Hey out there.

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

And you guessed it, we have an amazing show ahead of us today.

We're going to head over to Kenmore and check out the East Avenue Market.

Then I'm going to go over to Swensens and learn all about its rich 90 year history.

And then I'm going to wrap it up doing some drawings at Doctor Sketches down at Gillies.

Now to kick this show off today it's over to Kenmore to the East Avenue Market.

They have tires, they have a market, they have an art gallery.

They have something for everybody.

Let's go see what the East Avenue Market is all about.

So it started off a, Studebaker, place.

I think in the late, late 40s, maybe early 50s, I think.

And then it was a Toyota for a long time, and then it was Square Motors, then was ABC Motors, and then it was us.

Well, years ago, my husband and I, who passed away about two and a half, almost three years ago, bought a building on the east side of Akron.

And it was just a car wash. And we did that.

and then one day it came up that the city needed the space.

So we negotiated And we ended up with this building here on East Avenue.

It's a bigger building.

It's got a lot of footage a lot of things to do.

So we had our used car dealership and we had a U-Haul.

And then my daughter, she just said, why don't we go fix up this big space here and do a flea market?

So we did it and we did a flea market.

And then she says, well, why don't we just have a little market and they don't have to haul stuff.

They could just get a shell.

And we did that.

And then she had some experience working at, galleries, art gallery set between Cleveland and Akron.

And she said, why don't we do an art gallery?

And then that's when we started working on, making sure that we had the space and making sure that it looked more appropriate.

So my daughters and I, and at that time, my husband and my youngest son, he we all just started doing work, cleaning it up, pulling up the old stuff and sanding and sanding and sanding down to the concrete, which ended up red.

So we just kept it red.

That's why you have red concrete in here, and that's pretty much how it got started from, a couple of ideas.

One family working together.

Our family, we're full of artists.

My mom is an artist herself.

Growing up, arts was very important in our family.

we always traveled to DC in the winter or winter break to go to all the different galleries and see the different, museums.

And so growing up, that was just a fixture.

And what we did when we traveled, any city we went to, we always went to the art museum and checked out what, what artists were there and what what they were showing what the exhibitions were.

So, growing up, we all attended Miller South, which is a school for the visual performing arts.

my two sisters, one is a, professor of art.

She has her master's in fine art.

my other sister, she's a sculptor, and she also has her own cake business, which is Weezy Cakes.

So it's just something that was always ingrained in us and me kind of being the boss of the family.

Like bossing people because I'm the youngest girl.

It just always panned out of me kind of being like their assistant, their studio assistant.

Hey, make sure you're doing this drawing.

Make sure you put it in the show So it's always been, I guess, like fundamental within our, family structure.

If somebody is sitting and getting tires, if my husband's installing them that day, I can sit with them and talk.

That's going to take if they're getting a full set, usually around 45 minutes.

So then I can sit and have a conversation with them and I'll tell them about they'll walk around, they'll see whatever art is up, and I can talk to them in about the can journal and talk about art, and then that'll lead into talking about wheezy cakes.

Then I'm going to show them pictures about my cakes and they'll say, oh, I have a son has a birthday coming up, and they'll say, can you do this cake?

And now and then they'll get on my Instagram and I'll give my information and, you know, contact me for cake, or they'll have something else that they'll see here.

And oh, I want this.

And, and then they'll say, oh, I have, I have a person that does art and then they'll give me their number.

And so then there's another artist that we can put in the gallery, because we're open for the community.

We love to have the community here for art.

We love anyone who we can help to get up here and display their art.

That's what we want to do.

So if we meet somebody here and they say, my son does art, I'm going to get this his son's number and I'm going to call him and say, hey, you want to put some art here?

So it's it's just wonderful that we can have this space and then be able to talk to the public on a regular basis, because we could connect with them and they can connect with us.

And it just we find people that make wares.

And that's how a lot of people got in our market was because they came in as customers and they say, hey, I make jewelry and I'll show me this stuff.

And I say, you want to get a shelf here?

And that's how we got a lot of our local vendors here as well.

I just want to add to everybody to come on down, check us out, come in positive and leave even more positive.

Come in happy and leave happier.

And, you know, and support.

You know, if you know someone that has some art and they want to get it out.

Send them on down to us, you know, individuals that have poetry, dancing, you know, it just.

