Jackie O's is continuing to expand as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Jim Fuller, 61, has lived in Athens his entire life and for the past 12 years has gathered together with a group of friends Wednesdays and Fridays — Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery has become their regular bar to congregate at.
“It’s large enough that our friends can get together. We’re the older crowd, of course. We’re townies. We have our group that gets together Wednesday and Friday afternoons called 'Jon’s Gentz.' "
Chris Dodd, a bartender, has been working at Jackie O’s since May, but said he doesn’t know what to expect for the 10th anniversary celebration.
“Everybody here knows how to have fun, so it should be a good night,” he said.
This weekend, Jackie O’s is celebrating its 10th anniversary Friday and Saturday with specialty beers, food specials and nine live music acts, including Hellnaw, DJ Barticus, Uptowne Buddha and more.
Throughout the 10 years, Jackie O’s has increased production and is continuing to grow.
“I think in the microbrew community, it’s hard to make it,” A.J. Castro, a bar manager, said. “There’s so much competition out there. Craft beer has become all the rage. There are microbrews popping up all over the place, so I guess to be able to produce on the scale we’re producing with the quality of beer we have, it’s a pretty special thing.”
Because Jackie O’s is currently working on expanding its brewery, Liam McDonald, pub brewer, said the company will have greater ease meeting the demand for its products overall.
“It just means more beer and more happy customers all over Ohio,” he said.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="103cb33c-72a6-11e5-b121-0766ca35f855"}}
Despite other breweries recently opening around Athens, Castro said Jackie O’s has not been greatly affected, as the “craft world” seems to support each other as much as possible.
McDonald added that there hasn’t been much of an effect because Jackie O's does business outside of Athens, too. Instead, he said the other breweries in town can have a positive effect.
“It just gives more people another reason to come to Athens from other places,” he said. “It’s more awareness about the craft beer industry.”
McDonald has been working at Jackie O’s for more than a year and said the aftermath of the fire demonstrated the establishment’s resilience.
“The fire was big for us last year,” he said. “It was really nice to see all the employees and people from the community rallying around us and the other businesses that was affected.”
Castro, who previous was the general manager of The Union, only began working at Jackie O’s following the fire. He said he was the last person to leave The Union before the fire and having Jackie O’s welcome him with “open arms” was a humbling experience.
“Jackie O’s, as far as staffing goes, is full of hardworking brewers, artists, lots of unique individuals, and I guess it's been great to see how people from all different sorts of backgrounds can come together and pull something together as well as Jackie O’s has,” Castro said
Although Dodd only began working at Jackie O’s in May, he said he has seen the company grow since first arriving in Athens in 2008.
“I’ve been here for a good chunk of Jackie O’s existence — a majority of it at this point — and it’s good to see this business has continued to grow from a much smaller scale,” Dodd said. “It is cool to see at what point it has gotten to now and the plans for the future.”
@liz_backo
eb823313@ohio.edu
