April restaurant highlights: 2 new, 11 coming soon and 1 closing

New

Ace Asian Cafe 

The owners of the new Pan-Asian restaurant called Ace Asian Cafe at The Greene Town Center are no strangers to the space: they owned and operated a restaurant at that very spot for more than two years.

Charles and Michelle Yang oversaw an Asian restaurant at 4394 Juniper Way from December 2014 through March 2017, a spokesman for Ace Asian Cafe told this news outlet.

Also returning to the restaurant is the original sushi chef, known as Mr. Kim. In addition to sushi, the restaurant will offer Korean barbecue dishes along with a variety of Thai and Chinese options. Patio seating, a sushi bar, and a full cocktail, wine and beer list are also available.

Fuzzy’s Taco Shop 

Fuzzy's Taco is located in a relatively new building that faces Indian Ripple Road at The Greene's main entrance.

Founded in 2003, Fort Worth, Texas-based Fuzzy’s Taco Shop serves authentic Mexican dishes such as Baja-style tacos, white queso and jumbo burritos in addition to frozen margaritas and beer.

The chain operates more than 120 locations across the country, including one in Toledo and one on North High Street in Columbus’ Arena District. And a Cincinnati location at 165 West McMillan St. is listed as “coming soon” on the chain’s web site.

Coming Soon

The Canal House Eatery 

A chef and former owner of a Miamisburg-based food truck is gearing up to open her own restaurant in the same city.

Tanya Straight, who operated The Red Wagon Cafe food truck with her family, will open The Canal House Eatery on May 11 at 103 S. Second St. in Miamisburg.

Canal House Eatery’s menu will include Specialty Wraps, Paninis, Sandwiches, Soups, Salads, Side Dishes, Desserts and fresh bakery items, Straight said.

Pizza Hut 

The Ohio-based franchisee for Pizza Hut has signed leases for two new Dayton-area restaurants after determining that the region is under-served by the national pizza chain.

The new restaurants will open in the former Papa Murphy’s pizza restaurant at 1195 N. Fairfield Road in Beavercreek, and in a former United Dairy Farmers convenience store at 900 E. Dorothy Lane at Ackerman Boulevard in Kettering.

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen 

Site preparation has begun for the Dayton area’s newest Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen coming to Kettering, and the restaurant’s franchise owner is shooting for a late-summer opening.

Workers with heavy equipment have started preliminary work at the site of a former PNC Bank branch at 4025 Wilmington Pike at East Stroop Road in front of a Meijer store.

The restaurant will take about four months to build, and plans call for opening in the first half of September.

Sweet Retreat Ice Cream, Food & Sweets 

Credit: MARK FISHER/STAFF

Credit: MARK FISHER/STAFF

A Dairy Queen that shut down unexpectedly last spring — or, to be more precise, failed to reopen in the spring as it had for many years — will get new life in the coming weeks as a locally owned, independent ice cream shop.

The successor to the Dairy Queen is coming to 2613 S. Smithville Road in Dayton's Belmont neighborhood, and it is called Sweet Retreat Ice Cream, Food & Sweets. The shop is the brainchild of Simon Wiley and Chris Tobias, who attended the same grade school and high school.

“We plan on having over 20 flavors of soft-serve ice cream along with pizza and sandwiches,” Wiley said. “Our goal is to be open no later than June 1.”

Nothing Bundt Cakes 

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

A new dessert option is coming this summer when the Dayton area's first Nothing Bundt Cakes shop opens between the Dayton Mall and Austin Landing in Miami Twp.

Renee Hall signed a lease to open her own Nothing Bundt Cakes franchise shop at 9632 Springboro Pike (Ohio 741) in the Shoppes at Exchange in Miami Twp.

Hall said the area between the Dayton Mall and Austin Landing is growing and has strong visibility. She will attend a month-long training program prior to the build-out of the new bakery, which is projected to open as early as August.

Tudor’s Biscuit World 

Plans are moving ahead for construction of the Dayton area's second Tudor's Biscuit World restaurant more than eight years after the first opened in Xenia — and the Tudor's franchise owner says more are on the way.

“It looks like we will break ground around the first part of May, with an opening sometime in the June/July time frame,” Tudor’s Biscuit World franchise owner Hank Roysden told this news outlet about his second restaurant coming to 124 N. Broad St. in Fairborn.

Auntie Anne’s 

A new snack shop that is no stranger to the Dayton area is coming to The Greene Town Center in Beavercreek, perhaps as early as this summer, a spokeswoman for The Greene said.

Auntie Anne's, an international pretzel-shop chain that operates a location in the Dayton Mall, has signed a lease and will move into the former Teavana space at 4450 Glengarry Drive on the development's town square.

Manhattan Pizza, Wings & More 

A new restaurant is gearing up to open in Huber Heights.

Manhattan Pizza, Wings & More is coming soon to 4980 Nebraska Ave., east of Brandt Pike (Ohio 201).

Founder Shakhbazov Firuddin said the new restaurant will offer pizza, wings, calzones, salads and more for dine-in, pickup or delivery. Manhattan Pizza will seat about 30, he said.

Firuddin operated a pizza business in New York City for seven years before moving to the Dayton area. Plans call for opening in less than two months, the restaurant founder said.

Jubie’s Creamery 

A new ice cream shop in the works in Fairborn, co-founded and operated by a recent graduate of Ohio State University, is now hiring and gearing up to open later this year.

Julie Domicone — who graduated from OSU's Fisher College of Business last May with a bachelor's degree in business administration, specializing in operations and logistics management — is the driving force behind Jubie's Creamery in the works at 471 W. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road in Fairborn.

“No official opening date has been decided, but we are very close,” said Domicone.

EPIC Coffee Shoppe 

A locally owned, independent coffee shop is gearing up to open as early as next month near one of the busiest intersections in Kettering.

”EPIC Coffee Shoppe is coming along, and we can’t wait to open the doors to serve the community,” founders Laura Gorham and Brian Ernst told this news outlet. “We anticipate opening in May.”

The new business is in the works at 22 W. Stroop Road just west of Far Hills Ave. (Ohio 48), in the Castle Hills retail center across from Town & Country Shopping Center.

In addition to offering coffee, EPIC Coffee Shoppe will offer organic tea, ice cream, cafe menu items and bakery and pastry items, the store’s owners said.

Little Caesars

Any chance that the highly competitive local pizza market might be cooling a bit with the recent closings of LaRosa’s, Papa Murphy’s and PizzaFire locations evaporated this week with the news that first Pizza Hut, and now Little Caesars, are adding new Dayton-area locations.

Frank Sanchez, franchisee for Little Caesars in the Dayton area, confirmed to this news outlet that he is gearing up to open two new locations, first in the coming weeks in Fairborn, and later this summer in Centerville.

The Centerville Little Caesars will move into the space that previously housed Papa Murphy’s Pizza at 832 S. Main St. (Ohio 48). Plans call for renovations to start by the end of May with a projected opening in mid-July, according to Sanchez, who also oversees a Little Caesars in Richmond, Ind. and three in Michigan.

Closing

Dark Horse Tavern 

The owner of a Miamisburg restaurant said stiff competition is one of the reasons he decided to close his doors permanently.

"It is too much competition. Since we opened, there are at least 30 restaurants in a short driving distance," Dennis Williams of the Dark Horse Tavern, 209 Byers Road, told this news organization. "People want new and shiny, and our business has fallen off."

Dark Horse Tavern’s closure was effective April 16. The business employed 15 people.