(bright music) - Hey out there, Akronites.

Welcome once again to "Around Akron with Blue Green."

And wow, we're gonna go visit some really cool places.

We're gonna head over to Stonehedge and learn all about their game rooms and, of course, their bowling.

We're gonna meet up with The Pierogi Lady and learn all about her amazing pierogies.

And then we're gonna break some stuff at the Rage Room Ohio.

Now, to kick this show off today, we're gonna head over to Hartville Kettle Cooked Potato Chips.

Now, if you know me, you know, I love my potato chips.

Let's go see what Hartville Kettle Cooked Potato Chips are all about.

(soft acoustic guitar music) - My cousin Ted Robb, he actually used to own OK Potato Chips.

So for our family, potato chips were a thing.

I can remember goin' to family parties, We would have a bag of OK Potato Chips.

A lot of people in the area remember OK Potato Chips as the local potato chip out of Kenmore and then Barberton.

People remember goin' to those locations, being able to buy a can of potato chips, get 'em hot, fresh, right out of the fryer.

(soft acoustic guitar music continues) Ted Robb, once he sold OK Potato Chips back in the early 1990s, he signed a non-compete.

And when he signed a non-compete, he started selling potato chip equipment all around the United States and actually internationally as well.

When Anthony and I had a business idea to start a potato chip company, we went to Ted Robb.

And ironically, that was exactly when his non-compete ran out.

So we really started throwin' around the idea of bringin' back a local potato chip company.

And since he had the understanding, we didn't have to really reinvent the wheel.

We basically did everything the way Ted Robb used to do it at OK Potato Chips.

We bought very similar equipment.

We're runnin' the potato chips the same way.

We're usin' pretty much the same ingredients, potato, salt, and 100% soybean oil.

We did have to update it for today's FDA standards.

But you know, we're pretty happy with getting as close as we possibly could to that old OK Potato Chip.

(light electronic music) It's funny, the number-one question I always get is who makes our potato chips for us?

(chuckling) We make all of our bags of potato chips right here in Akron, Ohio.

And we're doin' it small-batch, kettle-cooked style.

We're doing about 90 pounds of finished product per hour.

And the way that we get that done is we have a Ford F-150.

So we're goin' basically to the farms and picking up our potatoes.

We're bringing 'em back here.

We're using a tow motor to get those crates of potatoes out of our truck.

And we take 'em back to our storage area.

We go on a Monday.

We take that Ford F-150.

We go pick up the potatoes.

And we cook 'em by Tuesday, Wednesday.

Unfortunately, potatoes are a very finicky thing.

As soon as you start moving 'em and transporting 'em, they start to break down very quickly.

So we wanna make sure that we're going to pick up fresh potatoes and cooking 'em as quickly as possible.

These are potatoes, unwashed.

So first they go through a rinse.

They go through a peeler.

Basically on the outside of the peeler, it's all sand paper.

And it just scuffs off the outside of the potatoes.

Comes out of the peeler.

We have an inspector inspect the potatoes, makes sure that they're the right right size, don't have any rot in 'em.

And then he moves 'em onto the conveyor belts basically.

We put a certain amount on the conveyor belts to go into each batch.

We're doing everything small batch.

So it goes in as one batch, it fries as one batch, and then it comes out as one batch, as opposed to most other potato chip companies.

They're using continuous fryers where potatoes are just continuously goin' into the fryer and comin' out of the fryer.

The way that we do it, you can really taste a difference in the flavor.

And it's a lot more simplistic.

Once we have the potatoes on the conveyor belt, they go through the slicer.

It drops the slices onto a high-speed conveyor belt.

And we shoot our potato chips directly into the hot fryer.

Most other chip companies do a rinse and rinse out all the flavor at that point.

We don't do that.

Once they're in the actual fryer, they cook at anywhere from 320 degrees to 350 degrees for anywhere from five to eight minutes.

It goes into a basket, and then it's dumped onto a sorting table, which you could probably see right behind me here.

Actually, my mom is workin' right there.

So once the hot, fresh potato chips come out of the fry, my mom's there.

She's inspecting the potato chips again, makin' sure that there's no spots in 'em, makin' sure that they didn't overcook, making sure they didn't undercook.

Once she has gone through that, then she spreads 'em all out on the sorting table, we call it.

And then she hand salts it.

Once she's done hand salting it, makin' sure there's no bad chips in the batch, then she moves it down the conveyor belts.

