R. Shea Brewing - Canal Place Downtown Akron

Love their beer. New spot has been crowded and happy to see that. Beer as always is very good. That orange shandy is super. Polymer is my favorite beer perhaps anywhere. Nice folks at the bar too.

Wow! A real upgrade from the Merriman Rd location. Canal Place has been waiting for this revitalization for years. The R. Shea portion is clean, attractive and spacious. The eating/drinking area overlooks the brewing area so you can look down and watch beer happen while you eat. There are seats away from the brewing area if watching brewing is not your thing. The servers are courteous, helpful and friendly. They offer a good selection of things to eat and plenty of beer choices. The quality of the beer is very good as evidenced by the expansion of the brewery to this location. The serving area was full but it is quite spacious and never felt crowded. Even while the bar was busy, I received service that was prompt. Highly recommend!

It's amazing to see the industrial skeletons of the BFGoodrich complex coming back to life. It couldn't be more fitting for this area to be reborn, in part, with beer.

The new large scale R. Shea production facility is couched smack dab in the middle of what one might have considered an industrial wasteland at one time. It's now becoming a pretty active area full of smaller businesses, restaurants and breweries. You can walk back and forth between Missing Falls Brewery and R. Shea without even going outside. The interior is absolutely massive, so much so that when we came in, there might have been enough people inside to pack the Valley location to the gills, yet it seemed relatively slow in light of all the expansive spacing. It only got busier and busier as time went on, giving them a true challenge to meet head on and right away. They've chosen to keep as much of the industrial interior in tact, and it actually gives it a museum-like vibe at times. The place is an absolute behemoth, and it's really interesting to just walk around and take in the sights.

They're taking on the increased responsibility of being a full-service restaurant, with a large booth seating area in a more mellow space behind the larger bar, and family-style tables out in the open. They also have smaller tables overlooking the wide open brewing area below, a very long, large bar that wraps completely around the primary tap station, and a smaller satellite bar not yet in service, where some smaller high tops fill out the area nearby.

Coming in on opening weekend was an experience I knew wouldn't be perfect, but they did well and were all receptive to the changes they were obviously working with each other on making, adapting by the second to the new challenges of the space. I found that the beer has the same signature touch it has in the Valley so far, but I'm not sure if everything was brewed here or elsewhere, being so early in this location's timeline. One of the new NEIPAs they had on was absolutely delicious and pretty much the best R. Shea beer I've ever had, while the sweet pastry style beers were still a little underwhelming for me. This isn't a huge mark against them because as they are, they continue to be a big hit with the crowd, being relatively lighter, easy drinking.

I'm sure the food is going to take some time to dial in as they get used to running a larger full-service restaurant. I found the bbq pork pizza to be pretty tasty (although I'm not sure why it was called Cajun), but was not quite sure if the dough was made in-house. The salad needed some love, lacking in toppings and dressing, but I wasn't mad about it. I love the sandwiches they make in the Valley, so I'm sure people will come in expecting a good experience and Ron will work hard to deliver that.

Considering how much they learned and grew in the Valley, and how quickly that process moved along, I only see them improving on this already high bar they've set for themselves in kicking off opening day.