Moe’s on Brown becoming Hot Head Burritos, a step closer to local flavor
It didn’t take long for Moe’s to mosey off Brown Street, and now signs in the window suggest that local chain Hot Head Burritos will be taking over the space.
The real question is how long can a strip of fast food feeders survive without any other reason to head there other than to eat? A bookstore, a clothing store (other than the flyer apparel shop) a drugstore, a small grocery, a gym? All of these are normal retail sites that typically surround a college campus.
Almost every new business on Brown is a chain, save Dolcessa and the aforementioned flyer gear shop. What makes this strip special, unique, interesting? Even Hot Head and Deweys are small chains.
If we don’t add some local flavor, there is no real reason to make it a destination?
Is it time to require developers to include at least 20% local flavor in projects? I’m not a fan of legislating business practices, but, since we have no problem sticking our noses into everything else for “economic development’s” sake, why not foster local business?
Homogenization is good for milk, for the most part. It’s not good for a city’s shopping options.
What determines local. The first Hot Head would have been local, but now is going to franchise itself………. would you make them move then when they became national?
I like local. But too often local places claim to have certain menu items that are unique but really are not. A lot of local food is crap, unless it is towards the higher end. I really can’t say I know any local fast food – and the only thing you would get is a bar with crappy/SOS bar food – wings, nachos, burger, chx sandwich, fries, o-rings, some sort of sub, moz sticks, chili, grilled cheese, some crappy salads, fish sandwich (always claiming to be fresh, but the definition of fresh must include farm raised/cut into square/breaded/ and then frozen — yummmmmm yummmmmm, real good shit there man.) fried mushrooms, etc……….. heck, I just re-wrote 90% of all Dayton bars menus.
Unique is just that, unique. And we can’t say what it is till it is, if you know what I mean. If we want unique, I say tell people to open their own joints and not pay taxes…………ever. You will see a lot of places spring up, and they will be unique, hopefully.
Hmmmm….replacing a burrito joint with a burrito joint. How utterly creative.
I went to the Big Head Burrito place in Kettering and it sucked.
Is Big Head Burrito the same as Hot Head Burrito?
Moe’s was, sorry to say, McNasty……………
And I eat like a billy goat, and that place killed me. Heck, if you ever needed a cleaning out, Moe’s was a Goes if you Knows what I Knows.
It was late when I wrote this last night- should have said- every “new place is a chain”
’cause we have Hickory BBQ, Jimmy’s, the Fieldhouse, Sub House.
Chain = something you can’t get in other cities.
And if they grow- good.
As to original good bar food Gene- the new “Blind Bob’s” in Oregon is very original and good.
What we need is a Labambas Burrito place, and in my opinion the Killer Burrito used to be the absolute best for late night food (located where the buffualo wild wings is now located on brown.) What about Rocky Rococo’s………..yum.
I would love to see another local eatery on Brown. Living downtown, we don’t have many options for non-chain eating and I’d love to see a new restaurant open that offers something new to the area…Greek perhaps?
And yes, David, Blind Bobs is a wonderful place for bar food. I’m so happy they’ve become such a great part of the community.
Semi-related note, my friend Katy’s dad started Hot Head. I’m seeing them pop up all over the place these days.
So – what happens if the chain opens a store on Brown St (ie. Hot Head) and then soon after within a year opens their corporate headquarters office in the Kettering Tower Downtown? Just a thought – how about recruiting the chain to locate their offices downtown?
A “fast-food” Greek place opened 2-3 miles from downtown, called Gyros. It might be classified as more Mediterranean than Greek. I’ve only eaten their gyros which I enjoy more than the Palaces that also sell Gyros. It’s on Dorothy and Kettering Blvd, the corner opposite Wal-Mart. I would guess most people in downtown shop at this Wal-Mart so it’s not too far out of the way.
If you are into gyros there is another restaurant located in the Radio Shack plaza near Wilmington and Irving which sells gyros in addition to other hot dog/hamburger/ruben type sandwiches – this was formally Pugs Doghouse, but changed names and owners almost a year ago.
I also love City BBQ, you can call this a chain, but for what it’s worth it’s a Buckeye based chain. Who knew Ohioans could make BBQ this good?
Too bad about Pugs. That was a good local version of a typical Chicago hot dog joint. I used to make a point about stopping off there. They had Italian Beef sandwhichs as a well as the hot dogs.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but “Hot Head” is a national chain that people franchise with (just like McDonalds, Subway, etc, etc). As I understand it, the Hot Head on Smithville is a locally-owned *franchise*. Same person owns the Subway next to it according to a DDN article back when it opened.
I guess I will correct myself…. Hot Head is locally-owned after all. When I read the part about “franchising”, I thought it meant they were a franchised location.