Akron, Ohio

A century ago, Akron, Ohio, was a boomtown. It was the fastest-growing city in America. In the heyday of American industry, Akron was home to the mighty manufacturing apparatus responsible for putting rubber between cars and roads. Goodyear’s blimps still float lazily overhead—spotted with the frequency you might notice jetliners in any other city—but the smokestacks no longer puff, and Akron has settled in to become a very pleasant, middle-size, middle-class, middle-Western town.

As the Rust Belt oxidized, Akron shrunk by a third from 1960 to 2010, now having just under 200,000 residents. It still has great bones: A lush national park separates it from Cleveland, which is 40 miles to the north, and Akron boasts a bounty of beautiful architecture and cultural treasures left behind by the captains of industry as they fled south for favorable labor laws and the sunny skies that keep the unwitting dupes under their employ happy between shifts at the widgetry.

Akron is pure Americana, home to a restaurant with a legitimate claim to inventing the hamburger and the host of the All-American Soap Box Derby Championship. It’s also worth noting—with appropriate irony—that Akron is the birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Slowly, but very surely, Akron is coming into its own as a beer town, with more establishments offering craft beers and Akron’s own breweries starting to emerge. Drink up, with a toast to the folks who made the tires that helped make America great—Akron had three respected breweries before Prohibition, so those fellas weren’t drinking fizzy yellow stuff, either.

The Lockview
The Lockview has long been the best beer bar in Akron, even when it was a shabby concert club called The Lime Spider (where Akron’s own The Black Keys played their early shows). The Lime had the first and best “chalkboard” list of beers in town before the owner (wisely) decided noisy rock music was scaring away his more sophisticated customers and turned it into an upscale joint. A great grilled cheese sandwich remains, as does the best view in town from its rooftop patio.

Hoppin’ Frog Brewery
Hoppin’ Frog has quickly established itself as Akron’s top craft brewer, jockeying for the position with Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing. Known for their Imperial Stouts, they took home a gold at 2008’s Great American Beer Festival for their B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal-Imperial Stout. They have a retail shop (with a liberal tasting policy), but no restaurant or bar.

West Point Market
This premium supermarket has been around for 75 years and is famous for its wine selection—executives for the rubber companies living in the neighborhood demanded a sommelier long before most Midwestern towns this size knew such a thing existed. They’ve accommodated the growth of craft beer quite nicely, and now carry a sizable selection. The prices aren’t always ideal, but the service is incredible—they’ll even carefully package your purchase and carry your bottles out to your car for you.

69 Taps
The name says it all. This fratty downtown pub has 69 taps, some of them boring macrobrews, the others, great craft creations. This isn’t a snobby place—you’ll likely be surrounded by drunk college kids, and don’t expect tasting notes from the bartenders—but there is a big selection and small prices.

Primo’s Deli
This tiny deli is known for great pastrami sandwiches, and it also offers a large selection of craft and import beers. The clerks are big on Belgians.

Thirsty Dog Brewing
Thirsty Dog does a good job with a Tripel (made using four kinds of Belgian yeast) and a variety of traditional German styles. Must-tries include Siberian Night Imperial Stout, the surprisingly hoppy Red and their Porter.

Chris’ Akron Brewing Co.
When it opened it as Ohio Brewing Co., the owner ambitiously tried to do the brewpub thing with an expensive location in the heart of downtown. That fizzled, perhaps partly because the place was decked out in Ohio State Buckeyes memorabilia despite sitting directly across the street from The University of Akron. The bottling operation lives on, with a few nice offerings, like the well-regarded Kölsch, a Red and an Altbier.

Metroburger [closed]
845 West Market Street
metroburger.com
Akron is known for its hamburgers. The national hamburger festival is there every August, and Metroburger has a reasonable-seeming story for how it invented the American staple. The best-loved Akron burger places are drive-in’s (check out Swensons and Skyway), which don’t lend themselves to beer-drinking for obvious reasons. Metroburger is an attempt to bring the modern burger restaurant into a demanding town. Thankfully, that means adding a list of craft beers.

The Grape & Granary
This homebrew store has been around since 1992. The helpful staff, large stock and low prices make it a favorite among homebrewers from a five-county area.

Acme Fresh Market
Acme is an Akron-based chain of 16 regular ol’ grocery stores that BA’s have recognized for doing an incredible job championing regional craft beer. Unlike other local grocers, you can pull a four-pack of Founders Breakfast Stout out of the cooler there.

The Winking Lizard
Located in an old house in Peninsula, Ohio, just outside the city limits in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, this a wonderful spot to stop after strolling along the canal towpath that goes up to Cleveland. The Lizard carries 100 or so bottles and they always have something new or seasonal on tap. ■