Sep 23 – Oct 6, 2020

Sep 23 - Oct 6, 2020 / Vol. 51 / No. 11

Molinari’s, an East-Side Staple for Nearly 30 Years, Has Closed

Less than a year ago, I reached out to Randal Johnson, the chef and owner of Molinari’s in Mentor. I was writing a feature about Cleveland restaurants that have managed to survive the test of time by adapting. When Johnson and I chatted, Molinari’s was approaching its 29th birthday. Sadly, that pioneering eatery will not…

Cleveland Museum of Art Just Laid Off 10% of its Staff

In a letter to donors and members last week, Cleveland Museum of Art Director William Griswold announced that the museum had furloughed or laid off roughly 10 percent of its staff, due to ongoing financial challenges posed by the pandemic. The cuts were reportedly across all departments. Staff members were informed by email Friday. Griswold…

Libertarian Jo Jorgensen Has Never Smoked Pot, But She’ll Still Defend Your Right To Do It In Her Long-Shot Bid for President

In the Libertarian Party, presidential candidates don’t pick their running mates; instead, they’re chosen by delegates at the nominating convention in a separate vote. This year’s presidential ticket resulted in the odd-couple pairing of Dr. Jo Jorgensen, an academic from South Carolina, and Jeremy “Spike” Cohen, a podcaster prankster who promises “a Waffle House on…

Cleveland International Film Festival Going Virtual in 2021

The 45th iteration of the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) was meant to be its first in a new home, Playhouse Square, after decades headquartered at Tower City Cinemas downtown. But CIFF’s Board of Directors agreed in a meeting last week that due to uncertainty surrounding the Coronavirus and its persistence, a virtual fest would…

Now Open: Duck-Rabbit Coffee in Ohio City

Back in June, Calvin Verga announced that he was moving his four-year-old coffee shop Duck-Rabbit Coffee from Duck Island to Ohio City. That shop (4160 Lorain Ave.), which is located across the street from Platform Beer, is now open for grab-and-go service only. The cafe portion of the business will be added down the road. “I’m really…

Local Indie Rockers the Dream Masons Release New Music Video

The local indie pop band the Dream Masons began a couple of years ago as singer Annastacia recruited guitarist Eric Hellinger and then added a bassist and drummer. Last year, the band released the bluesy single “Another Great Day” and put out a music video for “All or Nothing.” It’s just released a new music…

News of Trump’s Positive Covid Test After Family Went Maskless at Debate Caps a Dynamite Week of Bad PR for the Cleveland Clinic

When the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University set about the closely-guarded but urgent effort to bring the first presidential debate of 2020 to Cleveland after Notre Dame bowed out, one of the world’s leading hospitals probably did so with visions of unending public relations victories circling in its heads. Instead, the Clinic has…

New Online Film Series to Launch With Mourning [A] BLKstar Documentary

Don Giovanni Records has just announced the details regarding a five-episode music docu-series that illuminates the story of locally based music collective Mourning [A] BLKstar. The group has partnered with a new streaming platform called blk//blur and ORTVI, a global art streaming platform that seeks to “interrupt traditional models of distribution by redirecting funds directly…

New Cleveland Bishop Says Abortion Should be “Paramount” Concern for Catholic Voters

In an utterly wishy-washy pre-election letter to the region’s 700,000 Catholics, newly installed Cleveland Bishop Edward Malesic invited his flock to prepare their consciences before casting their ballots, and in doing so, to make abortion their top priority.  While he acknowledged that neither President Donald Trump nor Democratic challenger Joe Biden reflected “the complete breadth”…

Brite Winter to Pivot to Virtual Format in 2021

The organizers of Brite Winter, the annual outdoor music and arts festival that takes place on the West Bank of the Flats in February, have announced they’ll pivot to a scaled-down, mostly virtual format for 2021. “As you are aware, arts organizations around the globe have had to cancel, postpone, or modify their regular events…

Heinen’s Downtown to Reopen on Wednesday, October 7

The long wait is over; Heinen’s has announced that its flagship store in the heart of downtown will reopen on Wednesday, October 7. At present, the grocery store in the former Cleveland Trust Building will operate with some limitations. “We know there is a need for a grocery store in the area and are pleased…

Local Singer-Songwriter Brian Lisik Unplugs for New Album

Local singer-songwriter Brian Lisik, a guy known for his “guitar-driven power pop and pensive neo-folk,” returns this week with a (mostly) acoustic album, Gudbye Stoopid Whirled. He’ll play a virtual release party at 8 p.m. on Thursday.  Recorded at songwriting partner Steve Norgrove’s Bass Mint Studio and mixed by producer Don Dixon (REM, Counting Crows,…

