Located next to Off the Wagon in Acorn Alley, Alley Mac offers mac and cheese, pierogies, salads and sandwiches all made with fresh ingredients. 

The owners, Chuck Crawford and his wife Jessica, got the inspiration for the establishment from Melt Bar and Grilled. 

“What they did with grilled cheese sandwiches, with various toppings… I thought that mac and cheese would be fun to do with the similar concept,” Crawford said.

Alley Mac is unique due to the fresh ingredients used in every element of their menu, including the sauces, he said.  

“I like that we do everything fresh, we smoke our own pork, we braise our own short ribs,” Crawford said. ”If you get something here, it is not going to taste like you got it someplace else.”

Chuck, Jessica and their daughters, Raven and Sage, work together to run the restaurant. Crawford said the best part of his job is getting to work with his family. 

“We have only one employee who isn’t related to us,” Crawford said. 

He defined Alley Mac as fresh, comforting and full of creative combinations.

“Macaroni and cheese is definitely the epitome of comfort food,” he said.

Crawford reinforced that Alley Mac has options besides their specialty mac and cheese.

“Alley Burger is a burger with poblano, chillies, grilled onions, bacon and chili mayo,” he said. “We are selling a lot of those.”

The creative combinations of dishes go alongside fun names, such as Snoop Pigg, which has hot box smoked pork, cheddar, coleslaw, crispy onions and chipotle bbq.

“It was a lot of work, but it was worth it,” Crawford said. “We are surrounded by stuff we like, we listen to music that we like and we serve food that we like.”

Crawford detailed that they painted the walls, decorated and cleaned the restaurant on their own. 

“We gathered stuff from our house… it looks like our living room,”  Crawford said. “When our friends came here, they said ‘it was like I came in your living room.’”

Aiming to attract more high school and college students, Alley Mac has done some promotions for students from Kent State and Theodore Roosevelt High School.

Crawford said they have offered students a free scoop of ice cream if they ordered mac and cheese and showed their FlashCard. 

Alley Mac is located at 154 E Main St., and is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Ana Julia Cechin Facco is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].