Why? Cleveland Wine Festival Giveaway!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Congratulations to RP (Comment #13), randomly-selected winner of the $50 Earth Fare gift card! Please check your email and respond by the end of the day or a new winner will be chosen.***

One of my favorite events of the summer is the Cleveland Wine Festival, presented by Giant Eagle, taking place on Friday, June 14 and Saturday, June 15.

First of all, there are more than 300 wines to sample, including a great selection of Ohio wines, plus you can chat with wine makers, watch wine-themed cooking demonstrations, listen to live music from Lloyd Dobler Effect, and much more! For a complete entertainment schedule, click here.

There’s something for the craft beer enthusiast too: the Best of Belgium Tour, featuring Stella Artois and Goose Island beers.

Plus, the event takes place at Voinovich Park, with gorgeous views of the Cleveland skyline. Trust me, this is the perfect spot to sip, relax, and enjoy summertime in CLE!

What’s even better is that a portion of the proceeds from the Cleveland Wine Festival benefit the Bright Side of the Road Foundation, a local nonprofit which is working to find a cure for ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Tickets can be purchased online and are $29 in advance ($35 at the door) and include a souvenir wine glass, 12 tastings, and all the entertainment, demonstrations, and seminars. Or you can enter to win 2 tickets right here!

Here’s how to enter: you can complete one, two, or all three entries, just leave a SEPARATE comment for each:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite style or brand of wine.

2. Follow @CleWineFest and @WhyCLE on Twitter and leave one comment letting me know you’re following both.

3. Tweet the following phrase and leave a comment letting me know you tweeted:

I want to sip wine in the CLE sunshine at the @CleWineFest thanks to @WhyCLE: http://wp.me/p1fb9r-1vH 

You can tweet once per day for additional entries, just leave a separate comment each time you tweet.

The giveaway will close on Sunday, May 26 at 11:59pm and the winner will be announced the following day. Good luck!

***Disclosure: I was asked by the Cleveland Wine Festival to help promote the event. In exchange, I will receive 2 tickets to give away. I was offered 2 tickets for myself, but sadly declined due to scheduling conflicts. Photos courtesy of the Cleveland Wine Festival. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***

Why? Ohio City Happy Hour Holla!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Have you entered to win a $50 gift card to Earth Fare? Check it out! Remember, you can tweet daily for additional entries.***

It’s time for another installment of Happy Hour Holla! So far, I’ve highlighted some of the best happy hour deals in Tremont and Detroit Shoreway/Gordon Square. This month, let’s head to Ohio City!

Momocho

Image Source – momocho.com

The Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 5-6:30pm

The Drinks: Half-off traditional margaritas and half-off Tecate

The Eats: Half-off all taquitos

The Catch: Happy hour prices available in the bar area only

Bar cento

Image Source – barcento.com

The Hours: Sunday – Saturday, 4:30-7pm

The Drinks: $4 select cocktails, $4 select draft beer, and $4 select wines

The Eats: Select food items from $3 to $6

The Catch: None

Light Bistro

Image Source – lightbistro.com

The Hours: Monday – Friday, 2:30-7pm

The Drinks: $1.50 select domestic beer, $2 select specialty beer, $4 specialty cocktails, $5 wines

The Eats: $5 bar menu food items

The Catch: Happy hour prices available in the bar area only

Great Lakes Brewing Company

Image Source – greatlakesbrewing.com

The Hours: Monday – Friday, 4-7pm

The Drinks: $1 off all pints

The Eats: Half-off all pizzas

The Catch: None

SOHO Kitchen and Bar

Image Source – sohocleveland.com

The Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 5-6:30pm

The Drinks: $2.50 and $3 select beers, $5 select cocktails, $5 select wines

The Eats: $3 deviled eggs, $5 select appetizers, $6 shrimp po’ boy

The Catch: Happy hour prices available in the bar area only

These are just some of the fabulous deals available in Ohio City for after-work eats and drinks. Where’s your favorite Ohio City happy hour spot? What neighborhood should I happy hour holla in next month?

Why? Weekends!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Have you entered to win a $50 gift card to Earth Fare? Check it out! Remember, you can tweet daily for additional entries.***

It was a fun, busy, sunny weekend in Cleveland! Friday evening, I had a good old-fashioned girls’ night out with one of my most favorite girls: my Mom!

It started with a manicure at Anthony Vince Nail Spa, which offers not only a huge amount of space for manis and pedis, but also a bar! Anthony Vince is open later than most salons on Fridays, which makes it a perfect weekend kickoff spot to get pampered.

