Entrepreneurs + Innovators

fresh water guide to valentine's weekend
Take your sweetheart to a ‘90s dance party, ward off winter at the Kurentovanje Festival, see a $1 family movie, and keep up the romance on Fat Tuesday by eating a Paczki with your Valentine.
cleveland apparel companies spread the city's brand worldwide
Today, more and more local apparel brands are celebrating, promoting and even poking fun at what is means to be in “The Land.” With growing sales and media attention, they're also changing the city's national reputation.
health-tech corridor vision is becoming a reality
The Health-Tech Corridor was once a forgotten stretch of Euclid Avenue. Today the three-mile stretch between downtown and University Circle has become a hub of growing biotech and startup companies, with another round of development on the way.
small box cle announces newest tenant, blue edge, a gift and beauty products boutique
Small Box, the innovative shipping container retail cluster in the Warehouse District, has announced its newest tenant: Blue Edge, a collaboration between Edge Hair Studio and Blue Envelope that will offer "eco-conscious and high-end gift and beauty products."

Edge Hair Studio and Blue Envelope are both located in downtown Willoughby. According to the release, "Edge Hair Studio is a full-service, eco-conscious hair and nail salon ... Edge is the only studio on the east side of Cleveland to carry the full line of exclusive Davines products. These products, handmade by a dedicated, passionate family in Parma, Italy, have a cult-following for the luxury they provide in a beauty routine. Every item is handwrapped by an in-house artist."
 
Blue Envelope is a three-year-old stationery studio. The firm specializes in customized stationery and sells "exclusive and some locally-designed stationery and gift brands" at their current location.

Both tenants have been active in growing the downtown Willoughby business scene. The release notes, "Historic Warehouse District Development Corp. welcomes with excitement Blue Edge as this group of creative and community-minded business owners make their first foray into Downtown Cleveland."
chef zack bruell announces details of eighth restaurant at flats east bank
Cleveland chef and restauranteur Zack Bruell's eighth restaurant will feature "open spaces, expansive views of the Cuyahoga River and open-air dining to take advantage of Cleveland’s all-too-short summer season," according to a news release that was issued this week.

Alley Cat oyster house, as the venue will be called, will be accessible by foot and by boat, since it will be located adjacent to the boardwalk in the new Flats East Bank development.

The release dubs it a "piscatorial paradise" (say that 10 times fast) that will feature "oysters, peel–and–eat shrimp, mussels, clams and fresh fish. A variety of pasta dishes, chicken, chowders, soups and salads will accompany the seafood selections, in addition to vegan menu items."

“This isn’t a big-ticket restaurant –it’s an oyster bar that you’d stroll into in a coastal town, like Santa Barbara or Nantucket; yet Alley Cat is right here on the Cuyahoga,” said Bruell in the release. “Our goal is to draw attention and visitors to Cleveland’s latest up-and-coming entertainment district, similar to what we’ve done in recent years with Chinato on East 4th Street or Cowell & Hubbard in PlayhouseSquare.”

Bruell is partnering with The Wolstein Group and Fairmount Properties to build the 170-seat restaurant, which will be his first venue to be constructed from the ground up.

As mentioned earlier, outdoor space is one of the driving themes here -- the new venue will feature a lower level patio and rooftop patio.
four events that will get you all fired up this week
Got cabin fever? Well, here are some excuses to get out of the house this week. Warm yourself by a community campfire at Ohio City’s first-ever Hingetown Hygge, listen to the city's best storytellers at Keep Talking, and much more.
local medical device company founder recognized by forbes as one to watch
Eugene Malinskiy, founder of healthIT integrated solutions provider DragonID, didn’t even know a friend had nominated him for the 2015 Forbes.com 30 Under 30 in the manufacturing and industry category. And even though he was featured as one of the 30, Malinskiy just wants to focus on the work at hand.

“It’s nice to get recognized and nice to get the award, but we want to be left alone to do our work,” Malinskiy, 29, says. By work, he means a host of projects in everything from orthopedic and cardiac devices to pain treatments and wearable technology.
 
DragonID works on both their own ideas generated in-house and ideas brought to them from some of the area’s top people in healthcare. “We’ve done work with all the big boys in town – the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals,” Malinskiy boasts. “Physicians and others bring projects to us and say, ‘Hey, we have an idea for a product on a napkin, can you improve upon it?’ We follow down projects that we’ll hopefully be able to put into production.”
 
Most recently, DragonID developed a device that reduces the risk of stroke after aortic valve replacement surgery; this is the innovation that led to recognition by Forbes. The device is currently being tested. When it gets to production, Malinskiy plans to manufacture the product locally.
 
Founded out of LaunchHouse, DragonID now has offices in Cleveland Heights. Malinskiy credits his company’s success with the support he’s received from LaunchHouse, as well as from organizations like BioEnterprise, JumpStart and GLIDE.
 
Malinskiy credits DragonID’s success with the support that these organizations have provided, as well as having access to top physicians. “We sort of have our pick of the best projects,” he says, although he also prides himself on client confidentiality. “Of course it has to be related to medical, needs to pay and, obviously, needs to be interesting. As long as I know my team and I can do it, we’ll take it on.”
happy 50th anniversary, nighttown (you figure it out!)
Fresh Water's inveterate barfly looks through the bottom of her pint glass at the history of Nighttown, one of Cleveland's oldest and most celebrated bars, restaurants and music clubs.
on the rise: four young hispanic entrepreneurs making their mark
Entrepreneurial growth in Cleveland has drawn aspiring business owners to the city. Hispanic business owners face added challenges, yet efforts are underway to bolster their success.
school's out forever: the challenge and opportunity of surplus schools
Cleveland and other cities have struggled for years with vacant schools. As empty buildings hang in limbo, they deteriorate, increasing the likelihood that they'll be torn down. Adaptive reuse, while challenging, can be a tool for preservation.
conde nast traveler names cleveland the best beer city in america
Here's what Conde Nast Traveler has to say about Cleveland's already-risen beer scene:

"The Midwest--American beer's ancestral seat--is finally stealing the spotlight back from the craft brew-sodden coasts. The freshest flavors and most creative styles pour in places like Cleveland, home to super-small-batch start-ups such as Platform (try their Anathema series, aged in local cider barrels), Nano, and Market Garden.--William Bostwick, author, The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According to Beer

Read the full story here.