{"id":138569,"date":"2023-05-31T09:17:41","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T13:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=138569"},"modified":"2023-06-01T09:55:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T13:55:17","slug":"deep-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2023\/05\/31\/deep-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past 35 years, J & E Rootbeer\u2019s car hops have served loyal customers foot-long chili dogs and Mug Root Beer at old-fashioned prices every summer except one. The two-story orange-and-white building, located at 6301 Germantown Road near Middletown, closed in 2022 and was eventually sold to two long-time patrons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have memories from when I was a kid,\u201d said Brooke Solomito, a 2022 Wright State University graduate and J & E Rootbeer\u2019s latest co-owner. \u201cMy grandpa and I would always order from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

One week before graduating from Wright State with a bachelor\u2019s degree in organizational leadership<\/a>, Solomito hosted a grand opening for J & E Rootbeer after purchasing the Madison Township restaurant with her sister Courtney Vitori in December 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest thing that has happened to me other than graduating from Wright State,\u201d said Solomito.<\/p>\n

She said they have only made a few changes to the original menu. Customers now can order freshly squeezed lemonade and a J & E Barbecue Bacon Burger, both of which appear with several Cincinnati sports-themed milkshakes, and a pizza pocket on the special\u2019s menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids love it, we love it. The food is always fresh and fast,\u201d said Rick Coning, who often eats at the restaurant with his family.<\/p>\n

Solomito and Vitori also opened the stand year-round. The long-time summer food destination now serves food and frosty mugs of root beer during the winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how many people will come out and support you even when it\u2019s cold,\u201d said Solomito.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brooke Solomito prepares several foot-long chili dogs for a customer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Solomito said her experience at Wright State gave her the confidence to succeed as a business owner. Learning leadership skills in a classroom and then implementing them into an organization that employs almost 30 people takes a special type of person who is not only concerned about the bottom line, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cProviding quality food and an environment for the staff to work together is far more important than making money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Journal-News recently recognized J & E Rootbeer as one of the best hot dog stands in Butler County in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brooke Solomito uses skills she learned as an organizational leadership student at Wright State to run a successful hot dog stand in Butler County. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":138571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,4299,2104,744,725,727,4896,715,720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-alumni-profile","category-teacher-education","category-education-human-services","category-home-news-sidebar","category-homepage-photos-and-video","category-leadership-studies-in-education-organizations","category-news","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138569"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138890,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138569\/revisions\/138890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}