Skrtic's Pics: Roland Muhammad, Playa T Show, Ryan Grammerstorf

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.

Minister Roland Muhammad

Great meeting Minister Roland Muhammad, CEO and founder of Superior Renaissance, established in 2021, and owner of Shabazz Bakery located on Superior Avenue in Cleveland. The shop is rooted in the neighborhood, a place where people stop in, talk for a while and leave with something made by hand. He spoke about his early life, born in South Carolina, and the years that followed in the U.S. Air Force, where he worked in aircraft maintenance from 1962 to 1967. That experience shaped his approach to work and responsibility. His bakery has been part of the community since 2011, built on steady effort and a clear sense of purpose. The minister was eloquent, moving easily across many subjects. He spoke with conviction about the local library as a place where kids in the neighborhood can feel part of something larger. He described how his organization works to empower the community and ensure the African American experience is valued and celebrated, especially here on Superior, where history, discussion and the future come together over meals and conversation.

Muhammad is a prominent community leader in Cleveland, known for his work in both religious and civic life. Through Superior Renaissance CDC and Shabazz Bakery, he continues to bake for the community, teach, and uplift through daily presence and purpose, keeping his attention on both nourishment and neighborhood revitalization and on the future of the people he serves on Superior Avenue.

Playa T Show

Terry Crumpton, better known across Cleveland as Playa T, has been building his voice in the city long before content creation became a common lane. His platform, the Playa T Show, Hollywood in Da Hood, grew out of something simple and real. He told me his very first show took place in his backyard in 2005, where he interviewed a neighborhood guy under the influence, just a camera, a conversation and a willingness to listen. No polish, no big plan, just a belief that people had stories worth hearing. Every Friday night now, he still goes live, still centered on that same idea, even as the reach and recognition have grown.

Over time, Playa T has welcomed everyone from everyday Clevelanders to major local names, including former Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and his all-time favorite guest, Big Chuck. But the core has never changed. The show remains a place where voices from the neighborhoods come forward, unfiltered and direct. He talked about coming up from Carver Park near East 40th Street, serving in the U.S. Navy from 1990 to 1994, and later running JoJo’s Pizza Shop for four years near East 110th Street and Superior Avenue, not far from where he records today. It is a Cleveland path, built step by step, rooted in work, service and staying close to the community.

It was great to meet Playa T, someone so many in Cleveland already know, and hear that journey firsthand. He spoke about the night he first picked up his signature golf club, just to settle his nerves before going on camera, and how it somehow stuck, becoming a kind of legend tied to the show. A vegetarian since 1997, still curious, still listening, he carries himself like someone who understands the value of a story. What stays with you is how much he still cares about giving people a platform, amplifying creatives, and letting Cleveland speak for itself, one voice at a time.

John Dudas

I met John Dudas over breakfast, but it quickly turned into one of those conversations where the coffee goes cold and you realize you have only scratched the surface. At Carol and John's Comic Book Shop, located in Kamm’s Plaza at 17462 Lorain Ave., he does not talk about the store like a business first. He talks about it like a long thread running through his life, something that started when he was a kid working alongside his mother, Carol, at North Coast Nostalgia from 1984 to 1990. They learned the comic business together on the job, figuring it out day by day, side by side, and eventually taking everything they learned there and building their own place from it. What makes it even more striking is how that shared experience between mother and son became the foundation for Carol and John’s. The shop itself opened under their care on Oct. 28, 1990, and it still carries that original family backbone.

Dudas's story does not stay in one lane. On Feb. 14, 1994, he became a Cleveland firefighter, and that second life never really left him, as he is still on the force. He moves between calls and comic books, between urgency and imagination, and somehow both roles fit. He traces his love of comics back to his Polish immigrant grandfather, who passed down that enthusiasm along with a sense that stories mattered. Some of his earliest memories are tied to the 1976 Super Friends Water Ski Show and a Super Friends Treasury Edition comic that he still owns today. That kind of memory stays with him, and you can hear it when he talks about creators, artists and shop owners across Cleveland, like he is recalling neighbors rather than names in an industry. He knows the shop owners too, throwing out names like Kapelka, Kovacs, Pincus, Isabella, Berkheimer and Zjaba, Cleveland names many old school comic collectors in Northeast Ohio will immediately recognize.