From there, we did some summer shopping around Crocker Park, then enjoyed cocktails and a yummy dinner at 87 West. We both love 87 West’s sangria, which is a perfect summer sipper. We also shared the decadent lobster nachos and the ahi and avocado tartar.

It was a perfectly laid-back, fun start to the weekend!

Saturday morning, after getting my downward dog on at Harmony Yoga, I got my BBQ on at the 2nd annual Red, White & BBQ Rib Fest in downtown Willoughby. Matthew and I met up with friends Rich and Rachel for some fun on Erie Street.

There was live music, lots of booths paying tribute to our troops on Armed Forces Day, and of course tasty ribs and beer. We chose ribs from Willoughby Brewing Company and found them to be tender, meaty, and flavorful. The weather was perfect for an outdoor festival, too! It’s really starting to feel like summer.

It was a busy Saturday, as we were then off to Tammy and Frank’s place on Saturday evening for their first roof-top gathering of the summer. We were also helping Frank’s kids and Alicia carb-load for the Cleveland Marathon 10K, half, and full the next day!

I’m pretty sure you don’t need to carb-load if you’re not actually running, but I wasn’t taking any chances! Tammy and Frank put out an all West Side Market feast, with three different kinds of Ohio City Pasta and sauces and sweet Italian sausage from M&M Foods. Plus, there was plenty of wine for those of us not running! It was a delicious and at times hilarious evening!

Sunday, I tried a new yoga class at Harmony Yoga called yoga sculpt. Think of it as lots of abs, leg, and arm work with weights, with some sun salutations thrown in too. I’m not sure this would be an every week class for me, but I can definitely see mixing it in every once in awhile.

We also had Matthew’s dad over for dinner and grilled up some tasty mahi mahi with sauteed vegetables on the side. This made a perfect light, healthy summer dinner. Click here for the recipe, which calls for swordfish, but I could only get mahi mahi fresh, so I went with that instead.

How was your weekend? Did you participate in any Cleveland Marathon (cheering or running)?

Why? Earth Fare Solon!

I don’t know about you, but I try to make grocery shopping a once a weekend occurrence. I go, I load up for the week, and that’s that. Last Saturday, I got a chance to check out the brand new Earth Fare in Solon. I could definitely get used to shopping there!

Earth Fare’s food philosophy ensures you get food that not only tastes good, but is truly good for you: no high fructose corn syrup; no artificial fats, colors, preservatives, sweeteners, or flavors; no bleached flours; and no antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones.

I love this idea! For me, quality is much more important than quantity in food. Give me a full-fat, but all-natural, cheese any day over something fat-free and full of artificial ingredients!

Earth Fare’s meat and seafood department has tons of fresh choices, as well as experts who can help you not only select the perfect steak or chicken, but also tell you the best way to cook it.

Throughout the store, you’ll find specifically-marked local items, which means they came from 100 miles or less from that store. I saw some great local finds, including products from Hartzler’s Family Dairy, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, and Fat Head’s Brewing.

Earth Fare has a large wine department, with wines that cost $15 or less specifically designated.

There’s also a large prepared foods section, with soups, a salad bar, made-to-order sandwiches, pizzas, sushi, bakery, frozen yogurt, and more.

Three days a week, the prepared foods section at every Earth Fare has some special deals: Burgers for Bucks happens on Sundays from 12-3pm, with $3 burgers and $1.50 sides; Good Ole Days happens on Tuesdays from 4:30-7:30pm, with a half chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggies for $7.99; and Family Dinner Night happens on Thursdays from 4-8pm, with free kids meals with the purchase of a $5-or-more adult meal.

After my tour, I stuck around to get my weekend grocery shopping done. You can sample just about anything in the store, so you know before you buy that you’re getting something tasty!

Since we were pretty stocked up on the basics at home, I got a lot of impulse buys, like Jozsef’s Premium Paprikash Sauce, freshly-made honey roasted peanut butter, and Thrive Farmers coffee.

So, to help you get your grocery shopping done healthily, deliciously, and more economically, I have a $50 Earth Fare gift card to give away! The gift card is good at any Earth Fare (there’s also one in Fairview Park if that’s more convenient).

Here’s how to enter: you can do one, two, or all three options, just leave a SEPARATE comment for each.

1. Tell me what you are most likely to buy even if it’s not on your grocery list.

2. Follow @EarthFareSolon and @WhyCLE on Twitter and leave one comment letting me know you’re following both.

3. Tweet the following phrase:

I entered to win $50 to @EarthFareSolon from @WhyCLE and you can too: http://wp.me/p1fb9r-1uP 

You can tweet daily for additional entries, just leave a separate comment each time you tweet.