Inconsistent Ballot Application Data Leads to Undercount of Disenfranchised Voters in Ohio

Haley Belisle, a recent graduate of Ohio Northern University, was baffled this spring when the Hardin County Board of elections rejected her application to vote absentee in the state’s presidential primary. The problem was her signature on the application: It didn’t match her voter registration signature. “When I originally registered, I was just out of…

Savage Love: Trouble in Paradise for Threesomes, Throuples and Quads

I’m a 30-something gay man married to a 30-something gay man. For almost two years, we’ve been seeing another pair of married gay men around our age. They were our first experience with any sexual or romantic interaction outside of our relationship. The first six months were hot and heavy. We were together constantly and…

90% of Traffic Citations Issued by University Circle Police Since 2015 Went to Black People

Members of the Cleveland Clinic and University Circle Police Departments will assist in various patrol and security details at tomorrow’s presidential debate in Cleveland. In advance of the event, the national nonprofit news organization ProPublica has published a detailed report which puts these private police departments — and University Hospitals’ — under the microscope. Reporter…

Former Ushabu in Tremont to Reopen as Bar Oni on October 1

On August 25, chef-owner Matthew Spinner closed Ushabu, his fine-dining Japanese bistro in Tremont. On October 1, he and chef Dave Kocab will open Bar Oni (2173 Professor Ave., 216-713-1741), an izakaya – aka Japanese sports pub – in the same space. “We had a real challenge to take a beautiful fine-dining Japanese space and…

Case Student Campaign Wants to Improve Town-Gown Relations

A new student-led initiative at Case Western Reserve University wants to expose and tear down the “imaginary line of division” between the college campus in University Circle and the surrounding communities. Students and recent alumni who created the “Know Your Neighbors” campaign say they want to establish positive relationships between students and area residents by raising…

Police Solve the Mystery of Ohio Sen. Rob Portman’s Missing Testicles

One of Ohio’s most enduring mysteries has been solved. Police say they’ve found Sen. Rob Portman’s missing testicles in a safety deposit box in Washington, D.C. Following a tip, detectives executed a search warrant this morning at an unnamed bank. The testicles were discovered in a box registered to a J.P. Morgan executive. Though they…

Cleveland Goes Full Week Without Single Day of More Than 20 New Covid Cases

Thursday evening, the City of Cleveland released its daily Covid infection numbers, reporting 19 new confirmed cases. Assuming the numbers have been  tabulated accurately, the city has now gone a full week without a single day of 20 or more new confirmed cases. Last Thursday, Cleveland reported 23 new cases. Since then, each day’s new…

Let’s Take a Trip Through 1960s Tremont

While “Tremont: An Architectural Process,” a CWRU student video produced in 1968, appears to have been made as an examination of housing and planning in the inner-ring neighborhood featuring student’s ideas for the future, it is more enjoyable now as a trip in the wayback machine to the corners and streets some of you might…

New Event Space Opens in Gordon Square Arts District

Gordon Square’s Gordon Green, a new 10,000 square foot event space originally developed as an early 20th century furniture showroom before evolving into a cultural and banquet center for the neighborhood’s Vietnamese community, officially opens tomorrow. The new space will honor what a press release calls “these long standing traditions of creativity and connection.” “Gordon…

Groups Teaming Up to Tackle Child Hunger in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Children’s advocacy groups say childhood hunger is a dire problem in Ohio, but it isn’t impossible to solve. Up to 17 million children in the U.S. aren’t getting the food they need, including roughly one in five Ohio kids. Eleni Towns, associate director for the No Kid Hungry Campaign, contends gains made…

Cleveland Internet Radio Station oWOW is Over

oWOW, the internet radio station founded five years ago by former WMMS program director John Gorman and industry vet Jim Marchyshyn, is calling it a day. Citing a downturn in advertising thanks to the pandemic, Gorman announced this week broadcasts will end come October. “After much consideration and weighing several factors in our industry, we recognized…

Before Limiting Ballot Drop Boxes to One Per County, Top Ohio Election Officials Secretly Consulted Promoter of Debunked Voting Fraud Fears

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. Stay up to date with email updates about WNYC and ProPublica’s investigations into the president’s business practices. On July 15, a civil rights group formed by Black union workers called on the Ohio…


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