Nine square dice adds up to 54 sides, making them ideal for displaying a full deck of cards: 52 regular cards plus two jokers. Lakewood's Heartland Consumer Products is betting that its unique new dice/card game, Square Shooters, will be a hit when it is finally unveiled before this year's holiday season.

The award-winning Square Shooters uses the dice as a twist on traditional card games, including poker, rummy and a bevy of original and challenging games. Heartland Co... Read more >

Mike Graley, a wine buyer for Heinen's for 20 years, is applying his expertise to a new venture, Battery Park Wine Bar,a.k.a. YOLO Wine Bar in Battery Park. YOLO stands for "You Only LiveOnce," which Graley says is the theme of his unpretentious,contemporary joint, in the former Eveready plant in Detroit Shoreway'sBattery Park neighborhood.

This "not-so-typical wine bar," asGraley describes it, will carry well over 100 varieties, all sold at just$12 above retail -- unlike... Read more >

Cleveland's slow but steady transformation from national leader in jobloss and foreclosures to national model for urban farming took anothermajor step forward last week in the Kinsman neighborhood. That's wherefederal, state and city officials introduced the Cleveland UrbanAgriculture Incubator Pilot Project.

Six acres of land at East 83rd and Gill, donated from the City LandBank, will be turned into a farm, thanks to $100,000 grants from theOhio Department of Agriculture... Read more >

Since being founded in 2001, EverStaff has developed a national presence that touches 22 states. Still, the Cleveland-based firm has not forgotten its roots, as it continues to expand operations in Northeast Ohio. Within the past three months, the staffing and recruiting firm has added offices in Ashtabula and Cuyahoga Falls.

In addition to its Independence headquarters and the two new facilities, EverStaff has local offices in Brooklyn, Mentor and Solon. The goal is to c... Read more >

Despite the unstoppable march of progress from analogue to digital, vinyl records are making an undeniable comeback. And catering to that expanding market is Cleveland's own Gotta Groove Records, one of only a handful of existing vinyl pressing plants in the United States. Make that, the world.

Imagine being an entrepreneur and having at your fingertips resources for everything from pre-seed funding to regional incubators. Questions about how to turn an idea into a business, how to request funding and how to place your innovative idea in the proper hands could be answered by simply clicking a button or linking to a respected adviser.

That's the idea behind the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network's newly launched website, which aims to make access to the appropriat... Read more >

Northeast Ohio could reap more than half the benefit of newly announcedstate tax credits intended to spark development. Key CommunityDevelopment New Markets and Northeast Ohio Development Fund, both basedin Cuyahoga County, were awarded $3 million and $2 million,respectively, in credits through the Ohio New Markets Tax Credits. Alltold, $10 million in credits were distributed to four funds in thisfirst round of grants.

The credits are modeled after and supplement a federa... Read more >

Scott Colosimo had a dream to produce a stripped-down '60s-inspired motorcycle that looks like a million bucks but costs less than $5,000. Guess what? He pulled it off, launching a growing company called Cleveland CycleWerks.

Danielle DeBoe does not object to the descriptor "retail pioneer," butnotes that her business decisions are guided less by simple dollars andcents than by a desire to help Cleveland realize its potential. That'swhy she's preparing to relocate her jewelry/art/accessories/lifestyleshop Room Servicefrom West 65th and Detroit, in the popular Gordon Square Arts District,to the up-and-coming Ohio City Market District, around West 25th andLorain.

"I'm motivated by a challenge," ... Read more >

City governments often get a bad rap. Cleveland's government isespecially vulnerable to dismissal, what with that lingering "mistakeon the lake" thing. But some informed government watchers — at Harvard,no less — like what they see, at least in terms of the city'swillingness to cooperate with communities in building a better future.

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation,at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, recently recognizedthe Strateg... Read more >

Domokur Architects, based in Akron since 1979, has expanded into Cleveland via a merger with Tremont-based Michael Augoustidis.

"We like the neighborhood," says Linsey Domokur, who handles businessdevelopment, "and we like having a Cleveland presence." The new office,at Starkweather and Professor, will house three new hires, including aspecialist in the healthcare industry.

The firm's healthcare portfolio includes the Geneva Medical Centeraddition at University H... Read more >

Neither the departure of LeBron James nor the specter of another losingBrowns season has dampened enthusiasm among restaurateurs to join thedowntown sports-bar scene. The newest member is City Tap, which opensFriday at 748 Prospect, on the grave of the former Boneyard and Forti's.

Owner Eric Pelham grew up near Norwalk but frequently visited Clevelandfor games, and continued to after graduating from Bowling Green StateUniversity. His like-named bar in Bowling Green celebr... Read more >