The conveyor belts are especially timed so the chips have enough time to cool before they actually drop in the bags.

We actually have what's called a vertical form and fill bagger, which allows us to do a high volume of chips basically per batch.

We buy anywhere from 75,000 to a 100,000 to 150,000 bags at a time that come in rolls.

And it actually goes through the bagger.

It forms the bags.

The chips drop down into the bag.

And then we have our sealed finished product.

At that point, we have an employee pack the boxes and then put 'em into our inventory.

(light electronic music continues) I'm super excited about these barbecue potato chips.

The reviews so far have been phenomenal.

And I really think it's the next step.

We're already thinkin' about other flavors to bring out as well.

So as soon as we come out with the barbecue, Anthony and I are already thinkin' about new flavors.

And then, you know, the way our operation is set up, we could also get into the popcorn business as well or other snack foods.

It would be pretty easy to integrate those into our operation.

As we started Hartville Potato Chips, our business plan was really to bring back the OK Potato Chip, to bring back that old-style potato chip where you're not rinsing out the starches, where you're just usin' simple ingredients.

We wanted people to remember OK Potato Chips and try our chip and say, "These are very similar "if not exactly like the old OK Potato Chips."

(light electronic music continues) - Next up, we're gonna head over to Stonehedge, that place off a Route 8 that we've all seen.

Now, if you don't know what this place is all about, they have an amazing bowling set-up and tons of games in their game rooms.

Let's go see what Stonehedge is all about.

(person speaking indistinctly) (bowling pins knocking) - You know, basically you really don't need to walk in with anything if you don't want to, because we have everything available.

Oh, if you have your own bowling shoes, you can bring that, obviously.

Of course we have rental shoes here and bowling balls available.

Sometimes we need to help people put their names in the computer and so forth if they're not computer savvy, but it's pretty simple once you get everything set up.

(bright music) It's been here 50 plus years.

There was a renovation since then, a major renovation.

The bar was actually on the other side, and they moved it over here and did a lot of different things with the renovation.

As far as the history, I mean, the owner that built the building is still here.

Fred Borden is the owner.

And he actually built the building and runs the center still to this day.

(lively music) We have some open bowling, and I have a Ladies League right now that's bowling down here on the other end.

But through the week, we're pretty much full of leagues in the evenings.

They can contact us if they're interested in a league.

We talk to 'em about what day of the week is good for them and figure out what fits for them.

High school bowl is the biggest growing thing in high school sports.

We just finished up our high school tournaments.

We had sectionals here for Summit County and Stark County, for D-I and D-II.

We do adult tournaments as well.

We have a group named HDP that does a lot of tournaments and sweepers here.

And it's pretty popular.

They do a nice job when they come in and run these tournaments.

(lively music continues) Bowling, you use more muscles than you ever realized.

It is very good exercise.

And you know, even for the little kids.

We can put the bumpers up.

We have the ramps.

So bowling is really, I mean, even for people with disabilities, we have a wide range of things that they can use so that they can still bowl.

And to me, it's an all-around sport and a lifetime sport that people can do.

You know, we don't have anybody that sits on the bench, so to speak.

Everybody can participate.

(bright electronic music) Yeah, we have pinball games behind our bar area.

And down at the other end, we have pool tables down there.

We have an arcade area for the kids and the adults.

And we also, of course, have our bowling.

We have 48 lanes.

Then we have a putt-putt course that we use in the summertime.

Right now, it's under renovation.

But we do have an outside venue that we occasionally use in the summertime.

We also have dart boards down by our pool tables.

Those are actually a new edition in the last year and a half.

(bright electronic music continues) The pinball is a very big attraction right now.

We have a lot of people that come in pretty regularly to play pinball all the time.

And they love it.

I mean, people walk in here, and they say, "Wow, you've got a lot of pinball machines," which probably, we've got a good selection.

And the gentleman that takes care of 'em for us does a good job of trading them out on occasion just to keep everything fresh.

We do have a pro shop by the front door, the Cutting Edge Pro Shop.

And he sells bowling balls, drills bowling balls.

Actually sells dart equipment too for the dart machines.

And he does a very nice job.

A couple of our our people that work here offer lessons as far as bowling.

The owner's actually the one-time U.S.A. Olympic team coach, Fred Borden.

He and Jeri Edwards both coached for the Olympic team.

(energetic electronic music) We do our lunar bowling from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.

