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Although this year is the 15th Annual Market Under Glass event, I’m really surprised how many Clevelanders know so little about it!  This has to be one of my favorite events in this city because at the heart of it, we’re helping a great organization that in turn, helps people in need.  What better investment to make, especially when you get to thoroughly enjoy yourself with local restaurants, vendors, celebs and prizes?!

Market Under Glass will be held in The Galleria at Erieview with the proceeds going to benefit Harvest for Hunger’s annual campaign coordinated by The Cleveland Foodbank.  This year its Thursday, April 22nd from 6-9pm and will be chock FULL of yummy food from local restaurants, live entertainment, local celebrities, a Continental Airlines silent auction and raffle, and MORE!

Market Under Glass | Cleveland, OH | iCarabout.com

There are general admission pre-sale tickets available now until the end of March for $75/ea. If you wait until next month, they’ll be $85/ea and $100/ea at the door the day of the event. General admission tickets entitle you to unlimited food and beverages from the over 50 fabulous, Cleveland restaurants there. If you’d like to treat yourself to VIP tickets for $150/ea, this ticket grants you access to the VIP suite including specialty drinks, entertainment and an after-party from 9-10pm (party like a rockstar).

I’m particularly excited about this year’s event for TWO special reasons:

1) I was asked to volunteer my time as a local celebrity server! Can you believe it? Now, I don’t think anyone will be buying a ticket just to see little old me, BUT there will be plenty more (and COOLER) celebrities there!

2) I was given TWO tickets from the Cleveland Foodbank to Market Under Glass, Cleveland’s Premier Event to give away on iCarabout! This is a REAL steal because obvious this event is INCREDIBLE, but also these tickets are worth $100/ea!  If you were dying to go, but couldn’t afford to, here’s your chance! Just let me know what you’ve done this year to help the needy in Cleveland and why you’d like to go! Also, don’t forget to leave me a way to contact you about the tickets!

GOOD LUCK and hopefully I’ll see you there! (Free tickets or not!)

For more info: Tickets to Market Under Glass may be purchased online at http://www.cleveland.com/marketunderglass or by calling (216)738-2046. Here’s a list of this years participating Cleveland Restaurants:

• 56 West
• Americano
• AMP 150 at the Cleveland Airport Marriott
• Bar Cento
• Bistro 185
• Café Sausalito
• Corleone’s Ristorante & Bar
• Cornerstone Brewing Company
• Cream n’ Sugar Bakery
• Danny’s Organic Marketplace and Catering
• David’s at Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center
• Don’s Lighthouse/Don’s Pomeroy House
• Duet, Fine Catered & Prepared Foods
• Executive Caterers
• Firelands/Specialty Wine Company
• Flannery’s Pub
• Great Lakes Brewing Company
• Grovewood Tavern
• Heidleberg Distributing/Wine Group
• Hunan by the Falls
• ICASI International Culinary Arts & Sciences Institute
• L’Albatros Brasserie
• Lucy’s Sweet Surrender
• Marigold Catering
• Melange
• The Melting Pot Restaurants
• Metro Bar & Kitchen
• Muldoon’s Saloon & Eatery
• Orlando Baking Company
• Pearl of the Orient Restaurant
• Pickwick and Frolic Restaurant & Club
• Ponte Vecchio/Zinc
• Potpourri Fondue Restaurant
• Private Reserve
• Sans Souci
• Shinto Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar
• Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Inc.
• Solstice Distributors, Inc.
• Spice of Life Catering Co.
• Stancato’s
• Susy’s Soup and Deli
• Tastebuds Restaurant
• Three Birds Restaurant
• Umami Asian Grill
• Verve Restaurant
• Wine Trends
• XO Prime Steaks

As the film festival reviews trickle in from the winners of the iCarabout CIFF contest, I’ll be posting them here for everyone to read! This first one is from Mike Butz (@mikebutz) about the film he saw on the last day of the Cleveland International Film Festival.  Here’s what he had to say about “Headhunter”:

There are two sides of loneliness — one that breaks you down and one that makes you stronger.”

Spoken by one of the movie’s main characters — the patriarchal leader of Denmark’s largest shipping and oil company — that quote seemed to embody the main theme behind “Headhunter,” the film my friend Kyle and I saw at the Cleveland International Film Festival using the vouchers I won from Cara and her blog, iCarabout.com.

The main character, Martin Vinge, is a professional headhunter who’s the best in his field for finding new CEOs for companies. He’s called upon by the aforementioned oil and shipping leader, N.F. Sieger, who’s aging and in poor health and doesn’t feel like his son, Daniel Sieger, has what it takes to be CEO when he’s gone. Vinge soon gets caught in the middle of a power struggle between father and son regarding the future of the company.

