Hotel Bruce

Welcome to the Bruce blog—a weekly update on news, events and issues affecting life in Cleveland. Reporting as it happens on transit, development, planning, environment and arts & culture.

Basically, we write about creative ideas forming, talk to the people who have an inside track on the issues, and sometimes offer a commentary of our own. (For disclosure purposes, Bruce blog is a local, independent writer who also works part-time with nonprofit organization EcoCity Cleveland. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of EcoCity or any other organization).

Hotel Bruce and friends partied it up in fine style last Thursday at the new Grog Shop to celebrate the official launch of Hotelbruce.com. Bruce blog enjoyed meeting and greeting the nearly 200 people who came out to support Cleveland’s premier journal of creative urban living.

Local classical/jazz quartet Kassaba started the evening off right with some swingin’ tunes while everyone mixed and mingled. The crowd was a good mix of white-collar business types with ties loosened, punk rockers with ripped tights and pigtails, and average joe’s and jane’s. Guests scarfed up delicious desserts provided by Outrageous Endings and interacted with the first full issue of Hotel Bruce as it was projected on an oversized screen.

Mike Uva and Hookboy gave the evening a pop twist when they played a set from their latest CD, Where Have You Been, and Chris Auerbach-Brown tickled the crowd with modern master John Cage’s Suite for Toy Piano. Local acts The Dreadful Yawns and Coffinberry stepped it up a notch with some good old rock n’roll, and national act The Life and Times rounded out the evening with their special brand of hard rock.

Between sets, lovely diva Lounge Kitty, bedecked in a ‘60s era authentic Dunkin Donuts waitress uniform replete with sky-high red bouffant, hawked raffle tickets and kept everyone in stitches. Cajoling her way into everyone’s hearts and pockets, she sent some lucky partygoers home with cool raffle prizes such as a gift bag from The Green Tomato, tickets to CPT and MOCA, and gift certificates to Scott Metzger Salon and Lipsticks & Razorblades.

If you missed the gala event, don’t despair—we’ll rinse, wash and repeat the beat when we go to print. And don’t forget to check out the first full issue online now.

Many thanks to the Grog Shop for hosting, and to the following Coventry merchants for their support: Renaissance Parlour, The Green Tomato, Diamond’s Flowers, Sunshine Too, and Attenson’s Antiques.

Bruce blog is also grateful to the following for supporting our raffle:

Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art
Cleveland Public Theater
Lipsticks and Razorblades
Scott Metzger Salon
Spy Museum
Red + Pink (Designer: Carrie Kormandt)

If you want to ensure that Hotel Bruce keeps bringing Cleveland a heaping slice of the urban landscape, we’re now accepting check contributions made payable to Hotel Bruce. Please mail them to 2628 Euclid Heights Blvd. #1, Cleveland Heights, OH 44106.