OCTOBER 2022

There’s a buzz of excitement in the air. The Westwood Living cover shoot team has just walked through the front door and the infusion of people and equipment overwhelms Chad Brodsky’s three-year-old daughter. Understandably, a collection of strangers with strange things, camera equipment and lights, has caught his adorable toddler, Ayla, off guard.
 
As we wait for Chad’s wife, Liana, to arrive, Chad seizes control of the situation, welcoming us to his Westwood home while comforting and rallying Ayla. Chad is clearly comfortable in his role as “Dad,” and you immediately get a sense for the strong connection between father and daughter.
 
After introducing ourselves and meeting Oliver, the Brodsky family dog, we immediately get to work, with Rick Bern coaching Chad and Ayla through a series of shots, an experience worth absorbing as many moving parts converge to create a lasting image.
 
Chad’s strong commitment to fatherhood and family is no accident. His personal experience with loss has assured a prioritization of relationships.
 
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“I was a junior in high school. It was a couple of days before the PSATs,” said Chad. “My dad had Type 2 diabetes and he suffered a brain aneurysm. That was it. You see him one day and then he’s gone the next.”
 
The sudden loss of Chad’s father, Bert, rocked the Brodsky family. When the aneurysm struck, Chad’s mom, Adrienne, was already fighting ovarian cancer. Losing Dad was the last thing Chad and his older brother expected, and the pain wasn’t over.
 
While they mourned the loss, Adrienne’s cancer went into remission. Chad re-focused, graduated from high school and enrolled at the University of Vermont. Just as he was getting settled in Burlington in the fall of 2005, more bad news came from his home in Long Island, NY – Adrienne’s condition had worsened.
 
“I left UVM the next day and returned home to be with my mom,” said Chad. “I was with her for about a month before she succumbed to cancer’s viciousness.” said Chad.
 
Adrienne passed away, leaving two sons and a legacy of love. Chad and his brother were faced with the unthinkable – forging ahead without their parents. In Chad’s case, he was only an 18-year-old college freshman with a whole world of opportunity ahead of him. Of course, he was shaped by this misfortunate, but he refused to be defined by such significant loss.
 
“From what Chad’s told me, since this happened when he was a young adult, he blocked out a lot of the trauma,” said his wife, Liana. “If you ask Chad details of what happened in that time, he won’t remember. I think that was his coping mechanism.”
 
“But it made me see an obstacle and say, ‘I can overcome this,’” said Chad. “It’s just a ‘grow or die’ kind of thing. That’s such a part of my psyche. Mom always said, ‘It never hurts to ask a question,’ and those are the kind of words that have created this drive and mentality in my life.”
 
After his junior year, Chad decided to stay in Burlington, while most of his friends went home for the summer. In the midst of a recession, a finance internship was nowhere to be found.
 
“I had just come back from studying abroad in Vienna, doing Oktoberfest, and Burlington had a ton of breweries,” said Chad. “The craft beer scene was insane. I had taken beer-making as an elective at UVM, so I decided to start a business around beer. I bought a van from a minister in New Hampshire, I took my German Lederhosen and started hitting the streets of Burlington to spread the word about my new company, Burlington Brew Tours.”
 
The birth of Burlington Brew Tours provided great insight into how Chad reacts when faced with a challenge or obstacle.
 
“If I see a problem that I’m facing, whether it’s people drinking and driving, trying to meet new people in a new city, or something else,” said Chad. “I ask myself, how do I overcome that problem? It’s my first instinct to see if there is a need for a business to address the issue.”
 
Meanwhile, in Newton, Liana was progressing through her own journey, collecting both undergraduate and graduate degrees in early childhood education from Lesley University in Cambridge.
 
“I was very involved in the Jewish community,” said Liana. “I ended up working in the Jewish community, where I still work today in leadership training and development for rising Jewish executives and educators.”
 
By 2014, Chad’s business had expanded to Boston and he relocated to Massachusetts. With the expansion to a second city, Burlington Brew Tours became City Brew Tours.
 
As he got used to his new surroundings in East Boston, Chad searched Facebook trying to figure out where he could meet people. He found a social event listed – “Gin and Jews.” Since his Jewish heritage was so important to him, his interest was piqued.
 
“I helped my friends who had started this thing called ‘Gin and Jews,’ where once a month they’d get together – just a bunch of Jews in a bar,” said Liana. “About 200 people would come sometimes and just hang out. So I was there one night and Chad walked in. He’s about 6’2”, so I said, ‘This guy’s at the wrong event. He’s tall!’”
 
Both Chad and Liana laughed at recalling how fortuitous their meeting was and how quickly they bonded.
 
“We were immediately serious, by our second date,” said Liana
 
“I knew I wanted to raise my children Jewish,” said Chad. “This was really important to me. My parents would have loved anyone I loved, but I knew they would have been very happy for me to have a Jewish spouse and to pass our traditions on to my children.”
 
Not only was Liana a perfect match, she was sucked into Chad’s business, at least a little.
 
“She’s not a huge beer fan, but I knew she would become my sounding board.” said Chad.
 
“I love the organizational leadership piece– people management. I’m super interested in organizational psychology,” said Liana. “And I said, ‘Chad, you can’t do this by yourself,’ and that’s when he hired his first employee.”
 
“She did the interview,” said Chad.
 
“I don’t think she knew I was your girlfriend,” laughed Liana
 
“Liana probably had the best insight,” Chad admitted.
 
In 2017, Chad and Liana got married at Camp Kinder Ring, the camp in New York where Chad spent so many formulative teenage years. It was also his mom’s favorite place. They lived in Newton as the City Brew Tours business boomed, expanding as a franchise to many cities in the U.S. and Canada, spanning from Portland OR to Montreal to Charlotte.
 
When the pandemic struck, the tour business was shut down across the country, forcing Chad to “address the issue” yet again, which led to a series of virtual experiences that remain a part of his repertoire. Celebrating holidays was always a staple in the Brodsky house, so his first idea was to introduce a new brand called Brewvana, highlighted by his “Hoppy Hannukah” Advent-style beer box, not to be outdone by “The Twelve Beers of Christmas.”
 
He later created a third brand, “Unboxed Experiences,” which brings live team-building events to a virtual space.
 
As the world re-opened and brew tours returned, the Brodskys began a search for a new home and decided to focus on Westwood.
 
“Newton is huge,” said Liana. “We wanted a smaller community. My background is in teaching, so that’s a really big thing for me. The schools in Westwood are amazing. It’s not too far from my parents’ house in Newton. It was the ideal town, but we weren’t sure we’d find a house and then we got very, very lucky.”
 
“I love walking and supporting the local businesses,” said Chad. “At our Newton home, we couldn’t really walk anywhere. Now every Saturday we have a Daddy/Daughter breakfast at The Toast Office.”
 
“My daughter will get the chance to attend the new school that’s being built,” said Liana. “I’m really excited to have her in this awesome school and to meet families there. I’m very social. I want to meet everyone. That’s why I joined the Westwood Young Women’s Club. I want to meet other families, especially other moms – being able to connect with other young parents. That’s what I love.”
 
Perseverance. Family. Culture. Religion. Tradition. Community – words that define the Brodskys as they continue their own personal tour through life.