Yeah, send them down and we'll try and work it out with whoever comes in the door.

Next up, it's Swensens.

We're going to go learn all about their 90 year history and where they're going.

Let's go see what the history of Swensens is all about.

So we've got to go way back to 1933 to answer that question.

So the founder, a gentleman by the name of Wesley, his nickname was Pop Swenson.

He had he had a local buddy, was actually a local butcher named Guy Witte.

And the two of them worked together to develop this really unique, special blend of ground beef and started making hamburgers.

And, everyone in the area loved the hamburgers, so they began selling those hamburgers out of the back of Pop's station wagon, back in front of Buchtel High School back in the 30s.

So that was 1933, when the first Swenson's burgers were being sold out of the back of a station wagon.

The next year, in 1934, the first Swenson's stand was built.

And, you know, we call them stands because the first one that was built, it was just that it was probably 100ft², tiny little structure right over in West Akron in the Wall Haven neighborhood, on on Hawkins, Hawkins Avenue.

At that time, it was all dirt roads.

The concept, you know, it worked and it grew in the early 50s.

The the next location was opened, the North Akron location.

Next location opened in Stow in 1987.

And then the next one after that would have been Montrose in 1995.

So it took a long time for for Swenson's to grow.

But over these, these past 90 years now.

Swensons has really become a, you know, a local staple and a big part of the Akron community, and that's really what has led to a lot of our success, you know, over these past 90 years, is not just being a part of our communities, but loving our communities.

Our our job is to serve food, but our passion is really serving our communities.

So what started with just a great, unique blend of hamburgers decade after decade, really focusing on the consistency of that product, staying true to your roots and in ultimately, you know, understanding how important the people are.

And make no mistake about it, we sell a lot of hamburgers, but we are definitely in the people business.

And without all of the thousands of great team members that have come and gone through Swensens over the past 90 years, even a great hamburger would be nothing.

The drive in concept at Swenson's that that was first started way back when Pop Swenson still had the single location in West Akron and one of the the servers of that time.

He actually requested that he only wanted to work with with one server to be able to make a little bit more money, being able to serve more cars by himself.

And pop said to him at that time, well, that's fine, but I don't want any of my guests waiting for you to get to the car by yourself, so you better sprint, to every one of those cars that pulls in so that sprint and smile attitude, you know, that that friendly demeanor that you experience when you pull into swensens, you flip on your headlights and see one of our curb servers sprint to your car to greet you.

That was actually developed, you know, way back in the 30s.

You know, because Pop Swenson is a founder, you know, that was something that was very important to him, that customers were greeted as quickly as possible as as time went on in drive in restaurants, they they really became popular in the 40s and the 50s.

And then the speaker boxes started, you know, being introduced.

And then drive thrus became introduced in just more and more and more popular over the years.

But through all of those technological advancements that the spirit of that face to face customer interaction that's sprinkled in smile spirit that Swensens really prides itself on, that was something we didn't want to let go of.

So there have been many and many opportunities to try to replace that, that friendly face to face interaction with technology.

But if something that, you know, that's very important to our brand and we we at this point see no reason to move past it, you know, it's it's an important part of who we are and really love the fact that that we can bring that type of warm, welcoming experience with, with our curb servers.

The story of how the food truck came to be, that really it really goes back to being a part of our community and how we've earned the opportunity to be a part of all these special life moments for our guests.

The food truck started back in 2013.

Leading up to that, we saw this growing and growing number of requests for 50 burgers, a 100 burgers, 200 burgers to be delivered to someone's wedding reception at 10 or 11:00 at night on a Friday or Saturday night.

It was wonderful.

You know, we were we were so honored and so humbled for people to think of Swensens on such a special life moment, like a wedding.

But the reality of it was it was really taking a toll on the restaurant.

You know, we're busy, you know, at the stands at that period of time.

So to be able to then serve, you know, another 5000 or 200 burgers, you know, for a wedding order like that.

It was tough.

So we built the food truck, our first food truck, in 2013.

We put it on the road.

We didn't do any sort of preliminary advertising or marketing for it.

And then we ended up doing a hundred events.

In the first 100 days, I believe it was that we had that food truck, and it was just at that point it was, you know, it was just so clear to us, you know, the the need for, you know, the truck in all of these wonderful events the food trucks have just become a great opportunity for us to, to to play a bigger role in the communities that we serve.

