Oregon District

Dayton’s fun bohemian side meets it’s urban cool here in The Oregon District. It’s an intriguing little downtown quarter and it’s worth checking out. This downtown micro area is a little seedy looking but that’s part of the charm. This is the place where suits and hipsters, martini and beer drinkers and heels and sandals all mingle together. You get the picture.
The Oregon District is home to a eclectic mix of businesses like coffee shops, restaurants, bars and pubs. There’s also a mix of art galleries, book stores, antique shops, a thrift store, and one of Dayton’s leading micro brewpubs — Toxic Brew. In case you were secretly wondering: the area even boasts a couple adult fetish boutiques if you need to get in touch with your freaky sensuous self.
I guess the thing I like most about this area is that there’s just so much here to see and do. It’s almost all privately owned businesses so it’s a relief from that big box, chain driven, Corporate America blah, blah, blah that you find everywhere these days. Go there to dive into the variety The Oregon District has to offer.

Oregon Arts District is actually located on 5^th Street. Not sure where the 40 N Main came from. If you know where Dublin Pub is, look across the street and you’ll see the two or so blocks that make up the Oregon Arts District.
The name is a tad misleading as you would assume that there are a ton of art galleries there. Not so. I think I counted 3 – 4 galleries along 5^th Street. There might be more in the neighboring blocks, but not that many on 5^th Street. Oh… maybe the 2 sex shops count as ‘artsy’?
I took the liberty of uploading photos of all the storefronts along OAD.

After relocating to the Midwest from NYC, the Oregon District was the first place I was introduced to as being «artistic;» in this case, code for «the place in downtown Dayton where there are actually some independent stores and the vast majority of the pubs.» Largely due to the economic decline of Dayton and the rest of the the country – and with the Midwest being hit especially hard by the foreclosure crisis – the Oregon District’s more engaging spots (Eclectic Essentials, Peace On Fifth, Brim, Clash, Blind Bob’s, Lucky’s, Trolley Stop) exist among a wealth of vacant storefronts. This became even more depressing when I learned from longtime residents of Dayton that most of those vacant spots once housed some of the Oregon District’s brightest stars, including the beloved Jazz Room. I can’t help but wish I had the opportunity to visit and review this distinct section of E 5^th Street circa 2000 with the update coming over a decade later. I bet things would be quite different.
Fortunately, two fabulous vintage shops have just opened up on the same street (Wayne Avenue, which intersects with E 5^th Street) as the Dublin Pub, and a restaurant by the same owners of another local treasure (Meadowlark in Centerville [Disclaimer: People commonly call it a treasure. I know 0% about that first hand. So far!]) is set to open this spring. Also opening in the Oregon District (in the space where the Jazz Room once lived, in fact) is another new restaurant, which promises unique Peruvian/​French cuisine. Additionally, the innovative and local «pop up store» city initiative has quickly filled vacant shops with temporary-​to-​permanent boutiques project which should come to fruition as the warm weather approaches.
I guess you could say I like this area well enough, and I’m keeping the faith! Come on Dayton; don’t prove me wrong.