Capitol Theatre Upgrade, Northeast Ohio Ramps Season: CLE Daily

🌩️ 66°; Thunderstorms in the morning

👩🏻‍🎓 Big Decision: Here is what to know when planning a college tour in Northeast Ohio.

📚 Build Your Library: Skip the big box stores and head to Mac's Backs, Clevo Books and other Cleveland bookstores for your next book. 

🎥 Browns TV Show: Hulu's Drama The Land is filming in Downtown Cleveland this week.

ICYMI: W Sports Bar will close its current space after a year, with ownership eyeing a move closer to the city’s sports hubs.

Today's Trivia

What radio station debuted as WHK-FM before switching its call letters and emerging as one of the great rock tastemakers of the 1970s and 1980s?

Capitol Theatre gets $50,000 grant for new digital projector

News | By Ken Prendergast, NEOTrans

Northwest Neighborhoods CDC (NWN) was awarded a $50,000 Community Development Supplemental Grant (CDSG) from Cuyahoga County to fund a new digital projector in Auditorium No. 1 at the 105-year-old Capitol Theatre.

Why This Matters: This upgrade will strengthen programming and expand community use of the historic venue located at 1390 W. 65th St. in Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District.

• This investment moves the Capitol Theatre closer to long-term financial sustainability and deeper community impact, NWN officials said in a written statement.

New Movies: Its projection system, unchanged since the theatre’s 2009 reopening, is now outdated, limiting both performance quality and programming flexibility.

• The new projector will improve picture quality, reliability and compatibility with modern formats.

Akshay Kalra, NWN’s Economic Development Coordinator: “We see these upgrades as key to realizing the Capitol’s full potential as a truly community-centered space. With strong community support, we’re building a more sustainable future for the theatre.”

Read more on why Cuyahoga County gave the Capitol Theatre grant money.

Talk of the Town

Dave Mazzone has brought BottleHouse Brewery to Cleveland Heights. Mazzone is also the head winemaker at CLE Urban Winery. Mazzone is retaining longtime brewer Jason Kallicrgas and the rest of BottleHouse's staff.

Logan Fano, the younger brother of Browns' ninth overall draft pick Spencer Fano, signed with the team as an undrafted free agent. Both brothers attend the University of Utah. Logan plays as an edge rusher.

Cuyahoga County Veterans Service Commission's new headquarters opened this past week. Located on Chester Avenue, the new facility includes all the amenities and services in one location. The commission has closed its satellite offices in Wade Park and Parma.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last week that submetering companies are to be regulated as traditional utilities by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The ruling is expected to help reduce electricity bills for Ohio residents.

It's officially ramp season in Northeast Ohio.

Food & Drink | By Annie Nickoloff

Ramps, also known as wild leeks, or ramsons (or, perhaps the silliest nickname of all, “little stinkers”), are in season for only a few weeks in April and May. A Midwest culinary treat, the native-grown greens’ oniony, garlicky taste draws both chefs and foragers into the woods for an enthusiastic, annual harvest.

Cleveland chef Ryan Boone: “Ramps are kind of like the secret code for all chefs. If you know, you know.”

Shooters Special: Boone will debut a ramp dish this week at Shooters, where he works as the head chef. The ramp pasta will be a part of the "Chef's Whimsy" rotating small-plate special (typically priced around $28).

• Ramps are a popular addition to local foods this time of year. But foragers who overpick can threaten plant populations.

Ramp Research: Rosana Villafan, a forestry technician for Holden Arboretum, studies ramps in the "Leek Week" project in Holden’s Working Woods program. Across a few plots, Villafan’s team conducts different types of harvests, snipping and plucking various ratios of plants, then returning the following year to count the ramp leaves that return.

Foraging Advice: If you're picking ramps, Villafan recommends leaving ramp plants with at least one leaf so they can continue to photosynthesize. She also recommends not pulling full ramp bulbs out of the ground, so that the edible plant can continue to grow in future years.

• For those who want to try ramps, but don't want to trek into the woods, the greens are abundant at local farmers markets in the spring, Villafan says.

Read more about ramps.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer

A statue in Rocky River Reservation marks the gravesite of what Yorkshire terrier, “The Most Famous Dog in World War II,” and believed to be the first therapy dog? Smoky

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

... Ramp-flavored ice cream?! It's actually pretty good. I got to try a scoop of the unusual sweet-and-savory flavor at Peninsula's annual Ramp Up festival over the weekend. The event was a great chance to pick up a few ramps from local growers to cook at home, and also to sample a few ramp-filled dishes. (Beyond the ice cream, we ordered some delicious ramp spatzle and ramp-potato pierogi, courtesy of The Pierogi Lady.)

Have you ever tried a ramp? (Or, maybe, ramp-flavored ice cream?)

Let me know what you think of them, and other native plants, at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com. — Annie Nickoloff, Senior Editor