USA, OH: Boss Dog Brewing opens in Cleveland Heights

After years and years (and years and years) of dreaming, negotiating, laboring and clawing tooth and nail, Boss Dog Brewing opened in Cleveland Heights on November 2. The Sweet brothers, Josh and Jason, started their journey to the opening nearly a decade ago on a home stove, Patch.com reports.

The brothers discovered a passion for home brewing while living in Cleveland Heights. They used kitchen equipment to create their own beers. It was a passion project for the two, but hadn't yet fermented as a real business opportunity.

That idea didn't start brewing until the brothers invested in a pilot system, a more advanced way of creating custom beer at home. Josh Sweet told Patch that a pilot system allowed the brothers to start brewing in a manner similar to professional brewers. It also gave the duo the confidence to launch their own brewery.

"We were doing a lot of the same things larger brewers do, we were just doing smaller batches," he said. He then added, "We also saw our beer getting better."

That was when things got serious. Josh started to learn more about running a company. He started to put together a business plan for some kind of brewery.

Jason, meanwhile, went to work for Fat Heads as a brewer. He wanted to learn the craft from other experts.

Over time, the idea of running a Sweets' brothers brewery aged from concept to reality. The brothers found themselves hunting for a space that could house both a brewery and a restaurant. It turned out to be more difficult than initially imagined.

"We searched everywhere," Josh said.

It wasn't until they looked at the home of the old Lemon Grass Thai restaurant, near the corner of Lee Road and Cedar Road, that they found their future home.

"It was in our backyard the whole time," Josh remembered, chuckling.

Little did the Sweet brothers know, the hard work was just getting started.

Several city officials were on-hand on November 2 to cut the ceremonial ribbon at Boss Dog Brewing. The long journey to opening day wasn't merely arduous for the Sweet brothers and their families, it was a rocky road for city planners as well.

Brian Anderson, the city's business development manager, and Tim Boland, the director of economic development, were brought into Cleveland Heights in the summer of 2016. One of their first major projects was the development of Boss Dog Brewing.

"This was the first project we worked on from beginning to end," Anderson told Patch at the brewery's opening.

It was nearly a year-long process once the site was selected. Permits had to be pulled and a mass of renovation took place inside the former Lemon Grass building.

Anderson recalled working with the Sweet brothers to obtain proper permits, helping lease the brewing equipment, the streetscape on Lee Road and the myriad other hurdles that were leaped on the way to opening day.

Josh said he and his brother were lucky with the amount of expert help they received along the way. They found a contractor that was able to do just about everything asked of him, and at a reasonable price. Still, from concept to site selection through the renovation to opening day — the process took a while.

As one patron said at opening night, "We've been waiting a long time for this place to open."

Both Boland and Anderson were on-hand for the ceremonial opening of the business. Boland happily reported that Boss Dog could become the anchor business for the district. Anderson said it may be the largest restaurant space in the area.

The Sweet brothers, on the other hand, spent much of the evening running around, stopping for interviews with press, hugging family and friends, and generally trying to keep a brand new business running smoothly.

Casey and Anne Divoky, siblings from Cleveland's west suburbs, made the long trek across town for opening day. In fact, Anne had actually taken the day off work to make an event of it. They were hanging around outside the brewery ahead of its 4 p.m. opening.

"We've been dying for this place to open," Casey said.

The duo, like many other patrons at the brewery, ordered a sampler of Boss Dogs' custom brews. They tasted Chief Chinook Pale Ale, Buck IPA, Dog Pound Brown, and Cuyachuga Chocolate Porter, among others. For research purposes, Patch's reporter also sampled the Dog Pound Brown (upon Josh Sweet's recommendation).

"They nailed it," the Divoky siblings said.

Casey, an amateur brewer himself, said he had anticipated there being snags with at least one of the beers. Luckily, his prediction was wrong and everything from the IPA to the darker beers were "spot on" according to the Divokys.

"It's good beer," Anne said.

She was right. She just didn't know how long it took to get that beer into her hands.

05 November, 2017