Earlier this month, Lakewood rock staple The Foundry passed the torch to its next generation of ownership when it changed hands to longtime general manager Rae Gentry.
Lisa Marie Covelli purchased The Foundry in 2013 on little more than a whim. She’d frequented the place long enough — through several name changes and owners — and figured she could run it as well as anyone else, if not better.
“I knew the staff [at the time]. I didn't care for them,” Covelli says. “I knew the owner very well … he just let them run it. Then there was a rather bad incident that happened due to improper booking that made the news. And the next day I came up here to kind of help them with damage control — afterward the owner started ranting, ‘I don't even want to do this anymore.’ I opened my big mouth and said, ‘I'll buy it.’”
Nearly a decade later, after Covelli left her mark and whipped The Foundry into a proper business and management family, she decided to pass the torch. Gentry, who frequented the venue for years as a patron, took over on Sept. 1 in a move similar to Covelli’s own rise to ownership.
Unlike the rebranding of the recently overhauled No Class, Gentry plans to stay the course. The workplace culture under Covelli feels well-oiled and tight knit, less chaotic than the wild days of the past and better off for it.
“It was kind of a free-for-all, there were no rules,” Gentry recalls. “You didn't really know what was going on. From a management perspective, that's a nightmare. But we still have fun — it's still a very family-oriented kind of business model here. So everybody's close, feels like family. It's still very much fun.”
Gentry considers the venue a safe place for all genres and music lovers — many laud it as the safest space in Cleveland for underground metal and hardcore. With a loyalty to Lakewood and rock music, Gentry’s mark on The Land is all but guaranteed. 11729 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, 440-637-5483
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