In the background, Vinge must deal with his son’s illnesses, which requires the kind of specialized services that only his work with the Siegers can pay for. Throughout the course of the movie, that adoption process for Vinge’s son plays out. Vinge encouraged his ex-wife’s new husband to officially adopt the young boy, though he softens on that as the film progresses. The relationship between Vinge and his son running parallel to the relationship between the Siegers makes for an interesting comparison in the film.

The loneliness each character feels seems to define them and their relationships with others.

All in all, I was very pleased with the Danish film. I always feel like seeing a film at the festival is a hit-or-miss proposition since I never know much more about it outside of what’s written in the festival program. In this case, what caught my eye was that Vinge was listed as a hard-hitting journalist — and journalism is the field in which I work. And while it turned out that journalism played only a secondary role in this film, I was still very satisfied with it.

It was filled with suspense. Sometimes I fall into the trap of trying to predict what will happen next in a film, and to the credit of “Headhunter,” I was unable to do so. Even when I thought I had a certain twist or turn figured out, the movie bluffed and took things in a different direction.

The biggest drawback for me was the ending. Or rather, the very ending. The suspense lasted throughout, but once everything came to a close, there was this sort of too-good-to-be-true endings in which all the major players got what they were after throughout the film. So I spent about 90 minutes hanging on through all the ups, down, gains and losses these characters endured only to have everything wrap up nice and tidy in the last 10 minutes. That didn’t ruin the film for me, but it was a bit of a let down.

As for the festival itself, the atmosphere was, well, festive. I saw the film on Sunday, March 28 — the final day of the festival. In fact, the whole experience started with a little self-induced panic on Saturday because I hadn’t yet exchanged my vouchers for tickets. And by that point, I expected most every film would be on stand-by. Thankfully, “Headhunter” still had tickets available.

Cleveland International Film Festival | Mike Butz | Cleveland, OH

I got to the theater about 30 minutes before the start time and only had about 20 people or so ahead of me in line. As I waited, I overheard several conversations about what films others had seen and enjoyed. A popular one seemed to be “Bananas.” Others talked about what films they were still planning to see later that evening, while yet others spoke of film festivals past.

Also, I saw the 1:45 showing, which was at a time when many Cavs fans were walking through Tower City on their way to The Q to see Zydrunas Ilgauskas play his first home game since returning to the team following being traded a month ago. So between the festival goers and Cavs fans, there was a certain energy in Tower City. Once inside and seated in the theater, our audience gave a nice round of applause once the volunteer announced, “Let’s start another round.”

Indeed. I wish I could’ve been at the festival for more rounds of films, but as it turned out, seeing “Headhunter” on the final day of the festival was my only trip this year. That had more to do with my schedule, not the festival — which remains accessible to me and my fellow Clevelanders. In fact, I’m already looking forward to next year.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve at LEAST heard talk of Momocho or that it was recently featured on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives”.  I’d been hearing amazing things for a while now, but watching Guy Fieri mow this glorious looking Mexican food from MY CITY on national television was the last straw…I HAD TO GET THERE.

I mean, seriously…I only dream about guacamole on a nightly basis.

Once I finally bugged Jason enough to come with me, we planned a mini-Thursday date night over to Ohio City to try this fantastic place  everyone was raving about.  I was a little nervous because I didn’t make reservations, but I figured that maybe we could scoop some seats at the bar if all else failed.  To be honest, I really enjoy eating at the bar anyways.

Momocho - Ohio City | cleveland.com | iCarabout.com

We walked into this cozy space, decorated with lots of antique memorabilia and set with dim lighting. It was the perfect vibe after walking through a typical bipolar March snowstorm in CLE.  Not only did Momocho smell phenomenal, but it was packed! I turned immediately to my right and to my surprise, I was standing face-to-face with the Chef/Owner Eric Williams (who I had just seen on TV!).  I got all nervous of course…I really wanted a picture with him but I hadn’t brought my good camera.  What really impressed me was that he was taking names and seating people! A very modest man, I could tell.

Anyways, he asked if we had reservations and since we didn’t, he told me he’d try to seat us ASAP.  Jason and I headed to the bar and were prepared to be waiting for quite a while.  We were pleasantly surprised to be called for a table after MAYBE 10 minutes of waiting. Not bad at all!

We sat and ordered the traditional guacamole to start…but I think next time I’ll try the sampler.  Momocho has ALL KINDS of delish guac combos to choose from! Even one with goat cheese  or smoked trout! I’m pretty sure we were both pleased with the traditional though, considering it didn’t last very long .  Then (per usual) we picked two entrees to share: The Machaca and the Hongo Taquitos. The Machaca was the coffee and ancho braised brisket featured on Food Network, so that was necessary. The Hongo was grilled portobello mushrooms.  Both were extremely delicious and served with different dips/salsa and corn tortillas.

