April 8th, 2010 | permalink

Baseball Beer

Above is the newest tap handle for The Greenhouse Tavern and Buckeye Brewing Co. that I designed. After the first design for Saison de Maison (pictured left), some people were offended by the nude female figure. So with this design, we opted for the nude male figure in the style of the old Chief Wahoo sign that stood at the top of Cleveland Municipal Stadium for years. It also ties in the likeness of one of the bartenders at GHT, Will Hollingsworth, who was up for an award as Metromix Cleveland’s Hottest Bartender.

The story of this series of tap handle logos is further explained on the Cleveland Magazine Blog in an entry written by Laura Taxel.

Baseball Beer is three-way blend and cask conditioned ale made up of Buckeye Aquarius, Buckeye Bling Bling and Saison de Maison. This beer will be released (on tap only) on Sunday, April 11 from 2pm – 11pm, the day before the Cleveland Indians home opener. It is part of the Pre-Opening Day festivities at The Greenhouse Tavern.

Also, congratulations are in order for Chef Jonathon Sawyer and the whole GHT crew as he was named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs 2010. This is a truly great accomplishment and I think it is just the beginning for this great person and chef.

February 26th, 2010 | permalink

TEDxCLE

So I spent the [snow] day at the Capitol Theatre in Gordon Square attending Cleveland’s first independently run TED event, TEDxCLE. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It was a diverse panel of thinkers and doers in the Cleveland area that ranged from medical, bio-fuels, culinary, entrepreneurial, fashion and transportation. You can see all of the panelists on the TEDxCLE website. The thing that tied all of these things together is not just geography, but the fact they all started with a vision and persevered to make their dreams happen. With their visions, they are also creating a better community. Whether it is a neighborhood shop or fashion designing with textiles made in the region and throughout the US, these talented panelist were great to hear their thoughts, their stories and how they made it or are making it happen.

Our friend, Danielle DeBoe, owner of Room Service and creator of Made in the 216 had a great speech. It was all about her life, her path and how she finally came to realize instead of having a great idea and waiting for someone else to make it happen, she made it happen herself. She also spoke about how being a shop owner, you are not just a businessperson, you are part of the community. Her “dinner for strangers” idea sounds excellent and I cannot wait to attend.

We were recently turned onto the HBO Original Series, “How To Make It In America“. After hearing Sean Bilovecky from Wrath Arcane speak, the plot of the series seems pretty close to their story. They continue to grow and this Fall will have a women’s line.

The entire event was inspiring and while there was no formal Q&A at the show, the panelists were all at Stone Mad afterward and were glad to participate in discussions with the attendees.

View non-flash photos.

Long story short, it is great to see these success stories in the Cleveland area, but these people are not satisfied with their accomplishments. They continue to seek growth, innovation for the betterment of the city, state, nation and world. I can’t wait to see what great things these people come up with next, better yet, they have inspired me to do something great as well.

I was lucky enough to go thanks to winning tickets from Cleveland Foodie’s blog.

February 20th, 2010 | permalink

Rebuttal to Forbes in Pictures

Recently, Forbes Magazine listed Cleveland as it’s 2010 #1 Most Miserable City. This is my rebuttal in pictures. Ignore the smiles, they are just disguising the misery.

Non-flash view of photos.

Just a few reasons why Cleveland, and Northern Ohio, is not so miserable: East 4th Street, Cleveland Metroparks, Ohio City, Tremont, Gordon Square, University Circle, Lake Erie, Little Italy, Cuyahoga Valley, Lake Erie Islands, Shaker Square, Coventry, Cedar Lee, Parade the Circle, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland State University, University Hospitals, Local food, Cultural Gardens, Asiatown, West Side Market, Ingenuity Fest, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, The Beachland Ballroom, The Agora, The Grog Shop, Local Breweries, Family friendliness, Cedar Point, Indoor waterparks, Iron Chef, great food scene, Room Service, Made in the 216, Cleveland Beer Week.

If you disagree with Forbes, join the Facebook Group.

April 8th, 2009 | permalink

The Greenhouse Tavern, Family and Friends

The time has finally come. The Greenhouse Tavern is a couple days away from officially opening. This is a project that Jonathon and Amelia have been working on for almost two years now. I am just glad that I was able to be a small part of it through the logo and website design and pitching in with some photography.