Next up, it's all about that swenson's food and how the CEO worked his way up from the server all the way up to the top.

Let's go see what that swenson's food is all about.

Some of the secrets you know, especially, you know, the, you know, the special blend of of beef and spices that we use, that's that's part of the magic of Swensens.

One of the things that has been most fun for me over all of my 20 plus years at Swenson's is to hear some of those guesses you know, that people have as to what is it that's in the meat at Swenson's?

And I've heard so many wild guesses over my years.

I've heard great jelly, I've heard molasses, I've heard coffee grinds as an example.

So again, it's one of the things that really keeps it fun is to keep people guessing, you know, what is it that makes a delicious hamburger at Swenson's just so special?

But part of what really makes our menu so special is how little it has changed over the years.

You can grab one of our menus from the 90s, from the 80s, from the 70s, from the 50s.

And, and it was always really remarkable to me is just how little it has changed.

It's a very large menu.

You know, we have we have everything from galley boys to fried baloney sandwiches, sloppy joes, fried shrimp.

You know, it.

It really is a large and unique menu.

Some of those, you know, some of those really retro or heritage items that you just can't get.

Many places, our fried baloney sandwich is a great example.

It's a quarter pound slab of delicious baloney.

And, you know, it really, really brings a lot of people back.

Our sloppy Joes, you know, they're absolutely incredible.

And then everything is customizable.

You know, one of the, one of the best things I like to eat our menus is one of our grilled cheese sandwiches, but with our coney sauce on top of it.

So sandwiches, you know, we have so many great options.

And then sides, our potato teasers are so unique.

It's like a big tater tot with a jalapeño cheese sauce in the middle of it.

Again, it's just not something you can get many other places of course, we have French fries.

You've got amazing onion rings, you've got fried zucchini, we've got fried mushrooms.

We've got chicken nuggets, chicken fingers and then the drinks, you know, the California's the Florida's, the Ohio.

There are special ginger ale based drinks.

The California is mixed with grape.

The Florida is mixed with orange, the Ohio is mixed with cherry.

But the milkshakes, you know, the milkshakes are really, you know, the most special parts.

You know, of the drinks at Swenson's, we've got 18 different flavors.

Everything is made as you like it when you like it.

So those 18 flavors we have can all be mixed in any sort of variety you like.

Be something as simple as chocolate and strawberry.

It could be something a little more unique, like hot fudge and peanut butter.

You know, you could do something like a cherry, grape, orange, mint milkshake, you know, and that's okay.

It's part of the fun.

You know what?

Whatever you like, however you like it, you know, we we love to really take advantage of the fact that the our kitchens truly make everything to order when it's ordered.

So when it comes to customization, you know, that really gives us a great opportunity to serve our guests, you know, as they like to be served.

I'm an Akron guy, born and raised, went to grade school here in the Akron area, graduated high school here in the local Akron area, and then went in, got enrolled at the University of Akron.

And once I graduated from high school, once I was enrolled in college at the University of Akron, I went and got myself a job at Swenson's as a curb server.

If you're not aware, it's actually one of the really cool parts of our brand.

All of our curb servers are full time college students.

That's one of the prerequisites to to be a curb server with us.

I worked myself through school, graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Akron.

But during my time as a server at school, you know, I really found a passion.

I found a passion for the brand.

I found the passion for the restaurant industry.

And, you know, Swensens has always been, you know, a special part of my life in there was there was a part of me that really believed in, you know, the long term opportunity of this brand.

So in the back of my mind, I knew that if I could just put myself in the right position, you know, that that this brand really could grow, we could do special things with it.

And it'd be really fun to be able to, to show more than just for him how great you know, of a brand and how special this you know, this this whole experience Swenson's offers can be, so that curb server role turned into an assistant manager role.

Then assistant manager led to general manager led to district manager led to vice president.

And I've been CEO for nine going on ten years now.

So it's it's really been a, you know, a great journey for me.

And it was it was back in 2016 where you know really the the journey got incredibly exciting for me.

And that was when, you know, we we were put into an opportunity to finally grow this great brand.

And we opened one new unit up in the Cleveland area, really tried to figure out what growth was all about, you know, and we've since opened units in Cleveland, Columbus and all throughout Ohio.

