Brand new at Carillon Historical Park is Culp’s Café, which also features an eat-in restored 1903 Barney & Smith Interurban railcar, reminiscent of the soda fountains and lunch counters of Dayton in the early 1900s.
The last name, Culp, is not unfamiliar in Dayton. Charlotte Gilbert Culp was a young widow in 1902. To support her six young children, she started making baked goods for them to sell door-to-door. This expanded into a stand at the South Main Street Market and then into the Arcade at three lunch counters selling poultry, eggs, cheese and dill pickles. Their full Arcade cafeteria was serving 5,000 customers a day in the 1940s and was sold in the 1960s.
On the Menu
Culp’s focuses on breakfast and lunch, and offers a variety of favorites sure to satisfy even the pickiest eater. Breakfast offers pancakes, waffles, corned beef hash, buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy, eggs benedict and more. Sandwiches include a smash burger, egg, tuna and patty melts, and can be ordered in a soup and sandwich combo with the soup of the day or potato leek soup. Kids menu items include buttermilk pancakes, grilled ham and cheese, a kid’s burger and chicken tenders. Soda fountain classics include an ice cream sundae, ice cream float, scooped ice cream, milkshakes, malts and sodas and phosphates.
1000 Carillon Blvd., Dayton | daytonhistory.org
