When it was announced that Est! Est!! Est!!! would be closing at one of the restaurant anchor spaces on the corner of Fourth and Ludlow streets, it felt like such a blow, but very quickly an established local restaurant stepped up announcing the space wouldn’t be empty for long.
Table 33, which had been running successfully at its Second Street location for the last eight years, was primed and ready for bigger and better things and the lure of the Arcade was irresistible.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
“My grandparents met in South Carolina in the late 40s and moved to Dayton in the early 50s after they had gotten married and lived downtown, so I was very used to hearing about the arcade and the potential of the arcade,” said Table 33 owner Charlie Carroll.
The conversations about moving began in 2019 prior to the pandemic and the journey was a long one with many stops and starts along the way, but despite the iffy odds and massive obstacles encountered, the deal was finally cemented with a late opening in 2024 to open the doors to the public on the restaurant’s next evolution and a dream realized.
“I’m very proud of not giving up on Table 33, which any reasonable person could’ve given up on ... throughout the pandemic, and then just how hard it has been the last two years on restaurants,” said Caroll. “I’m happy that I did not give up on the desire to be over at the Arcade and to be a part of so much history.”
Knowing that this would be a much more sophisticated evolution of the restaurant that came before it, a dream team needed to be assembled.
Keith Taylor, previous executive sous chef at L’Auberge and former food and beverage director for the Wright State Nutter Center, was tapped to run the kitchen. He is joined by sous chef Justin Gall who previously worked as the executive chef for UD and pastry chef Deja Mangos.
Sean Craig joined as the general manager and Brent Wagener, a veteran wine expert who spent almost four decades at Heidelberg Distributing helping sell more than a million bottles of wine, is the sommelier in charge of the wine program. Having covered most of these restaurant pros over the years, I was completely blown away by the talent that Carroll was able to assemble.
The restaurant had opened for a somewhat abbreviated brunch menu in November and December that I had tried a few times and enjoyed, especially a flaky puff pastry filled with pumpkin and glazed over called the Tart 33 ($6), but it was dinner that I was after, so when they announced that their first dinner service would be on New Year’s Eve I didn’t hesitate in making a reservation.
Credit: Alexis Larsen
Credit: Alexis Larsen
With two decades of writing about food and reviewing restaurants, I have never written about an opening night and didn’t plan to for this one. There’s always too many kinks in service and food to work out and time is needed to strike the proper balance and rhythm.
But when you have a dream team, that appears to be somewhat unnecessary. We arrived for a 7 p.m. seating early to grab a drink at the swanky bar. With an impressive selection of wines and craft cocktails, it’s a great spot with a view of the arcade rotunda to post up and relax before or after dinner.
The menus are locally sourced whenever possible and the recipes rely on the ingredients which number four to eight for most dishes.
Credit: Alexis Larsen
Credit: Alexis Larsen
Once seated, there were six starters to choose from including a decadent butternut squash bisque ($12) blended with coconut and curry and topped with roasted pepitas that wrapped you in a warm comforting embrace at the start of the meal. But the star of the show and the entire meal was a fantastic seared scallop dish accompanied by a zesty blood orange Maltaise sauce served over a small bed of flavorful sautéed swiss chard ($18). The scallops were perfect and other tables in the room were buzzing with just how excellent the dish was.
Credit: Alexis Larsen
Credit: Alexis Larsen
The filet ($54) was my main course of choice with a perfectly cooked 6 oz. cut of meat paired with creamy peppercorn sauce and potato puree that was rich and decadent and perfect for the evening’s festivities. Other entree options included a braised lamb shank ($42), roasted duck breast ($34), steelhead trout ($36) and a vegetable lasagna ($28). An A5 Wagyu seared New York Strip paired with Togarashi-dusted fries and a black garlic aioli was the most expensive offering with a $150 price tag.
The two-course scallop and filet surf n’ turf I opted for was the kind of meal you hope to have when ushering in a new year striking all the right flavor notes. The best news of all is that there’s more delicious food to come.
“We had an abbreviated menu for brunch and dinner here to get up and open and we will continue to let those evolve a little bit and we will make tweaks and changes to them just to make sure they represent us and who we want to be,” said Carroll who shared that the menu will be seasonal changing four times a year. “We will start offering a special or two for brunch and a special or two for dinner just so that our regulars will have something to get excited about.”
Credit: Alexis Larsen
Credit: Alexis Larsen
Just as lovely as the meal was, so was the space and service. The elevated dining experience is a new world meets old world treat with a tip of the hat to the Arcade on every wall of the restaurant from the vintage 1903 doors they found in the basement of the Arcade that were repurposed as a chair rail to the historic photos hung on the walls. Even the massive curtain rod in the dining room is from 1903.
“Anything that we could find that we could use, we used in the space in the space. We’re going to do a better job of telling the story as we continue to settle into our skin, but that the space is full of things that are over 100 years old,” said Carroll who noted helping pay homage to the Arcade and the history was always a driving force. “It took us around 18 months to collect a lot of the photos that you’ll see hanging on all of the walls and every one of those photos in and of themselves tell stories that are full of like the fabric of Dayton’s and their stories which our stories are built upon.”
This move has opened the door to possible future collaborations according to Carroll.
“We have a lot we’re really talking with the Arcade about involving other concepts... There’s there’s talk about a gourmet donut and ice cream concept. There’s been a talk about a tequila bar. We are in conversations about a handful of things, however, we’re being very cautious because we know that we can only take on so much and do it really, really well. Keeping Table 33 headed in the right direction is very important to us and we will not take anything on until we feel like we can.”
It’s the start of something really beautiful that I hope our region shows up to support. Sure there were things that I didn’t love. The deconstructed key lime pie was a big miss in my book, but almost all of it was everything I would have hoped it would be — a new elevated dining option in town with good service to match. And Carroll as a proud steward at the help making sure people are being taken care of.
“We are super honored to be put in a place where we have the opportunity to continually earn and maintain the trust of Daytons when it comes to where and how they celebrate their most important moments that will stay with them the rest of their life,” said Carroll.
HOW TO GO
What: Table 33
Where: 45 W. 4th St., Dayton
Hours: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays, 9 a.m.-9 .p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
More info: www.table33dayton.com or 937-999-3070. Table 33 has a wine shop, bodega-style market and will have a large outdoor patio in warmer months.
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