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What’s next for The Landing? Meet bartenders shaking up the future of nightlife in Fort Wayne

“Way too often, I find myself at a bar or restaurant at 9 or 10 p.m., and guests are asking the bartender where to go next, but there aren’t many options. We think it’s time to create more options and start seeing Fort Wayne as a bigger place.”
What’s next for The Landing? Meet bartenders shaking up the future of nightlife in Fort Wayne
Trevor Scovel of Be Better Hospitality makes an Aperol Spritz for a customer at Penny Drip. (Photo by Rachel Von Stroup)

If you order one of “the best gin & sodas” at Penny Drip’s coffee-to-cocktail bar on Lafayette Street, you might notice a large cylindrical ice cube spanning the length of its glass stein.

What you might not realize is that this special “clear ice,” as it’s called, is locally made in Fort Wayne—sliced with a chainsaw and shaved to perfection a few blocks away on South Calhoun Street.

Ryan Ellis cuts ice with a chainsaw at Cubeicle Ice & Co.'s Fort Wayne location. Cubeicle is the only clear ice company in the state. (Photo by Rachel Von Stroup)

Penny Drip and its ice provider, Cubeicle Ice & Company, are part of the same family of businesses owned by a hospitality group of local bartenders, baristas, and friends. They call themselves Be Better Hospitality, and they’re seeking to create more bartender-driven business concepts in Fort Wayne, likely to shake (or stir) up the future of nightlife Downtown.

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Published by:

Kara Hackett

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