March is the season to sample new menus in Northeast Ohio as two Restaurant Weeks kick off.

Since the first event was held in 2015, the Accelerate: Citizens Make Change civic pitch competition has definitely made an indelible mark on Cleveland—from "give boxes" in the North Collinwood and Central neighborhoods to special needs toy libraries at Lake County libraries to a vibrant new mural in Slavic Village.
 

As Cleveland gears up for CIFF43—Ohio’s largest film festival—moviegoers have many other opportunities to see the work of Northeast Ohio filmmakers on the silver screen in March. From adrenaline-fueled adventure films to shorts by local artists to Oscar-winning documentaries on the Black experience, these three events will fuel Clevelanders’ creativity and inspiration over the coming weeks.

Welcome to the latest edition of FreshWater Cleveland's “Who’s Hiring” series, where we feature growing companies with open positions, what they’re looking for, and how to apply. This installment includes jobs from Towards Employment, Cleveland Metroparks, Microsoft, Dobama Theatre, Accounttemps, and The Sculpture Center. Click here for the freshest job opportunities fit to print.

Who says Cleveland isn’t a tech hub, let alone a medical tech hub? Not Matt Buder Shapiro, Nate Spoden, and Jake Myers, co-founders of MedPilot. In fact, the team believes so much in the city’s potential for business growth that they relocated MedPilot from New York City to Cleveland last year, where they set up shop at 5500 S. Marginal Road.

How can Cleveland get its entrepreneurial scene on par with places like Austin, Boulder, Chicago, and Silicon Valley? By encouraging startup founders to break bread together, naturally. And that’s exactly the point of StartInCLE, a growing collective of entrepreneurial types that meets monthly for informal group dinners and other events.

It takes a village to build a community gathering place, and LAND studio is looking for that village to help build its latest public art project—Forum, a large, permanent outdoor pavilion designed to be a setting for public engagement and community gatherings.

If you see a license plate that reads “HOME JOY” toting around town, you've likely spotted Cleveland's only certified KonMari consultant, Chris Beers. A Japanese approach to decluttering popularized by the recent Netflix show "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo," the KonMari method prompts participants to purge or keep belongings based on whether they ”spark joy," and it's essentially made Kondo a household name.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh may have a legendary rivalry when it comes to football, but Matt McMonagle and his wife, Lisa, are taking that rivalry to the condiment arena. As supporters of locally-owned businesses, Matt and Lisa noticed that everyone in Cleveland was serving Pittsburgh-based Heinz ketchup. “We saw a lot of [local] mustard, hot sauces, and barbeque sauces," says Matt. "But why are we buying ketchup from a Pittsburgh company?” 

As part of our editorial calendar for FreshWater, we select a different theme to highlight each month in line with our 15 focus areas (which range from social change to technology). For February, we're turning our lens on Diversity + Inclusion—find out what's on the FreshWater team's radar right now.

Anyone who set foot in the Beachland Ballroom last Saturday might have thought the rumors of print media's demise have been greatly exaggerated. At the sold-out Concert for Truth, more than 450 people gathered to show their support for local journalism and those who bring us the news every day. The event featured 11 local musicians who volunteered their time and talents to raise about $5,000 for the 24 Plain Dealer employees who are being laid off after March.

Emily Moreno is on a mission: to “make America date again.” Last October, the 20something entrepreneur launched Donald Daters, a dating app designed to help Trump supporters connect romantically “without bias, judgment, or liberal intolerance.” In the four months since the app first launched, it has had 25,000 downloads.

When Hotcards CEO John Gadd moved his company to the former Futon Factory at 2400 Superior Ave.—and subsequently bought the building in 2015—he didn’t know what he wanted to do with the 22,000-square-foot warehouse. But soon after moving in, the idea of converting the warehouse into an upscale urban event center came to Gadd, and Red Space was born.

Raffaele Di Lallo may work as a chemical engineer for a top specialty chemicals and coatings company, but his true passion is caring for tropical houseplants and sharing his knowledge. So, two years ago, the Clevelander starred Ohio Tropics—a daily blog focused on teaching readers how to grow and nurture their houseplants.

Welcome to the latest edition of FreshWater Cleveland's “Who’s Hiring” series, where we feature growing companies with open positions, what they’re looking for, and how to apply. This installment includes jobs from FreshWater, Tech Corps, Evergreen Business Services, CWRU, Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation, LaunchHouse, Karamu House, North Coast Media, and more. Click here for the freshest job opportunities fit to print.

For many Clevelanders, memories of bygone E. 185th St. conjure up visions of its epic annual street festival, movies at the La Salle, and bike rides down to the lake. Debra Drobnick is no exception. Born and raised in Euclid, Drobnick has fond recollections of growing up just one street away, so it's rather poetic that she's now a vital part of the street's renaissance as one of the forces behind uber-popular Irie Jamaican Kitchen.

If mastering the art of social media were a poker game, John Gonzalez would have a royal “flush” in hand. As the Communications Manager for NEORSD, Gonzalez spends much of his day Tweeting about everything from not-so-flushable wipes to stormwater selfies to “halftime dumps” during the Super Bowl, aka “Sewer Bowl.” In the process, he’s helped make the NEORSD Twitter account a local celebrity of sorts.

It’s never easy when a loved one is hospitalized—often, the family caregivers forget to care for themselves. With more than 2,000 Orthodox Jewish families living in the Cleveland area—the majority of whom live in Cleveland Heights, University Heights, and the Green Road area of Beachwood—the tenets of their faith can make a hospital stay particularly hard. The new Bikur Cholim room at MetroHealth's Cleveland Heights campus is helping to make the experience easier for all. 

When Julia Gramenz and Abbey Markiewitz started Fetch & Co. boutique in October 2017 in Markiewitz’ basement with just a couple of clothing racks and a fitting room, they had one mission in mind: To offer unique clothing in a range of sizes that would fit every woman.