It’s been a busy month for Ethan Holmes, founder of Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce. The 20-year-old took home $500 from Entrovation earlier this summer before moving into the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen (CCLK). He then launched an Indiegogo campaign in hopes of raising $1,500, but raised $2,274. He also received 100 pre-orders and produced 400 jars, or 5,000 ounces, of his original and cinnamon applesauce in two days during his first session at CCLK.

“Producing in the kitchen was challenging,” Holmes says. “I had never made such large quantities in such a short period of time.” But with the help of friends and family, Holmes filled his orders, then hand-delivered jars of applesauce in gift bags to all of the local contributors to the campaign.
 
Holmes plans to sell heavily at local farmers markets this fall and is in talks with area restaurants about some menu collaborations. He also is waiting to hear from some retailers about carrying the applesauce.
 
Holmes headed back to college last weekend feeling optimistic about the future of Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce.
“It felt amazing to surpass my goal,” he says. “It was unbelievable to have so much support from family, friends and those interested in my product. I tried crowdfunding a year ago on Kickstarter and failed my goal, so having the strength to try again and actually being successful this time is such a great feeling to have.”

Despite our obsession with locally brewed craft beer, many of the ingredients that go into those suds are anything but local. But that is quickly changing as area brewmasters increasingly seek out ways to tap into the local ‘farm-to-pint’ movement by adding more and more fresh ingredients.

Case Western Reserve University has opened the new Tinkham Veale University Center just in time for the start of the school year. In the coming weeks, six new eateries will be unveiled. The addition of mouthwatering new venues like Melt University, the latest from Matt Fish of Melt Bar & Grilled fame; Naan, an Indian venue by James Beard Award nominee Chef Raghavan Iyer; and Cool Beanz, which will serve Zingerman's Coffee out of Ann Arbor, are enough to make us want to go back to school.

Fortunately, we won't have to. All of the venues are open to the public, and the soon-to-be-named restaurant (a student contest will determine its name) will serve a prix fixe menu when the orchestra plays in town. Cleveland Botanical Garden Executive Chef Tony Smoody will serve as chef of the restaurant.

Additional eateries include 8Twenty6, where customers can build their own salad from an eight-foot counter stocked with 20 seasonal ingredients and six housemade dressings, and Pinzas, which serves personal pizzas, pasta bowls and Italian sandwiches served on pagnotelle rolls. Melt University will serve items off the Melt Bar & Grilled menu as well as "exclusive CWRU-themed sandwiches only available at Melt U, the Case Western BBQ and The Spartan Burger," according to a press release from Bon Appetit Management, the food service company.

"This is an opportunity to showcase the beauty of regional Indian cooking," said Iyer during a recent visit to the university center. "What you typically see in the U.S. is just a sliver of Indian cooking, and what I bring is multi-regional cooking."

CWRU has a large population of foreign-born students, so the ethnic diversity of these options will no doubt prove popular. The university has not only transformed its physical environment in recent years, adding student amenities that create a more vibrant campus, but has also seen a dramatic increase in enrollment.

Previously, there was no full-service restaurant on the CWRU campus, and dining options were a bit limited. These six new eateries add to the increasing vibrancy that can be found on campus and throughout University Circle.

Since launching Discover My Cleveland in November 2012, owner Lynde Vespoli has seen tourism in the city grow substantially. “There are exciting changes in Cleveland and the tourism business,” says Vespoli. “We’re getting more multi-day events -- groups coming for four-, five-, six-day events. Our company has seen significant growth in the past year as the number of tourists to the Cleveland area has increased.”

Business has increased so much that Vespoli recently hired two additional tour guides and predicts that she’ll again increase staff in the coming year.
 
Last summer, the destination management company hosted tours for the Senior Games. Next week, Discover My Cleveland will host unique tours for the Gay Games 9 as the exclusive tour and activates provider for the marquee event.
 
