The region’s most eccentric pizzeria is getting even wilder thanks to a new collaboration series with several local restaurants.
Wayfarer Tavern’s pizza has become the favorite pie of many in the region thanks to its unusual form—a mix of Detroit, East Coast and square-cut Midwest stylings—and the restaurant’s embrace of unorthodox toppings (One of their best-selling pizzas, for example, prominently features pickles).
“[Our menu] is kinda like if we were a nice steakhouse that served pizza instead of steak,” owner Mike Dew said, laughing. “You could come in here and get a nice cocktail and a little snack for a small get-together, or you could have a full-blown birthday party with an awesome bottle of wine and 10 pizzas with your best friends. The way I describe it: If something on our menu looks good, it is good.”
Now, he’s taking things up a notch by letting other chefs into the kitchen. Six of Cincinnati’s hottest eateries—Galactic Fried Chicken, Quan Hapa, Pata Roja Taqueria, Carmelo’s, The Aperture and The Pickled Pig—are headed to Wayfarer to put their own spin on classic ‘za, with innovations like a Reuben-style pie or a pizza styled after an okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancakes).
Decadent? Sure. But not unexpected for a restaurant that already serves oysters, French onion soup and wagyu beef carpaccio alongside its pizzas.
“The idea is really just to get people to try new things, like a new restaurant from another part of town or a new ingredient… this is for people who normally just order pepperoni pizza,” he said. “Like, let’s get weird, right?”
Dew started his journey to the restaurant world in 2013, when he still worked as a graphic designer and helped the Lang Thang Group (the ownership group behind local restaurants Pho Lang Thang and Quan Hapa) with its initial branding. In 2021, he was doing Detroit-style pizza parties at his house, and they were such a hit that Lang Thang Group co-owner Bao Nguyen encouraged him to pursue his own pizza pop-ups.
His first pop-up was at Pho Lang Thang in October 2023, and it was a massive success—but on the same day, he was laid off from his full-time job. Instead of finding another job, he continued doing pop-ups in hopes of one day opening his own restaurant. That dream came true when he opened Wayfarer Tavern just a year later. Now, he wants to give back to the people who helped him get to where he is today, and the owners of all six restaurants participating have a connection to Wayfarer’s beginnings.
Some were Dew’s former coworkers. Others attended the first pop-up and forged a relationship. One has a familial connection: Carmelo’s co-owner, Mitch Arens, is friends with Dew’s younger brother. Wayfarer’s current head chef, Mikey Fabian, moved to Cincinnati specifically to work with The Aperture’s chef/owner Jordan Anthony-Brown. And all six collaborations came from mutual admiration, like how Dew was a frequent customer of Gary Leybman’s wares at Findlay Market before he opened The Pickled Pig.
So what’s on the pizzas? Galactic Fried Chicken’s pie features the restaurant’s own tenders, chipotle honey mustard, chicken skins, and spice rubs with a confit garlic cream white sauce and a five-cheese blend. As mentioned, Quan Hapa’s take on pizza will resemble okonomiyaki: Japanese mayo, tonkatsu sauce, furikake, bonito flakes and your choice of bacon or shrimp, just in time for Lunar New Year. And The Pickled Pig’s will feature sauerkraut and corned beef as toppings alongside a Reuben-style sauce (The rest are still in the works).
Obviously, calling these pizzas ‘weird’ is an understatement. But it makes sense for a restaurant that doesn’t “adhere to any specific pizza dogma.”
“Pizza is a blank canvas to us,” Dew said. “People will tell us ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘pizza can’t be that.’ I grew up in Northern Kentucky, I didn’t come from the East Coast… there’s all these rules, and it’s suffocating, so being able to say to heck with all that is part of our deal.”
With this collaboration series, which will debut a new pizza every week from now until March 22, Wayfarer Tavern hopes to shine a light on Cincinnati’s culinary scene, which Dew says is full of “a million awesome hidden gems around the area.”
“We’ve been getting some national attention lately, and we’re building on that momentum by letting people know that we have a lot of great independent restaurants in town, not just chains or big names like Jeff Ruby’s,” he said. “I’m a cheerleader for Cincinnati’s restaurant scene… it definitely punches above its weight class.”
Wayfarer Tavern is located at 635 6th Ave, Dayton, KY. You can learn more about the collaboration series on their Instagram page.