***Disclosure: I was invited in by Foundry Social and Eat Local Ohio for an event. As always my opinions are 100% my own.***
I was invited to an event at Foundry Social, in Medina, Ohio last night. Foundry Social is part of The Foundry which consists of Foundry Social, Mad Brewing Company, and High Voltage. This event was for all the influences in the Cleveland area and it brought out the best of the best. I met some amazing people that really provide inspiration for what I do. It was nice to be in a space with all these amazing influencers that you get to know on social media but haven’t met in person. The other honor of the night was getting the chance to meet the owners of The Foundry, Greg, Steve, Brian and Gene. They are some of the nicest, down to earth people, who really created this space as a passion project. Just seeing their excitement when describing to us what they set out to do when starting this project, how it’s been going and future plans for other sections of the building. You could see and feel their passion for this project.
I was lucky enough to get some of the back story of this building. The whole structure of the building was pretty much left as is. They did sand down the ceilings but you can still tell the age and history of the building which is amazing. The Foundry is a massive building with 135,000 square foot footprint. It was built in 1871 and added onto multiple times. The Foundry building was many things through out the years from a place where they made/poured pots and pans to CLE Furnace Company to various other things. The facility closed in the late 1990’s and was abandoned for years and at that time the neighborhood was not the greatest. The 4 owners came in started High Voltage in March of 2015 and then began their journey of creating this gaming event center. It’s a passion project for them as well as a way for them to give back to the community. You can tell from just talking with them how much they care about the people of Medina and giving back to the area. All the partners come from an IT background and have done a lot of the work on the building themselves. From the lighting and acoustics to building the fire pit outside. I love everything they have put into it.
On to our event! We started with a cocktail hour outside in the covered pavilion. Where we mingled and got to meet the team that hosted the event, the owners, and marketing team of Foundry Social, and Abraham from Eat Local Ohio for the first time. You can rent this area out and a small side note. One of the owners told a story about a celebration of life they hosted in there. Well there is a big chalk board on the back wall and the family used it to write all kinds of nice things about the gentleman who passed. I loved hearing this story! From there we walked the red carpet and headed to the event room for introductions, some background on the business and dinner. They provided us with Go Carting at High Voltage, duckpin bowling, and tokens to play some games. I chickened out when it came to the go cart, but Chelsea from Summer in CLE held it down and was brave enough to get out there. The go carts are from Italy and are super fast. We also duckpin bowled which was so much fun!
They have corn hole, bocce, Skee Ball and billiards in addition to all the things we did. They serve a full food menu, brew beer through Mad Brewing Company and have bands certain nights of the week. They host events such as birthday parties, micro weddings, company outings and it’s the perfect place to do this as there is something for everyone.
There are so many plans for the future as the building is huge and they can do so much more with it. We did get to see the next new project which is a surprise so I can’t tell you much except the room is perfect for what they are thinking up and I love the look and feel of this area of the building.
I was here years ago when it was just High Voltage and everything else was under construction. I’m so grateful I was invited to come see the finished or currently finished project. It is slightly off the main path in Medina but it is worth the drive. You can spend all day there. They have so many other ideas in the works and I can’t wait to see what the future holds. This is a must visit. If you haven’t been I highly suggest it.
We had such a great time! Thanks again Foundry Social and Eat Local Ohio for inviting us!