Tours are designed for every taste. The Beer and Bourbon tour includes a pub dinner and libations at places such as Cleveland Whiskey, Market Garden Brewery and Indigo Imp Brewery. The Out on the Town tour, billed as “an open bar on the open seas,” features a dinner cruise on the Nautica Queen and an after party at Bounce Nightclub, Cleveland’s largest LGBT club. Vespoli also has more traditional city tours planned.

All of the events are open to the public. “The tours are open to everybody and I really hope the people of Cleveland come and join us,” she says. “These people are coming from all over the world. When they are here they want to experience everything, not just participate in the athletics, but experience all the wonderful things we have here. In addition to coming here as athletes, they’re coming here for the activities, events, tours and fun.”
 

Fresh Water has been on top of the dramatic new business development currently taking place in Lakewood, covering it here, here and here. The west side 'burb has seen an explosion of new shops, pubs and eateries in recent years, thanks in large part to a pedestrian-friendly Detroit Avenue streetscape that was completed in 2012. Now the city is poised for another wave of growth, with several new businesses set to open this year.

In a recent chat with Planning Director Dru Siley, we learned about Cleveland Vegan, which is set to open a storefront catering operation in the next 45 days (13611 Detroit), with a planned eatery to follow; Brown Sugar Thai, which will open its fourth location in a 2,600-square-foot space in the Bailey Building at Detroit and Warren; Birdtown Restaurant and Brewing, a project from restaurateur Tom Leneghan, will open next year in the old St. Gregory's Church on Madison; The Bevy, a new restaurant and music venue that will open in the old Winchester Music Hall; and The Stache, a hip new speakeasy set to open in the former Johnny Malloys/Gepettos space (17103 Detroit Ave.).

These are just a few of the new businesses flocking to Lakewood, which has seen impressive business growth along its Detroit and Madison commercial corridors.

"Part of what we've noticed is that Lakewood is a great place to open a first business, such as Beat Cycles, but it's also a good place for a business to do a second location," says Siley. "We're seeing that as a bit of a trend. Business owners are doing some intentional planning, and they're looking at Lakewood."

Although Lakewood is chock-full of independents, plenty of chains are getting in on the action, too. Another new addition to Lakewood is Bob Evan's, which opened up a surprisingly contemporary-looking eatery in downtown Lakewood. "It's the busiest 4:30 dinner spot in the entire world right now," jokes Siley.

There’s no shortage of food trucks on Cleveland streets these days, but Ron Nelson offers a way for aspiring mobile food entrepreneurs to hit the road for less thanks to his food buggies.
 
When Cleveland launched its pilot street-food program back in 2009, Nelson was working for a non-profit that helped down-on-their-luck folks re-enter society. He saw food trucks as one way to do this, yet the costs were too high for the average person just starting out. And back then, there were no commercial kitchens around in which to do prep work.
 
So Nelson developed his buggies, which have lower startup costs, lower licensing fees and lower operational costs. He launched his company Food Buggy in 2013.
 
Food Buggy units cost between $4,000 and $12,000 compared to the $40,000 to $200,000 for fully equipped food trucks. The buggies have a lower operating cost, are lightweight and fit into a single parking space. “The food buggies have two advantages,” says Nelson. “The cost is much lower, and it also allows you to transport it using your own vehicle. And it’s easy enough for two people to set up quickly.”
 
Nelson is quick to point out that his buggies don’t replace food trucks – they are an alternative. “It allows the entrepreneur to start up with limited resources,” he explains. “Yet it gives all the flexibility to get exposed and build a business.”
 
Nelson touts other advantages his buggies have over the competition: “It’s far better than a hotdog cart because with a hotdog cart you can’t cook anything,” he explains. “It’s better than a food truck because it doesn’t take up space. You can build up your business to the point you need a food truck.” And commercial kitchens like the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen allow cooks access to prep space.
 
Food Buggies already has received orders from a couple of Cleveland food entrepreneurs. Nelson expects more custom orders as word gets out of his products’ advantages and custom designs.
 

Remember the skate park built for the Dew Games held at North Coast Harbor in 2008? Well, it's been dismantled, but the concrete slab remains, surrounded by a metal-flame fence. Very soon the space will be home to the city's first shipping container-based restaurant, Blazing Bistro, which is scheduled to open in late July, adding to the amenities on downtown's lakefront.

