Stark Bites: UnHitched Brewing to offer lunch; Stark Flavor Coffee Crawl through Aug. 1

Fans of UnHitched Brewing Co. in downtown Louisville will be excited to know the brewery and eatery soon will offer lunch.

In an announcement on its Facebook page, UnHitched said it will be launching lunch service this summer, starting July 20. Lunch will be served in the former Palmer Market space, at 228 E Main St., beside UnHitched.

When the former Palmer Market space became available, the team at UnHitched planned to use it as a private event space and thought it also would serve as a good lunch spot.

"Up to this point, we have only been able to offer semi-private events in our brewhouse. So with the new space, we thought it would be good to offer lunch service on the days we are currently open,” UnHitched owner Adam Longacre said. “Our main taproom really isn't conducive to lunch service on most days with Garret brewing and Alex and his team prepping for the culinary side of things throughout the day. By having a separate, enclosed room, lunch can be executed without competing against the noise of prepping, cleaning, etc.”

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Expect to see some favorites from UnHitched’s taproom menu as well as some lunch-only dishes. Longacre said the menu will have standard lunch fare, including a selection of salads, sandwiches and some snacks from the dinner menu plus a dessert or two, and of course, beer and the entire beverage list from the taproom, also including wine, cocktails and soft drinks.

“We anticipate a good amount of to-go orders, so we are designing a menu that will be quick pick-up items in the kitchen. We will have some items from our dinner menu with lunch-only items, as well,” Longacre said. “In the end, high-quality food and beverage experience people expect when they come to UnHitched, whether in for a quick bite or some day drinking with a Smashburger.”

Lunch will be available from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the space at 228 E. Main St. Longacre said they’ll start with those hours and explore expanding hours into the earlier part of the week if there’s a demand for it.

He also mentioned he believes having the space on Main St. will help drive traffic to the brewery, as its front is around the corner on the less busy South Mill Street.

UnHitched Brewing opened in late October 2019, and it has been popular since. Being the only brewery in Louisville, it brings in a lot of locals, and its delicious food, expansive craft beer menu and unique vibe bring in guests from all over.

Guests can enjoy dinner in the taproom, brewhouse and at the bar, and, in the summer, the outdoor patio space is open.

In the taproom, table service is offered, and tables are also equipped with QR codes, allowing guests to order and pay via smartphone.

UnHitched is at 115 S. Mill St. in Louisville and is open for dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, with the kitchen closing one hour prior to closing time each day.

Stark Flavor Coffee Crawl goes through Aug. 1 

There’s still time to participate in the Stark Flavor Coffee Crawl. Ending Aug. 1, the coffee crawl was set up as a way for people to support local coffee shops and get a little something in return for doing so.

This isn’t the first coffee crawl to come from the Stark Flavor team. In November 2020, it was Stark Flavor’s pilot program. The turnout was good.

“We had a great response to doing a coffee crawl back then, so we thought it would be the perfect theme to relaunch to set us up for the full launch of our future Stark Flavor platform,” said Stark Flavor founder Mike Sturdivant.

This time around there are 12 participating coffee shops: Carpe Diem Coffee Shop, Front Porch Cafe, Muggswigz in downtown Canton and Lake Cable, Ohio Roasting Company, Pioneer Coffee Roasters, Shale Craft Coffee, Speak Easy Coffee, Tremont Coffee in Massillon and Perry Twp., Uptown Joe and  Whole Latte Love Cafe.

The idea is to stop in at these shops over time, not all in one day, with the goal of filling out your digital passport with stops at all 12 shops. Upon completion, you can choose between a custom-designed T-shirt or coffee tumbler.

To participate, visit starkflavor.com, and create an account. Once you have logged in, select “digital passport series” from the dropdown menu. From there, the list of coffee shops will show up.

When you arrive at one of the 12 locations, you will need to ask for the Stark Flavor code. To scan the QR code, open your phone’s camera and click the link when it pops up. This will take you to the Stark Flavor website and automatically check you in to that coffee shop.

After you make all 12 stops on the passport, the redeem button on the website will unlock, and you will be able to choose your free reward as a thank you for supporting locally owned small businesses.

That’s the whole mission behind Stark Flavor: supporting small business owners in Stark County.

Recent coffee shop openings: Tremont Coffee, Shale Craft Coffee open in North Canton; M&H Beans to open roastery

“Stark Flavor, in general, will be a full digital platform supporting various types of small businesses in the Stark County area,” Sturdivant said. “We are starting with businesses and the restaurant, bar brewery, coffee shop and winery areas, as well as a platform for small local based nonprofits.”

“We have other plans to expand into other areas towards the end of this year/next year that we are excited to announce at a later date.”

Beyond the coffee crawl, Stark Flavor has a few things in the works. The team recently announced it will be hosting a cigar and whiskey event in downtown Canton in September.

“This will be a limited ticket event that will also have an additional VIP option for those to come,” Sturdivant said.

“We’re also looking forward to featuring another passport around holiday time that we are also excited to announce at a later date once we finalize the participating locations!”

Pizza+ Buffet to host grand opening July 15

Pizza+ Buffet, the newest pizza buffet in town filling the space left vacant when CiCi’s Pizza closed, will be hosting a grand opening July 15.

In an announcement on its Facebook page, Pizza+ Buffet stated the grand opening will be at 11 a.m. at 4404 Belden Village St. NW in Jackson Township.

Prices were posted soon after. The adult dinner buffet, offered from 4 p.m. till close, will be $9.89. The adult lunch buffet, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., is $9.29. Kids buffets are $6.15 for ages 9 to 12, $4.60 for ages 4 to 8, and free with an adult buffet purchase for 0 to 3 years. Buffets for seniors 60 and older are always $8.29. Drinks, which are 16 oz., are $2.19.

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In a previous interview, owner Joe Scarborough said customers can expect the menu to offer about 17 pizzas on the buffet, three soups, a 25-item fresh salad bar, pasta and dessert pizzas.

Pizza+ Buffet will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday once it opens. Visit pizzaplusbuffet.com for more information.

Canton Chinese restaurant Lee’s Panda Garden open for dine-in and takeout

Lee’s Panda Garden, at 3619 Cleveland Ave. NW in Canton, was recently closed for indoor dining. The restaurant is now open for both dine-in and takeout.

Lee’s Panda Garden is open 3 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 3 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday. To place a takeout order, call 330-492-2108. Find Lee’s Panda Garden on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: UnHitched Brewing to offer lunch; Pizza+ Buffet to open July 15