Miller Lane restaurant reopens after morning fire

By Uncorked | Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 11:10 AM

Butler Twp. firefighters helped extinguish a small fire at the Red Lobster restaurant at 6500 Miller Lane this morning, Dec. 3.

A Butler Twp. fire dispatcher said the fire apparently started in or near a steamer in the restaurant’s kitchen. Employees summoned firefighters after they were unable to extinguish the fire themselves, the dispatcher said.

Although no damage estimate or cause was immediately available, the dispatcher said the fire appeared to be minor. Wendy Spirduso, a spokeswoman for the Orlando, FL-based chain, said the Red Lobster reopened for business at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Spirduso said there is no indication the fire was related to Red Lobster’s new wood-fired grills, about which Taste posted an entry just a couple of hours ago on Wednesday morning.

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Restaurant chain turns to wood-grilling to fire up its menu

By Uncorked | Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 08:40 AM

Interesting story here from Chainleader.com entitled “Red Lobster Fuels Its Menu with Wood-Grilling”. I kind of like how the reporter starts out the Q&A by pointing out what’s old is new again — even if it is a different species of tree being used to fire up the grills.

You can see by Red Lobster’s home page that the Florida-based restaurant chain — which has four Dayton-area locations, according to the web site — is promoting the new cooking technique heavily. It has even created a “Wood-fire grilling digital press kit, no less.

Hmmm. Don’t restaurant chains such as Bonefish Grill do this already?

Have you tried the new Red Lobster oak-grilled menu items?

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Restaurant to reopen after nearly a year

By Uncorked | Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 10:42 AM

MORAINE — The 4200 Place restaurant, 4200 Kettering Blvd., will reopen in a few weeks under the same name but under new ownership, after being closed for about a year.

Rob Harville, the 4200 Place’s new co-owner, said the restaurant has rehired some of its former cooks and other employees and will serve a menu focusing on country cooking similar to what the restaurant served before it closed. The restaurant will reopen “around the first of the year,” Harville said, and will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday.

The 4200 Family Style Restaurant closed shortly after its operator, Joseph B. Kelley II, passed away unexpectedly on Jan. 11, 2008. Kelley’s father decided to close the restaurant that his son had operated and put it up for sale.

Harville said he and co-owner Anthony Denney knew Kelley and the restaurant and are glad to bring it back.

“I feel like we bought an established business that had a lot of loyal customers in Moraine, Kettering and West Carrollton,” Harville said.

The new owners are putting together plans for a grand opening, Harville said.

The restaurant, which seats about 70, is located across from the General Motors plant in Moraine. The phone number will be (937) 293-4200.

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Hidden salt may sabotage healthy diets, Consumer Reports study says

By Uncorked | Monday, December 1, 2008, 06:00 PM

Here’s a copy of a story scheduled to run in Tuesday’s (12-2-08) Dayton Daily News:

A study by Consumer Reports magazine has found large amounts of sodium in unexpected foods that could sabotage consumers’ efforts to control high blood pressure and other health risk factors.

The study singled out products such as Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, a cup of which contains 350 milligrams (mg) of sodium, and a single Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain White Bagel, which contains 440 mg sodium. In all, Consumer Reports analyzed 37 supermarket staples and found larger-than-expected levels of sodium lurking in several, including many that were labeled as lower-fat products, the magazine said. Dietary guidelines recommend that healthy adults get no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day, the amount in just one teaspoon of table salt, Consumer Reports said.

The hidden sodium could derail some people’s efforts to eat healthy and “sets up some of my patients for failure,” said Dr. Susan Williams, assistant professor in Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine and director of the Center for Nutrition and Metabolic Medicine at Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia.

“This is a very significant study that should raise the awareness of every physician and medical care-giver to help them guide their patients,” Williams said.

A high-sodium diet might increase a person’s risk of high blood pressure — and subsequent heart attack, kidney disease and stroke — as well as risk of asthma, kidney stones, osteoporosis and stomach cancer, Consumer Reports officials said.

The full report on the study is available in the January 2009 issue of Consumer Reports and online at www.ConsumerReportsHealth.org.

— Mark Fisher, Staff Writer

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Are restaurants on the rebound?

By Uncorked | Monday, December 1, 2008, 11:14 AM

The National Restaurant Association reports this morning that its Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) posted a slight gain in the most recent measurement.

The association’s RPI is a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the nation’s restaurant industry, and it reached a record low in September before rising ever-so-slightly in October, apparently because of improved outlook by restaurant owners and operators. Actual performance didn’t keep pace with the slight uptick in optimism, however.

Of course, that was October, and this is already Dec. 1. Plenty of crazy things happened to the economy in November, so these RPI numbers may be somewhat dated even though they were just released today.

What’s the current mood of Dayton-area diners and restaurant owners?

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Olympic champion Michael Phelps to shill for Subway

By Uncorked | Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 07:49 AM

Step aside, Jared. Olympic champion extraordinaire Michael Phelps is about to blow you out of the water. Check out this Restaurants & Institutions Magazine web story entitled “Michael Phelps to represent Subway brand”.

So … first Subway subs help some guy shed beaucoup poundage, and now they help another dude become the fastest swimmer in the world? Amazing stuff, those subs …

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Pizza rules on Thanksgiving Eve

By Uncorked | Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 11:22 AM

(Looking for restaurants that are open on Thanksgiving Day or to add yours to the list? Click here to go straight to it.)

By Mark Fisher

Staff Writer

Pity the poor Pilgrims.

How did they possibly prepare the first Thanksgiving Day feast without speed-dialing the local carry-out pizza joint from their cell phone to take care of dinner the night before?

We’ll never know. But we do know their descendants in the 21st Century will punch those pizzeria phone numbers plenty Wednesday night on Thanksgiving Eve.

“The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one of our busiest days of the year,” said Roger Glass, CEO of Marion’s Piazza, which operates seven restaurants in the Dayton area. “People are busy focusing on preparations for Thanksgiving dinner and don’t have time to cook the night before.”

Vic Cassano Jr., CEO of Cassano’s that operates more than 30 restaurants across the Miami Valley, said his pizzerias also do gangbuster business on Thanksgiving Eve. “We know it’s coming, so we prepare ourselves” with additional staffing, pizza ingredients and supplies, Cassano said.

The Ann Arbor-based Domino’s Pizza chain will deliver more than 1.1 million pizzas to homes across the nation on Wednesday, Nov. 26 — a 50 percent increase over the typical Wednesday. That puts Thanksgiving Eve into the top five busiest days of the year, along with Super Bowl Sunday, Halloween, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, Domino’s officials say.

And while Thursday brings a holiday respite, the pizza-makers get right back at it on Friday, which for Marion’s pizzerias at least, is even busier than Thanksgiving Eve.

“A lot of people return home to Dayton from out of town for the holiday, and they need to have their fix before they go back,” Glass said.

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