Record Stores:
Gem City Records- www.gemcityrecords.com. They have a fair amount of vinyl now-- a lot of old jazz and a good selection of indie rock. This is not a good place to find hardcore, you may find a couple things in the used CD section, but nowhere else.
Places To Eat:
Dayton, surprisingly, has a lot of really good vegan-friendly places to eat!
1. Yummy Burger (327 E 3rd St, Dayton, 45402/ 937 222-7030) This used to be a White Castle, and is now Thai/American food. You can get the Yummy Extreme Challenge Burger, veggie burgers, scrambled eggs, pad thai, spring rolls, and more. If you are vegan, ask for the pad thai with no eggs and tofu. It's $5 and really good.
2. Thai 9- on 5th street, next door to Gem City Records. Thai 9 gets crowded and is a little expensive ($7-$8 meals) but has a lot of veggie/vegan options- thai food as well as sushi.
3. Christopher's- (937 299-0089, 2318 E Dorothy Ln, Dayton, OH 45420). Vegan options: cherry pie, falafel, chilli, portabello mushroom burgers, black bean burgers, soup, salads, hummus & pita, & more. They also have meat / veggie options. This place is usually filled with old people and vegetarian kids, and is a basic midwestern family restaraunt.
4. Ajanta (3063 Woodman Dr, Dayton, 45420 - 937 296-9200)- The best Indian food in Dayton. Ajanta has a lot of good vegan/ veggie options, is always fresh, and always delicious.
5. Bunny's Hasty Tasty Pancake House (3509 Linden Ave, Dayton, 45410 - 937 254-8431). Okay, so this place is not so vegan/veggie friendly, but it's your typical midwestern diner and the atmosphere is totally awesome. I usually get potato skins or hash browns and a big salad, and it's cheap and good.
6. Nick's Family Inn (2702 Saint Charles, Dayton, 45410 - 937 252-6428). If there is a black lodge diner to the Double R Diner, this is it. It's 24-hours 4 or 5 days a week, the rest of the time it's normal hours. The food is typical American diner food- they make good homefries. There are velvet unicorn and pirate ship paintings on the wall, a jukebox with questionable content, and the waitress and/or cook will be hanging out at the counter smoking until you walk in. It's good for a late-night option, but not because the food is excellent.
Things To Do:
Elbo's is pretty much the only decent place for shows in Dayton these days. You can visit the website at www.elbosandchins.com for the show listings.
The Dayton Art Museum is surprisingly awesome! They have a really good contemporary/ modern selection considering the size of Dayton. There's a Motherwell painting that is really amazing, some Warhols, a Rauschenberg, etc.
Mendelson's- www.meci.com is the craziest place you may ever go to. It's a "liquidation outlet", but that doesn't describe the sheer bizarreness of the place. I think they have 6 warehouses in downtown Dayton, one of which is open to the public, and the rest hold items that are selectively ebayed. You know all those crazy people who build battle robots? Well, they buy their parts at Mendelson's. There's a whole two floors of electronic bits and bobs, and another floor of more 'normal' items (clothes, filing cabinets, tvs, stickers, medical equipment, packaging, costumes, wedding decorations, etc. etc.). If there's something you want or need, chances are, Mendelson's has it.