Roughly a decade after it first opened, a downtown Allentown restaurant is ready to reintroduce itself with a new menu, an experienced culinary director and an expanded event space.
The Dime has switched to serving an “elevated American” cuisine style on the third floor of the Renaissance Allentown Hotel at 12 N. Seventh St., according to a news release from property owner City Center Group.
The breakfast, lunch and dinner menus include “Tiramisu Brioche French Toast,” waffles, omelets, beef tartare, hummus, roasted chicken, burgers, hush puppies, prime ribeye, pasta, grilled octopus, branzino and salads.
Nick Vogel, who joined in March as the director of culinary and restaurant operations for the restaurant and hotel, said he designed the menus before fully implementing them around mid-November.
“I think the nice thing that American cuisine can lend itself to is, it’s a creative fusion that … reinterprets with traditional comfort foods and then also some international influences with innovative twists,” Vogel said. “It’s kind of moving away from heavy sauces and more toward lighter, maybe more artistic and globally inspired plates. But the nice thing is, I try to make it tie into something that … something can read and feel familiar and maybe some of the ingredients aren’t so familiar.”
Vogel said the menus are subject to change but that he plans to keep the breakfast and lunch ones largely the same.
After growing up in Philadelphia, where Vogel worked for his family in culinary spaces, he switched from pursuing a finance career and went on to become the executive chef at places like Alta Strada in Washington, D.C. (with the company of James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Schlow) and the Baron’s Cove resort in Sag Harbor, New York.
Vogel said that leading up to his work with The Dime, he hadn’t worked or lived in Pennsylvania in roughly 15 years, and was “looking to get back home in some form or function.”
“I’m just getting to that point where I want to set down and have roots,” he said. “Being close to Philadelphia is important to me.”
Now a resident of Allentown, Vogel said he enjoys being a part of its downtown development alongside establishments like the Moxy hotel and Okatshe restaurant, and hopes to provide customers with a familiar but “elevated” area to visit.
“I’ve been working in elevated cuisine and settings for the last 7, 8, 9, 10 years now, and so it comes natural,” he said. “And I think there’s nothing that I’ve had to change about myself and my cuisine by moving here. It’s more so just applying it to the locale.”
Michael Slivka, regional vice president for the Gulph Creek Hotels group that runs The Dime and the Renaissance and Moxy hotels, helped explain some of the property’s history.
Named for the historic Dime Bank building that was incorporated into the restaurant, The Dime opened as an upscale-American-cuisine restaurant in 2015 alongside the Renaissance, which was previously managed by the Greenwood Hospitality Group. After closing in March 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic, the hotel reopened under Gulph Creek in 2021 and switched The Dime in 2022 to an Italian steakhouse.
Slivka recalled, “Now you fast forward, we’re in 2025 [and] going into 2026. We said … we’re coming up on a renovation, let’s really look at The Dime because since the opening and moving forward through the years, we really started to see a strong demand for event space. And I’m talking the medium-size gatherings, like 60-100 guests. So The Dime restaurant, it’s a fairly large restaurant, so what we did was we took the opportunity and we divided it into event space on the back side of the restaurant and then the actual bar and restaurant is now all combined into one area.”
That change creates a more “intimate” feeling for the restaurant, Slivka said. He added that the hospitality design firm The Society collaborated for the updated restaurant, which has also shrunk the bar for timely service and now includes new TV seats, decorations and cooking equipment. Guests can also look forward to a new lounge space and furniture, Vogel said.
The Dime operates 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. all week.
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
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The Dime restaurant has relaunched with a new menu and expanded event space within Renaissance Allentown Hotel in Allentown. (Photo courtesy of Doug Young)
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Lehigh Valley retail and restaurant news in brief
Chick-fil-A will close at 2 p.m. on Wednesday at the Lehigh Valley Mall in Whitehall Township, nearly 30 years after it opened.
The nearly 50-year-old Dunderbak’s has changed course and will operate beyond its February deadline to sell or close at the Lehigh Valley Mall.
Casa Catrina, which announced a temporary closure earlier this month, will not reopen, its owners said. Humberto and Elia Chavolla, who owned the former Fiesta Ole in Emmaus, opened the Mexican restaurant in 2020 at 1905 Brookside Road in Lower Macungie Township.
Retail Watch is a weekly column covering retail and restaurant news in the Lehigh Valley. Have a question, tip, or want to see something in the area? Contact retail reporter Graysen Golter at retailwatch@mcall.com.