audidave

One thing El Meson actually isn't is Mexican. They pretty much serve no Mexican dishes there. They serve Carribean/Latin American and Spanish dishes. So thats why they aren't in the running for "Best Mexican" They should have gotten the nod for Best Restaurant but I've never been to Winds. Winds seems pretty far outside of Dayton to get the nod as best restaurant in Dayton though.

Hi New Orleans lady, I just stumbled upon this thread and I felt the need to add some additional thoughts. I think everyone did a pretty good job as far as capturing the flavor of Dayton. I worked in Dayton a little over a year ago for about 5 months as a consultant at Caresource in downtown Dayton. I had only visited Dayton once as a kid to see the air force museum. I'm from the Akron area and always felt that Dayton was sort of Akron's "twin". So I've been comparing and contrasting Akron and Dayton in my head for the past year or so now. Anyways, there are definitely a lot of things I liked about Dayton, so much that if I had to seriously live there year-round I might be able to stand it. The things I liked downtown were mainly in the Oregon district. Thai 9 and the little coffee shop with gelato and pastries a couple doors down. I also liked Trolley Stop for blues bands. I love seeing Scottie Bratcher an amazing blues guitarist phenom along the lines of Stevie Ray Vaughn. The Irish-styled Dublin Pub across the street from Trolley Stop can also be a fun atmosphere. No one has mentioned the UD area. They have some good food choices along their newly renovated strip there. I absolutely LOVE Dewey's Pizza. Thats definitely the best pizza in Dayton. The dough is made fresh and they serve really good micro-beer on tap(I believe they had Abita on tap once). I do love the other hometown pizza of Marion's pizza but thats a different type of thing altogether. One feels transported back in time looking at all the old pics of stars that passed through Dayton in the 60s and 70's on its walls. I personally felt most at home in Belmont and Oakwood areas. I liked shopping options on Far Hills Drive in Oakwood. But I also liked perusing the Belmont beer store with the best selection of beer I've really ever seen. The Belmont Tavern I think it was called was also like stepping back into time. Its the pool hall there that seemed very much out of a movie of dingy dirty pool halls. I had never been in anything like that before. The people were pretty nice there even though they did seem a little suspicious of me. Also in Belmont is a park with the same name. I've picked up a little habit of playing Disc Golf and they have a very good disc golf course there that I enjoyed playing because of the nice scenery and setting. I liked driving around Oakwood trying to get lost. Golfing in Oakwood was also pretty cool with their hills there. Some other things I miss about Dayton: The Books And Co. bookstore. This is truly the coolest bookstore in the country. They have authors there every day giving lectures about their books. A must visit. El Meson was also mentioned but I feel the need to mention it again. It has the best bar in the Dayton area. I'd like to say SW OH but I definitely have no idea about Cinci. The point is they make all sorts of tropical drinks from various countries. They have amazing food. Once again I felt myself being transported out of Ohio and into Key West perhaps or Dominica. The decor and the music of the restaurant is phenomenal. I go for the amazing mojitos myself.. Nobody has mentioned Skyline Chili. Thats a chain of restaurants out of Cinci. Very different kind of cuisine. I do like it. Its basically spaghetti noodles with some meat sauce and I think something like cinnamon mixed in. Not really sure.. I suppose its a secret. To me, those are the highlights of Dayton. Hope you're able to check most of these places out N. O. lady.

Isn't it odd that a city like Cleveland with mega-projects all over the place can't coordinate a simple crushed limestone trail to run 5-6 miles? They pretty much built the canal in less than 3 years from Cleveland to Akron, if I remember correctly in 1827. I wouldn't expect to be able to bike on the towpath from rockside to Lake Erie before 2010. Sad.

From the drawing it looks like the width of the building is 2 car lengths. Thats some tight office space.

I guess I'm not to current on the situation. I just did a google search to see when the IX Center was part of BrookPark property. I found this: http://www.wcpn.org/spotlight/news/2001/0808brookpark-vote.html I missed or forgot about the land swap 4yrs ago with Cleveland and Brookpark. I still believe that airport expansion was the main reason they wanted the land. Whether thats needed or not is another question. I like the ideas I've seen of renovating the current center and expanding north. I don't think Cleveland needs to compete with all the other brand new Convention centers around the US in trying to have the biggest emptiest building in a downtown location. I like the 2 convention center idea.

There is now talk of perhaps of maintaining 2 convention centers: 1 downtown for smaller affairs and keeping the IX center for the larger shows. The main expo area at the IX center is 800,000 and it has a lot of additional space underneath. Lots of politics involved between Cleveland trying to use airport expansion to level the IX center and its one suburb that has the IX Center property. That will be interesting to see if everyone can get along and everyone can stomach a renovated $450mil Convention Center downtown that wouldn't put the other Convention center out of biz.