What makes Carol and John’s feel different is not just longevity, but presence. John knows the city’s comic history the way some people know street corners. He can trace the people, the shops and the shifts over decades without hesitation, and he still shows up behind the counter like someone who is part of the same community he serves. His wife and two daughters are part of that too, helping shape a space that feels more like a gathering point than a retail store, with charity work, neighborhood events and a steady openness to whoever walks in. It is that combination of memory, service and family that has made the shop one of the most respected comic book shops in the nation. You can still feel the love Dudas has when he talks about Cleveland and what it has meant to his and his family’s life.

Nicole Hull and Caleb Mowery

Cent’s Pizza + Goods on Lorain Avenue, is easy to miss from the street but hard to forget once you step inside. The space has a clear identity, with great music, beautiful color and a steady flow of regulars who have helped other new neighborhood spots make this stretch of Lorain Avenue. feel alive for the first time in a long spell. It feels confident and unforced, blazing its own Cleveland path, not worried about tipping its hat to the past, but making its own way without asking permission.

The shop comes from Vincent Morelli, who keeps the menu focused and the standards at the highest. I took a photo out front with Nicole Hull, the renowned general manager, who recently spent time with Kyuu-juu and worked for ten years at Red the Steakhouse, alongside Caleb Mowery, a débrouillard from Lakewood who handles whatever comes his way with calm control and reads a room well. He is also a talented musician, something that fits his steady, rhythmic approach to the way he works and moves through the space. He spoke about his time at Rocky River Wine Bar and Charter House Grill in Euclid, carrying that experience into what he does here. Nicole and Caleb were both picked for their roles because of how good they are at what they do, and that shows up in the way the place operates every day. That background shows up in the details, from how the place runs to how the food lands, steady, thoughtful and dialed in.

The staff is a big part of why Cent’s stands out as one of the best spots in the city. As soon as you walk in, it feels considered and fully realized by people who care about every guest. It is more than pizza. It is a place with a point of view, shaped by the people behind the counter as much as what comes out of the oven. It is intentional, consistent and superb in execution without ever feeling overdone.

Ryan Grammerstorf

Birdtown Brewing at 2035 Quail St. in Lakewood sits inside the beautiful old St. Gregory Church in Birdtown, a space that has seen a century of voices come and go. Now the voices are different, the sound of glasses, conversation, something being built again. Some of the furniture carries another layer of Lakewood history too, pieces from the old Lakewood gymnasium finding a second life inside the room. The wood still holds its past, the ceilings stretch high above you and the space feels made for people to gather. The beer is brewed right here with intention and care, straightforward but thoughtful lagers and ales shaped to be shared, and the food carries the weight of a Cleveland name with Geraci’s in the kitchen, a pairing that signals something intentional, something rooted in serving the community with food made by people who understand it, for the people who live it.

I met up with popular Lakewood local Ryan Grammerstorf, an old friend and now the general manager, a familiar face from his years at Barrio and long before that at Grafton Street Pub on Madison Avenue, where I first met him more than 20 years ago. He is originally from Littleton, Colorado, and after time working at Sub Pop in Seattle, he made his way to Cleveland, learning the city one place at a time through Blue Point, Cowell & Hubbard, Albatross and years at Barrio. He walked me through the space with real energy and enthusiasm, the kind that comes from someone who has carried an idea for a long time and is excited to finally see it come to life. I remember him talking about this place years back, how it could be something, how it would matter. Now it stands in front of us, the work of many hands finally taking shape this month. It is a good thing to see Grammerstorf here, helping lead it. He is a consummate professional, steady, personable, the kind of person who knows both the room and the people in it, and that matters in a place like this. Good luck to the team in this truly spectacular looking new brewery. 

