Just in time for Australia Day today, Tuesday, Jan. 26, Cleveland Coffee Company yesterday introduced a new coffee blend in honor of Australian native and Cavs point guard Matthew “Delly” Dellavedova, called G’Day Mate.

Created by Delly himself, the blend is of Sumatra and Peruvian coffees – Sumatra, which borders Australia, and Peruvian, which is known for its velvety texture, create a rich aroma and bold flavor.
 
After going through the chain of command, Cleveland Coffee owner Brendan Walton first invited Delly to come to his roaster back in December, after taking note of the basketball player’s love for coffee during the NBA Playoffs.
 
“It seemed to be his beverage of preference before, and sometimes during, the game,” says Walton. “So I invited him to our warehouse to do coffee roasting 101, which was cool because he’d never seen it done before. He was very interested and asked a lot of questions, so we had him do one of the roasts.”
 
Walton says Delly, who drinks his coffee black, prefers a dark roast with bold flavor. So after tasting a few blends, Walton and Delly developed a suitable flavor profile in G’Day Mate.
 
Walton delivered the new blend to 40 area retailers yesterday. The G’Day Mate blend will be available through the end of June in stores, online and at Walton’s cafe in A.J. Rocco’s, 816 Huron Road.
 
Furthermore, Walton announced that Cleveland Coffee Company will donate 10 percent of the proceeds from G'Day Mate sales to All Faiths Pantry, a non-profit organization in Old Brooklyn that works with the Cleveland Food Bank to deliver groceries to seniors and other people with limited mobility.
 
“I think it will go over well, and Delly was very receptive to that,” says Walton. “[Executive director] John [Visnauskas], he’s a good soul working to help people out. I’m sure it will sell.”
 
The Cavs played their first "Australia Day" game last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves and wore their gold uniforms to honor Australia’s colors, gold and green. The Cavs won, 114-107.

Team Promotions in Beachwood has been helping businesses promote their names and ideas for 28 years. 

“I would consider ourselves to be a dimensional advertising agency,” says company owner and president Hank Frisch. “We’re helping people promote their companies through products.”
 
From coffee mugs to adult coloring books, Team Promotions has thousands of products to promote a company or event. “We’ve sold steaks and delivered them to people’s addresses,” says Frisch of one of the more outrageous promotions he has done. Other times, Frisch has shaped T-shirts into the shape of a realistic replica his client is promoting.
 
“There are just a million different things – crazy, crazy things – you can do. It’s a matter of creativity.”
 
With the Republican National Convention coming to town in July, Frisch has already gotten inquiries from convention officials. “We’ve done some business as it relates to the Republican National Convention,” he says. “[They’re] interested in the variety of things, some tech products.”
 
As the convention nears, Frisch says he is prepared for the increased business. “We hope to do more,” he says. “We’ve shown our ideas to them and we hope as things get closer we’ll be able to do more for them.”
 
Frisch expects the pace to be hectic, but he’s ready. “There’s a lot going on and it’s interesting to wrap your arms around who’s doing what,” he says. “There’s a lot of opportunity for local businesses. It’s a fast-paced business. We just have to be prepared. We’re ready to be there when they need us.”

Beginning next Wednesday, Jan. 27^th, Gordon Square’s Capitol Theatre will launch its monthly Happy Hour cocktail party – a classic film paired with cocktails and appetizers from local restaurants.

"An evening at our Happy Hour Film Series is a great way to warm up the winter with a drink as you mix and mingle with friends both old and new," says David Huffman, director of marketing for Cleveland Cinemas.
 
The idea came about last fall when theater officials realized they were not using the full potential of the theater’s liquor license. “We were serving beer and wine, but no mixed drinks until last September,” explains Huffman. They tried out the concept with a showing of “Some Like it Hot” last summer during the brunch series. “When we were doing Sunday mornings, a lot of films wouldn’t work with brunch,” Huffman explains
 
So officials then decided to run a recurring cocktail hour series, showing a few contemporary classics. The Happy Hour Kicks off on Wednesday with “Fargo” – a nod, in part, to the Coen Brothers’ upcoming release of “Hail, Caesar!”
 
Future showings include “The Sting” in February and “Network” in March.
 
The $10 admission ($8 if you buy in advance) includes one cocktail and complimentary appetizers, catered by local restaurants.  Capitol Theatre’s current cocktail selections include a Moscow mule, whiskey sour, pomegranate gimlet, and a chipotle bloody mary, as well as beer and wine.
 
Cha Spirits and Pizza Kitchen will cater Wednesday’s showing. Toast, which catered the trial run in September, will be at the February event and Luxe will cater the March film.
 
Drinks and appetizers are from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Patrons are welcome to refill their beverages before the showings.
 
The Happy Hour series is in addition to the Capitol’s regular Wednesday happy hours, which offers a $1 discount on drinks from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Tavern Company owner Chris Armington and his fellow business owners along Lee Road in Cleveland Heights were tired of hearing their customers complain about how difficult it is to find parking on the weekends.

