Who is Charlie?

Charlie's Imports is the best deli in Dayton. Let's break this down with bullets.

• There are freezers full of drink options for you to get what you want. There is no venti option at Charie's. If you want a bigger drink, you just grab the larger can or bottle. You can even get a Yoo-Hoo, assuming your mother is okay with that.


• Similarly, you can also get your choice of chips and other sandwich friends. Pringles, Doritos, weird cookies? They are all there.


• The best way to order is to get your drink so that you can drink it while you decide what to order. Then order your sandwich. Finally, pick out your sandwich friends while you wait for the awesome food to arrive.


• The sandwiches are brilliantly conceived. They utilize baked ham, Bavarian ham, Capicolla ham, steak, turkey, honey roast turkey, mesquite smoked turkey, lamb, corn beef, and roast beef. That is every color in the meat rainbow! (I'm wearing a feed bag and sitting in the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.) This is the sandwich recipe for the Hatch: Honey roast turkey, provo-lone cheese, egg slices, tomato, lettuce with Dijon honey mustard. All of that is on a Kaiser or onion roll. You will not see that innovation at Subway. Yeah, that's right, I called out Jared AND Michael Phelps.


• The sandwiches are executed as well as they are planned. They use good quality ingredients.


• I don't have a favorite sandwich. There are 27 sandwiches and probably 3 different ways (more or less) to do each sandwich so therefore there are 1,486, 380 possible sandwiches to chose from. I absolutely do have a favorite soup, the Chicken Spaetzle. Actually, that is the only soup
  that I've had but it is an instant favorite with me. It should be renamed Grandma's Chicken Spaetzle.


• As you go to the dining area, you pass by other "imports" of some food items, beer and liqueur. It is an odd collection but it adds to the charm.
  There are more groceries in the seating area and some German magazines
  that look old. It makes a great environment because it makes it . . .
  Charlie's.


• The prices are the best in town. Many people think that the best thing about Charlie's is the prices but that is not fair to the food. They are great but it is not cheap food.

Finally, this quirky little dive has a web site, http://www.charliesdeli-catering.com/, that has everything that a prospective customer would need to place an order. Every local restaurant needs a web site that makes it a breeze for your customers to order carry-out lunches. Actually, there are a lot of things about Charlie's that other Dayton restaurants should copy.

Wympee's-Breakfast Edition!!!

I've been a long-time fan of Yummy! Burger on 3rd. Street. I have avoided Wympee's, http://tinyurl.com/nfg5wh out of loyalty to Yummy! Burger. Well, I was meeting someone for breakfast at Yummy! Burger and they were closed until 10:00 so betrayal happened. Sometimes when you can't find something . . . you walk across the street . . . . and check out the menu.

Wympee's has been around since 1938 and a nice story about it was in the DDN, http://tinyurl.com/lqka8n a little while back. But, to be honest, Wympee's was disappointing. The decor was lotto tickets, the background noise was The Price is Right, and the menu didn't have anything on it that sounded that appealing.

This being breakfast, I had an omelet and my friend had biscuits and gravy. The omelet was almost burnt and the biscuits and gravy lacked a meat taste and was too salty. I wasn't expecting great but it wasn't even good.

I'll stick with Yummy! Burger. Betrayal doesn't taste good.

BOW to the Master

I generally respect cockiness. If you're good, you should not hide from it. I have no idea who Benjamin is but he's the Burger Master. Benjamin's The Burger Master is a little place about a mile north of downtown on Main St. It is surprisingly close to downtown, closer than Brown St. restaurants. It is also close to the best burger around.

I describe a Burger Master burger as how I think Wendy's burgers were before it became a chain restaurant. The cook butters the bun with a continuously rolling metal tube that covers itself in melted butter. (Where can I buy one of those?!?!? How awesome would that be for toast or eating mashed potatoes.) I really don't know what else they do because they wouldn't let me work there for a lunch shift.

My standard order is bacon cheeseburger and fried okra. The burgers are very fresh, thin, and only cooked one way. They aren't huge chunks of meat. They don't need to be cut-up. I think it helps in the cooking process that they are so thin. The burgers are a little crispy without being burnt. It all adds up to being a lot of flavor.