Right now we do it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

And that is for adults only, 18 and over.

We feel it's better that way.

And it's a very different atmosphere.

It's a lot of loud music, so to speak.

And people are just here, recreation-type bowler.

(bright electronic music) I guess the reason I've been here so long is because, especially our league bowlers, they become like family.

And that's something that, you know, your friends you see every day or every week, once a week if they bowl once a week.

That's, I guess, what's kept me here so long and kept a lot of us here so long.

Because people become friends, and they're kinda like family.

I mean, I've known some of these people for 35 years.

They become just like family.

(bright electronic music continues) - Next up, I'm gonna meet up with The Pierogi Lady.

So let's forget about those boxed pierogies we all grew up with and learn about real pierogies.

Let's go see what The Pierogi Lady is all about.

(bright music) - The first thing I remember cooking is potato and cheese pierogi with my grandma in Peninsula, where we grew up.

She made them weekly for our family to eat on Sundays.

When my grandma made pierogis, we rolled the dough on the counter with a rolling pin.

She had already made the potato and cheese filling, and my job would be to pinch the pierogis.

She would scoop and fold the pierogis, and I would pinch as a little girl.

(bright music continues) Pierogis are Polish or Eastern European dumplings, most traditionally filled with potatoes, sauerkraut, cabbage.

And we like to call them little pockets of love.

We make about 150 different kinds, including gluten-free and vegan and traditional.

(upbeat electronic music) We have a dough sheeter to roll out our dough, because rolling the dough by hand would take way too long for the amount of pierogis that we're putting out.

Everything else is handmade.

The girls scoop the filling into the dough, fold it, cut it, pinch it.

And it either gets packaged for restaurants or to sell retail from there.

We're making about 30,000 pierogies a week by hand.

(upbeat electronic music continues) I didn't realize the demand for pierogies when we started.

I knew people like them.

I knew it was my favorite food.

But it's very, very popular in this area.

And it brings back a lot of feelings of tradition, memories with your grandparents or your parents making pierogi.

And a lot of cases, people's grandparents have passed away.

So now they don't have that feeling, you know, the nice comforting feeling of pierogis at home.

So they get a ours, and they say that they're closest thing to their grandparents.

And that's a great feeling.

(upbeat electronic music continues) I was laid off from a restaurant job back when everybody was getting laid off from their jobs.

And I really didn't want to go back to work for somebody else.

So pierogi making was the only thing I knew how to do that could be a viable business.

And I wasn't even really sure if it could be a viable business at that point.

So started making pierogis.

And our first farmers market was in Tremont, and we made $400, and that blew my mind.

And it was off to the races from there.

Basically, we started doing farmers' markets.

And from there, we would meet people like we did the farmers market in Hudson.

And we met Kevin and J.J. from Hudson's Restaurant, and they started carrying our pierogis on their menu.

They were our very first customer.

And then it kind of went from there.

We sell to about 30 restaurants in the Akron and Cleveland area.

We started selling to some small grocery stores around town and all the way out to Chardon and Youngstown, lots of little stores, butcher shops that like to get our pierogis out.

They go great with a steak or pork chops.

So you can find our pierogis in packs of six in the freezer sections at your local butcher shops or small grocery stores.

If you can't find them at the store near you, you can visit us on Facebook.

And we post a weekly delivery menu.

We are hoping to open a store in the next couple months.

(light music) Besides the home delivery and selling to restaurants and grocery stores, you can find us at popular festivals, farmers markets around the area.

We set up at breweries all over town, and people come and have pierogis.

And we usually have chicken paprikash and haluski along with that, and those items are very popular.

(light music continues) So when you get our pierogis, they've already been boiled.

So the most important thing is don't boil them.

You can saute them, which is the way I grew up eating them.

Some people like them just boiled.

So you could heat them with a little bit of water to eat them like that.

They can be steamed, deep fried, air fried.

That's very popular now.

Baked, takes on a little bit of a different texture, but they're so good.

(light music continues) Cheeseburger, very popular.

We also make one we call Kitchen Girl, which is like a Galley Boy in a pierogi, very tasty.

Cubanos are really popular.

It's just like a Cuban sandwich without the bread but in a pierogi.

They're delicious.

(light music continues) Traditional potato cheddar is always going to be number one.

It's a safe bet.

You don't have to wonder if you're gonna like it.

Kids like it.

Everybody loves potato cheddar.

