New pizza restaurant Wayfarer Tavern is slated to open in the late summer in the heart of downtown Dayton.
Mike Dew, a longtime partner in the Lang Thang Group, whose restaurants include Pho Lang Thang, Quan Hapa and The Hi-Mark, is opening the restaurant, per a press release from the city of Dayton.
The pizza style at Wayfarer Tavern is described as an alchemy of East Coast thin and crispy bar-style pizza with a Detroit-style caramelized cheese edge and cut into squares, midwestern tavern-style. This hybrid pizza variety was created by Dew through years of dough testing, recipe refinement and exploration of pizza from Italy to Philadelphia to Los Angeles and all points in between.
The historic Burton building where Wayfarer Tavern will be located was formerly home to several organizations and businesses, including Dayton City Hall, the city’s first Kroger grocery store and a movie theater. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Years of hosting home pizza parties with friends led to a successful pop-up event at Pho Lang Thang in October 2023. Subsequent pop-up sales consistently sold out within minutes of being announced on Instagram, which led to the opening of the brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“I’ve always been passionate about restaurants in general, and pizza specifically,” Dew said in the release. “I’m excited to get a chance to combine a lot of ideas and references that I’ve been collecting over the years and put together what will hopefully become a must-visit restaurant for the city of Dayton and the entire Tri-State.”
The menu will have pizzas with toppings ranging from tavern classics like pepperoni and sausage with onion and banana peppers and an original recipe red sauce to inventive pizzas like the Pickle Power featuring roasted garlic white sauce, pickles, crunchy potato chips, herbs and Dew’s own ranch dressing recipe.
In addition, the menu will be rounded out by seasonal and classic salads, fun bar snacks, and appetizers. The restaurant will also serve beer, wine and spirits.
“Living in Dayton, I would walk past the Burton building and envision what this space could become,” Dew said. “When the opportunity to look at the space with the developer presented itself, I jumped at it. It is perfectly portioned for a restaurant, has huge windows that let in amazing natural light, and it is an awesome location in a growing city.”
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Wayfarer Tavern, inside of the Burton building, is located at 635 6th Ave. in Dayton.
