Alex Wittenberg loves a good cup of coffee. So much so, he envisions a world where Cleveland’s coffee shop patrons share their love by buying their neighbor—whether it’s a friend, the next guy in line, or even an unknown stranger—a cup of joe. To that end, Wittenberg, along with co-founders Sebastian Thimmig, Adam Fishburn, and Edward Liu, have created CoffeeQ, an online app that allows users to do just that.

Fresh Water's monthly "Free Stamp" feature rounds up the freshest free events in Cleveland.

More than 500 Clevelanders gathered for the fourth annual Accelerate event at downtown’s Global Center for Health Innovation—or what event co-chair Ursula Cottone calls a “civic ‘Shark Tank.’” Sponsored by Citizens Bank and orchestrated by Cleveland Leadership Center, the buzzy civic pitch competition featured 25 semi-finalists presenting bright ideas on how to accelerate Cleveland’s momentum.

Following in the footsteps of FirstEnergy Stadium, the Cleveland Indians, and JACK Cleveland Casino, the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland has implemented a large-scale food waste recycling system known as Grind2Energy—becoming the first and only convention center in the country to do so.

Rain, shine, snow, sleet, or hail, Clevelanders embrace the unpredictable winter we have come to know and love. Case in point: Brite Winter, a free music and arts festival that defies even the coldest temperatures and invites people of all ages to brave the elements. Slated for this Saturday, February 24, this year’s event features more than 45 bands and is projected to attract 20,000 attendees to the West Bank of the Flats.

In coastal big cities like New York and Los Angeles, poke places can be found on almost every block, but here in Cleveland, notsomuch. That’s about to change, starting with 2nd and High Poke House + Bar—the new incarnation of downtown's 2^nd and High Social House.

Fresh Water's monthly "Free Stamp" feature rounds up the freshest free events in Cleveland.

The great outdoors + beer + community = one compelling equation. That’s the basis for Mappy Hour, a new network of adventure and travel enthusiasts who are passionate about the outdoors, maps, guidebooks, and physical activity.

Touted as “part play, part town hall meeting,” How to End Poverty in 90 minutes (with 119 people you may or may not know) explores the complex subject of poverty through the eyes of art. A collaboration between Cleveland Public Theatre, United Way of Greater Cleveland, and Sojourn Theatre, the 90-minute experimental play runs from January 24-28 at Gordon Square Theatre and is fully sold out.

Quicken Loans Arena (aka “The Q”) isn’t just launching the next generation of pro basketball stars—it’s turning out culinary power players as well. Today, the arena’s Launch Test Kitchen announced its newest lineup of local chefs, all three of whom come from minority-owned businesses.

From Christina Sadowski’s perspective, there is no better vantage point of the Cleveland skyline than from a purple kayak at the crack of dawn. Her upcoming photography exhibition, “Reflections of Cleveland,” is the product of Sadowski’s kayak jaunts on Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River—and what her camera captured along the way.

Cleveland-based artist Loren Naji made waves at ArtPrize in 2016 with EMOH, a spherical sculpture and temporary living space made of found objects, garbage, and remnants of abandoned or demolished Ohio and Michigan homes. Now he's set to take it on the road this year in U.S. cities with large homeless populations—starting in New York in March during the Independent Air Fair.

Find out more about this socially conscious sphere here.

Cleveland native Nikki Yeager was tired of people making comments that her son should dress more "like a boy," so she decided to do something about it by launching Every Bean Boutique—a gender-neutral line that's part of a larger movement to remove traditional labels from children's clothing. Learn more about Yeager's mission here.

The best things in life are free, indeed, and our monthly "Free Stamp" feature rounds up all of the free #CLE events that get our "stamp" of approval. See what's on tap for January here. 
 

From Eliot Ness to T.I.T.U.S., the Molchan family business has grown immensely. Since opening Perplexity Games back in 2016, the business (currently ranked as TripAdvisor's top escape room in Cleveland) has grown from 3,000 square feet to 4,500 square feet. The number of game offerings has also increased, with the addition of "Clockwork Caper" and "T.I.T.U.S." in addition to the original "Eliot Ness Investigation." Learn more about this place for escape artists here.

When gift-giving, why settle on a fruitcake when you can have a Bloom Bakery delight? The artisanal café-slash-social venture is hosting a Holiday Shop replete with assorted cookies, dinner rolls, and apple pies, plus seasonal items like pumpkin roll and pumpkin bread—as well as a showstopper that Executive Director Jill Rizika calls "to-die-for deep, deep chocolate brownies."

"We really hope instead of giving a gift certificate or a candle as corporate gifts, that [people] might think about ordering through Bloom and get the double whammy of getting a treat while also supporting a second chance," says Rizika.

Tonya Kinlow and her husband, chef Craig Stevens, never intended to start an app or a mindful eating movement—they just wanted to open a restaurant. But as they got deeper into the planning process, their values pointed them in an entirely different direction. The result is UGottaEat, an app that acts as a social network where users can share home-cooked meals and obtain freshly made meals from local chefs. Learn more about how this innovative app works here.

It only seems fitting that someone named Mercedes Bell would open a boutique on wheels—and that's exactly what Bell did when she launched Lavora's Mobile Boutique earlier this year. An emerging style entrepreneur, Bell had already been running her online boutique for over one year when she debuted the roving fashion truck in late July 2017. In the months since, the truck has made appearances at events like Glenville Community Festival, Soul of Buckeye, Battle of the Bands at Shaw High School, and the recent pop-up shop at Spaces. Get the 411 on this roving retailer here.