David Kitridge

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.

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.

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:

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.