The new restaurant in the former Paddy’s Irish Grill at 953 S. Main St. in Centerville is an homage of sorts to the earlier generations of restaurant operators in the family of Jon, Steve and Stephanie Thomas, who own the Doubleday’s pubs in Centerville and Springboro. Their family operated a restaurant called “The Famous” in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, that earlier generations of their family ran more than six decades ago.
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The menu has a throwback comfort-food feel. Slow-cooked pot roast pops up in various locations on the menu, from a topping on the "Pot Roast Burger" to the new restaurant's take on a Hot Shot called the Pot Shot, to a topping on French Fries or Tater Tots ("almost Poutine"). It can also be ordered as a topping for salad.
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Some of The Famous Restaurant’s other “House Favorites” as identified on the menu include Fish & Chips; a “Pottsville Style Coney Burger” with two patties topped with chili, grilled onions and white cheddar cheese; Famous Bone-In Wings, Breaded Boneless Wings and Naked Grilled Boneless Wings; a “Shoulder B.L.T.” that uses pecan-wood-smoked shoulder bacon; and Golden Nugget Chicken & Waffles, a nod to the popular Kettering Golden Nugget Pancake House that another branch of the owners’ family owns and operates.
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The new restaurant’s retail space, just south of Spring Valley Pike on Ohio 48, operated for 13 years as an Irish-themed pub, the first 10 years as Beef O’Brady’s, then briefly as Tavern on the Main, and more recently as Paddy’s Irish Pub. Paddy’s shut down in April 2017.
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According to The Republican-Herald — the newspaper in Pottsville, PA — The Famous shut down in June 2016. It operated as The Famous Diner from the late 1960s until closing in the late 1970s, was leased out to a health-insurance company for several years, and reopened as The Famous Bar in 1992. A restaurant called Wheel, which specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches, opened in the space after The Famous closed.
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Doubleday’s operates a long-standing restaurant in the Cross Pointe Center in Centerville, and last year, the Thomases launched a second Doubleday’s in the Settler’s Walk retail center in Springboro.
The restaurant is open from 11 a.m.-11 p.m., seven days a week.
Want to go?
WHAT: The Famous
WHERE: 953 S. Main St., Centerville
HOURS: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily
INFO: Facebook
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