The Greene shopping center - my favourite outdoor shopping village
I love walking through shopping centers, even though I have to say that I am not a big fan of traditional shopping. I am more of a window shopper, and I would never spend hours and hours, just walking through different stores, and trying on clothes that I have no intention of buying. But sometimes, I am sick and tired of ‘traditional’ indoor shopping centers. But luckily, there is an awesome outdoor shopping village really close to me, and I am a frequent visitor there. The place is called The Greene shopping center, and in this blog post, I will tell you more about it.
The Greene is a beautiful place to walk around in nice weather.
How to get there?
The Greene shopping center is situated in Beavercreek, Ohio, very close to the Dayton mall, which is another great shopping destination. Well, you can visit Dayton mall throughout the year, meanwhile it can be just a little bit cruel to walk around The Greene in bad weather.
You will find The Greene on 4452 Buckeye Lane in Beavercreek. Regardless on where you are driving from, take the Interstate 675 South and exit at exit number ten. Once you exit, you will reach The Greene in less than a mile.
Parking
There are four parking options at The Greene. First of all, the two parking garages. A friendly advice (especially if you are planning on having a few drinks) - remember in which one of the two garages did you park. Last year, me and my friends were celebrating my birthday at Bar Louie, and of course we had quite a few drinks.
When it was time to get to the car, I realized that my car had disappeared from the parking garage. We walked through it multiple times, with no luck. Then, one of my friends realized that we are at the wrong parking garage. I have never laughed so hard in my entire life.
One of the parking garages at The Greene.
The third parking option at The Greene is the open air parking lot at the back side. If the place is crowded, this parking lot is your best bet for finding a parking spot. If you park there, you will have to walk a bit to reach the far end of The Greene, but hey, walking is not bad for you.
The fourth parking option at The Greene is in front of each store. But be careful - they have parking meters there. This option is great if you are in a hurry and want to park as close to the specific store as possible. Like I said, there are parking meters in front of the stores, BUT it says on them that they are donation based and the profits go towards whatever organization.
So of course I assumed you only pay if you want to - it costs twenty five cents for fifteen minutes. And then I once saw a person getting a parking ticket on one of the parking spots with the parking meters. Luckily, it was not me, and since then, I always park either in the parking garage or on the big open air parking lot. Because why would anyone pay money for parking in front of the store, when the free parking is situated just a few feet away?
Stores and restaurants
Victoria's Secret is one of the biggest stores at The Greene.
The Greene offers all the typical stores that you will find in other shopping centers. The ones that I visit frequently, are Forever 21, Gap, PacSun, Bath and Body Works (I usually visit this one just so I can smell everything in there, because everything they are selling smells so good, and I usually leave the store with a killer headache because of that) and Miss Selby’s soap (which sells homemade soaps and, just like Bath and Body Works, it smells so good inside).
The restaurants worth mentioning are the Bar Louie, ExtraOrdinary burgers, La Puf, bd Mongolian grill, Cheesecake factory and Kilwins. I have already described Bar Louie in one of my previous entries, so I will not go into details here. ExtraOrdinary burgers serves mouth watering herb rubbed fries. Seriously, sometimes I order two portions of these fries and just eat them as a meal. I am weird, I know, but they are just so good.
If you need some sugar, head to newly opened La Puf, which also sells cotton candy in some pretty unusual flavours. My favourite one is definitely the root beer flavoured cotton candy. Yummy!
I have been to bd Mongolian grill several times, and the best thing they serve, are deep fried Oreo cookies. I am not saying that the rest of their food is not worth mentioning, but the deep fried Oreos are just about the best sweet thing I have ever tried.
Cheesecake factory, unlike the name suggests, does not just serve cheesecakes. In fact, this is actually a more upscale restaurant, and the prices are therefore upscale as well. One cheesecake costs almost ten dollars, but to their credit, it is worth it and the slices are pretty generous. My top three favourite cheesecake flavours at Cheesecake factory are mango, key lime and birthday cake.
And last but not least, if you want to try the best possible fudge, head to Kilwins. They serve other things too (mostly chocolaty stuff), but their dark chocolate fudge should be the first thing you try there.
If you like frozen yogurt, this is another place you should check out at The Greene.
The movie theater
The Greene also offers a big movie theater with eighteen movie rooms, and the seats recline so far back that you will feel like you are laying in your bed, and they are super comfortable. The movie theater belongs to the Cinemark group, and if you join the free club, you will be collecting points with every purchase, that you can later redeem for cool rewards.
This is where the majority of Daytonians go see a movie.
Special events and birthday offers
There are three events at The Greene that deserve to be mentioned: the homecoming, open - air cinema and free summer concerts. Homecoming is a very American thing (to be honest, I had no idea what homecoming is until I moved to the United states of America) - it means students coming home from college during the winter break, and The Greene hosts a big open air celebration in their honor. It is pretty cool to watch and the event is open to the public. They usually play live music, too.
Open - air cinema happens in summer, and it is free. So where is the catch? They do not play recent movies, and the movies you will see, are usually kids’ movies. But still, it is a cool experience. This past summer, they were playing Moana. Which is a cute movie even if you are an adult, let's admit it.
Free summer concerts usually feature local bands, and this is a great opportunity to spend some time outside and have fun. Unfortunately, the concerts have to stop before eleven at night because of the noise, but the ones I have been to so far, were pretty amazing. And free.
If you subscribe to The Greene’s newsletter, they will send you some special offers on your birthday. It includes discounts in some stores, a free cookie at Cheryl’s cookies, and free admission for two at the Funny bone comedy club, about which you can read in the next chapter.
The Funny bone
If you ever wanted to laugh so hard that your stomach will hurt, while sipping delicious cocktails and maybe eating some food, the Funny bone comedy club is the right place for you. This is a comedy club, where they host stand up comedians. You need to make a reservation in advance, and there is a dress code.
Before visiting the Funny bone, I always thought that comedy clubs are overrated, but I am glad I went there, because I was laughing so hard that I was actually crying. Happy tears, of course. Well, maybe I was just luckyand I picked the only good comedian, but still. I need to go there again in the near future.
The view of The Greene from the front door of Funny Bone.
A few words for the end…
The Greene shopping center is a good place to go for anything you need - eat something, watch a movie, buy some new clothes, or just leisurely walk around. It has a wide variety of stores and entertainment, and this is what makes it a great place to shop at… well, at least when the weather is warm.
