Last Wednesday, we opened up The Inner Circle Restaurant and historic Hough Bakeries complex for a public tour, planning discussion, and great Hot Sauce Williams BBQ buffet, and that was a great success - there's a write-up here [1]. Your next chance to join The Inner Circle, explore The Hough, participate in planning this neighborhood and enjoy some great BBQ is this Friday, June 1, 2007. More on the Open House and pictures are found at http://realneo.org/Next-Chance-to-Join-The-Inner-Circle [2]. More on the Hough Bakeries complex at http://realneo.org/hough-bakery-becoming-the-star [3].
There will be periodic tours throughout the complex and a series of dialogs about what is happening with the Inner Circle, the Hough Bakeries complex, and that historic neighborhood. Come any time after 10:30 AM - first tour at 11 AM... stay for lunch - come later and stay through Happy Hour.... then, pop a few blocks down Euclid to Future at the Cleveland Institute of Art for the opening of Design Values 2 [4]... live the circle life.
Lunch will be available from noon until 2 PM - perhaps later - all prepared by Hot Sauce Williams, which owns the Hough Bakeries property and has the commercial kitchen there for their four Cleveland restaurants. We'll have a buffet featuring a variety of Hot Sauce's BBQ, fried and side dishes, salad and baked goods - all freshly prepared by Cleveland's best urban restaurateur - there will be some variety for vegetarians!
Please plan to contribute $7 to help pay for the cost of food and service, if you eat, if you may. The Inner Circle Restaurant has a liquor license and there will be a cash bar offering a basic selection of beverages, coffee, tea, etc., which will be available throughout the day and evening. There will also be baked goods for sale and original Hough Bakeries boxes available for fundraising.
While you are welcome to come and go as you like, there will be informal slots for activities scheduled throughout the day, as summarized below. Note, if you plan to tour the complex, wear walking shoes and bring a flashlight.
11:00 AM - Noon: Tours of Hough Bakeries Complex and review of plans
Discussion on plans for the property and neighborhood.
Noon - 2:00 PM: Lunch and Inner Circle Restaurant Brainstorming
One of the objectives of this open house is to learn from you what type of food, beverages and services you would like here - to keep you coming back - so we hope you will experience what is here today and discuss with others at the lunch what else would be fun to do here... this is YOUR Inner Circle. In addition to members of the Williams family - who can share some grilling tricks - we'll be joined by Edwin David, who is an excellent chef, originally from Guyana, who will be helping to develop the concept of the Inner Circle Restaurant. Your input to all of us on how to make the Inner Circle your place will be invaluable!
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Living Entrepreneurship at the Urban Core
This is an excellent occasion to celebrate some core champions of entrepreneurship in this region: Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, Hough Bakery founder Lionel Pile, and Hot Sauce Williams founder LeMaud Williams - all with roots in East Cleveland. LeMaud will be joining us for lunch and, at 1 PM, a discussion on the past, present and future of this neighborhood, where LeMaud and his family have succeeded for decades, in many entrepreneurial ways, when so many fail. Learn some secrets from a hard-core Cleveland entrepreneur, as we vision on the potential of this area and its people for the future.
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Linux Cafe at the Inner Circle
In the back gallery of The Inner Circle, there will be an informal, open discussion on open source software. Such Linux Cafes will be a regular feature of The Inner Circle. Today, I will share observations on some recent technology-related developments, including the Cleveland WiFi RFP (to which I will have submitted a response, which I will discuss) offering this region an opportunity to excel as a global leader with FOSS - I look forward to the feedback of others. Derek Arnold will share his observations from his recent trip to Toronto for Drupal Camp. Others at the Circle will be encouraged to join in the discussion.
The Inner Circle and surrounding community will be the region's hotspot for anyone into FOSS. We will deploy FOSS wifi for here, and from here, and host FOSS environments, provide FOSS training and distribute FOSS computers.
ALSO, at the same time, in other areas...
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Tours of Hough Bakeries Complex and review of plans
Discussion on plans for the property and neighborhood
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Last Tour, with View from the Top of Sustainable Roofing
In the interest of making this complex as educational, efficient, appealing and innovative as possible, we expect it will be renovated to include a green roof. To explore the practical side of this objective, we'll explore the roof with some folks from A-1 Roofing who have constructed large commercial green roofs before - the kind that have soil and plantings on top of them - which is what we want on The Hough (with organic public gardens growing vegetables and herbs for The Inner Circle below). We welcome anyone else to join in this discussion.
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Happy Hour
Socialize, have a beer or soda... if the weather is nice, enjoy the deck. Chef Edwin is also a top Reggae DJ, and the Inner Circle has a great sound system, so plan to unwind from this first week that feels like Summer, at the Inner Circle. If you have a bit more learning and pursuit of culture left in you, go a few blocks west on Euclid to the Triangle and site of the now and Future Cleveland Institute of Art for the opening of Design Values 2 [4]
The point of these open houses is to introduce as many people as possible to plans for this important property, which we call the Star Complex (it was Star Baking before it was Hough Bakeries), and for revitalization of the square mile or so neighborhood around it, in Cleveland and East Cleveland, all the way to University Circle. Please join us in the process, and forward this message to anyone you feel would find this of interest.
Please RSVP to norm [at] realneo [dot] us">norm [at] realneo [dot] us if you may join us, and let us know if you will have lunch
Links:
[1] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/Our-First-Excellence-Open-House
[2] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/Next-Chance-to-Join-The-Inner-Circle
[3] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/hough-bakery-becoming-the-star
[4] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/New-Face-of-Product-Design
[5] http://maps.google.com?q=180.000000+360.000000+%281519+Lakeview+Road%2C+Cleveland%2C+OH%2C+%2C+us%29
[6] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/content/tour-historic-hough-bakeries-complex-friday-june-1st-open-house
[7] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/content/0523-07-neo-excellence-open-house-growing-inner-circle-within
[8] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/content/growing-inner-circle-include-you-what-would-you-do-your-own-club