The giveaway will close on Wednesday, May 22 at 11:59pm and the winner will be announced the following day. Good luck!

***Disclosure: I was invited by Earth Fare Solon to tour and blog about the new location. In exchange, I received a $50 gift card for myself and a $50 gift card to give away. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***

Why? Upcoming Events!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Congratulations to Gauri (Comment #1), randomly-selected winner of 2 general admission tickets to the Marc’s Great American Rib Cook-Off and Music Festival. Please check your email and respond by the end of the day or a new winner will be chosen.***

As we head toward summer, there are a ton of great upcoming events to take advantage of around the Cleveland area.

Red, White & BBQ Rib Fest

Saturday, May 18 at 12pm

Erie Street in Downtown Willoughby

Image Source – seriouseats.com

Downtown Willoughby presents the second annual Red, White & BBQ Rib Fest. From noon to 8pm, Erie Street will be turned into a pedestrian mall lined with restaurants serving up tasty BBQ and libations. Willoughby Brewing Co., Lure Bistro, Olivor Twist and many other Downtown Willoughby favorites will be participating. There will also be two stages with live music from eight different local bands and artists. Red, White & BBQ falls on Armed Forces Day and will be honoring our nation’s heroes by asking all attendees to donate $1 to the USO of Northern Ohio.

Recruit Cleveland Alumni-Only Career Expo

Thursday, May 23 at 11am

Veale Center at Case Western Reserve University

Image Source – hirecleveland.eventbrite.com

If you’re an alumni from John Carroll University, Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University, or a host of other local schools (see the graphic above), you are invited to attend a career fair with job opportunities from over 75 local employers, including the Cleveland Clinic, PR Newswire, Huntington Bank, and more. Admission is $10 for VIP early access and featured resume placement or free for all other alumni. Space is limited! For more details and to register, click here.

Woof, Wag and Wine

Saturday, June 1 at 1pm

Grand River Cellars

Image Source – lakehumane.org

An event that combines pups and wine? Be still my heart! Bring your pup along for a tour of Grand River Cellars, a wine tasting, live music, auctions, and more. Admission is $15 and includes your wine tasting. Proceeds benefit the Lake Humane Society. Click here for more information.

13^thAnnual Race for the Place

Sunday, June 2 at 8am

Beachwood Place

Image Source – touchedbycancer.org

Get out, get moving, and raise money for The Gathering Place, a community-based cancer-support center. There is a 5K chip-timed race or a one-mile fun walk, as well as family activities in the Celebration Village. Join honorary cancer survivor chair Jim Donovan, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, and The Gathering Place for this great event. Registration ranges from $10-30 depending on age and event. Click here for more information and to register.

15^thAnnual Farm to Table Benefit

Cleveland Botanical Garden

Monday, June 3 at 5:30pm

Image Source – cbgarden.org

Join 20 Cleveland chefs, from restaurants such as Spice Kitchen and Bar, Crop Bistro, and The Greenhouse Tavern, for a strawberry-inspired farm-to-table tasting event. At 5:30, there will be a panel discussion on “Berry Benefits,” then from 6:30-9, let your tastebuds explore the different tasting stations and enjoy live music on the Garden’s Geis Terrace. Tickets are $100 ($85 for Garden members) and proceeds benefit Green Corps and the North Union Farmers Market. For more information and to purcase tickets, click here.

10^thAnnual DePiero Family Charity 5K Run and 2K Walk

Saturday, June 8 at 8:30am

Byers Field

Image Source – deandepiero.com

Join former Parma Mayor Dean DePiero for a 5K race or 2K walk, along with refreshments and raffles, to benefit the Cleveland Courage Fund, recently established to raise money for Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight. Registration is $20 and the first 300 registrants receive a t-shirt. Click here for more information and to register.

Piggy Stardust & the Flavors from Mars

Wednesday, June 19 at 6:30pm

The Beachland Ballroom

Emerging Chefs, Chef Brian Doyle, and Chef Brian Rosander have teamed up to create a rock ‘n roll glam foodie event. A multi-course dinner, cocktail pairings, and live music from Vanity Crash, along with the cool surroundings of the The Beachland Ballroom will make for an evening not to be missed. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased by clicking here.

