“It was about 3:30 in the afternoon and I was prepping in the back with two cooks when I heard a loud explosion and a girl screaming,” said Taylor, who had to close the restaurant in March on the day of the accident and didn’t reopen until June with his new concept, The Twisted Root.
“It was really an opportunity to change the environment and the menu from Savona’s contemporary Italian to an eclectic American menu.”
After the accident closed Savona, Taylor donated his food to One Bistro in Miamisburg, a pay-it-forward establishment that serves all customers regardless of ability to pay.
What the business does: The Twisted Root is a casual dining experience featuring a bar with a television mounted behind it and an expanded beer menu. Taylor has a popular hamburger that he makes from prime steak and a Southern favorite called Chicken Waffles that includes chicken breast pieces over homemade waffles topped with a sweet sauce.
How the business started: Taylor grew up in North Dayton and graduated from Northridge High School in 1989 before attending Wright State University, where he studied psychology for two years.
“It has really helped me when it comes to dealing with staff,” said Taylor, an affable husband and father of two. “I worked up from a dishwasher to the kitchen manager at Bicycle Jim’s before I started working with Dieter Krug at l’Auberge. I realized that I was pretty good in the restaurant environment, so I transferred to Sinclair to study in their new culinary arts program. It’s a good program, but Dieter Krug was the master. He was German, but he’d studied French cuisine and styles from all over the world.”
After Krug retired from l’Auberge in 1999, Taylor remained and worked with Dominique Fortin, who had trained under renowned French chef Jean Banchet.
In 2000, Taylor accepted a position as executive chef for Pacchia in the Oregon District and remained there until 2004 when he became the chef at the Schuster Center. He later took a position as chef at The Country Club of the North. In 2007, he was ready to start his own restaurant and hatched Savona.
Customer comment: "He made lemonade from lemons," said Eileen Baker, a Washington Township customer, who has enlisted Taylor's help over the years in the AFS exchange program cooking school fundraiser. "I've known him through the years and watched him train under the best chefs around.
“He pays such attention to detail, like having delicious fresh Ciabatta bread and making up his own butter that he mixes with honey. I just love his veal scaloppini. I feel like I’m in a European restaurant when I eat it. The name of the new restaurant is so interesting, too, because it refers to the different twists that his career has taken.”
Contact information: Restaurant hours are 5-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 5-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday. For more information, call 937-610-9835, or info@twistedroot-dayton.com.
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