Skrtic's Pics: Mike Kubinski, Shaun Yasaki, Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick

John Skrtic has been with the Cleveland Public Library for over 30 years. He now serves as the chief of special projects and collections, which makes him responsible for overseeing the 11 million items in the Library Collection. He holds a master's of library and information science from Kent State University and a master's of public administration from Cleveland State University. Skrtic grew up on East 41st Street in Downtown Cleveland and has lived in the city his entire life. He is father of two children and spends his free time archiving the people and places of Cleveland.

Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick

Great to photograph Steven Intermill, director of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick and one of the people who has helped shape this one-of-a-kind Cleveland destination. Intermill helped bring new life to a fascinating collection connected to Raymond Buckland, who created one of America’s first public witchcraft museums in 1966. In 2015, the artifacts were turned over to the Temple of Sacrifice, a coven based in Columbus, founded by Raymond Buckland. Toni Rotonda, APS of T.O.S., is the current owner of the museum collection, and the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick is now displayed in Cleveland at 2155 Broadview Road in Old Brooklyn under Intermill's direction. The museum opened its Cleveland location on April 29, 2017, giving visitors a chance to step into a world filled with history, folklore, mystery and stories.

What stands out about Intermill is not just the artifacts, but the way he shares the stories behind them. I love watching him greet guests and take them through the museum, turning each object into a story about people, traditions and history. Intermill is amazing to talk to, almost like a true showman when he starts spinning the stories behind the collection. He has a way of making visitors feel like they are part of the story while sharing the rare and fascinating knowledge he has spent years gathering. Before leading the museum, Intermill spent years working at Cleveland’s Christmas Story House.

Intermill is also a great supporter and user of the Cleveland Public Library Special Collections Department, where he often studies our amazing occult collection. After seeing how much he has researched, he may know our collection as well as some of our own staff. In the photo I took of Intermill, he was holding the Mask of the Ooser. If you want to go down a wild reading rabbit hole, start there. The stories behind objects like that are exactly why the Buckland Museum continues to capture people’s imagination. More than anything, I love Steven’s Cleveland spirit, the passion he brings to this museum and the way he keeps sharing these incredible stories with anyone who walks through the door.

Brewnuts

Brewnuts at 6501 Detroit Ave. in Cleveland began as an idea Shelly and John Pippin carried while still working full-time jobs. Shelly was at MetroHealth, John was in accounting, and the donut concept started as something they built after hours, not as a carefully mapped-out business plan but as a passion they kept developing one step at a time. In those early days, they took the idea from conversations and experiments into something real, working through Bad Girl Ventures, now known as Aviatra Accelerators, as well as the Cleveland Culinary Launch & Kitchen, both of which helped them shape the foundation of what Brewnuts would become. By the time they moved toward a permanent home, Shelly and John had already built a following through pop-ups and early events. Brewnuts eventually found its home inside a century-plus-old former bank building on Detroit Avenue, a space with its own Cleveland history that became part of the story. The doors officially opened in September 2017, but the heart of Brewnuts had already been years in the making.

What Shelly and John have built goes far beyond donuts. Brewnuts became a neighborhood gathering place built on creativity, personality and a genuine connection to the community. They found a way to combine great food, coffee, events and a welcoming atmosphere into something that feels uniquely Cleveland. Their success has come from staying true to who they are and continuing to find new ways to bring people together. Shelly, originally from West Park, and John, from North Olmsted, now both call Lakewood home. Shelly continues to bring endless ideas, from events and branding to new ways of connecting with customers, while John helps anchor the day-to-day operations that keep everything moving.

The shop recently launched the popular Cleveland Cat Club, another example of how they continue finding creative ways to build community around the space. Loved talking with them and the locals inside the shop. There is a clear sense that Shelly and John care deeply about Cleveland, the neighborhood, and the people who walk through their doors. After all these years, they still have that same energy to keep creating, experimenting, and bringing new ideas to the community.

