AKRON, Ohio – With busy streets and packed businesses in Akron, the pandemic may seem like a thing of the past. However, for many business owners and entrepreneurs, the price of weathering the tough times was high to pay.
Chris Surak is the co-owner of Eighty-Three Brewery, located in the historic Goodyear Building on Akron’s east side. They opened in August 2019, just a few months before the pandemic.
“You’re trying to run a brand-new business and six months into the whole landscape of business-run changes,” he said.
It was not an easy time, to say the least.
“Our whole basis of our business was to create a social atmosphere where people can come together and socialize,” Surak said.
Thanks to their quality beer and quality customers, they nailed it. Now, although a little later than their original timeline, they are finally able to expand into a pizza kitchen as well.
It’s something that $10,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds the city of Akron can help get. Eighty-Three Brewery is one of 100 local small businesses the city awarded $10,000.
“If we had done all of this up front, in the beginning, I don’t know how we would have managed a new business with the food side and then COVID shutting everything down at the same time,” he said.
According to a city press release, of the 100 businesses, 43 are minority-owned and 40 are women-owned. Applicants selected for the grant money represent companies as diverse as bars and restaurants, healthcare, auto repair, barbers, entertainment, construction and more.
“We hear stories every day of how our small businesses stepped up during the height of the pandemic to care for their customers, their employees and their communities,” Director of Strategic Development Catey Breck said in the press release. . “These grants are our way of mitigating the effects they experienced from COVID-19 and returning these once-in-a-generation funds back to the community. We’re excited to support our small businesses in this way.”
For Brent Wesley, better known as Wesley the Keeper, the funds are a sweet reward for keeping his head up and chasing his dream. He is the owner of Akron Honey.
“We decided to become a full-time brand when the pandemic was in full force,” he said. “We’re really into flavor, by way of honey. We look at what people eat and create honey flavors that work really well with everything they eat.”
Akron Honey is also expanding their operations. Wesley said the money will be used for the equipment he needs to do that.
“It can do a lot of different things for a small brand, for bigger brands maybe like one or two things, but for us it does a lot,” he said. “It allows us to grow with some of the equipment that we have so that we can have better efficiency and also so that we can so that we can prepare in the future to rely on the food experience a little bit better .”
To learn more about Akron ARPA business recipients, click here.
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