Friday Night Bites to be a quarterly event for Dayton

Dozens of people turned out on Nov. 8 for the first-ever Friday Night Bites, held at The Crossroads Plaza in Dayton and hosted by the City of Dayton.

The food trucks gathered in the plaza for Friday Night Bites offered something for everyone. Customers picked between lobster meals, barbecue, Cajun and Mexican food, and an outdoor beer garden sold a selection of beers and other beverages.

Southern Breeze Band provided music while couples danced in the street and families sat to enjoy their meals at picnic tables that were scattered around the plaza.

Standing in line at the lobster food truck, Dayton Councilman Wendell Null surveyed the crowd and was pleased with the turnout for the inaugural event.

“We are going to make this bigger and better. I hate to sound cliché but you ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said. “This is going to be an event that people in Dayton can look forward to in the future.”

The weather that night was unseasonably chilly for November, which was a concern for the City when planning for the event.

“We weren’t sure what to expect from the attendance, but at the end of the day, we are happy that so many people came to see what it was all about,” said City Manager Theo Melancon. “We are going to start working on the next Friday Night Bites soon. We are looking at having these on a quarterly basis.”

The Crossroads Plaza is located off Church Street next to Dayton City Hall where the City Council recently voted to close a block of the street permanently in order to host these types of events.

“We are going to be expanding The Crossroads Plaza. We are going to put gateway signage permanently on Church Street off of Highway 90 and replace the barriers that are currently there,” Melancon said.

After the gateway marker, Melancon said the next step is to install ornamental fencing.

“We are going to put up some permanent barriers that are ornamental – something gardenesque,” he said. “Something that looks nice as well as serves a purpose.”