The original plans for the 6,888-square-foot restaurant called for a dining room and bar that would seat about 200, a Hook & Reel spokeswoman told us last year. But with social distancing required by the coronavirus pandemic, the seating capacity will be approximately cut in half, to 90 to 100, a spokesman for the restaurant said Monday.
Plans call for hiring 60 to 80, the restaurant spokesman said. Some positions have been filled, but the restaurant is still hiring and is accepting applications that are available on-site.
The restaurant’s menu focuses on a build-your-own seafood theme, with choices such as clams, crawfish, mussels, shrimp, scallops, lobster and multiple types of crab, with choices of sauce and heat levels. Fried seafood baskets such as shrimp, oysters, catfish and flounder are available. Appetizers include hush puppies, Crab Bites, fried calamari, steamed oysters and coconut shrimp.
The first Hook & Reel Restaurant opened in Maryland in 2013. The chain is headquartered in Flushing, New York. The restaurant chain’s web site lists more than 70 locations nationwide that are either open or “coming soon.” The Dayton Mall restaurant is the only Ohio location listed.
The Dayton Mall Hook & Reel will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. For more information, call 937-259-8586.
Biltmore Tower has new owner
The Biltmore Tower apartments building at 210 N. Main St. in downtown Dayton has a new owner after a $4.1 million sale.
Montgomery County property records indicate that the historic, 17-story property sold Tuesday for $4,192,949.
The seller is Biltmore Apartments Limited, of Dallas, Texas; the buyer was listed Biltmore Tower Properties LLC, before a transfer to Biltmore Preservation LP, which state records identify as a foreign limited partnership.
Records describe the apartment building, with 40 or more units, as being built in 1900, although research by the city of Dayton shows it opened as a hotel in the late 1920s.
Related Companies, an owner of affordable housing in the United States, announced in May 2018 that it was acquiring 7,837 housing units from Apartment Investment and Management Co., including at the time the Biltmore Tower property.
Its brick and terra cotta exterior was designed in the “second Renaissance Revival style,” according to research by the city of Dayton.
Inside the hotel, then the largest in the city, travertine marble columns and sculptured plaster coffered ceilings added to what some saw as an air of elegance.
Referred to as "an epoch in the history of Dayton," a dinner dance for 1,000 people was held Saturday, Nov. 16, 1929 to mark the opening, this newspaper recalled in a November 2016 story.
By 2018, the building offered apartments for senior citizens.
Wright-Patt to allow concealed carry of private guns
A new policy will allow Wright-Patterson Air Force Base personnel to apply to transport licensed firearms to and from the base.
Holders of a Federal Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act permit, Ohio concealed carry permit, or another state’s concealed carry permit that has a reciprocity with the state of Ohio, will be authorized on approval to transport secured, privately owned firearms in their privately owned vehicles, the base said Tuesday.
“We recognized that part of the population here was interested in seeing a change in our policy when it came to the transport of privately owned firearms on the installation,” Maj. Julie Roloson, 88th Security Forces Squadron commander, said in a release. “After much careful analysis, we established appropriate procedures to satisfy that intent without sacrificing the safety and security of the base.”
To be eligible, individuals must have a valid CCW permit, a valid Department of Defense ID card to include Common Access Cards, and must be either be active duty, Reserve, Guard, retired military, dependents 21 years or older and DoD civilian employees.
Wright State lands large grant
The Department of Defense has awarded Wright State University a $1.1 million grant to purchase a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner.
The new grant paves the way for an on-campus Joint DoD-WSU Center for Neuroimaging and Neuro-Evaluation of Cognitive Technologies, where the MRI will be housed, Wright State said.
The DoD provided the grant for purchase and installation of a 3 Tesla MRI scanner, to be anchored at the planned center, WSU said.
Today, researchers at Wright State and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) must pay to use off-campus MRI scanners, including a 3 Tesla MRI at Dayton Children’s Hospital, Wright State said.
The funding was provided through a competitive Defense Department program supporting academic research infrastructure, the university said.
Software company lands large contract
A Dayton software integration company has landed a $95 million Air Force contract.
