Salt Block Biscuit Company serves up platefuls of smiles in the Fire Blocks District

Let’s talk about biscuits.

Biscuits are, after all, the perfect food, and who would deny it? Gorgeous buttermilk biscuits, steaming hot right out of the oven, airy and delicious and buttery. Big biscuits, mini biscuits, some decorated with everything spice, some made with cheddar and thyme, some covered by jam or marmalade and sandwich biscuits—Sammies!—accompanied by sides of potato salad or coleslaw or cobbler.

Pastry Chef Justin Mohler knows about food in general, and biscuits in particular. Having worked at a number of well-known local restaurants, such as the Blue Moon Bistro, Christopher’s Restaurant, and Olive, An Urban Dive at the corner of Wayne and Third Street, Mohler opened the Salt Block Biscuit Company in Dayton’s Fire Blocks District in September 2020—right in the middle of a global pandemic.

“I went to Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky, for baking and pastry arts,” says Mohler. “After that, I came back home to Ohio, working as a pastry chef in the Dayton area for the past 20 years. Also, in between that time, I did some organic farming with a friend. We had our own farm stand at a local farmer’s market, where we sold herbs, vegetables and flowers that we grew ourselves from seed.”

Mohler is obviously passionate about the process of bringing food from the garden to the table. “Farming is a childhood background for me,” he says. “And I truly enjoy growing my own vegetables and herbs for the restaurant. I use a small plot at my place of residence in downtown Dayton and grow as much as I can for Salt Block right there at my home.”

Now open on Saturdays and Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m., and with extended hours every Friday, the Salt Block Biscuit Company, located at 115 E. Third St. in Dayton, offers unique selections and a varied menu that are sure to please every appetite. In addition to biscuits and their signature Sammies biscuit sandwiches—be sure to check out the Caster & Whaler, a biscuit containing smoked trout, hardboiled egg, pickled beets, onion, herb aioli and parsley—Salt Block also features tinned American and European seafood on planks with mini biscuits, lemon, finishing salt and fresh herbs. And on Fridays Salt Block hosts Date Night Fridays from 5 to 8 p.m. with dinner specials that change weekly.