Related: Lakewood’s Birdtown Brewing To Open in a 100-Year-Old Church Building

Tom Livingston

Great lunch with Tom “Tommy” Livingston at Herb’s Tavern in his hometown of Rocky River. He is a legendary Cleveland cameraman in the truest sense, having been around or filmed just about everything in the city since starting at WEWS in 1980. He began as an editor, moved into engineering, and eventually found his calling behind the camera, learning early from another great cameraman, Rich Geyser. He is Cleveland through and through, growing up in the area and attending Riverside Elementary, St. Mel’s, St. Edward High School and Cleveland State University.

Even as a kid, the path was already forming. He met Robert "Houlihan the Weatherman" Wells and Doug Adair when he was young and in eigth grade he built his own television station for a science fair project. At lunch, stories came easily. Ask about Ted Henry, and he had three separate anecdotes, including trips covering stories together and time working side by side in the field. Livingston has an uncanny memory for everything he has shot. Recently, he was shown random clips he filmed decades ago and could immediately recall where each story took place, who was involved and what was happening that day. It is remarkable, almost like the footage never left him.

Midway through a bite at Herb’s, he casually mentioned playing softball for the restaurant and sharing beers there with the late Danny Coughlin. He is now retired and spends time with his husband, still active, still biking, still deeply connected to the city he has spent a lifetime documenting frame by frame. Can’t wait for our next meeting, as it is amazing how much of a city’s history lives inside his memories.

Kristina and Ornela Martinaj

At Kristina’s Family Restaurant at 9912 Lorain Ave., it was great to once again stop back into this excellent diner where the grill is always working and coffee is poured continuously. It has been a steady West Side anchor for over a decade and a half now, the kind of place that holds its place in the neighborhood through routine, regulars and familiar faces.

It was especially good to get a picture of owner Kristina Marinaj, who runs the restaurant with her husband, alongside their daughter, Ornela Martinaj. Kristina opened the restaurant on Jan. 4, 2010, after emigrating to Cleveland from Albania in 1999. Ornela spoke proudly about her mother and the staff, sharing stories that carried both admiration and memory. I showed her photos I have taken of their spot over the years, and we talked about retirees, former staff and the steady parade of people who have passed through this kitchen and dining room, leaving their mark behind.

Ornela noted that through all the years and all the staff changes, her mother has remained the constant presence at the grill since opening day, making sure the food comes out the same way every time. That consistency is what regulars come back for, along with the sense that nothing here is rushed or forgotten. For residents along this stretch of Lorain Avenue, this is one of those places they can always count on. Kristina’s remains what it has always been, a family-run table where fair prices meet an excellent meal served with care.

Goutam Sarkar

Great visit to Royal Taste of Bengal at 3359 W. 117th St., in Cleveland. The restaurant opened on Oct. 24, 2025, and already feels like it is finding its footing in the neighborhood. Owner Goutam Sarkar walked me through the space with pride, introducing his family, who work alongside him. It was especially meaningful to see his children involved, learning the daily pace of the family business firsthand. Sarkar, who moved to Cleveland five years ago, said this is his first restaurant of his own, built on cooking and hospitality experience he learned within his family in India.

The menu reflects that background, with street food items, halal offerings and a wide range of vegetarian dishes. Sarkar also spoke about how some regulars already seek out the heat level in his cooking, which can run very spicy depending on request. I told him I tend to pass on the highest heat these days, though I still enjoy a good chicken or goat curry, both of which are featured on the menu. Parking along West 117th Street can be limited, so it is best to look for nearby side streets or consider ordering ahead through the restaurant’s website or a pickup service. 

Good luck to this welcoming Cleveland family, who are eager for you to try their home cooking:

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