Area Eats: The Blessed Cafe Latin Flavors

If your taste buds are looking to travel to Puerto Rico and back for a delicious meal, look no further than The Blessed Cafe Latin Flavor.  

Want a true taste of Puerto Rico? Located in The Arcade, The Blessed Cafe is the latest Caribbean restaurant to open in Northeast Ohio. Serving up the finest Puerto Rican dishes with a menu that rotates on a daily basis, The Blessed Cafe is known for its delicious food and flavors—especially its tembleque and tres leches desserts, which are both made from scratch. 

Owner and chef Denise Santiago came to Cleveland from Puerto Rico 10 years ago and always dreamed of opening her own restaurant. While living in Puerto Rico, the path for Denise’s career in food began as a waitress, then head waitress, and then as a cafe owner. 

“My previous boss where I waitressed always told us that he never wanted us to be with him too long,” said Denise. “He wanted me to have my own place someday and set goals for opening up a cafe myself, so that’s what I did with another waitress that I worked with.”  

With her three kids, Denise moved to Cleveland in 2011. Some years later, she started working in an office building downtown and developed a close relationship with the owner of the office’s cafe, which served only the employees of the building.  

“She [the owner] was looking to retire but didn’t want to give the cafe to just anybody. She wanted someone to put the same love into the cafe,” said Denise. “When I told my husband about this, he said ‘Take it! Take it!’ and the first Blessed Cafe was born.”  

The original Blessed Cafe opened in 2018 and served just the office building’s employees. After great success and plenty of positive feedback on the food, Denise knew she had to expand her operations so she could “give our flavors to the rest of Cleveland.”  

Lo and behold, The Arcade was advertising a vacancy, and Denise immediately fell in love with the space and its location, which she says “feels like it’s inside of a cruise ship!” She signed the contract for the restaurant space in December of 2019, planning to open to the public in April of 2020. Of course, COVID-19 made for a change of plan. 

“At the same time, the original Blessed Cafe shut down because everyone at the office building was sent home,” said Denise. “It was a really hard year.” 

Luckily, Denise was able to open The Blessed Cafe in Cleveland’s Old Arcade on February 8, 2021. Even though there may not be the same lunchtime foot traffic as before, she is hopeful that more people will start returning to work in-person and business will pick up speed. Currently, the cafe is open Monday through Friday from 10 to 6 PM. 

“We put a lot of work into the decoration of the place and how it looks,” said Denise. “We really wanted to make it look like Puerto Rico. We wanted to bring the island here so that anyone who wanted to experience it in Cleveland could have it by just coming to our cafe.”  

As soon as you walk inside The Blessed Cafe, you’ll feel transported to Old San Juan’s famous Fortaleza Street—a beautiful street that is canopied by colorful umbrellas. Just like the original, Denise has decorated the restaurant with umbrellas on the ceiling to pay homage to Old San Juan. 

So, what does Denise recommend trying on the menu at her flavor-rich cafe?  

“I tend to have two kinds of rice and three meats (usually beef, chicken, or pork) in different styles everyday. I love my roasted chicken. Also, my beef stew just melts in the mouth. And then I personally love my potato salad,” said Denise. “It’s all what my mother used to cook for me! There’s not a big science to it. The food is just like coming home to Mom's or Grandma’s house up in the hills of Puerto Rico and eating what’s on the dinner table.”  

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Check out The Blessed Cafe Latin Flavor in The Arcade - open Monday through Friday, 10-6 PM. You can also find the cafe on Facebook or get it delivered via DoorDash! 

Where we Work: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

We caught up with Alberta Lee, a Michigan native who just so happens to be the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Vice President of Human Resources.  

After spending much of her career in higher education, Alberta decided to make a change and shift to sports and entertainment. Starting with the Cavs in the fall of 2014 was the perfect introduction to the passion for sports that’s alive in Cleveland. Witnessing the Cavs’ first NBA championship in franchise history, Alberta saw firsthand what it’s like to live in a city that’s energized and full of life.  

Learn more about Alberta’s experience working downtown for the Cavaliers and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and how the organization prepared for welcoming fans back to the beloved venue  during Covid-19 in our latest spotlight. 

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First, what do you like best about working for the Cavs and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse? What characteristics set the organization apart? 

What I like most is being able to work fully within my capacity of talent and contribution. The Cavaliers’ organization embraces and welcomes a real team atmosphere, one that comes in every day with energy. We are obsessed with delivering our best every day. Everything about our culture here revolves around the guest experience, enjoyment, and passion. 

 We are driving a championship-caliber mindset and I love that our fans, guests, teams, and community partners love this about us. We feel perfectly primed to be that fierce source of ultimate engagement for our community, and we love to be that for Cleveland.  

In my previous field of higher education, there’s a mission and vision that deeply connects to communities. I see how that continues in this space as well. For the Cavaliers, we’re more than just basketball. We’re also incredibly civic-minded and engaged in the community. That continues to resonate with me. 

