Cavs Playoff Preview, Sushi By Bou Opens, Rocky River Baseball: CLE Daily

🌤️ 58°; Clouds and sunshine

⭐️ Will Cleveland Get a Michelin Star? Read what our editor Dillon Stewart has to say about Cleveland's restaurant scene chances. 

👕 Shop Second Hand: Whether you’re in search of clothes, furniture, decor, trinkets or books, these curated spaces have you covered.

ICYMI: Backed by a major tenant believed to be Amazon, the 650,000-square-foot development is moving swiftly through city planning.

Today's Trivia

The Lady of the Lake is the unidentified first victim of what Cleveland serial killer, who was also never officially identified?

The Cleveland Cavaliers start their playoff run this weekend. Here is what you need to know.

Sports | By Jaden Stambolia and Christina Rufo

Rocket Arena and Downtown Cleveland will be abuzz tomorrow around 1 p.m., when the Cleveland Cavaliers host the Toronto Raptors to open the first round of the playoffs.

Healthy: The Cavs stars are fully healthy. Donovan Mitchell and James Harden are expected to start in the backcourt, with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley heading up the frontcourt.

The Raptors: Cleveland lost all three regular-season matchups against the Raptors; with that, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson needs to find ways to stop Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes.

Chef Richard Arnoldi, executive chef of Rocket Arena through Aramark, has collaborated with six local vendors to create a lineup of bold, limited-time dishes designed specifically for the playoff run.

• Sauce the City (Loudville near Portal 68): Club Deluxe Chicken Sandwich, crispy chicken tenders with lettuce, tomato, house-made chipotle ranch and Colby cheese on a brioche bun.

• Flour Pizza Co. (Street Level near Portal 22): Spicy “Meatballer” Pizza with house-made meatballs, crushed tomatoes, grana, aged provolone and Calabrian hot honey.

• Rocco’s (Street Level near Portal 3): Short Rib Steamed Buns with cucumber, pickled carrots and apple syrup

Where To Watch: If you can't make it to the game, Saturday's game is set to air on Amazon's Prime Video. Monday's game at 7 p.m. is set to air on Peacock and NBC Sports Network.

Read more on the playoff food options.

How the Cavs' 1976 Season Captivated Cleveland.

Look Back | By Vince Guerrieri

In the spring of 1976, for the first time in the Cavaliers’ brief history, the team was playoff-bound.

The Cavaliers were one of three expansion teams in 1970, and by far the worst. But the Cavs got better, year by year, thanks to players like Campy Russell, Austin Carr and Jim Chones.

But at the outset of the 1975-76 season, the Cavs were limping along at 6-11 when coach Bill Fitch made one of the most consequential deals in team history, bringing Akron native and Bowling Green graduate Nate Thurmond back to Northeast Ohio.

Read more about how that trade changed the 1976 season.

Talk of the Town

Rocky River High School baseball head coach Ed Piazza and assistant coach Michael Harper have resigned following an investigation into an incident involving the baseball team's visit to Myrtle Beach last week. Craig Moro will serve as head coach for the rest of this season.

Cosm, an immersive sports and entertainment venue in Downtown Cleveland, broke ground yesterday. With construction now beginning, the venue is expected to open in July 2027. Once complete, it will feature a nearly 100-foot, 12k-resolution LED dome, becoming a key part of Bedrock’s Rock Block site.

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo announced the passing of Belle, a 24-year-old fosa. Belle lived in Cleveland for 14 years. Fossas are the largest mammalian carnivores on Madagascar and have been compared to small cougars.

Pedro Gerum, an assistant professor at Cleveland State University, worked with researchers from Emory University to validate a newly discovered mechanism in HIV treatment.

The City of East Cleveland has been cited for dumping trash in its own service yard, reports Signal Cleveland. This past January, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health declared the service yard a public health nuisance, and now the city plans to clean it up after meeting with county officials.

Sushi by Bou offers a new omakase sushi experience in Downtown Cleveland.

Food & Drink | By Annie Nickoloff

One chef slices tuna, salmon and eel, while another scoops nuggets of rice and drizzles sauces and oils. A sweep of a blowtorch sears some of the fish. Before long, a consistent flow of nigiri arrives, placed onto a small plate, course after course announced by the chefs. Sushi By Bou brings a new kind of dining experience to Downtown Cleveland’s Ritz-Carlton hotel.

• Hotel Eats: Sushi By Bou, which operates spots in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Tennessee and more, opened its first Ohio location in a small space across from the Ritz-Carlton's longtime Turn Bar & Kitchen on the sixth floor.

• Trust The Chef: The dimly lit restaurant offers the elevated experience of “omakase,” translating to the phrase “I leave it up to you.” Here, customers don’t pick and choose from a sushi menu; instead, the chefs curate a multi-course experience for small groups of four to 12 diners who are seated in front of their workspace.

• Other Omakase: The concept is not new to Cleveland; Dante Boccuzzi’s Ginko restaurant in Tremont and Sushi Kuwahata in Ohio City (set to reopen in late April) both center on omakase in their restaurants.

• Lower Cost: Sushi By Bou aims to offer a more economically accessible omakase meal to diners. Its signature 12-course omakase costs $70 per customer. (Pricier options include the expanded 17-course Elevated Omakase at $125, and the 17-course Bou Reserve Omakase at $175, which includes a caviar bump and other high-end delicacies.)

Behdad Ghofrani, Ritz-Carlton Cleveland’s Director of Food and Beverage: “While it is very refined, it's also very approachable, and that's what the strategy was with the pricing. My goal for Sushi By Bou is that it will become a destination here in the city, for us to attract not only our local crowd, but also our Ritz-Carlton guests.”

Read more about the new restaurant.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer

Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli was the given name of what Cleveland who reigned as light heavyweight boxing champion from 1950 to 1952? Joey Maxim

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

From the Editor

When I am looking for headlines for the Talk of the Town section of the newsletter, I build a list and try to figure out what is most noteworthy and interesting to our readers. 

The name Pedro Gerum caught my eye. Why? Because I interviewed Gerum for my college newspaper, but for a whole different reason. In 2019, Gerum was interning at NASA and was part of a team that helped discover 301 planets. 

They used ExoMiner, a new neural network that leveraged NASA's Pleiades supercomputer to comb through data gathered by the Kepler telescope in to find those planets. Imagine the neural network as a form of artificial intelligence.

Now Gerum is using other data techniques to help validate an HIV treatment. Data is ringing in my head right now because we are working on June's best places to live issue. You can use numbers to solve a lot of problems and tell some sides of an issue, but quantitative research can only get you so far. That's why qualitative research and storytelling will always be important. 

I was proud to tell Gerum's story then, and I hope that he continues the great work he is doing.