‘Summer slump’ hits some Dayton restaurants: What they are doing to entice customers

“This time of year is always a weird thing where we go, ‘Why did it just get so slow? It’s still summer,’” Mendenhall said. “It’s every year. This is our 12th season as Lily’s here in Dayton and you hit this big halt.”

Last year, Lily’s sales were 18% down from July to August. Sales went up 1% from August to September.

Credit: Bryant Billing

Credit: Bryant Billing

“We do see a bit of a decline in August as families are sort of focusing on going back to school,” said Nikki Stargel, general manager of Salar Restaurant & Lounge. “We have a lot of guests who have children who are in sports and activities, so that sort of shifts the climate a little bit for the nights out they can have.”

In addition, with some schools starting at the end of the month, “we’ll see a little bit of an exodus as people try to get their last-minute vacations in,” Stargel added.

Providing entertainment

Laura Zeller, who owns Oregon Express with her husband, Brandon, said they were up 16% from July to August last year. She attributed this to well-known acts performing such as Arlo McKinley and Luv Locz Experiment.

“We have to be really intentional and try to get some big events that will draw people,” Zeller said. “My experience is limited, but I did notice after everybody went back to school, we did see that September was more of when we really started to see that slump.”

Credit: Tom Gilliam

Credit: Tom Gilliam

Oregon Express saw a 23% drop in sales from August to September. Zeller noted that they experienced a power outage on a Friday/Saturday night — its busiest days of the week.

With a decline in business, David Baker, front of house manager at Trolley Stop, has adjusted from having three servers in the tavern at one time to now having two to one, and not needing an extra person during the day.

Instead of having servers come in at 3 p.m. Some are now coming in at 4:30 or 5 p.m.

“I think it’s the economy right now. I think it’s money,” Baker said. “We have something happening every single day and still can’t get butts in seats.”

Trolley Stop offers a variety of activities such as trivia on Monday and karaoke on Wednesday. This Thursday, Aug. 21, the tavern is hosting a lip singing competition with prizes for first and second place.

Credit: Natalie Jones

Credit: Natalie Jones

Too hot for a strong patio season

Lily’s, Salar and Oregon Express said they haven’t had the chance to utilize their outdoor spaces this summer due to the weather.

“Our sales are highest in the summer time for a restaurant like us. We have 60 seats inside and then we add at least another 60 seats outside,” Mendenhall said. “You want to be seating those as much as you can during those peak times.”

“I feel like this summer, the weather was quite extreme. We had a lot of heavy rain. We had a lot of high heat,” Stargel said. “Even though we’ve our patios and on the weekend we can do the street patio, when the heat index is over 100, we couldn’t really utilize those outdoor spaces.”

Salar seats more than 190 people inside. The restaurant’s outdoor spaces give them about 96 additional seats.

Credit: Bryant Billing

Credit: Bryant Billing

“The patio season really hasn’t kicked off for us yet,” Zeller said.

Oregon Express has recently rebranded its rooftop patio, seating about 50 people, by partnering with Toxic Brew Company. Customers now get Toxic’s beers on tap, as well as the brewery’s mule.

“Our rooftop is a great place to enjoy watching trains and looking at the Dayton skyline,” Zeller said. “We thought it would be fun to have a whole toxic aesthetic up there.”

Less foot traffic throughout the Oregon District

As for the Oregon District as a whole, Stargel, who is also the president of the Oregon District Business Association, said she feels like they have seen a decline in foot traffic this summer.

“We have had some decent foot traffic for the events that we have down here like we just had a car show. Art in the City was the weekend prior to that,” Stargel said. “There was a lot of foot traffic on the street, not a lot of that transitioned into the businesses, which is okay.”

When asked why she thinks this is happening, Stargel said she wasn’t sure.

“I think that people are realizing that Dayton is a little bit larger than they thought and so they’re spending time in other parts of the city, which is great,” Stargel said. “I think whenever an area expands, certain pockets will feel it a little bit and then I think it will get better again.”

Other factors that could attribute to less foot traffic include weather and the perception of lack of parking.

Baker, who is also a trustee on the board of the Oregon District Business Association, said with so many new things happening in Dayton, sharing the wealth and having Dayton come together is one of the biggest things they need to work on.

“There’s so many festivals that happen in August, and so it’s kind of hard to gauge what business is going to be,” Baker said. “Our number one goal is to make sure everybody’s getting fed, so we’re having these certain events to try to make sure everyone’s fed.”

Budget-friendly options

To try to get more customers in the door, Lily’s has launched a “budget-friendly” special.

Every Wednesday, customers can order a “girl dinner” featuring a house made Caesar salad and fries for $14. A Belle of Dayton martini can be added for $5.

“You can come in have this meal, have a drink and you are with tax and tip $25 out the door for something really satisfying,” Mendenhall said.

