“Our lease was up this month and I was going to clear everything out, sell it all and just be done, but we really started doing some strong heart to hearts again and kind of revitalized what we want to do,” said Scott Green, who owns the restaurant with his partner of six years, Jerika Witt.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
They opened Dayton Street Eats days after Gov. Mike DeWine ordered all restaurants to cease dine-in service in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Over the last five years, they’ve grappled with their social media pages getting hacked, which limited their means of advertisement, and an increase in cost of wages and the price of goods.
‘We’ve changed the menu quite a few times, did a lot of different things, worked really hard and just really the last couple of years we’ve kind of fallen off of it," Green said.
He had been working the restaurant by himself over the last two years and it was becoming unsustainable.
“It wasn’t fair for our customers. It wasn’t fair for me,” Green said.
Witt had left the restaurant to become a general manager at Popeyes where she was promoted to a district manager in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“When we first opened is what we’re trying to get back to,” Witt said.
Customers can expect consistency with the hours of operation, fast service and weekly and/or monthly specials.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Favorite sandwiches such as The Bearded Lady, The Mother-In-Law, Cuban and Not The “Mcrib” are returning, as well as salads, pizza fritters and cinnamon sugar fritters.
Items no longer offered include wraps, pizzas and wings.
The owners are continuing to make their own sauces, smoke their pork in-house and slice all of the meats and cheeses. They’re looking forward to the return of their original fries after dealing with distribution issues.
Witt said, “How can we be consistent if our distributor is constantly changing it on us?”
Over the last several years, some of the products they have used were discontinued by their distributors. They’ve been looking for replacements to match the original product.
“It’s a hard business to be in right now. It really is,” Green said. “I’m ready to get back at it.”
Prior to opening Dayton Street Eats, Green had started the Dayton Urban BBQ food truck. His food truck continues to operate with mostly private events on the schedule.
Over the last several months, the owners said they have missed their customers.
“We have to earn their trust back,” Green said.
“Trust is a big one,” Witt said. “Once you break somebody’s trust, it’s hard for them to trust again. It’s going to be a huge obstacle for us to get everybody to trust us again and to want to spend their money with us.”
MORE DETAILS
Dayton Street Eats will be open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday for. Carryout orders can be placed inside or by calling ahead at 937-522-0730. Delivery is available via DoorDash or Slice.
For more information and updates, visit the restaurant’s Facebook or Instagram (@daytonstreeteats) pages.
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