The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Brew Bus hits all the right spots
It’s no secret that Cleveland, well, Northeast Ohio, is a drinking culture.
Before the “renaissance” and national media dubbing Cleveland “The Comeback City,” and before the figurative explosion of gastropubs, bistros and breweries both independent and chain, citizens here unabashedly get their drink on.
Of course, the only problem is getting around from place to place.
Serious bar hoppers and social drinkers alike, though, are afforded many options to avoid drinking and driving. With the advent of Lyft and Uber, bar hoppers continue to have options, though none seem quite as fun or educational than Cleveland Brew Bus.
More intimate than a party bus and more personal than limo service, the Cleveland Brew Bus was launched in 2013 by Strongsville couple, Bob and Shelle Campbell.
The vehicle takes beer enthusiasts on tours through different regions in the city, allowing hoppers to depart the bus and visit breweries where they enjoy tastings and historical information.
Eventually, the Campbells could no longer operate tours due to scheduling and respective jobs.
That’s when Leslie Basalla-McCafferty stepped in.
“I was working as frontof-house manager at Market Garden Brewery at the time and was in charge of giving brewery tours,” she said.
“Brew Bus was coming in on almost a weekly basis, so Bob and Shelle got to know me and the fact that I know my way around craft beer pretty well. When I decided that I was ready for a break from the restaurant industry, I offered them my services as a tour guide and volunteered my then-boyfriend, now-husband, Brian, as a driver.
“We started giving tours for them in March 2014, and within a couple of months I had taken over all aspects of running the company, save for keeping the books.
“By November, they had offered to sell the company to us. It was kind of a no-brainer — it was such a great opportunity, but it took us about five months to secure financing. We officially took over ownership in March of 2015, and it’s been non-stop ever since then.”
Like any small business, Leslie and Brian had their share of struggles and growing pains, but she said the overall trajectory has been upward.
“When Brian and I took over the company, I immediately set about streamlining and regularizing our operations. Under Bob and Shelle, we operated much more like a limo bus service—the education aspect was always there, but they catered a lot more to private parties and didn’t have any set routes or packages.
“Literally every tour was a customized experience that required extensive
email or phone communication to set up. People would send us booking inquiries and we would let them pick their itinerary and meeting location. It was labor intensive and time-consuming. I set up an online booking system and a set of tour routes and packages. People booking, say, one to four tickets could easily look at a calendar on our website, pick a route and date and buy tickets. We still give tours for big parties, but they usually have to reach out to us six weeks in advance of their desired date, and they have to pick from one of the packaged routes.”
Naturally, with different groups of people booking tours for everything from beer knowledge and tastings to special events, business equates to fun for the couple.
“We get a lot of guests booking large parties for special events—30th and 40th birthday parties seem to make us a sizeable chunk of our business, and in the warm weather months we definitely see an uptick in the number of bachelor/bachelorette parties on board,” she said. “We also get plenty of couples, friends and parent-child duos and the like booking a couple of tickets to explore, learn and spend an enjoyable afternoon or evening together. We are a safe way to visit and learn about multiple breweries while sampling a variety of their offerings. All of our tours visit three breweries and include a guided tasting of four beers per location.
“We, or a representative of each brewery, select the beers being sampled, so guests can try a huge range of styles and flavor profiles, with our guide explaining the style histories and tasting notes. I would say that, if we have a full busload of 20 guests, two to three of them are hardcore beer geeks, maybe homebrewers, who are really into the educational aspect of the tour. The majority are casual craft beer drinkers, who enjoy good beer but know very little about how it’s made or why they like the particular beers they enjoy, and are pleasantly surprised by the amount of knowledge we drop on them. Then there are usually a few who are not craft beer drinkers at all, who we try to convert. ”
The biggest thing Leslie and Brian want potential guests to understand is that Brew Bus is not a “party bus,” as they wish for more people to come our tours to learn about craft beer and expand their tastes, not to get “loaded and rowdy.”
“I work very hard, as do our other tours guides, to continually expand my beer knowledge so that I can offer truly expert guidance and bring a ton of information to our guests,” she said. “Even if you’ve been to every brewery in Cleveland 1,000 times, visiting a brewery with us is a different experience, and you’ll get more out of it than if you went on your own. If you come into our tour with an open mind and palate, and are willing to give everything we put in front of you a chance, even if it’s out of your usual beer style box, you’ll have a great time and maybe find some unexpected new favorites.
“Our tours are also a great opportunity to get out of your neighborhood and visit new places— we get a lot of suburbanites who very rarely go to Ohio City or Downtown, and westsiders who rarely go out east and vice versa. When you take one of our tours, you will have an opportunity to sample some world-class beers, have a delicious meal, learn about Cleveland’s craft beer scene and hang out with friends or even make new friends. If you don’t have a good time, it’s probably not our fault.”