They also feature half-priced bottles of wine on Wednesdays.

“A lot of businesses stopped working downtown during COVID, but we’re seeing a little bit of a resurgence of people coming from work,” Stargel said.

Salar has a happy hour menu available 4-6 p.m. Monday through Friday featuring $5 beers, $6 glasses of wine and $9.50 cocktails. Bar bites include tacos, sliders and wings ranging from $7-$12.

Happy hour is 4:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday at Lily’s with $6 glasses of select wines, $5 house brand highballs and $1 off select beers. They also have $3.25 bao buns.

Oregon Express has happy hour 4-7 p.m. Monday through Friday featuring $4 Jameson, $4 Absolut, $4.50 Sun Cruisers, $3.50 wells, $4 wine and half off appetizers.

“Even if your budget is tighter, find those times that you can go out and do it on a smaller budget,” Zeller said.

An experience worthwhile

Salar is finding that when people “want to come out and spend money, they want to spend it on something that is going to be an experience and of value.”

Salar features a Mixology Monday class each month that is limited to 15 people for $70 each.

The restaurant also has a monthly wine dinner seating around 60 people. Tickets are $75.

Earlier this month, Salar hosted an extra wine dinner featuring Filipino cuisine.

“Our wine dinner last month sold out. This one sold out, so people are really liking it,” Stargel said. “It’s nice to be able to get away... have a fun time and meet new people.”

Having something for everybody

Oregon Express is unique in the fact that it has multiple spaces. The front bar features multiple TVs to watch sporting events, the rooftop has views of Dayton’s skyline and there’s a venue space focused on community events.

“We kind of have something for everyone,” Zeller said. “We’re really focused on diversity and diversity in our offerings, so that’s why we’re really intentional about bringing different music genres.”

The tavern has a group of people that come just for the entertainment and another that is dedicated to the food.

“That’s really what drives my business. That’s the core,” Zeller said. “We can fill up the front bar on a Friday night with no entertainment — just people coming for the environment and the staff."

Other ways to support local restaurants

In addition to making a conscious decision to eat at a local restaurant, Mendenhall encourages the community to support them online, especially on social media.

“One way to support is just liking, sharing and commenting on businesses’ pages because that helps the algorithm reach other people,” Mendenhall said. “That’s a very free way to help businesses in this little summer slump.”

Stargel encourages guests to share their good experiences on social media because even though they’ve been open for 13 years, they still get people that didn’t know the restaurant existed.

“Just being an active participant in your experiences — whether it’s with the staff or afterward — is super helpful," Stargel said. “When you do have a really great night, when you leave just say, ”Hey, by the way, I just wanted to let you know tonight was really great." Those words actually are meaningful because sometimes the staff is out here putting a smile on their face, and maybe they’re not having a great day."

The heart of the service industry

“For so many restaurants, especially independent restaurants, it’s about more than just the sum of the parts,” Mendenhall said. “The greatest thing I think is the time to spend with somebody over a meal.”

She loves that her restaurant is a place where people can create special memories.

“I can probably county on two hands the amount of places that I remember going out to eat as a kid...,” Mendenhall said. “I can remember Friendly’s in Beavercreek at back to school time — what a special treat that would be.”

Stargel described the feeling of getting to be a part of someone’s special occasion at Salar as “magic.”

“We all really love what we do here, and we want everyone else to love it too because that’s why we’re here,” Stargel said.

Baker comes to work every day to make sure people feel like they have a safe space to hangout and dine.

“I like to treat my customers like they’re at my house,” Baker said. “It’s about making sure people are comfortable in the space that you’re in.”

“I own the business, but I don’t own the OE,” Zeller said. “It belongs to the people.”

The community at large is what makes the challenges worth sticking through.

“Challenges aren’t bad. They’re an opportunity,” Zeller said. “Sometimes there’s nowhere to go but up and I find freedom in that because I think... let’s get weird, let’s do something nobody else is doing. It doesn’t hurt to try new things and to be innovative.”

When will the ‘summer slump’ end?

Lily’s and Salar are expecting this “summer slump” to last through Labor Day.

“After Labor Day, it’ll sort of even out a bit, and then we’ll head into the holidays, and that’s a whole other monster,” Stargel said.

“Often September gets quite busy again because the temperature usually gets nice, but who knows what’s going to happen this year,” Mendenhall said.

Baker is expecting people to “get back in the groove of what they’re doing” by the middle of September or October.

WHAT TO TRY

The Oregon District features several other brunch, lunch and dinner spots, as well as places to grab a drink or shop.

“I think that people don’t realize that they could have an entire day down here,” Stargel said. “You don’t have to just come and park to go to one place and then leave. There really is a lot to do down here in the district all year long.”

For more information about the Oregon District, visit theoregondistrict.org or the district’s Facebook (@oregondistrict) or Instagram pages (@theoregondistrict).