Historic Brewery Bans Children Amid Customer Complaints

With more and more breweries and beer gardens popping up around the country over the past decade, it's becoming increasingly difficult for beer lovers to enjoy an adult beverage in the company of, well, strictly adults. That's why one brewery in Cleveland, OH recently made the decision to go "kid unfriendly" by banning any minors under the age of 16.

Forest City Brewery, which is located on the site of the country’s oldest beer garden, enacted the new rule due to unsupervised children wreaking havoc on the historic grounds. Owner Jay Demagall chalked the frustration as "kids being kids." However, as Demagall told Cleveland's 19 News, the situation "became exacerbated when it was becoming a safety issue and parents weren’t monitoring the children."

"I came in here to use the restroom and there were five kids over there, throwing things around and breaking things," he explained. "We have to do something." In addition to some customers complaining about the kids and their behavior, Demagall said that staff had also voiced concerns.

And while the policy may alienate some families, it seems like Forest City will be a respite to those who don't want to deal with unruly kids. "Good. Road trip to Cleveland is now on the to-do list," commented one user on a Facebook post. "Why would people bring their kids here anyway?" asked another. "There are just some places you don’t take them and this is one of them! And teens don’t belong here either."

However, Demagall has not ruled out allowing children back in the future, provided there's a way it can be done responsibly. "We are still looking at some ways to include kids out here but where we can do it in a safe manner, where we can have someone monitoring an area or a situation," he added.

Forest City has been open for nine years on the same lot as what is believed to be the oldest beer garden in America. Atlantic Beer Garden, which originally was opened by a French family in 1865, remained open until about 1915 when part of the garden was taken up by a warehouse.

"The beer garden is the only original beer garden that remains in Northeast Ohio. It is also the oldest beer garden in Ohio, and possibly the United States," Demagall told Cleveland.com back in 2019. He added that to this day, there were even trees still standing on the site from the days of the original Atlantic Beer Garden.