This photo was taken the first time I stepped foot into the space…

And now…

Tuesday night was the second “friends & family” night and we were lucky enough to get a table at the festivities. The food was delicious as always, but the most impressive part was the atmosphere, the service and the chemistry of the restaurant. It felt like it had been open for years, yet this was only the second event in the new space. The feeling was one of comfort, of familiarity.

Jonathon was pretty much invisible to us most of the night as he was working the kitchen on the basement level, however, each of the dishes that we tried Chef Sawyer was very apparent, rising up from his kitchen sanctuary and filling the restaurant.

We sat on the first floor and later Sin-Jin, the Interior Designer of the restaurant, was gracious enough to give Erika the grand tour. Both the front and rear mezzanines are impressive, the front with a wall of windows that overlooks E. 4th Street and the rear mezzanine has a recycled wooden cabinet with an open back that exposes the rear brick wall.

From the recycled chairs and tables, the cement counters with glass fragments, the Civil War era barn wood siding, lighting fixtures made from LED lights and bicycle rims and also some of the fabric from the chairs, recycled rubber tires lining the many stairs, to the John Carroll University lab tables and cabinets and church pews, the entire restaurant utilizes reclaimed items without subtly without having to shout it.

All of these earth-friendly elements contributed to The Greenhouse Tavern recently being acknowledged as Ohio’s first Certified Green Restaurant.

We enjoyed the four course menu, the company of the other guests and the hospitality of The Greenhouse Tavern and we are looking forward to many more experiences there including Thursday night at the Facebook Funkadelic.

Congratulations, Sawyer, Amelia, Seeholzer, Everest, Keri, Sin-Jin and the rest of the GHT family. You are well on your way to a successful restaurant and following. 500+ Facebook fans and you are not even open yet? Insane.

More Photos.

February 21st, 2009 | permalink

The Greenhouse Tavern / Brooklyn Brewery

Thursday night Chef Adam Wilson and The Viking Store at Legacy Village hosted a beer dinner featuring Garrett Oliver Brooklyn Brewery’s Brewmaster, America’s leading beer sommelier, Author and Iron Chef Judge. Also Featuring: The Greenhouse Tavern Team Jonathon Sawyer, Jonathan Seeholzer, Everest Curley and Keri Garcia.

Chef Adam Wilson is an old friend from my high school days so it was nice to catch up with him. I will have to schedule some classes over at the Viking Store since it is so close.

It has been a long time since I have sampled any of Chef Sawyer’s food and the pairings with the Brooklyn beers was outstanding. Brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, was dead on while he was describing the short rib dish paired with the newly released Local 2. He said, “… it is almost as if you cannot tell where the short rib [flavor] ends and where the Local 2 begins.”

The Menu

Mackerel Cru a la Nicoise
raw mackerel filet w/ nicoise olives, spicy dijon mustard, haricot verts & potato
Beer: Brooklyn Lager

Chevre Salad
roasted ohio baby goat w/ herb salad, goats milk cheese, coriander, lime & mint
Beer: Brooklyn-Schnieder Hopfen-Wiesse

Sustainable Black Cod In Paper
cod en papillote w/ lobster, baby artichokes, new potato & cascade hop oil
Beer: Brooklyn East India Pale Ale

Ohio Beef Tenderloin, Marrow Bone & Short Rib
local 1 bordelaise, gremolata, brioche & local 1 braised root vegetables
Beer: Brooklyn Local 2

Ossua Iraty Cheese
french sheeps milk cheese w/ scotch heather honey & grilled bread
Beer: Brooklyn Monster

Brooklyn Chocolate Stout Creme Glace
soft serve ice cream w/ malted milk balls, chocolate stout & chocolate cherry bread
Beer: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

More photos on The Greenhouse Tavern flickr page.

February 20th, 2009 | permalink

Featured Omeka Designer

Having worked with Omeka since it’s days in BETA, I have seen a lot of changes with the platform. Building a theme for Dr. Tebeau at Cleveland State University, I was able to get into Omeka before many other developer/designers. We visited the campus of George Mason University in the Fall to meet with the Center for History and New Media to get one on one training from there great team of developers and designers. Omeka always held a lot of promise but now the team at CHNM are taking it to a higher level. It is an honor to appear on their website as a Featured Omeka Designer and I look forward to working on more projects built on the Omeka backend.