Tangram Flex Inc. has been awarded a maximum $95 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for software and reports, the Department of Defense said late Monday.
The award focuses on the advancement of autonomy, manned-unmanned teaming, machine learning, interoperable systems, capability enhancement and upgrades to legacy DoD systems as well as improved data sharing, Tamgram Flex said in its own release Tuesday.
Over the past two years, Tangram has developed what it calls “a unique and comprehensive software solution, Tangram Pro”, to enable the Defense Department to quickly integrate emerging technologies into military systems with increased confidence that they will work as intended.”
This award heralds Tangram Pro’s emergence as a commercial offering, the Dayton company also said.
“I’m very proud of the Rome Research Site team and their ability to get this critical contract awarded,” Col. Tim Lawrence, director of the Air Force Research Lab’s Information Directorate, said in Tangram’s announcement. “Tangram and the acquisition programs they enable will support the Air Force and our nation to maintain its superior technology advantage through advanced software capabilities.”
Casinos, racinos earn record revenues
July was a strong month for most Ohio casinos and racinos, with patrons returning to the venues in mid-June after a multi-month pandemic closure.
The result was record revenues as customers looked for whatever entertainment options they could find. The Ohio Casino Control Commission reported a record total of $86 million in revenue for the month of July, the highest monthly total for casino revenues since all four properties became operational.
Additionally, Hollywood Toledo’s $33.3 million in revenue is the highest monthly total ever posted by a casino, the commission reported.
Two factors might have been at work, Franks said. Detroit’s casinos had been closed, up until recent days, which likely contributed to Toledo’s record numbers, the single highest monthly total ever, she said.
The Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway Racino also did well, reporting a net win of $11.1 million which is net gaming revenues remaining after payout of prizes and promotional credits.
By comparison, the net win in July 2020 was $9.8 million (For all of fiscal year 2020, the Needmore Road racino reported total net wins of $88,892,833.)
Miami Valley Sports Bar to open
Miami Valley Sports Bar, one of the Dayton area’s largest restaurant-pubs, opened on Friday following an extensive five-month makeover.
“We wanted to do a refresh for our 25th year in business,” Miami Valley Sports Bar owner Julie Delph said. “We just didn’t expect to do anything quite this extensive. But that’s how it turned out, and now we can’t wait to show it off to our customers.
“It’s a new chapter,” Delph said of the makeover, which she said will approach $200,000 in total cost.
Credit: Mark Fisher
Credit: Mark Fisher
The 12,000-square-foot sports pub with a 3,000-square-foot patio is located at 930 Watertower Lane just off State Route 725 west of I-75 in West Carrollton. It will reopen at 4 p.m. Friday. The business has been closed since March, when the initial mandatory shutdown of bars and dine-in service was ordered by state health officials and Gov. Mike DeWine.
Like many home improvements, the makeover of Miami Valley Sports Bar started small, and grew larger and more ambitious (and expensive) with time.
“We started with just taking out the carpet and doing a cleanup to get COVID-ready in about two weeks,” Delph said. “When the stay-at-home order was extended, we thought, ‘Well, we’ll do the bathrooms.’ We took those down to the bare walls and floors and started from scratch.”
Century Bar changes hours
The Century Bar, downtown Dayton’s nationally acclaimed bourbon destination, is now opening an hour earlier every day as its owners attempt to navigate the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
A state-mandated 10 p.m. curfew on alcohol sales at bars and restaurants, designed to help slow the spread of COVID-19, has taken a deeper bite into sales of pubs and establishments trying to regain their financial footing following a forced shutdown of dine-in and bar service.
At The Century Bar, sales had plunged to only about one-quarter of what they had been before the coronavirus pandemic, and after the 10 p.m. sales curfew was established, sales dropped even further, to about 15 percent of pre-pandemic levels, Century Bar co-owner Diane Spitzig told this news outlet.
Spitzig said The Century Bar is now opening one hour earlier every day, at 3 p.m. during the week, and at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
The Century Bar relocated to 18 S. Jefferson St. on Feb. 2. But the bar and all others were ordered closed six weeks later, on March 15, due to state efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. It reopened June 12, with restrictions and a limited menu.