Chef Gabriella Rosa

I visited the Fidelity Hotel in Downtown Cleveland for the Sante Supper Club, where chef Gabriella Rosa presented Her Table, a dinner series built around her style of cooking and storytelling. It is a shared dining experience where she designs the entire menu herself, drawing on memory, technique and seasonal ingredients, with each course reflecting her point of view as a chef rather than a traditional restaurant format.

Rosa went on to The Culinary Institute of America, where she graduated in 2014. After graduation, she moved to California to work at the Michelin-starred restaurant All Spice under chef Sachin Chopra. Two years later, she returned to Cleveland, and shortly after, Good Vibe Pies emerged as her next chapter in food.

Good Vibe Pies is a Cleveland-based food business focused on handmade pies and baked goods available for pickup and delivery. The work is small-batch and personal, built around seasonal ingredients and a direct connection to the people ordering it. It extends her cooking beyond restaurant spaces and into everyday homes across the city.

I have ordered from her many times for home delivery, and every time the food arrives with consistency and care. She is a kind and creative chef whose work is grounded, personal and consistently thoughtful.

CLE Clothing Co.

CLE Clothing Co. was founded in 2008 by lifelong friends Mike Kubinski and Jeff Dykan, who set out to create apparel that captured Cleveland pride in a simple, direct and wearable way. What began with a small screen-printing setup and early designs rooted in local humor and everyday Cleveland identity grew into something much bigger through word of mouth, community support and a genuine connection with the people of this city. Early sales at local festivals such as Bizarre Bazaar, Waterloo Arts Fest and Taste of Tremont helped prove there was a real appetite for a brand that allowed Clevelanders to proudly wear where they were from.

As demand grew, CLE Clothing Co. expanded beyond festival booths and into retail. In 2009, the company opened a seasonal kiosk at South Park Mall in Strongsville during the holiday shopping season, marking its first step into that world. By 2012, the company opened its flagship store in the heart of Downtown Cleveland at the corner of East 4th Street and Euclid Avenue. Through it all, the focus stayed consistent: creating clean, bold designs connected to Cleveland sports, neighborhoods and the shared identity that makes this city special.

Kubinski, one of the founders, grew up in Sharon Center, attended Ohio Wesleyan, and met his wife Laura in Tremont. He now lives in Lakewood with Laura and their children. I took a photo of Kubinski at his Downtown shop and enjoyed talking with him about the long history of Cleveland T-shirts, from Daffy Dan to today, and how wearing the city is something locals understand without needing an explanation. If you are from here, you just get it. I have also enjoyed working with Kubinski through a Cleveland Public Library shirt collaboration, and he has always been someone willing to support Cleveland causes, local organizations and community efforts. What he built is more than a clothing company, it is a way for people to celebrate their connection to Cleveland.

Gina's Place

Great to photograph Gina Seder at Gina’s in Fairview Park, a place that has become more than a restaurant; it is part of the community and a legendary local spot for residents. Seder started working here on October 2, 1965, when she walked in on a chance after seeing a help wanted sign in the window at GB Barbeque. What began as a new job set her on a lifetime journey. She worked under Gert Barker when it was GB Barbeque, and later under Jim and Alma Akoury at Alma’s Restaurant as the place changed names and hands over the years. At one point, her boss helped her stop taking the bus and move closer to work, a small act that rooted her even deeper in the neighborhood life that would follow. Over time, Seder and her nephew Greg Ehrentraut opened their own chapter of this spot together 35 years ago. They have been partners since 1991. The restaurant at 21930 Lorain Ave. became theirs in name, but it had already become hers in spirit long before that.

Seder grew up in Smithton, Pennsylvania, but Fairview Park became home in a different way, built shift by shift behind the counter. She told me she feels lucky in life to have found this place. When I took her photo, the entire dining room started talking at once, like it was out of a movie, every customer calling out how many years they have been coming here, each one tied to a memory, a booth, a plate, a conversation. It was not just the food they were describing, it was Seder herself.

