CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Tomorrow will be the final day of business for Dewey’s Coffee in Shaker Square.

Owner Dewey Forward said it was time for him to retire.

“I’m retiring and wishing everybody a good farewell here,” he said. “I’ve been in hospitality for 50 years, a whole string of hospitality places. And I’m retiring.”

Forward said that Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop, which he also owns, will remain open. He plans to retire in Chagrin Falls and maintain operations at the popular sweets shop, and close up Dewey’s Coffee to give himself more free time.

Dewey’s Coffee, located at 13201 Shaker Square, has been open for the past 15 years serving up specialty coffee drinks and lunch specials like sandwiches and salads. Forward said that he enjoyed working in the neighborhood.

“I truly love Shaker Square. I’ve always loved it. I grew up around here,” he said. “I was thrilled to come back to my home and be here for 15 years.”

The coffee shop will celebrate its end with a party tonight. Then, after tomorrow’s hours, the shop will close up.

Forward said he doesn’t think it will be long until the space is filled with a new business.

“I look forward to coming back and I look forward to the new things that are going to go on in Shaker Square,” he said. “But it’ll be in a much less prominent role, I guess. I’ll just be a stroller here.”

Forward is also well-known in local music circles. A 1960s student activist who started producing concerts as a senior at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, he knew rock 'n' roll. When he came back to Cleveland in the early 1970s he immersed himself in the city’s burgeoning music scene, opening his first concert club in 1977: Peabody’s Café in the old Cellar Door space in Cleveland Heights.

He and a partner bought the old Pirate’s Cove nightclub on Old River Road on the East Bank of Cleveland’s Flats in the early 1980s and opened Peabody’s DownUnder. Over the next 15 years, it became one of Cleveland’s great concert clubs, hosting early gigs by everyone from R.E.M. to Pearl Jam and becoming a home base for Cleveland’s local rock and punk scenes. Forward sold his interest in Peabody’s DownUnder in 1996.

He’s been an owner and partner in several other enterprises over the years, including Pete & Dewey’s Planet, a restaurant that operated for a time in the Gateway District.