Next up, it's down to Jillian's in the north side to meet up with Dr. Sketchy’s and do some drawing.

Let's go see what Dr. Sketchy’s is all about.

The Akron franchise.

Dr. Sketchy’s You started, I want to say, like, 15 years ago, there was another local artist.

his name was Bill.

He ran it with some friends, and then it eventually just kind of became him.

And then he had other projects that he wanted to work on.

And so he was looking for somebody to take it over.

And the three of us sort of volunteered from the audience, and we've been running it for about six years now.

Took a little time off of the for the pandemic, but, yeah, it's been to a couple of local bars in Akron.

we've been at Gilead's for a long time now, I think probably 8 or 9 years.

If you've ever been to a live drawing class at, say, a college or an art school or something like that, it's generally very quiet.

everybody, you know, is is very serious.

The lights are up pretty good.

So everybody you can see and everybody's very respectful of the model and things like that.

Dr. Sketchy’s.

The idea is to create a little distraction, I guess, so that people can can have a little more fun.

The idea is that drawing should be fun and it should be enjoyable.

It's in some people do like to, you know, be able to concentrate and things like that when they're, when they're working.

But the idea is that we're trying to create a little bit of distraction.

So you're not thinking so much about what you're drawing and you are.

Your art becomes almost more automatic, I guess, and there's other things going on, so you don't have to concentrate so much and you can kind of relax and just have fun with it.

We like to do three costumes, if you will, or three looks, so we have look one and those are the first hour of the show is usually warm up drawings.

We start with like one minute gesture drawings.

Just try and get the shape and and just loosen up your, your hand in your creative juices and things like that.

And then we go on to a little bit longer poses.

We'll do 2 or 3 minutes and then five minutes.

And usually like by the end of the night we're up to like 8 or 10 minute poses, sometimes 15 if it's if it's something really, dramatic.

but we do.

We've found that ten is usually about the limit.

People are people are like usually done by then.

They're like looking around on their.

It's it's called Dr. Sketchy’s.

And we like to have a little, a little wink and a nod in there, but it's just we're really trying to create a, create a community of of folks who who are sort of, like minded, who like to have fun when they draw.

Primarily we do.

We have historically had female models.

We we we did have one.

We did have one male model a couple years ago.

And, nobody showed up.

So, but we're, you know, we're open to, to, models of all male, female or non-binary.

Anybody, if they can, you know, hold a pose for a couple minutes, we're we're open to just about anybody.

Actually, my favorite part, Dr. Sketchy’s is that we have, you know, so I'm a caricature artist and a cartoonist, and we have people who do what, who bring in watercolors or chalks.

Occasionally, you know, somebody will bring an iPad working digitally.

just a whole host of, of, different media to, capture what's going on on stage.

and, you know, I'll what's great is everybody, you know, we bring up sketches for, at the end of the night or for contests and things like that, and you'll get to see other people's work and you'll get to see how they saw something, and you get to see their, you know, what techniques they brought to it.

And, you know, everybody, it kind of everybody learns from each other whether, you know, you're not careful, you might learn something.

The Dr. Sketchy’s show is every second Thursday of every month.

And it's always Angeles Music room.

If you want to sit and draw with us, it's it's, $10.

It's not a for profit operation.

All all of that money usually goes to, the models or for building props or things like that.

Just stuff to keep the, the, the operation going.

Jellies is great.

They have great drinks.

They have, small plates or snacking, you know, you get a, you get a drink, you get a, know snack, you get your sketchbook and you just have fun.

And the room is not so big that you know, people can hear what's going on, and, and so you can, interact with other artists, or you might end up sitting next to somebody who you don't know.

And, you get to learn from each other and that sort of thing.

We have been at capacity, for a couple of shows, and and, you know, it does occur to us that maybe we need to expand at some point.

But, you know, we have a we have a fantastic relationship with Jellies.

We bring in, you know, we bring it, we bring in a big crowd on a Thursday night, and they're they're appreciative of that.

And we appreciate them letting letting us use the space.

Do we have a plan for the future?

No.

We just kind of keep doing it.

Thank you once again for watching this episode of Around Akron with Blue Green.

if you have any questions or any comments, you can catch me on social media.

Thank you and have an amazing day.

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