Waffle House in Xenia plans to open this month

The Dayton area’s newest Waffle House will open its doors at the end of this month.

Tom Blanton, vice president of J. Thomas & Co., which owns 19 Waffle House locations in the region, said the Xenia location at 1963 Harner Drive will open on July 30.

“We’re trying to expand our footprint in the Dayton area,” Blanton said. “All of our stores in Greene County have always done well and we just wanted to move into Xenia. We thought that would be a good market for us.”

The Xenia location is hiring. Blanton said applicants can go to the building and scan a QR code to set up an interview. They will be holding open interviews from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the restaurant on Thursdays and Fridays until the opening. They will not have interviews on Thursday, July 4 because of the holiday.

“All of our locations historically have opened up 24 hours,” Blanton said. “We’re trying a different model moving forward.”

The restaurant will initially open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. After a month or two, they will launch their third shift crew and be open 24 hours.

“It just seems like we can offer a better product if we’re kind of staggering the openings,” Blanton said.

J. Thomas & Co. has plans to open two other Waffle House locations in the Dayton region.

The next restaurant will be located at 9555 Dayton Lebanon Pike between La Piñata and LCNB National Bank. Blanton said construction is expected to start sometime in the fall.

In the next year or so, they plan to open a second location in Miamisburg on Ohio 725 in the lot next to the CVS Pharmacy on East Central Avenue. Blanton said he does not have a timeframe for this Waffle House, but described it as “more of a neighborhood-style restaurant like our Belmont location.”

J. Thomas & Co. opened its first Waffle House in the region in 1983. Its locations include 4382 Indian Ripple Road in Beavercreek, 1210 Wilmington Ave. in Dayton, 4912 Springboro Pike in Moraine and 2226 Needmore Road in Dayton.

Waffle House has been operating since 1955, with each restaurant remaining open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are more than 1,900 Waffle House locations open in 25 states – mostly in the Southeast region of the country.

About the Author