I also really enjoy the fried okra there. The coating is crispy but the okra is still juicy. Unfortunately, the french fries are not good at Burger Master. They taste like they've been cooked in the same oil as the chicken.

Yes, Burger Master offers a wide range of menu options besides burgers. They are okay. Go for the burgers.

I'm really curious to know who Benjamin is/was. I've been there plenty of times and I don't think that I've ever seen a man even working there. I would like to imagine that this person doesn't even "work" there. He just walks around knowing that he's created a fantastic meal. If you've created a great meal, go and be cocky!

Welcoming Mary Ann & Michael to Dayton (please comment)

Hello, in the previous thread, Mary Ann & Michael commented, "This is off point, but we are Northeastern foodies about to move to the Dayton area and looking for recommendations for restaurants. We will be doing a pre-move/house-hunting visit next weekend and have Friday night free to explore. Tips/suggestions are welcome. We eat just about anything except broccoli (one of us) and beets (both of us). Thanks for your help. Mary Ann & Michael"

In an effort to attract attention to this comment, I'm replying in a new thread. Everyone, please make your welcoming suggestions.

Mary Ann & Michael,
I'm honored at your ask. In Dayton, we pride ourselves on being very welcoming and I hope that you greatly enjoy living here. Many people, especially people who have moved here, would not seriously consider living anywhere else.

For your first visit, I would recommend visiting the Oregon District. It is an area adjacent to downtown that has a high concentration of awesome restaurants. You can walk around and look at menus to find one that you like. This web site has a lot of restaurant links and addresses for downtown and Oregon District dining. Please especially look at Coco's, one of my favorite restaurants. If you're looking for someplace that is more bar than restaurant, visit Blind Bob's in the Oregon District. Its a great bar with even better food.

For more lists of restaurants around town, our local blogger hangout, http://www.daytonmostmetro.com, has a posting that compiles local food blogs, many have a lot more postings than my own blog does.

Finally, I think Dayton is a great place to eat. We have a wide variety of restaurants and a lot of local offerings for foodies. I am especially proud of how good our bar food is. Blind Bob's, Boscos, Slyder's, Tanks, and Dublin Pub (also in the Oregon District) are all bars that you can get a great meal at. Additionally, coming from the Northeast, I think that you will be pleasantly surprised at our local food prices.

Mary Ann & Michael, please comment if you're looking for a restaurant in a specific area or of a certain type. I want to help as much as possible. Welcome to Dayton!

Terra Cotta Cafe

What will it take for Terra Cotta Cafe to get recognized and slammed with business? Terra Cotta Cafe is a great sandwich serving coffee shop (or a great coffee serving sandwich shop) on the corner of 5th and Ludlow. It is downtown but not near any major office buildings. It is close to the convention center but not close enough that people who go to only an event at the convention center would know about it. I understand that its 3 blocks from Courthouse Square but this is the problem with downtown Dayton, people are too lazy to walk 3 blocks.

My favorite thing about Terra Cotta Cafe is that I never see anyone there that I know. It makes it very convenient to meet someone in private or going to get some work done without distractions. Terra Cotta is the one place that I don't tell people about . . . but I need it to survive. I no longer have the luxury of a cafe that does okay in the good times.

Terra Cotta has great food. They have innovative panninis and sandwiches. They throw some classic ingredients together in an innovative way and they really like pesto, a favorite ingredient of mine. Today's special was "Pepperjack Turkey Club Melt. This melt has turkey, tomato, bacon, mayo and pepperjack cheese grilled on choice of bread." That is the prototypical Terra Cotta Cafe sandwich. They have a menu full of these kinds of sandwichs.

Terra Cotta also has a full service coffee machine and coffee specials. They really do their coffee specials well. On Friday, they had a coffee special of Large Chocolate Covered Raspberry Mocha. I know that this is a little fancy but break it down, this is coffee with chocolate and raspberries. It is a tried and true recipe for anyone woman or man who is comfortable with society's perception of his masculinity.

My biggest problem with Terra Cotta Cafe is that they don't have a web site. It is inexcusable for a restaurant to be without a web site as we approach 2010. This will be a common lament on Diving Through Dayton.

As my first restaurant posting, I give you my favorite "secret" place because I'm legitimately worried about them going out of business. I'm not happy about this. Please visit them.