By Phil Keren
The Summiteer

A brewpub that was part of the revitalization of downtown Cuyahoga Falls sold its property to a restaurant group at the end of 2024.

 

Ohio Brewing Co., 2250 Front St., sold its building and contents to Monven Group, the parent company of Burntwood Tavern and Leo’s Italian Social, both of which have locations in downtown Cuyahoga Falls.

 

Brothers Chris and Michael Verich founded Ohio Brewing Co. in 1997 and have been operating partners in the business ever since. Chris Verich said he was at the Cuyahoga Falls microbrewery nearly every day and added that while Michael was not there every day because he lived farther away, he tried to get there “as much as he could.”

 

Despite the sale of the property, Verich emphasized that he and his brother still own the rights to use the Ohio Brewing Co. name and its beer labels.

 

“I will reserve the right to use them again in the marketplace if I see fit,” Verich said in a post on the Ohio Brewing Co. Facebook page.

 

Chris Verich said he and his brother decided it was time to step away from the everyday duties and sell the Falls site. Verich said his primary reason for making the move was the fact that his brother was ready to free himself from running the business.

 

“I think it’s just time,” Verich said. “My brother’s 10 years older than me. He’s paid his dues… He’d like to move on, too… It’s a family enterprise. I didn’t want to do it without my brother… That was the main thing. If my brother was still interested in maybe wanting to do it, I might consider continuing but right now I think it was a good timing thing to move on.”

 

Verich has a full-time job as a manager with The Ohio Lottery Commission and is “devoting myself a lot to that.”

 

He noted there were other challenges associated with running the business that he didn’t want to continue dealing with.

 

“It’s becoming a little more difficult to deal with the rising prices,” said Verich. “It was tiring running the place… it was 28 years owning the place (and) running the various locations.”

 

The last day the site was open for customers was Dec. 29, 2024, and the Veriches vacated the property two days later.

 

“I do miss it,” Chris Verich said when he spoke with The Summiteer in late January. “I loved making people happy with the beer and the food and the ambience. I thought we were very successful.”

 

 

After founding Ohio Brewing Co. in 1997, the Veriches opened a brewpub in Niles and then relocated to Akron about a decade later. In early 2018, they decided to relocate from Highland Square in Akron to downtown Cuyahoga Falls.

“We were recruited by the city of Cuyahoga Falls to be part of the new development of the Front Street downtown area,” said Chris Verich. “We thought that would be a great opportunity to build our business and I thought it was a correct decision. (We) took over a 100-year-old building and it was vacant and we developed it into an enjoyable, fun, successful brewpub for over five and a half years.”

 

Verich said he and Michael took over the property in early 2018 and opened for business in May 2019. He noted it took some time to open to customers because there were “a lot of renovations … done to the building.”

 

The leader of Cuyahoga Falls noted Ohio Brewing Co. was part of the early stages of private investment in a downtown that was converted from a pedestrian mall to an area reopened to vehicular traffic.

 

"Ohio Brewing was one of the first businesses to make a major investment in our newly renovated downtown,” said Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Walters. “They turned a tired old building into something spectacular. With the new ownership, I anticipate even greater things to happen in that prime location.”

 

Monven Group leaders have not yet announced their plan for the site.

 

 

While noting he thinks microbreweries and craft-brewed beer is still popular, Verich said he’s noticed that customers in their 20s and 30s are leaning more toward cocktails and seltzers, and added that non-alcoholic beers are rising in popularity.

 

In response to the changing tastes, Verich said Ohio Brewing Co. offered seltzers, fruit-flavored and spice-flavored beers. He said he believes his establishment’s maple porter was the first maple-flavored beer in Ohio.

 

“I’ve been doing some of the cutting-edge stuff with my brewing for quite some time,” Verich said. “I could see the tastes changing and I think we were successful with that and…(we had) a very large amount of cocktail sales at our bar and drew a younger crowd. We were open late on weekends unlike most brewpubs. I think that helped us with our bottom line.”

 

There were about 25 employees working at Ohio Brewing Co. at the time the site closed at the corner of Front Street and Stow Avenue in Cuyahoga Falls.

 

“I’m very proud that all these years I employed hundreds and hundreds of people who paid their bills working at Ohio Brewing Co. at various locations and had a lot of people that said it was the best job they ever had,” Verich said.

 

Burgers, pizza and wings were also popular at Ohio Brewing Co. and Verich praised his kitchen crew members for their work preparing the food that many customers enjoyed over the years.

 

“Our kitchen manager did a wonderful job,” Verich said. “I loved all of our staff. They did Herculean efforts to satisfy people. It can be a thankless job sometimes to please customers.”

 

 

Ohio Brewing Co. hosted a Friends and Family Appreciation Party on Dec. 7 that Verich estimates was attended by more than 500 people.

 

“That was an appreciation event for all of our long-time customers and supporters and ex-employees, staff, friends,” said Verich who noted he considered all of those people as part of “The Ohio Brewing family.”

 

Verich said he believes Dec. 7 was the brewpub’s second-busiest sales day of 2024.

 

“I was very touched and very happy that so many people came…to see us one last time,” Verich said. “I saw some people I hadn’t seen in a while and caught up with them. It was a nice event.”

 

Noting that he and his brother still own the name and rights to the Ohio Brewing beers, Verich said he will stay alert to business opportunities for his product. Verich noted if another brewpub moves into the Cuyahoga Falls site that Ohio Brewing Co. vacated, “I’m hopeful that …(it) would be open to having our beer on tap, even through brewing the beer under a license at the location.”

 

Ohio Brewing Co. opened a much larger location in Columbus in 2022. The Veriches do not own or have a financial interest in the Columbus site but they do have an agreement with this location that allows the site to use the Ohio Brewing name.

 

“Ohio Brewing Columbus is still going strong,” Verich said. “We’ll visit that and touch base with them. Hopefully I can brew some more of the Ohio Brewing beer that we haven’t brewed now that we’re not open anymore in Cuyahoga Falls. Maybe I’ll work more closely with them to get the word out about our fine beer.”

 

He noted he appreciated the support that customers gave to Ohio Brewing Co. at its locations in Niles, Akron and Cuyahoga Falls during the past 28 years.

 

“We wouldn’t have lasted all the years that we did if it wasn’t for their wonderful support…to have people tell me that it was the best beer that they’ve ever had, the best time they’ve ever had, they can’t wait to come there as often as possible, that meant a lot to me,” Verich said. “It was worth all the struggle and sacrifice. There was a lot of struggle and sacrifice…I was very happy to have the support of the Cuyahoga Falls community.”