That is what makes her special. She does not announce herself as anything. She just becomes part of the place, quietly, steadily, the way a place becomes its own memory over time. The room knows it without saying it. The regulars know it without needing to explain it. Seder and Ehrentraut built something rare here, a restaurant where the story is not confined to the menu but lived out in real time at the counter, in the greeting of familiar faces and in the simple act of remembering someone when they walk back through the door.

Mousey Mousey

Visited Mousey Mousey at 5515 Broadview Road in Parma, a new bakery that opened in February. The space feels fresh but grounded, the kind of place that is still finding its rhythm while already building a following in the neighborhood.

I met owner Wen Lin (right), who is shaping the bakery around a blend of traditional French pastries with Asian influences. Everything is made in-house, with a careful hand in how each recipe is built. She talked about adjusting sweetness levels so the desserts feel balanced rather than heavy, with many items using about 30 percent less sugar than more traditional versions.

I also met staff member Alice Cho, who brings excitement to the work, having lived in New Jersey, spent a decade in South Korea, and now calls Broadview Heights home. She spoke about the response from neighbors who are quickly discovering the shop and returning for more. It is the kind of place that grows through word of mouth, one visit at a time.

Shaun Yasaki

I met Shaun Yasaki at Jukebox Restaurant & Bar in Ohio City, just a chance conversation, nothing planned. A few pints in, talking with the friendly entrepreneur, it is the type of Cleveland spot where conversations settle in easily and don’t need much introduction. Yasaki is a local kid, originally from West Park and now living in Ohio City. He came up during the early Cleveland craft beer wave, helping open Platform Beer Co. in 2014, where he helped establish a reputation for an experimental and creative brewing style that shaped the brewery’s early identity. He stepped away in 2015 as Platform continued to evolve.

By 2017, he was back with something different at Noble Beast Brewing in Downtown Cleveland, this time building a more grounded brewpub focused on lagers, food and a slower rhythm. It felt less like chasing trends and more like creating a place people wanted to spend time. His wife, JoLyn Yasaki, has been an important part of that work on the operational side, helping shape Noble Beast into something thoughtful, steady and welcoming.

Now Yasaki is preparing for Anthology Cask House in the old Bookhouse Brewing space in Ohio City, leaning into cask traditions and classic beer styles, while also working on plans for a year-round beer garden with JoLyn that will add another gathering place to the neighborhood. It continues a similar theme: creating places built around community, conversation, and a sense of belonging.

Related: Anthology Cask House To Open in Former Bookhouse Brewing Space

I really enjoyed talking with him, and what stood out most was how energized he is about Cleveland and where it is headed. He is someone who clearly believes in the city’s future, not just its past, and it shows in the way he talks about building here. It was great to spend time with someone still excited about Cleveland, still investing in it and still thinking about what comes next for the people who live here.

Sugarland Food Mart

I visited Sugarland Food Mart at 5300 Ridge Road in Parma on the 40th anniversary celebration of the Filipino market, a gathering that felt less like an event and more like a homecoming for so many who were visiting. The day began with a church service, followed by tables filled with Filipino food and a steady flow of neighbors, families and longtime customers moving through the store with ease and familiarity.

The story of Sugarland began in 1986, when Ruth and Amando Rama, along with their children Mat Rama and Kim Miranda (all pictured here), first opened the original spot, a small Filipino and Asian specialty grocery at 8006 Detroit Ave. Their goal was simple: to bring the authentic flavors of the Philippines to Cleveland and create a place where people could find both food and connection. Over the years, guests at the celebration spoke about Amando as a steady force in the Filipino community, someone who helped families find work, build connections and feel at home.

What stood out most was the warmth in the store. People were not just marking an anniversary; they were honoring four decades of steady work, welcome and shared meals. The Rama family’s kindness was present in every conversation, and the story from that first small store to the Parma location today was felt in every plate served and every hand that was shaken.

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