Our Story: A Family Brewery Just Down from Chardon Square

Eleventhree is a family-owned brewery in the heart of Geauga County, half a mile down from Chardon Square and about 30 minutes from Cleveland. We pour our own craft beer, fire Neapolitan pizzas, and keep a curated wine and cocktail list for everyone else at the table. Kids are welcome, and so are dogs on the patio. Here's how we got here.

Dave and I had a plan to move to North Carolina. Life had other plans, and we ended up in Chardon instead. It turned into our version of the South, minus the sweet tea, and we haven't looked back.

We were dreaming up our brewery before we were even dating. Dave was the brewer, I was the one picturing the room, and we both knew we wanted a place where good beer and good food showed up together.

Finding the spot took a while. Between running businesses and raising three kids, we looked everywhere from Chagrin Falls to Fairport Harbor and found basements you couldn't brew in and parking lots you could barely fit a bike in. Then Covid hit. Bars and restaurants closed, and Dave's homebrewing took off. People wanted good beer, and he kept making it.

In December 2021, a Facebook post led us to an industrial space in Chardon, half a mile from the Square. We signed the lease and got to work. Our kids had a say in the floor plan. I took on the design: earthy tones, funky patterns, a little 19th-century boho mixed with modern minimalism, and a bar top made from a 100-year-old basketball gym floor. My mother-in-law, Marie, of Etc. on Erie, helped source the decor, which is how we ended up with all the mango wood, rattan, and wool. We wanted it to feel like the kind of place you'd walk into, grab a beer, and stay a while.

We opened our doors on June 30, 2023, with four beers on tap. Dave brews by night and writes software by day, and he's put a lot of himself into every batch since.

Once we found our footing, we added Neapolitan pizza, made to order and fired in a very hot oven, with the same care we put into the beer. Later came a curated wine list and house cocktails, so nobody in your group gets left out.

About the name: Dave and I both wore number 11 on our jerseys growing up, and that number kept showing up in our lives. The 3 is for our three kids.

North Carolina and New England still have a piece of our hearts, and you can taste it in the beer. Dave's hazy New England IPAs are our little bit of the East Coast here in Ohio, and the sours and stouts have their own stories too.

So that's us. We're a family brewery in Chardon with beer, pizza, wine, cocktails, and room for your family too. Come in, say hi at the bar, and stay a while.

— Chelsea