Farm to Table Garlic Dinner

Saturday, June 22 at 5pm

Thaxton Garlic Farm

Join Thaxton’s Organic Garlic and Hudson’s Restaurant for a delicious farm-to-table dinner experience showcasing vendors from the Hudson Farmers Market. The dinner will include a cocktail hour, tour of the garlic farm and neighboring alpaca farm, and a five-course dinner with wine pairings. Tickets are $125 and proceeds benefit the Hudson Farmers Market. Click here to purchase tickets.

What upcoming events are you looking forward to?

***Disclosures: I am the VP of Special Initiatives for the John Carroll University Cleveland Alumni Chapter. Also, I was invited by Emerging Chefs to attend Piggy Stardust with a complimentary media pass, but declined due to scheduling conflicts. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***

Why? Silver Spoon Awards Party!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Have you entered to win 2 general admission tickets to the Marc’s Great American Rib Cook-Off and Music Festival? Today is your last chance, so check it out! Remember, you can tweet once per day for additional entries.***

Last night, Matthew and I attended one of the hottest foodie parties in Cleveland: the 19^th Annual Cleveland Magazine Silver Spoon Awards Party. This event not only honors some of the best chefs, restaurants, and dishes in town, but also raises money for the Arthritis Foundation, Great Lakes Region, Northeastern Ohio.

The ballroom at the Intercontinental Hotel was packed to the hilt with fine food. Some of our favorites of the evening included Pier W‘s poached salmon and mushrooms, Deagan’s Kitchen and Bar‘s chicken paprikash, Light Bistro‘s spring pea and mint soup with ramp pesto, Taki’s Greek Kitchen‘s lamb chops, and Sweet Melissa‘s decadent dessert spread.

Hodge’s and Spice Kitchen and Bar rocked out the VIP room, with craft cocktails that included hibiscus-infused tequila at Spice and bourbon and strawberries at Hodge’s and delicious nibbles like smoked lamb tacos with strawberry jalapeno salsa from Hodge’s and smoked fish on spelt pancakes at Spice. Plus, two of the nicest, most personable local chefs you’ll ever meet in Chris Hodgson and Ben Bebenroth!

Aside from the food, there were fabulous wines, wonderful silent auction and Chinese auction prizes, and lots of friends to mingle with. The Silver Spoon Awards Party is definitely one of the premier fundraising events of the year.

Kudos to Alicia for all her hard work in planning. I’m already dreaming about next year’s fun!

***Disclosure: I was asked by the Arthritis Foundation to help promote the Silver Spoon Awards Party. In exchange, I received 2 complimentary VIP tickets. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***

Why? Marc’s Great American Rib Cook-Off and Music Festival Giveaway!

Can you believe it’s almost Memorial Day and the unofficial kickoff to the summer season? One of the biggest parts of Memorial Day weekend in Cleveland is the Marc’s Great American Rib Cook-Off and Music Festival, now in its 22^nd year!

Image Source – marcs.com

From Friday, May 24 through Monday, May 27, the Nautica Entertainment Complex will be filled with tasty, finger-lickin’BBQ. There will be 10 professional chefs from across the country competing for three prizes: “Greatest Ribs in America,” “Butch Lupinetti Greatest Sauce in America” and “People’s Choice.” There’s also a Marc’s Amateur Grilling Competition on Saturday, May 25. You can even win a chance to be an official Rib Cook-Off judge by texting “LNAPP” to 404040 and downloading the free Live Nation app.

Image Source – marcs.com

Aside from filling up on ribs, you can also jam to some fun music, with Mega 80’s on Friday, Rick Springfield on Saturday, Buddy Guy on Sunday, and Bret Michaels on Monday. As a “Rock of Love” fan, I’m pretty excited for Bret to rock my world! Entertainment is included with your general admission ticket.

If that wasn’t enough there will be booths to benefit the Downtown Cleveland Alliance and the Cleveland APL, contests, prizes, a new Riverfront dining area, and more! This is a great way to kick off your summer in CLE!

General admission tickets, which include entertainment, but not food and beverage, are only $5 with a coupon available at Marc’s or $8 without the coupon. Or you can enter to win 2 general admission tickets, good for any day of the festival, right here!

Here’s how to enter: you can complete one, two or all three entries, just leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite summer grilling food.

2. Follow both @MarcsStores and @WhyCLE on Twitter and leave one comment letting me know you’re following.

3. Tweet the following phrase and leave a comment letting me know you tweeted:

I want to win BBQ with Bret and Ribs with Rick at @MarcsStores #GreatAmericanRibCookOff from @WhyCLE: http://wp.me/p1fb9r-1uA

You can tweet once per day for additional entries, just leave a comment each time you tweet.