While we do sports and entertainment, we do it from a lens of wanting there to be a space for everybody to have a piece of this great building and a reason for all enjoy this fabulous community resource. We always strive to make sure we have a wide range of events and shows in our building that embody that focus. 

The characteristics of our team members that drive our open culture is being relationship-oriented and inclusive of all voices.   

In light of COVID-19, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse took special steps to ensure a safe return-to-venue plan. This involved developing new Health and Safety Protocols, as well as receiving endorsements from the Cleveland Clinic, the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, and the WELL Building Institute. 

Can you talk a little more about Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse’s COVID-19 response and how operations shifted during Covid-19?  

Like so many other organizations, we moved into a high level of attentiveness to safety and making sure our team members knew that that was our priority. Even though we were working remotely, our work never stopped. We are fortunate that we have a workforce able to keep the work moving and keep it seamless.  

Now, we’ve been able to welcome guests back into our building, which means many of our team members have returned as well. We’re doing this incrementally, still with a focus on safety, and with an amazing energy to do all that we can to signal to everybody that we are back. And not only that, but that we are ready for everybody to safely return to us when the time is right.  

People are just ready to see us do. We spent a lot of time with our team members during COVID-19 through our team member live streams and day-to-day communications so that everybody had the ability to harness that energy. You really fight to bring your business back; that’s what our community partners are doing as well as all businesses in Greater Cleveland. At Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, we like to think we lead from the front and we’re proud of that.   

What do you love most about Cleveland and the culture here? 

I love that it has a large city feel to it. We just think and operate on a much larger scale than most people would expect. It’s easy to look past the fact that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is here and there are so many great professional sports teams. Downtown is so vibrant and refreshing.   

Cleveland is a city that offers something to everybody. You don't have to work hard to find it. When you’re driving into the city and look at all the billboards, you know that something’s happening. It just adds a level of energy that I think is awesome. And I also like that it’s a city that welcomes you to get out in it, to get on your feet. That’s one of the things we love about being where we are at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse—you can walk over to Tower City or to Public Square for lunch. I really do like that about our city.   

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Check out Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse’s upcoming events, including the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Induction Ceremony this October, on their website. You can also follow them on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter to stay in the loop! 

4 Amazing Photos of Euclid Avenue in the Past

Euclid Avenue is one of the most historic streets in Cleveland, and subsequently looks much different now than it did a century ago! Take a look at these photos that feature buildings that have been lost to time, as well as some that have survived. If you want to learn more about the history of Euclid Avenue and take a look at the surviving buildings yourself, check out the Euclid Avenue Take a Hike© Tour via the Take a Hike© Season Insider Program! More info here. 

 1. This photo taken in 1914, shows a largely different Euclid Avenue than the one that exists now. The Arcade is the only surviving building in this photo. 

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2. This photo shows the Garfield Building and the Guardian Bank Building when they were the tallest buildings on the block.

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3. Before it became known as the WT Grant Lofts, it was known as the Ames Company Building, shown as such in 1929. The Ames Company was a popular woman’s clothing store. Many of the buildings in this picture have been replaced. 

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4. Now known as the most beautiful grocery store in the world, this photo shows the Cleveland Trust Company Rotunda when it was still a banking behemoth. Taken in 1909, this photo shows a Euclid Avenue largely devoid of the skyscrapers we recognize today.  

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RTA Proposed Route Changes

View and provide Feedback on RTA’s proposed Route Changes in the Downtown area.

From the RTA website:

“ NEXT GEN RTA seeks to increase the convenience of using transit by enhancing bus frequency and connectivity. Riders will benefit from reduced waiting times and more one-seat rides that will improve access to schools, jobs, and other key destinations. NEXT GEN RTA would provide customers with greater frequency, greater connectivity for greater Cleveland.”

5 Historic Postcards of Downtown Cleveland's Grand Hotels

Have you ever wondered what these iconic Downtown hotels looked like in the past? These postcards give you a glimpse.

If you enjoy these images check out our Downtown Hotels Take a Hike© Tour, available in September 2020!

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This postcard of what is now the Residence Inn illustrates what the hotel looked like in the early 20th century. Then it was known as the Colonial Hotel.

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Tucked behind the rose building (left), the Schofield Building, now the Kimpton Schofield Hotel, was still in use as a residence for the Schofield family, as well offices for various banking businesses. This postcard was distributed in the early 1900s.

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This promotional image for a medical office circulated in the 1950s shows the Arcade in its full glory. Now the Arcade hosts the Hyatt Regency Cleveland, as well as many local restaurants and shops.

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Shown here in the early 1900s, the New England Building (middle) is also known as the Guardian Bank Building and the National City Bank Building. Though it has spent most of its life as a bank, it is now home to the Holiday Inn Express.

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5)

Prior to being the Drury Hotel, this building was known as the Board of Education Building. This postcard from 1930 also shows the Cleveland Public Auditorium (right).

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