Dayton Arcade: Renovation could help downtown restaurant scene

NEW DETAILS: Dayton Arcade lands $5 million in state aid

Bill Struever, principal of Cross Street Partners, one of the development partners for the Arcade, said the Arcade could be home to 150 small businesses.

The project already has attracted interest for a second location for Warped Wing Brewery, a Boston Stoker Coffee Co. shop, a kitchen incubator, a collection of pop-up restaurants and a deli and grocer called Feelohs. Feelohs is the brainchild of Haitham Iman, the owner and chef at Carmen’s Deli and Bistro in the Kettering Tower.

Struever’s nephew is Joe Lanni, co-founder of the Thunderdome Restaurant Group, which owns some trendy restaurants in Cincinnati and other southwest Ohio cities, including Bakersfield, Eagle, Kruegers, SoHi, Currito and Maplewood Kitchen and Bar.

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Lanni’s father’s business, the Great Steak and Potato Company, started in the Dayton Arcade in the early 1980s.

Struever said Lanni would consider bringing some restaurant ideas to the Arcade if there are a variety of other quality businesses and restaurants that occupy nearby space.

“He said, ‘If you give me 12 good businesses, like in Over-the-Rhine, I’ll come, but I’m not coming by myself,’” Struever said.

Lanni told this newspaper that he has toured the space and it is on his radar.

“It sounds like a really cool project, and if anyone can pull it off, it’s Bill Struever,” Lanni said.