Culinary delights at the Wympee Burger

Yes, you read that right.

And yes, I'm serious. Sort of.

This Dayton landmark has been transformed into a little gem of a restaurant/diner called Olive. They call themselves "An Urban Dive", and the best possible connotation of that phrase just about nails it. You can see a nice photo of the dining room down to the right.

I had dinner there last night, and the place is absolutely genius. All comers are welcome at Olive: they are a locavore restaurant catering to vegetarians, omnivores, carnivores and the gluten-free crowd. Freshness is a must with all of their ingredients, and they have really inventive plates of terribly delicious food.

I went for the Tuscan Chicken Grilled Cheese. Balsamic marinated mozzarella, tomato, pesto and chicken on grilled focaccia. It was pretty tasty, and the sweet potato fries were fantastic, too. I've got my eye on several other menu offerings, as well, so I'm sure to go back soon to try them all.

The place is BYO. All they do is charge you $2 for each wine glass you use. Which is kind of awesome. I was with one of my wine reps and we each brought a totally bad-ass bottle which would've set us back an arm and a leg in most restaurants. My rep brought a bottle of Greg Brewer's Diatom Chardonnay Hamon, which can't be bought in Ohio, and I schlepped a bottle of Evening Land Burgundy, which was delicious and can be purchased here (hint, hint). My bill was all of $12.

Go. Support great local places like this one. Reservations are recommended; they can only seat about 30 people. olivedive.com

Hello? Is there anybody in there?

That's what anybody who has looked at this blog in the last year has been thinking.

So, yeah, somebody is still in here. I've been busy.

After being consumed for the better part of the last year with the sale of our old building and the build-out of and re-location to our new home a couple of miles up the street, it's been so far, so good in the new digs. We've been getting a lot of compliments on the look and feel of the wine shop and many have commented on its more appropriately wine-specific atmosphere. I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out, and it's been gratifying to hear that our customers think we made some smart decisions as far as aesthetics and shop-ability go.

That behind us, I'll hopefully find some time and some inspiration

to resurrect this thing.

For now, tide yourselves over with a couple of photos of the new place. I'll be back with one of my now-famous rants shortly.

Relatively shortly, anyway. I mean, it won't be next October or something.