November 15th, 2008 | permalink

Skreened

After seeing one of my friends wearing a cool t-shirt and loving it, he told me that he got it from a company that his friend works for down in Columbus. The company is called Skreened and they sell t-shirts online. They make it easy to get started, set up a store and sell shirts. I have been wanting to get a shirt printed for some time now, so I decided to give it a try.

Last Monday, I set up my store, uploaded a design and purchased one of my own shirts. It arrived today and I could not be happier with the quality. The graphic printed great and the American Apparel shirt gives it even more quality.

I know it is a little late as far as the election goes for this shirt, but I was doing this more as research to start designing t-shirts for clients and selling them online. Stay tuned there will be more t-shirts showcased.

August 26th, 2008 | permalink

Omeka

Today I spent the day at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia at the Center for History and New Media to learn more about Omeka, what it can do and more importantly, where it is headed. I have started using the open source software last year for some projects for Dr. Mark Tebeau at the History Department at Cleveland State University. He set this whole training session up for me, some of his grad students and project leaders to bring us all together and learn more about this powerful web app.

The application itself is pretty simple. It is used by libraries and historical societies to create archives of documents, photos and sounds. You can also create different “exhibits” with the software. It is open source, php software which makes it more affordable to these generally budget deprived institutions. What my role is in all of this is to enhance the visual experience through designing “themes” for the Omeka backbone. We have begun some initial testing through the Euclid Corridor data and based the theme upon the Cultural Gardens site that we did.

Having time to actually sit down with the developers and designers that made Omeka was very inspiring (thanks Jeremy and Dave for your time). It opened up discussions on some topics that I find fascinating like mapping functionality with yahoo or google and the exportation of information in xml format so that I can pull it into the environment that I love, Flash. These sessions will make future development easier as I will be able to comfortably ask for input from the developers.

Hopefully with these training sessions, we are able to tap into more of what Omeka can do and what it’s potential is in the future. It will give me and Epstein Design the knowledge necessary to be the Cleveland representative for Omeka.

August 21st, 2008 | permalink

UCI Golf Scramble

Today was the annual University Circle golf scramble. The event is put on as a fund raiser for the UCI police and this year the event was held at Fowler’s Mill in Chesterland. It is always a lot of fun and we improved our team score this year. The Epstein Design foursome was Anne Toomey, John Okal, Melissa DiGioia and myself. It was a long and hot day out on the course, but it was better than the torrential downpours that we had last year.

Like I said, we played pretty good but the topper for me came on the final hole. The ladies decided to stay back at the club house since we rounded hole #9 and finished on #10. The event was running late, so we were told to tee off from the 150′ mark on all of the par 4 holes. John and I both teed off and they were nothing spectacular. My ball was pretty straight but in the fairway. John was looking for his ball so I waited for him to witness my shot. I used his pitching wedge to chip the ball up to the green but when I hit it I knew it was on a straight line. The ball bounced once, hit the pin and fell straight down into the hole where it stood pinned between the hole and the flag for a second before finishing its decent into the hole. It was the best golf shot that I ever had and provided a great ending to our day.

I hope that luck carries on to my next scramble in a couple of weeks when I play with my Father in law, Grandfather in law and Uncle Woody in the Industrial Nut event.

More photos.

July 27th, 2008 | permalink

New Camera

Erika has been telling me forever that she cannot carry around my Nikon D50 DSLR camera and manage to handle the children too. She has wanted a smaller camera to be able to take snapshots of the kids because she does not need all of the functionality of the D50. Well, with the news that I probably will NOT be able to bring the D50 into Lollapalooza because of some stupid rule banning any “professional camera with removable lenses” I thought it would be a good time to get a smaller camera.

Today while we were out, we picked up a Nikon Coolpix S550. It is a nice point and shoot camera with 5x zoom and 10MP. This was not an impulse buy, I did do some research, but it is Erika’s camera and smaller is better for her. I thought this was a good mix of size, resolution and price. Maybe now she will be able to get more shots of the kids and their weekday events and I can take it with me when the SLR is overkill.

I need to check it out more so I know how to use its features.