Visiting Air Force Museum and Dayton..Seeking local info

[mustangdriver]

It is the Comfort Suites right across from the museum. They are at 5220 Huberville Ave, Dayton, OH 45431. Their number is (937) 425-6498

[JohnB]

Gosh, in the early 80s, there was a no-name 50's style motel across the street from the Museum. I stayed there on a PCS move in 1982 so I could visit the museum before hitting the road again.
It's long gone now...along with the small DAP paint/caulk factory that was at the intersection with the highway.

I enjoyed attending the WWI event, lots of neat stuff. In 2003, I brought my 1914 car which was displayed with others early autos.
A guy had a curved dash Olds, and he ran it on one of the old static missile pads. He locked the tiller so it just went around in circles for an hour or so.

[mazdaP5]

I'm guessing you'll be there for Dawn Patrol? We did that a couple of years ago, lots of fun. Was still really hot, even in October.

[Arty163]

As long as your in the area. Right down the road from the Air Force Museum is the Wright Brothers memorial hill. A seldom visited park, it has a very small museum, Indian Mounds and a super view of Patterson's runway. It is a great place to enjoy lunch, recharge and head back to the museum. Every time I go there, there may be one or two other people there. Very peaceful place.

Arty

[bomberfan]

I see you're coming from Missouri, depending on the route you take, (since you specifically named B-17s ) I would highly recommend a stop in Marengo, IL to see Mike Kellner and the Desert Rat. He's one of the friendliest guys you'll meet and the project is impressive. Also, he has teamed up with the Vintage Aviation Museum out of Salt Lake City, Utah, so it may a good chance to see it before it moves.

[goaly]

Slyder's Tavern

[wacoykc]

You are 10 minutes away from the AF Museum for a ton of great food. Come to the Oregon District on 5th Street downtown Dayton. Dublin Pub, Corner Kitchen, Lily's, Trolley Stop plus a bunch move. Then go have a beer at Warped Wing Brewery or the 5th Street Brew Pub or anyone of the other 5-6 breweries downtown. If you a whiskey or Bourbon drinker then the Century Bar is a must...voted like the second best Bourbon bar in the US. Looks like a 1920's speakeasy and features about 200 various Bourbons/Whiskeys.

Moraine Airpark on the south side of Dayton is always a good place to stop to see antiques/classics. New Carlisle Airport has a lot of unusual airplanes as well.

[Courier Sportster]

2nd that on the packard museum. amelia earhart is known to have driven one of their racers. i skimmed thru all this pretty fast but didn't see Huffman Prairie mentioned. It's close, watch the sun rise, or set there.

[Pathfinder]

Ah, memories,,,Lived in Dayton for 38 years and remember when the AFM was only two buildings! Actually one building with an atrium.... My group created the Airborne Mannequin near the C-47 and CG-4A back in the early 80's. I was there the day they dedicated the original Doolittle Display...met an unassuming guy standing against the back wall...claimed he had walked on the moon...Neil something or other...

Been gone for six years now but have ghastly memories of Cassano's Pizza. Of course it was a luxury in college...and they seemed to be on every corner. Coming from the east coast I had to wonder what hatchet maniac decided to carve pizza up into squares! Continued to believe that even when I got Cassano's as an account when I was a TV rep in the 80's. Best local pizza is Marion's Piazza (not pizza). Yes, squares...but quite good.
Best burger in Ohio is at Coco's Bistro near the Oregon District.

And hands down the best sub to be found is Penn Station---Do the Dagwood with the works..or their cheese steak! There is one up Col. Glenn Hwy near Wright State. Yeah I know about the "Submarine House"....remember when they had one shop on Brown St. near UD. The Sub House in Beavercreek had a phone number one digit different from my home phone. Our phone rang off the hook on Friday and Saturday nights. After a month of wrong numbers I just started taking the orders....

[StangStung]

So many good recommendations here, you're never going to get through all of them. I've visited Dayton and the NMUSAF multiple times for work and fun.

The first thing is, if you've never been to the NMUSAF before, you can easily spend your full three days there if you want to stop and check everything out.

But if you can manage, I'd definitely put a close second down as Carillon Park where the Flyer III is. That's the plane they really learned how to fly with.

Then I'd say Huffman Prairie and the Wright Brothers Hill NP which are both very near the NMUSAF and very close by. It gave me chills to stand in that cow pasture and breath the same air that the Wright's learned to fly through.

As you can from this thread, there are so many "you musts!", but those are my top three.

[Shay]

Wacoykc & Pathfinder are on point.

I never realized until now that all my fav pizza joints happen to be "square cut". (Cassanos, Marion's, Donatos and Jets "Deep Dish") -- To eat their own. lol



Marion's is good and you can get some non-typical toppings if you want, but for me it's over priced for what it is. Although you can purchase pitchers of beer to go with. So that's a plus.

I'm a Submarine House guy - Penn Sta. is okay but between the 2 I'm going with SH


If you find yourselves in the Oregon District I reccomend "Thai 9" ....it's outstanding

http://www.thai9restaurant.com/Main.html



If you are wanting local BBQ then try "Old Hickory" - it's right down the road from the Museum and it's dang tasty.

https://www.oldhickorybarbq.com/home.html

....not to be confused with "Hickory" down by UD

http://www.hickorybarbq.com/

And then there is "Hickory River Smokehouse" up interstate in Tipp City, before you get to Troy- Won 1st in the State for their BBQ. Eat there all the time

http://www.hickorybarbq.com/

Best Regards

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[Pathfinder]

Absolutely agree with Shay on Old Hickory on Airway...great ribs!

I really liked Sub House til they started charging three different prices for their cheese steak depending on how much beef they put on it. Eventually got into what they called a Cheese Cosmo---with four or five cheeses....

Okay to get this back on an AVIATION theme....never heard of Thai9....but I sold a steak restaurant on Broad St. in Fairborn to one of my Chinese real estate customers and he took my suggestion for a name...Flying Tiger. He sold the building and name to his tenant and they took the name down the street to a new building....It's still there....I remember the first time I went to the first place---great big menu with gold relief AVG tiger and the name Fling Tiger....ooops!

[PJ]

Hi Gary!
"Hot Stuff" is still headquartered at Mount Comfort, Indiana (Indianapolis Regional Airport). I'll be at the WW1 Dawn Patrol next Saturday too! Keep an eye out for me, as I will for you. Have a good trip. The Air Force Museum also has a Loadstar in the outdoor aircraft display.




PJ
PV-2 Harpoon
"Hot Stuff"
www.amhf.org

[Scooby]

I've spent a lot of time in the Dayton area on training. One year I completed 26 weeks of training in the area. Every Sunday I spent the entire day in the museum. I was able to use my military ID to spend extra time in the X-plane hangar.

One recommendation I have for any fellow Canadians looking into this thread, there are plenty of Tim Hortons in Dayton (and throughout Ohio)!

[Steve Nelson]

As long as your in the area. Right down the road from the Air Force Museum is the Wright Brothers memorial hill. A seldom visited park, it has a very small museum, Indian Mounds and a super view of Patterson's runway. It is a great place to enjoy lunch, recharge and head back to the museum. Every time I go there, there may be one or two other people there. Very peaceful place.

Arty

Second that. If the weather's nice, my wife and I like to grab some takeout after the museum closes and then have a picnic dinner on the hill. One weird thing though..for some reason the place is completely overrun with woodchucks (or gophers, or groundhogs, or whatever you want to call the big, fat burrowing rodents.) They don't bother anybody, but I don't think I've ever seen that many in any one place. Whenever we go there I keep expecting them to form ranks and mount a charge.

SN