LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Mahall’s -- the nearly 100-year-old bowling alley, music venue, bar and restaurant at 13200 Madison Avenue in Lakewood -- is in the process of changing ownership after a group of local concert and dining entrepreneurs signed a deal to largely take over the space.
Co-owner Kelly Flamos said she’ll exit her role as a bar owner in the summer of 2022, selling her full 50% ownership stake to a holding company formed by BravoArtist founder Cory Hajde. Fellow co-owner Joe Pavlick has sold 25% of his share to Hajde’s group, keeping a 25% minority ownership stake in venue. That will give the new team 75% ownership of Mahall’s.
Flamos said her reasons for leaving Mahall’s were personal, and that her exit felt bittersweet. She, her husband Colin McEwen, her sister Emily Flamos and Pavlick (who was formerly married to Emily) all purchased the business at the end of 2011 from the Mahall family, buying it directly from Tom and Arthur Mahall, Kelly Flamos said. The bowling alley had been in the Mahall family for three generations.
“The Mahalls trusted us to take this business started in 1924 by Joseph Mahall -- they trusted us with taking it into the next century, making sure that landmark stayed for another 100 years,” Flamos said. “I feel we did that. We kept the staff that was there, when Tom and Art left.”
Transferring ownership to Hajde and his group (including BravoArtist co-founder Ben Leubitz, BravoArtist talent buyer Alex Tucker and Ohio Pie Co. owner Nick Robson) is a way to stay with staff that Flamos has worked with. BravoArtist has booked concerts in Mahall’s for the past eight years.
In 2019, the last year that Mahall’s was booking normally before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the live music industry, BravoArtist booked more than 250 shows at the venue in the calendar year, Hajde said.
“I feel hopeful for Mahall’s. I think Cory is already doing some great things, and he’s working well with our staff. They already knew him,” Flamos said. “I’ll figure out something else to do with myself.”
For Hajde, co-owning Mahall’s is a dream come true. The concert promoter and cocktail bar owner (he co-owns the recently opened Cloak & Dagger bar in Tremont) always hoped to run a music venue, aiming to accomplish the goal before he turned 30.
“We ended up signing the paperwork here the day before my 30th birthday,” Hajde said.
Hajde, Tucker, Leubitz and Robson are all a part of a holding company that Tucker formed called “Pins and Needles,” and all have a stake in Mahall’s through the group. Sue Shestina, the building administrator at Mahall’s, also picked up ownership through the deal.
Hajde and his group have been interested in becoming a partner with Mahall’s in the past couple of years, particularly since Hajde kicked off a series of popular Cloak & Dagger pop-ups at Mahall’s in late summer 2020. The success of the events, along with Hajde’s management of them, led to conversations about him entering Mahall’s as a partner, Hajde said.
“We kept that conversation going for a few months,” Hajde said. “We ended up in an interesting scenario where both Kelly and Joe wanted to sell a majority of the business.”
BravoArtist’s work at Mahall’s goes back to 2013, when the company hosted its first show in the venue, which was also its inaugural Spring Fling festival event. The show featured performances by Tiger’s Jaw, Turnover, Knucklepuck, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die and more.
“We ended up doing that show and it was a huge success,” Hajde said. “From there, me and Alex [Tucker] were just like, ‘Hey, any date you want to give us on the calendar, we will fill it. We will book as many shows as we can here.’”
Having been around for the past eight years, Hajde and his team have some ideas on changes to Mahall’s -- but will keep many aspects of the venue, bowling alley and bar the same. Mainly, the new ownership will focus on improving conditions for service industry workers, a similar focus that Hajde has at Cloak & Dagger. The team will also help make the bar service a little smoother on busy nights.
To accommodate large crowds, especially during concerts, Hajde’s team plans on adding a bar into the main Mahall’s concert room. They have also revamped Mahall’s menu, promoting popular items like the fried chicken, and adding other bites. Parker Shaffer, who’s behind the popular Parky’s Pop-Ups dining events at Foundry Concert Club and Mahall’s, will run the kitchen. Shaffer has started by adding burgers and chicken sandwiches, with more menu items on the way.
“We’re working super heavily on the kitchen,” Hajde said. “We’ve been doing pop-ups every couple of weeks, to help promote some new food ideas we’re bringing to the menu.”
When it comes to programming, the concert calendar is already filling up. BravoArtist is announcing 10 shows a week for the fall and spring, packing in the venue for the remainder of the year after COVID-19 related postponements and delays, Hajde said. He also said his team plans to make better use of the basement locker room performance space, along with the main concert room.
“We want to open up the space more and utilize every aspect of the space, instead of letting certain things collect dust,” Hajde said. “You’re talking 20,000 square feet of programmable space, and I’m itching to do what we can to open the space up more for everybody.”
Concert season is already underway at Mahall’s, but Hajde’s team crafted a kickoff series July 10-11, featuring Ohio-based bands Light Years and Biitchseat. The shows are free, and tickets are available online at Mahall’s website.
Despite upcoming changes to Mahall’s, Hajde said his team wants to maintain the staff that’s made the bowling alley and bar one of the most popular spaces in Lakewood.
“We came in and one of the big things I’m trying to do is obviously preserve a lot of the really amazing staff that make the space unique,” he said.
That includes Haley Himiko Hudson Morris, the artist who has designed Mahall’s colorful dance space and organized the venue’s popular New Year’s Eve parties and Club Kids R Us dance nights. And Cassie Trainer, the bartender who coordinates and creates vibrant, themed drinks at the bar. And Chris Chabek, who’s been the bowling counter manager at Mahall’s for about 50 years.
“We have this amazing history that I don’t want to get in the way of,” Hajde said. “It’s exciting to see it keep moving.”
Plenty of concerts are on the docket at Mahall’s as its new ownership takes the reins. Check out the full calendar along with other details -- including the food menu -- at mahalls20lanes.com.
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