So they got together to solve the problem and, hopefully, increase their business traffic.

Most of the restauranteurs, bar owners and the Cedar Lee Theatre got together and hired VIP Valet to park customers’ car on Fridays and Saturdays. “It’s a convenience for customers,” says Armington. “Everyone’s biggest complaint is parking, walking, getting tickets.”
 
For $5, patrons can park at any of the four valet stations located in the business district along Lee Road – from Taste and Brennan’s Colony  to Parnell’s Pub. When they are done eating, drinking and catching a movie, they can pick their cars up at any station – regardless of where they dropped it off. Even establishments like Lopez, which has its own lot and valet, are participating.
 
Customers do not have to specify where they are heading to use the service. “They won’t turn anyone away,” says Armington. “The business owners are paying for it [the up-front costs] so people can have fun all evening at the restaurants and bars.”
 
Of course, the convenience also means better traffic for the business owners. “It’s a win-win for everyone,” Armington says, adding that the LED “valet” sign cones VIP uses make the valet stations easily identifiable, “inviting and safe.”
 
The service, which began on Friday, Dec. 18, is slowly catching on, according to Armington, with more people using the service as word spreads. “Every weekend is a little better and better,” he says. “Ideally, we want to make Lee Road a destination where people can go, park and then go anywhere.”

Business has been booming at Geiger’s since the sporting goods retailer opened its third location downtown last month. “Things have been going really well,” says co-owner Gordon Geiger. “We’re quite pleased with the traffic and the acceptance of the store.”
 
Geiger admits there has been a learning curve to running the store in a downtown environment, as opposed to its Chagrin Falls and Lakewood locations, but the owners have consulted with the owners of neighboring Heinen’s about how to adapt.
 
Then, in a brainstorming session, Geiger’s management came up with an idea that not only returns to the era of personalized service during the holidays, it saves time for busy downtown residents and shoppers.

Geiger’s will offer personalized shopping for its customers during the holiday season.
 
“You have to be a good listener and trust your instincts,” says Geiger of his consultation with Tom and Jeff Heinen on the new store. “We realized the solution of personalized service could be of some value to our downtown clientele.”
 
Geiger says the idea came out of brainstorming session in which that staff were recalling the days at department stores like Bonwit Teller and Halle’s department stores. “Those were the heydays of retail,” says Geiger. “It was a high level of service era, one which we hope will be once again.”
 
Shoppers can call (216) 755-4500 to make an appointment and share their gift lists. A personal shopper will then bring a selection of gifts for everyone on the customer’s list. Customers can enjoy a coffee or another beverage while relaxing.
 
“If they don’t know what they want to get, we can make some nice suggestions,” says Geiger. “In the 11^th hour there may be some interest in this sort of thing for last minute shoppers.”
 
Customers can make appointments during business hours, but after-hours exceptions can be made. The service includes free gift wrapping.
 
The service runs through Sunday, Dec. 20. Geiger says they may extend the service year-round if there’s demand for it.

Everyday items like head phones, ear buds, even loud music through speakers can damage our hearing. Hair cells and hair bundles in the inner ear receive audio information and transmit it to the brain. When those hair bundles are damaged, hearing loss can occur.
 
“The hair cells are used to convert sounds to electrical impulses that go the brain,” explains Brian McDermott, associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at CWRU School of Medicine. “When sound comes into the ear, the hair bundles, or stereocilia, move back and forth. Loud noises can kill the bundle.”
 
 But now researchers at Case the have discovered that the movement of protein within hair cells of the inner ear shows signs of a repair and renewal mechanism. That recognition means that researchers may be able to find a way to reduce or repair hearing loss, says McDermott. “We hope it gives insight into the important hair cell.”
 
McDermott and his team are using zebrafish – a transparent fish found in India's Ganges River – to study and better understand the workings of the human ear. “We use zebrafish in our research to study ears because the fish are optically clear,” explains McDermott.  “Their hair cells are similar to human hair cells.”
 
McDermott learned a lot about the human ear from studying the fish. “For a number of years people thought that the hair bundle was a static structure and really didn’t change much over time,” he says. “We showed the hair bundle proteins actually move quite fast. We were shocked. We were surprised to see that movement.””
 
The discovery gave the researchers hope that there may be a way to cure hearing loss. “The reason that movement is important is it implies that there is a renewal process going on,” says McDermott. “Proteins are exchanging, which might be a repair process.”
 
The next step is to determine how the hair bundle may repair itself with the protein movement. McDermott and his team will continue to study the process fully in the transparent zebrafish ear. “There are no drugs right now that actually cure hearing loss,” says McDermott. “It’s very much a possibility that when we understand the process, that movement may heal hearing loss.”


The research was published in the Nov. 17 edition of Cell Reports.