JackieOs Farm

Jackie O’s owner,Andrew Arthur Oestrike,known by most as Art,went to Ohio Universityin Athens, Ohioas an undergraduate and again as a graduate student after teaching English overseas in South Korea. Art’s entrepreneurial career was born when he and his best friends, Lenny and Megan Meyer, decided to buy Bagel Street Deli in Athens, Ohioin 2003. In2005, Artpurchased O’Hooley’s. Shortly beforethis new venture,his mother,Jackie Oestrike,was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Jackiepassed away in June of 2006,but not before her son let her know he had plans to change the name “O’Hooley’s” to “Jackie O’s” in her honor. Her reaction was a classic motherly reaction, “a bar?!” Art’s reply,“it's going to be so much more than a f*@%ing bar, mom!”has been what continues to inspire and grow the business to this day. In January of 2007, the nameof O’Hooley’s officially changed to Jackie O’s Brewpub. The original Brewpub became a pillar of the Athens community by focusing on locally inspired and produced products. At Jackie O’s inception, the decision was made to brew specific beer that would only be available in Athens, create barrel-aging and sour programs, and commit to using locally sourced products whenever possible. The business not only focused on the local economy, but also state improvements as well by becoming one of the first facilities in the state of Ohio to transfer to a non-smoking establishment in order to increase the visibility of lung cancer research. In response to the loss of their mother, Art’s siblings, Brian and Katie, set out on a journey to raise awareness for LUNGevityby traveling to Tibet on a quest to climb Mount Everest. On May 23rd, 2007, Brian and close family friend, Justin Hewitt, summited Mt. Everest, also known as "Chomolungma" in Mandarin. For moreinformation, visithttps://climbforcancer.blogspot.com/. In2008, a restaurant and bar space next door to the Jackie O’s Brewpub fell on tough times due to the recession. In mid-2009, Jackie O’s began renting that space and made some renovations to create what is now the Jackie O’s Public House Restaurant. In September 2009, the Public House celebrated its opening night by featuring good friends from the locally formed band, Papadosio. The addition of the Public House Restaurantallowed for vast improvements to dining, including an expanded locally sourced menu. This space also allowed an increase of barrels of beer from 400 to over 800 barrels. At this time, all of the beer Jackie O’s produced was only available within the Jackie O’s Brewpub and Public House Restaurant and a few local Athens businesses. As a university town, thousands of alumni visit Athens and Jackie O’s each year. This has been especially true on popular weekends such as Ohio University Homecoming. The desire for Jackie O’s mainstays, such as Mystic Mama and Razz Wheat, was a pretty consistent topic of conversation when OU alumni would visit. This enthusiasm from customers about Jackie O’s beer aided in the decision to purchase a production facility. After attending a course at Siebel, Art and Brad selected a building on the east side of Athens that was, fun fact, originally built for cheese production! Obtaining this space meant room for an increase in Jackie O’s production of beer. The Taproom & Production Brewery opened in February, 2013,located just a mile from the two Jackie O’s Uptown locations. This facility provided the Jackie O’s team the freedom to play around and get their creative juices flowing. The addition of new barrels, including rum, bourbon, sherry, and tequila, increased the Jackie O’s team’s ability to skillfully age specialty beers. Equipped with 16 taps, the Taproom became an additional Jackie O’s location that could offer patrons more beer straight from the source! Life tends to throw us curve balls from time to time. In November of 2014, a tragic firehitdevastated Union Street in Uptown Athens. Damaging six buildings in total, including the Public House Restaurant,