How #EatForCLE Got Local Restaurants Trending

When Ben Bebenroth closed Spice Kitchen & Bar in March, it was clear that COVID-19 had begun to hit the local restaurant industry hard. Jackie Bebenroth, Ben’s wife and owner of advertising firm Muse, saw it as an opportunity to start a movement. “Having a front row seat to this, I felt like I had to do something,” she says. The initiative, #EatForCLE, has aggregated a myriad of resources relying on community outreach and created a documentary series highlighting local, longtime Cleveland chefs. Here are three things to know about the project.

Social Justice: Wanting to reach the masses quickly, Jackie devised the hashtag #EatForCLE and created eatforcle.com to aggregate each online post using the hashtag all in one place. The idea: Motivate the community to rally around restaurants and remind chefs they’re not alone. “When we say #EatForCLE, we really are eating for the future of our communities,” says Jackie.

Conversation Starter: Jackie set out with Garage Creative Studios to make a docuseries about how chefs and restaurateurs such as Karen Small, Douglas Katz, Bridget Thibeault, Sam McNulty and more were coping. “I’m fascinated by what these people are going to do to survive the immediate crisis and what decisions they’re making to get back to where they can thrive,” says Jackie.

Forward Thinking: Jackie plans on releasing follow-up videos at some point to document the future of Cleveland’s dining scene. “Ultimately, it turns out to be a story of survival of the fittest, but it also turns out to be a story around the innovation of an industry,” she says.