Predictably, Paul Benner and Justin Carson came up with their idea to launch a brewing incubator over a couple of strong pints at a local alehouse. Benner owns the Cleveland Brew Shop, a homebrew supply store in Tremont, and Carson runs JC Beertech, a company that installs and cleans draft beer lines.

Two weeks ago, JC Beertech moved its 40-person office from Medina to a renovated building in Ohio City. The company occupies the second floor of the Tomasch building at 4125... Read more >

Phoenix Coffee, known for setting the standard for Cleveland coffee culture throughout the past two decades, recently moved into a airy new digs on Coventry Road. The roomy, contemporary storefront boasts large windows and a design that incorporates reclaimed materials.

Coffee Director Christopher Feran says that Phoenix's goal was to relocate from its unworkable space down the block to a storefront that it could completely customize, adding to the renaissance of loca... Read more >

The Enterprise Nurture an Idea Crowdrise Challenge offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to win $10,000 by competing to raise the most money online. Eleven innovative ideas in Cleveland are competing between now and November 8th for that big grand prize.

Ideas include a bike composting business in Gordon Square, an initiative to open retail startups in former shipping containers in downtown parking lots, a healthy corner store in Tremont, and a food cooperative distri... Read more >

Brittany Gonzalez and Alicia Candelario started La Banana Frita on a dare from friend and comedian Ramon Rivas. He was having a show at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights last May and he wanted his guests to have food. The childhood friends accepted Rivas’ dare and began selling fried plantains, or tostones, at the show.

“We’re by no means chefs,” says Gonzalez. “We just make them like our grandmothers and mothers made them.”  The ... Read more >

Starting a successful food-based business takes more than a great idea and the ability to cook. Like any entrepreneurial venture, food startups require planning, money and a willingness to be flexible. But those who do dive in have found there's plenty of guidance, support and collaboration in the local food startup community.

It's no easy feat to win unanimous approval from the City of Cleveland's Board of Zoning Appeals (BOZA) for a variance to open a new bar in Ohio City. With parking scarce in the densely built neighborhood, such a prized variance typically is required for opening any kind of new establishment.

Yet Jukebox, a new bar set to open in the Hingetown area of that neighborhood early next year, earned that approval from BOZA this week, and owner Alex Budin is set to begin ... Read more >

When Terry Frick opened Frickaccio’s at the West Side Market in 2004, she began with the widely popular pizza bagels, a market staple for countless fans. The snacks even made an appearance on the Food Network when Jeff Mauro, aka The Sandwich King, stopped by Frickaccio’s last year to sample them.
 
Business went well, and soon Frick expanded into pizza dough balls. Frick offers more than 10 different flavors. She caters to the dietary needs of her custome... Read more >

Welcome to Waterloo, which is fast becoming the weirdest, most creative strip in Cleveland. Thanks to a $1 million grant from the Kresge Foundation, this neighborhood will increase to 25 the number of new arts-based businesses that recently opened along the main drag.

The Hildebrandt Artist Collective is set to open studio and gallery space in the historic Hildebrandt building, a gigantic warehouse located on Walton Avenue on Cleveland's near west side, sometime next month.

The group joins existing tenants Rust Belt Welding, Soulcraft Woodshop and Wake Robin Fermented Foods in the sprawling complex, which was built a century ago as a meat packing company but has evolved into a hub for local food and art.

Fiber artist Katie... Read more >

Cleveland's economic leaders have worked hard to parade the city as a hub for innovation. A chance to further show off Northeast Ohio's entrepreneurial acumen is a driving force behind Shaker Heights accelerator LaunchHouse's sponsorship of Cleveland Entrepreneurship Week (Cleveland EW), an upcoming four­-day celebration of business success.

The event, scheduled for November 4-­8, was created to give entrepreneurs and investors the knowledge and resour... Read more >

Ninety two percent of residents in the Central neighborhood live below 200 percent of the poverty line, qualifying them to receive food from food pantries. Yet until recently, the future of the city's largest food pantry -- and the second-largest food pantry in Cuyahoga County -- was seriously in doubt.

Recently, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Cleveland (SVDP) stepped in to assume management of Brother Hubbard's Cupboard in the Carl Stokes Building at 6001 ... Read more >

The entrepreneurs behind Piccadilly Artisan Yogurt, who opened their first location in the old Grog Shop space on Coventry Road less than a year ago, will open their second location in Ohio City this fall.

Adrian and Cosmin Bota, Romanian-born brothers who grew up in Parma, have also signed a letter of intent on a retail space at West 117th and Clifton.

The Ohio City location is a slender, 1,100-square-foot storefront that's sandwiched between Crop and Bonbon... Read more >

Kelli Hanley Potts has lived in Denver and Albuquerque, where she got involved in the slow food movement, replaced her front lawn with a vegetable garden, and worked for some of those cities' top chefs. When she got the urge to move back home to Cleveland, she knew she wanted to do something food-related.

That's when she stumbled upon a business idea. Despite the rise of the local food movement, most people had no idea how to cook kale, make jam or preserve food. ... Read more >

As millenials, empty nesters and other demographic groups flock to downtowns across Ohio, business improvement districts -- or BIDs -- are playing an important role in ensuring that these areas are clean and safe and that residents, office workers and property owners have the amenities they need to thrive.

A business improvement district is a defined area in which property owners pay an additional tax in order to fund projects and services that enhance the area. Downtown ... Read more >

Are you sustainable, Cleveland? That's the question environmentally conscious city officials are asking heading into the fifth annual Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit. The initiative to build "a green city on a blue lake" is at the halfway mark, and Cleveland's new chief of sustainability believes Northeast Ohio is meeting the metrics set out a half decade ago.