"We've recognized for a while that one of the missing amenities on the lakefront is a gathering place for people while they're at the Rock Hall etc.," says Michael Deemer, Vice President of Business Development and Legal Services at Downtown Cleveland Alliance. "We worked with the city and with Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries to build off the success of Cleveland's food truck renaissance."

Blazing Bistro will take up residence in a recycled shipping container repurposed by Cleveland Customer Trucks. Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries (LMM), which operates the successful Manna food truck and employs formerly incarcerated and homeless individuals, was awarded the contract after responding to an RFP from the city.

The days and hours of operation are not set in stone, but likely will be lunch Wednesday through Sunday with some evening hours added as well. The shipping container idea grew out of the Small Box Initiative, a program of the Historic Warehouse District Development Corporation to develop retail in parking lots on West 9th Street.

As the new lakefront development takes off, Blazing Bistro can be picked up and moved to other locations, either in the harbor or other parts of downtown.

Blazing Bistro also will be open during various events taking place at North Coast Harbor, including the new Anchors and Ales event, held August 22-23 and September 13-14 in conjunction with Cleveland Browns home games.

Deemer says the seasonal restaurant is a win-win-win for the city, residents and visitors. "It's not enough to have a park on the lakefront; we have to actively drive people there with events and amenities," he says. "We've seen food truck owners open up brick and mortar stores with great success. This is a new wrinkle."
 

There has been a flood of new businesses that tout the city through an assortment of Cleveland-themed apparel and products or by integrating the city name right into the company’s branding. Many point to the recent recession as the dawn of this entrepreneurial movement, which coincided with a newfound pride of place.

Issue Media Group publications such as 83 Degrees in Tampa, Confluence in Denver and Model D in Detroit cover "what's next" for urban centers. In this recurring feature, we highlight the top stories in urban innovation from across our national network of publications.

Jodi Rae Santosuosso grew up in the restaurant business, working in her parents' Italian restaurant. She later moved to California for 10 years, where she grew enamored of the healthy living movement and got into cold-pressed juices. When she returned to Cleveland to join the revitalization of her hometown, she discovered that there weren’t many juice bars in the city, so she decided to launch her own.

If all goes as planned, Daily Press, a juice bar and vegan café, will open next month in the Gordon Square Arts District (6604 Detroit Ave.). The cafe will serve cold-pressed juices and vegan menu items that include raw sandwiches, soups and salads. Daily Press will open at 7 a.m., with evening hours yet to be determined.

"I want to help people be healthy and feel good, and to make it easy and convenient for people to do that," says Santosuosso. "This is new to Cleveland, but the market is here; people are just not aware of the benefits of juicing this way."

Cold-press juicing is different from tossing fruit in a blender and grinding it up, she explains. The heat from a centrifugal juicer can destroy natural enzymes in the drink, making it less nutritious. There are two steps in the cold-pressing process: First, you turn the produce into pulp so that the vitamins and other good stuff stays intact. Second, you put the pulp into a bag and place it in a hydraulic press, where 2,000 pounds of pressure releases all that sweet goodness.
"The result is delicious juice that has all kinds of good things for your body," she says.

Some of Daily Press's offerings will include the Johnny Apple Manziel (apple, ginger and lemon), Greenest Cleanse (kale, spinach, chard, parsley, cucumber, ginger and turmeric) and Water You Doing? (watermelon). A 16-ounce juice in a glass jar will sell for $7-9. If you bring back the jar, you get $1 off your next juice.

The 800-square-foot storefront will have a bar that seats five to six people, additional window seating and some outside tables. There will be Wi-Fi access for anyone who wants to work at the cafe. Santosuosso is looking forward to joining the neighborhood.

"I love the neighborhood and the arts district, and Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization was really excited about having me come to this space," she says. "It helped that the neighborhood wants me here."

If you're interested in checking out Daily Press before the cafe opens, Santosuosso will be at the Gordon Square Farmers Market for the next few weeks, and she invites you to come by and learn more about juicing.