Several people had suggested we try the new menu at Culp’s Café, which is located at the entrance to Carillon Historical Park. Admission to the restaurant is FREE, so you don’t need to pay to enter the park to use the restaurant. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 3pm

My wife and I had lunch at the café and tried some of their new items. I had a shrimp and grits bowl, with lots of shrimp, fried green tomatoes, bacon and other good stuff. My wife had the bacon and fig jam sandwich. We each tasted both items and loved them. A woman overheard us talking about how happy we were with our meal and introduced herself. She was Carol Calzada and she told us that she and her husband were now operating Culp’s Café.

Jose and Carol Calzada, at Culp’s Cafe

Carol told me she and her husband came to the U.S. from Mexico when they were young children. They grew up in Chicago. She said her husband was the chef and had a long background in the industry, having cooked in restaurants around the U.S. and Europe. When they moved to Dayton with their four children, he worked at well-known restaurants like Anticoli’s and l’Auberge.

I came back to get a photo of Jose with his wife and learned a bit more about his background. He told me about the time he cooked for Julia Child, the writer and TV personality who brought French cooking to America.

“This happened at the start of my career” he told me. “I was the sous chef in a small French restaurant in Chicago. Julia Child called and reserved a table for eight. We prepared squab for her, even though it was not on our menu. At the conclusion of the meal Julia Child and the others at the table said they loved our food and we gave them a tour of our small kitchen. They must have also loved the wine we carried, because I remember their table of eight ordered ten bottles of wine.”