| By Mark Fisher with The Dayton Daily News | Monday, August 30, 2010, 07:50 AM
Original Story Here: http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/taste/entries/2010/08/30/new_vegan_restaurant_opens_ins.html
A vegan restaurant called Loving Hut has opened in the Dayton Mall’s food court.
Loving Hut is part of an international chain of vegan restaurants, but is the first in Ohio, according to Jay Picagli of Hamilton, who owns the local franchise with his wife Jody. There are 42 Loving Hut franchise restaurants in the U.S.
“This gives us a lot of opportunities to promote a plant-based diet,” Picagli said. “And a healthier diet equals a healthier lifestyle.”
The restaurant’s menu includes soups, salads, sandwiches, appetizers, entrees, many of which use soy-based products to stand in for seafood or meat. The most popular items have been Southwest Eggrolls, Coconut-Crusted Veg-a-Shrimp and the Portobello Panini sandwich, along with side dishes such as sweet potato fries and a tropical sweet-spicy slaw, Picagli said.
Loving Hut opened last week and is planning grand opening festivities “in a week or two,” Picagli said.
Plans call for opening a second location just outside the Dayton Mall, near First Watch and a Time Warner Cable office, perhaps in November, Picagli said. That restaurant would offer an expanded menu, he said. And Picagli would like to open a third restaurant in or around the Mall at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek, which, like the Dayton Mall, is operated by Glimcher Realty.
Picagli acknowledged that the Dayton Mall food court was not his first choice for Loving Hut’s first location. He nearly opened in a location on Brown Street near the University of Dayton, and also looked in the Oregon Historic District and at other locations along Ohio 725. But he noticed the food court, saw the mall’s crowds, approached Glimcher “and here we are,” Picagli said.
The Loving Hut chain of vegan restaurants is affiliated with the Supreme Master Ching Hai International, overseen by Ching Hai, a native of Vietnam who pioneered a meditation method called Quan Yin and who describes herself as “spiritual teacher, artist, and humanitarian.” On the Loving Hut Dayton’s web site, Jody and Jay Picagli say they “have grown to believe in Master Ching Hai’s commitment to a plant-based diet through their burning desire to help save the planet and fight for the ‘Go Green’ cause.”
Loving Hut employs five, and Picagli expects employment to grow to 10 this fall when the second restaurant opens. The restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. |
