amy Finch is the Chef de Cuisine at Lily’s Bistro, an independent restaurant in Dayton’s historic Oregon District. Lily’s features eclectic American comfort food + drinks in a “nice dining” atmosphere. Chef Finch knew she wanted to be a chef when she was 7 years old and learned how to make scrambled eggs. She began to pursue her culinary arts degree in 1994 right after high school–“just long enough until life got in the way,” she says.

After one year of school she took an unintentional 18-year break, and not only worked for her family’s event rental business, but cooked at various regional restaurants like The Peasant Stock, Sidebar, Neil’s Heritage House, and Kohler Catering. She has been with Lily’s since they opened in spring of 2013, finished her culinary arts degree from Sinclair in 2015, and took the reigns as CDC at Lily’s in fall of 2016, bringing to the restaurant her love of food that is “just plain good,” especially comfort food of the mid-west and south that she grew up on and loves to cook.

Competing in the Showdown for the first time, Chef Rae Rosbough went to the MVCTC in Clayton, Ohio for Restaurant Management. She then attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI where she received her Associates and Bachelor’s Degrees in Culinary Arts. She studied abroad in Chester, England during her Senior year and was then inducted into the Management Development Program at JWU; where she worked as an instructor in exchange for my Master’s Degree in Teaching Culinary Arts.

She came back to Dayton in 2002 and started her career here at Mediterra. Throughout the years she moved up to become the Executive Chef at five independent restaurants. Cafe Boulevard, Cena, Boulevard Haus, Crazy Mango and finally Trolley Stop. She love the Dayton community, especially her home, the Oregon District.

 

Chef Aimee Please has no formal culinary education outside of a online class about catering. However, she does  have 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry that will be put to the test this Saturday. We first met Aimee at our 2005 Sweet Treats Festival, where she was serving up tasty desserts.  She is  currently the owner of Thyme After Thyme Gourmet and the kitchen manager at Bargos. Past positions held include kitchen manager at Whiskey Barrel, sous chef at Else Cake Company Wine Bar and Bistro as well as Waynesville’s  Cobblestone Cafe and executive chef at Ollie’s Place.  She has dubbed herself the underdog in this competition, but we sure don’t, we’ve seen her tenacity and certainly expect her to bring it for this weekend.