USA, OH: Bad Tom Smith Brewing's Ohio City launch delayed

Delays have pushed back the opening date for Bad Tom Smith Brewing's Ohio City location, said managing partner John Vojtush, who owns the company with his fiancee Sheryl Gittins, Cleveland.com reported on June 29.

Bad Tom, based in Cincinnati, had planned to open around Memorial Day, but "early September" appears to be the new target. A contractor should be in the building this week, Vojtush said. The space is catty-corner from Nano Brew and is in the heart of one of the healthiest craft-beer neighborhoods in Northeast Ohio.

Opening by Labor Day would be a "best-case scenario," he said of Bad Tom Smith's first taproom outside of Cincinnati. It's part of an overall expansion plan for the company.

The delays are coming in the back-and-forth editing-like process between the brewery and the city's building department, Vojtush said.

"The wild card is how quickly we get inspectors to sign off on things," he said. "That's the only thing we can't control.

"I know how much there is going on," he said. "(But) to see a vibrant area like Ohio City and we step in and bring jobs and plug in to the craft-beer community, and do nothing but wait. ... But we're beyond that now. We're excited, and we're really looking into plugging into the home-brew community."

The process started in early March, when Bad Tom submitted plans to the building department. An inspector took two days to examine the prints, then returned them. The brewery then took a week and a half to amend the prints, and it's been back and forth or in delay mode ever since.

All the while, Vojtush and Gittins still have to pay rent. They also have spent $20,000 for work from engineers.

"We lost the summer," he said. "I would have loved to have taken advantage of the summer months, but it is what it is."

Cleveland City Councilman Kerry McCormack, whose Ward 3 includes Bad Tom Smith's location, did not return a call for comment.

The good news is the company has new brewing equipment ready to go and a food plan in the works. On the personnel side, it hired Andy Foltz as brand manager, "somebody who is plugged into the craft-beer community," Vojtush said. And Bad Tom has hired lead brewers Garth Moore of Medina and Scott Weaver of Lakewood. They will be a key component in the potential success of the brewery, which will rotate in home brewers to make beer on a two-barrel system.

Food options became the other challenge for Bad Tom.

"You've got a lot of people just serving beer and pretzels. We took a look and thought 'Geez, Ohio City has all these local restaurants. This is a natural fit for us, if we can find the right person.'"

The right person turned out to be neighbor Roberto Rodriguez, who owned Orale Contemporary Mexican Kitchen. Rodriguez shut the restaurant, but he caters and has a longtime West Side Market stand.

All of the plans are beginning to dovetail in the neighborhood that Vojtush calls a "loyal foundation" on which to build.

"We're the tail on the dog in Ohio City," he said. "People are going to Market Garden, Great Lakes. They are experiencing their beers, and then they are going to find us."

29 June, 2017