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BrewWall: Self-pour brewhouse opens in Copley
Abortion-rights activists react after lawmakers approved a sweeping piece of anti-abortion legislation, a bill that would ban most abortions in the state of Missouri, Friday, May 17, 2019 in Jefferson, Mo. If enacted, the ban would be among the most restrictive in the U.S. It includes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Doctors would face five to 15 years in prison for violating the eight-week cutoff. Women who receive abortions wouldn't be prosecuted. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: August 20, 2019
BrewWall, a new brew pub and restaurant in Copley, has brought millennial cord-cutting and design concepts to the simple act of drinking a beer.
Customers serve themselves from a wall of beer and wine taps and the open architecture encourages customer mingling.
“This is the first of its kind in the Cleveland and Akron area,” said Fred LoSchiavo, CEO of the restaurant group that owns BrewWall and Antonio’s pizza chain.
Fred and his sons Vincent and Tony form the management team for the LoSchiavo restaurant group and all three are hands-on at their new store.
Tony runs the books, Vince is in charge of the beer and other items sold at the store, while Fred is in charge of overall design and atmosphere, as well as the company itself.
At the door, an Antonio’s entrance is on the left and the BrewWall on the right.
BrewWall patrons are met at the front by a staff member, who will scan in a bank or credit card and give the patron a wristband related to the card and instructions.
On the left side of BrewWall is a wall displaying 45 self-serve taps. Most of them are beer, but there is also cider and wine.
The beverages are priced by the ounce. All beers are of the “craft” variety and are hand-picked by Vincent.
Beer styles range from light to dark to sours to German-style and the omnipresent India Pale Ale.
There are also several wine taps and a cider.
Vincent said that when the concept was in its early stages he contacted “every beer distributor in town,” as well as several local breweries, to figure out what beer to start with.
The taps will be rotating and he is always looking for more local breweries to include on the wall.
A “tapologist” guides customers through the available choices.
Different shaped glasses for the different types of beer rest under the taps. There is a glass sprayer to rinse out the glasses between beers.
Serving beer by the ounce accomplishes a number of unique metrics, said Fred. It controls restaurant costs because there are no overpours. It controls customer cost because a glass of beer poured by the ounce actually costs less than the same beer poured by a bartender in a restaurant (beer at BrewWall averages about 32 cents an ounce).
It allows patrons to sample many different kinds of beers. It alleviates waiting for a server. And the inventory can be controlled precisely.
“Whenever we need to replace a tap, it comes up on our POS,” he said.
BrewWall’s self-pour technology comes from a California company called I Pour It.
Fred said that the company is in about 200 locations around the country and is far and away the industry leader.
“We were looking to expand, and he heard about the concept,” said Fred. “We went and saw it on display in California, and immediately decided to do it here.”
According to the I Pour It website (https://www.ipouritinc.com/), the company has about 5,000 taps deployed, with more on the way.
I Pour It’s taps pour 4.5 million ounces of beverages (mostly beer) a month, and the company is expanding aggressively.
That expansions fits in perfectly with the LoSchiavo business vision.
“We want to expand the BrewWall nationally,” Fred said, adding that the company has trademarked the BrewWall name.
The LoSchiavo restaurant group is a family-owned business that runs 15 Antonio’s pizza restaurants throughout northeast Ohio (including the new store attached to BrewWall) and Tony Maloney’s pub in North Royalton.
Fred said that he is the CEO and designer, while son Anthony runs the finances and son Vincent is responsible for food and beverage concepts, including tasting and deciding on all of the beers on the beer wall.
Fred’s father Tony opened the original Antonio’s in Parma in 1967.
Over time, Fred expanded the business, eventually bringing his sons into the business from their own careers.
Today, the company employs over 550 people. Fred said that this number of trained people allowed them to hit the ground running at BrewWall/Antonio’s as they brought in trainers from across the enterprise.
The new facility employs 70 people. It seats about 90 inside and about 100 outside.
There is a no-tipping policy at BrewWall.
“We pay the employees a living wage,” said Fred.
He suggested putting potential tip money into more beer, but smiled and said that, of course, tipping good service is fine.
The BrewWall (https://www.facebook.com/brewwall/?ref=br_rs) is located at 3161 Heritage Center Dr., which is off of Rte. 18 just west of I77. It is located in a new building in a newly constructed business complex.