MCNULTY_WITH_BEER_SIGN.JPG

Restaurateur Sam McNulty at Market Garden Brewery, one of his Ohio City restaurants.

(Joshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland's market district will gain a major food shopping and tourism destination next year, when restaurateur

and his business partners open The Palace of Fermentation in the old Culinary Arts Building at 1849 West 24th St. at Bridge St. in Ohio City.

All products made and sold in the building are foods produced through natural fermentation. That accounts for a fairly broad swath of favorites, from beers and distilled spirits to cheeses, cured meats and pickles.

"We're currently in the planning stages," says McNulty, who operates food and brew destinations in the area.

Acquiring the 43,000-square foot space affords much-needed space to expand product production -- as well as to diversify their business model.

The partners will not only be able to up the output of their increasingly popular

beverages made by brewmaster Andy Tveekrem, but introduce sausages, smoked meats, cheeses, pickles, kombucha tea and other fermented products that

and

chef Adam Lambert currently makes in the restaurant kitchens.

"We're constantly being asked to open brewpubs in other locations, or to sell our beer at supermarkets and other retail spots -- but we can barely keep up with the demand in our current restaurants," McNulty says.

All ingredients used in making products sold will be sourced locally, McNulty says. In addition to produce grown in Northeast Ohio farms, the restaurateur pledges that meats will come from heirloom breeds of animals pastured traditionally instead of raised in confinement on large-scale feedlots.

Once plans are laid, McNulty says the first order of business will be to scour the building's interior and beginning interior construction, while creating what he describes as "a very activated building front."

"We intend to add lots of glass so people can see all the activity inside," McNulty says. "People will be able to walk through and see, say, chef Lambert butchering a pig, visit the aging rooms where the charcuterie will be hanging to cure and see the cheese caves."

Building food tourism is one of the goals, beyond food production and retail sales, he says.

"The beer tourism that five Ohio City breweries will draw should be pretty awesome," McNulty says.

He lists the current and future destinations:

, Market Garden Brewing,

, the soon-to-open

operation and the recently conceived Platform, still in development.

"Joining forces and coordinating tours, we can offer people from Cleveland and out of towners a chance to experience five different and very unique breweries -- all within walking distance. Outside of Portland, Oregon, I can't think of any city in the US. that can boast that.

"I think we're ready to give the brewpub capital of the nation a run for its money."