Momocho - Ohio City | cleveland.com | iCarabout.com

I was seriously full after 1 1/2 taquitos and there was tons leftover. The machaca was exactly how Guy Fieri described it! I could really taste the ancho and the cinnamon that it was braised in. The food was fresh, tasty and hit the spot if you’re craving a modern twist on Mexican fare. The prices were  a little more than I’m used to for that type of cuisine, but then again I usually go to hole-in-the-wall restaurants for Mex.

Not only would I recommend Momocho, I’ll be visiting again and again…whenever my dreams of guacamole goodness return. Kudos to another fabulous Cleveland restaurant and Chef getting national recognition on Food Network. Eric Williams definitely deserves all the positive attention .

At Social Media Club Cleveland, I FINALLY met Kasey Crabtree, long-time radio DJ and fellow Cleveland-lover! She also loves music and was nice enough to give me some concert tickets to give away on iCarabout!

Now, I don’t know this band personally and I haven’t heard much of their music, BUT Kasey said they’re great!  If you like alternative rock and discovering local bands, then you’ll most likely enjoy VENDETTA POINT.  Plus, it’s always great to support the local talent in our great city of Cleveland! Am I right?

They’re playing at Peabody’s on Saturday, April 3.  I’ll give you all a little info about the band here, but I’m sure Kasey wouldn’t mind answering any questions you might have about their music either.

VENDETTA POINT

Vendetta Point | Peabody's Cleveland, OH | iCarabout.com

Kenneth Obloy- Vox/Guitars/Keys, James Skrtich- Guitars/Vox, Kenny Irizarry- Bass/Vox, Tony Castillo- Drums

the coming together of long time friends with common goals. Each of the members of Vendetta Point have spent years with various bands throughout the local scenes learning for the most part what not to do. This time around hopefully we can learn from all of our mistakes and move forward. Music is the answer. That is what Vendetta Point believes, just make good music and everything else will take care of itself (almost).”

Their hometown is Cleveland, OH –

Listen to Vendetta Point here

Vendetta Point on Facebook

Vendetta Point on Twitter

Now, if you’re not sure where Peabody’s is here’s the address:

2045 E 21st St
Cleveland, OH 44115
(216) 776-9999

I’ve also linked to their website here

This is a first come first serve giveaway and I have 6 tickets total! Just leave me a comment about why you want the tickets and how to contact you! Also, if you’re heard Vendetta Point and you’re a fan, please feel free to leave your opinions about the music for those who have not heard of them.

I’ll be giving away lots more tickets to all sorts of different concerts and shows in the future, so keep your eyes pealed! Oh, and GO LOCAL CLEVELAND MUSICA!

As most of you know, I’ve been active on the social media front for a while now. I’ve been learning as I go and lots of people have been helping me along the way.

One thing that I recently did that I’m super pumped about is I joined Social Media Club Cleveland! I’ve been a member for a little over a month now, but just this past month was the first meeting I was able to attend. What makes it even better was that I went with Jason! It was almost like a twitter date or something LOL. (We’re such nerds…hehe! We were so excited to go together on a nerd-date)

The Cleveland Playhouse hosted this meet up, which was so cool, and it was BYOB! (beer, snacks and cupcakes = happiness) It was so great to be able to meet a lot of the people I interact with on an everyday basis online, but face to face. Plus there were new connections to be made! What a fantastic group of professional, fun-loving, intelligent and kind people!

I only got teased a few times for my massive amounts of retweeting, but most everyone was pleased with my intense love for the city of Cleveland. That was my proudest moment of the night.

Anyways, I CANNOT wait to attend more of these monthly events and to make connections with new people. Since this meeting was my first, I spent most of my time socializing and meeting people with Jason. I’m more of a social butterfly anyways.  Next time I’ll try to sit down at the round table discussions and learn some cool stuff. (Awesome that they offer that, right?!)

We’re so lucky to have such great people, groups and networking opportunities in this great city! If you’re curious about joining Social Media Club, or any other clubs that have more to do with your industry, DO IT!

PS…an after hours game of corn hole broke out at Goldstein Caldwell and Jason and I won! WOOT! (Sorry @jborger and Tom Fox!)

Cleveland Playhouse | Social Media Club Cleveland | iCarabout.com

It was great to meet these tweeps in person at @ClevePlayHouse: @KaseyCrabtree, @MaryLeeS, @KevinHignett, @ChinoCharles, @DJLitten, @tonyramos, @MikeSchwabe, @koskim, @hacool, @juliedaloiso, @bruce_p_smith, @jborger, Dar Caldwell and many others! (If I forgot you, let me know and I’ll list you!)