(light music continues) - Now, to wrap this show up today, we're gonna head over to the Rage Room Ohio.

You ever wanna break somethin'?

You ever wanna smash somethin' up to release some anger?

Well, this is the place you wanna visit.

Let's go see what the Rage Room Ohio is all about.

(lively electronic music) - Well, I would have to say I was a little bit destructive.

I used to have a lot of go-karts and dirt bikes and stuff.

And constantly wreckin' and tearin' up my parents yard.

They weren't super excited about that.

(lively electronic music continues) I used to be in the escape room business.

I kind of follow economic trends.

And things were slowin' down, and I decided that it was time to move on, so I sold.

And I had seen that rage rooms were steadily on the rise, and then I had seen that there was none in Ohio.

So we just kinda went all in, head first.

And it's been probably the best experience I think I've ever had.

(playfully ominous music) We first opened, we had a 18-year-old girl with brain cancer, came in with her family.

After the session, she came over and just hugged me and said this is probably the most crazy experience, beneficial experience, that she's been through.

And I can only imagine what she's been through.

It's something we didn't really expect.

You know, we've had a lot of cancer patients, people just going through tough times, losing loved ones.

And the experience overall has been just overwhelming.

We have people coming in here after sessions, hugging us, saying that they cannot believe something like this exists and how beneficial it's been to them.

And overall, I think we've been touching a lot of lives since we've been open.

Our main thing is we wanna give back to the community in a mental health sort of aspect.

We raise money for Red Oak Behavioral of Akron, children struggling with behavioral issues.

We have raised money for SAM Center, serving area military.

Last year, we actually fed 7,000 military families.

And then we also raise some money for Not Just October, a breast cancer foundation.

(lively electronic music) So you have a couple different packages to choose from, two people up to four.

Obviously, the bigger packages, you get more variety of items, windshields, cases of wine, liquor bottles, dishes, electronics, pretty much anything you can think of to smash up.

We started out with baseball bats, and then we moved into crowbars, sledgehammers, you know, different things like that.

Unfortunately, a lot of things don't hold up too well.

So those pretty much are our main items that we use.

(lively electronic music continues) We offer a couple different add-ons.

We have some apparel that we sell.

We also have USB videos, has your whole experience on the thumb drive that you get to take with ya and kind of relive the memory.

Definitely some good clips come out of those.

Sometimes people don't realize in the moment what they're doin' or saying.

So it's pretty interesting to watch sometimes.

(lively electronic music continues) As of right now, we have a lot of relationships with bars, wineries, thrift shops, you know, a lot of things like that.

We're currently in the works to start an electronics disposal business of our own.

And the way we have it set up is we can do it all for free 'cause it's inventory we use and then take the recycling to the proper places.

(relaxed electronic music) We have a rage painting, more for children or just people that don't feel as rageful.

(chuckles) They kinda just get to take out their inspiring side by throwin' paint around.

We use syringes, paint brushes, paint squirt guns, and they just get to shoot paint all around the room.

(relaxed electronic music continues) We do a lot of team building.

Do have families on occasion.

We've done different team-building things for major Fortune 500 companies, Lincoln Electric, Goodyear, a lot of different large places.

And it seems to be beneficial.

Sometimes life and business and things can get stressful, and they can come in here and just kind of rage out together.

And everybody leaves kind of calm and bonded.

(chuckles) (relaxed electronic music continues) Unfortunately with the way the world is right now, rage seems to be steadily on the rise.

I think we're definitely, you know, curbing that by helping people relax a little bit.

And yeah, it's been very great.

We're looking to expand, buy a bigger facility.

We're gonna start moving into food fight rooms, especially for children and different things.

'Cause you do have to be 16 and up right now to do the rage room.

(relaxed electronic music continues) - Thank you once again for watching this episode of "Around Akron with Blue Green."

If you have any questions or comments, just wanna drop me an email, you can reach me at www.aroundakronwithbluegreen.co, or you can catch me on social media.

Thank you!

And have an amazing day.

(bright electronic music) Next up, we're gonna head over to Stonehedge.

Now, if you don't know what that place is all about, and you've seen it on route.

Nah.

(bright electronic music continues) Bleh.

(laughs) I'm gonna learn all about.

I'm gonna learn all.

(scoffs) I'm gonna learn.

(scoffs) (bright electronic music continues) I'm gonna head over to Stonehedge and check out their amajing.

Ugh, bleh.

(bright electronic music continues)