The giveaway will close at 11:59pm on Thursday, May 16 and the winner will be announced the following day. Good luck! And for another chance to win, check out Eat*Drink*Cleveland’s giveaway.

***Disclosure: I was asked to help promote the Marc’s Great American Rib Cook-Off and Music Festival. In exchange, I will receive 2 general admission tickets for myself and 2 general admission tickets to give away. As always, all opinions and reality TV addictions are 100% my own.***

Why? Weekends!

For every weekend that hands us gorgeous weather, there’s one that hands us, well, less gorgeous weather. That’s OK, though! We didn’t let the rain and coolness dampen our fun!

Friday night, we chilled at home with what is a not-often-enough Friday ritual of homemade pizza, a bottle of wine, and catching up on the DVR.

I’m completely addicted to Scandal and, as a DVR watcher, need to stay spoiler-free until I can catch up with the show, which is not usually easy! I somehow managed to avoid the spoilers and was completely shocked at the end of the episode.

On Saturday, I got in my morning vinyasa flow at Harmony Yoga. I’m also part of Team #yogaallthelivelongday, which you can read more about here, so I’m committing to practice at least a small bit of yoga every day (more to come on this, I’m sure).

After that, I headed to check out the new Earth Fare in Solon. Stay tuned later this week for a post on that and a giveaway to go along with it!

To round out the day, Matthew and I went to his college friend Jenn’s house for the first BBQ of the summer. I think it’s great that Matthew, Jenn, and Jody have maintained their friendships for so long! On the way to Jenn’s, we drove through Matthew’s alma mater, Kent State University, for a little more college nostalgia.

Plus, weekend BBQ’s with friends are one of my favorite things about summertime. Even though the weather wasn’t too summery, I still sipped a beer or two and got ready for lots of grilling and cornhole ahead this season.

Sunday, we celebrated Mother’s Day by taking my Mom to brunch at XO Prime Steaks.

The brunch menu was a nice mix of breakfast and lunch items. Mom and Dad went the breakfast direction with apple and pear crepes and lobster eggs benedict, respectively. Matthew and I chose lunch, with blackened salmon and wild mushroom ravioli. Matthew and I also shared a very dense, but tasty, white chocolate, raspberry and macadamia bread pudding for dessert.

Everything was delicious and it was a nice, relaxing afternoon for Mom!

I grabbed another yoga class on Sunday evening. I generally have a tougher time practicing in the evenings, but find my energy level is definitely better on weekend evenings than during the week.

How was your weekend? Did you celebrate Mother’s Day?

Why? Mother’s Day!

Dear Mom,

From here:

To here:

Photo creit: New Image Photography

And everywhere in between, you’ve been my confidant, my best friend, my biggest cheerleader, and my biggest motivator. I owe so much of who I am to you and I will never stop being grateful.

I love you. Happy Mother’s Day!

Love,

Why? Zippity Zoo Doo!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Congratulations to Valerie (Comment #7), randomly-selected winner of the $100 gift card to Provenance. Please check your email and respond by the end of the day or a new winner will be chosen. If you didn’t win, stay tuned to Clue Into Cleveland on Monday for another Provenance giveaway!***

The Cleveland Zoological Society, which raises money to support the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and zoo programs, throws some great parties, including Twilight at the Zoo and Animal Attractions. The Zoological Society’s fundraiser of “fabulous fun and community support for our zoo” is coming up on Friday, June 7 with the 40^th annual Zippity Zoo Doo.

The evening kicks off at 6pm with a cocktail hour, hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction. At 8pm, there is a seated dinner and Wild Side live auction, with special zoo experiences up for bidding. Following that is live music courtesy of The Orchestra and dancing under the summer stars until midnight. Dress in fabulous cocktail attire and strut your stuff!

The menu for this year’s event is nothing short of amazing, with roast duck and cocktail shrimp shooters among the hors d’oeuvres, filet mignon or stuffed Portobello mushroom for the entrée, and more! Check out the entire menu here.

Plus, there’s the opportunity to get up close and personal with zoo animals, like owls and snakes. Kallie the elephant even went swimming during last year’s event!

This is sure to be a great party to benefit a great Cleveland institution! Still need convincing? Check out the slide show from last year’s Zippity Zoo Doo.

Tickets for Zippity Zoo Doo are $250 and can be purchased by clicking here. I hope to see you there!

***Disclosure: I was asked by the Cleveland Zoological Society to help promote Zippity Zoo Doo. In exchange, I will receive 1 complimentary media pass and 1 discounted guest ticket. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***