One of State of the Re:Union’s very own producers, Tina Antolini, gives a peek of behind the scenes action you’ll hear about in our newest installment of the fall season episodes, just click to listen: Cleveland, OH: Entrepreneurs at Work.

I have an exercise for you. If you were trying to describe what Cleveland, Ohio, tastes like, what would you say? Have any idea where to start? Maybe those of you familiar with the Polish or Italian heritage in the city might inch towards pierogi or salami territory. But, after a week of reporting there for SOTRU’s episode, I have a whole other idea of what Cleveland tastes like, and I can say with 100 % certainty, it is nothing like I’d imagined. Try this: buttered. popcorn. pots. de. crème.

This was the capstone to the kind of meal everyone should have when they go to a new city, a meal of abundant revelations … One that showcases the bounty of the region, but in a way that’s never show-offy. Such is the meal SOTRU host, Al Letson, and I had at Greenhouse Tavern in downtown Cleveland. Greenhouse Tavern is the baby of chef Jonathon Sawyer, a Cleveland native who spent years in the NYC kitchens of famous chefs, only to come back home when his kids were born and open Ohio’s first certified green restaurant. At the Tavern, that doesn’t just mean highly efficient low flow toilets and a compost pile out back (though they have those), it means efficiency in how animals are used, and sustainability in how ingredients are sourced. It was no accident that nearly every dish we tried featured pork in some form or another; when you’ve got a whole local pig to butcher on a regular basis, you better get creative in how to use it (one staff member told me you end up with 20 to 30 pounds of pure fat each time. And that can only mean… lots and lots of sausage.).

The ingenuity with which those pigs are used is what impressed me: pig tongue dolmas, for example. Greenhouse Tavern has a whole roasted pig’s head on the menu, but they have to remove the tongue, because it cooks more quicky than the rest of it. Hence the dolmas, which are not recognizable as anything even slightly resembling a tongue. Instead, they just taste like very moist minced pork, mixed with raisins and spices, and wrapped in romaine leaves that have been lightly pickled. Another example: the appetizer that I might champion as one of the best bar snacks ever: pork cracklins tossed with crisp fried hominy, pickled red onions, lime juice and cilantro. Porky, crunchy, and pickley, all at once.

The Tavern even has a daily changing menu item called “the fifth quarter,” which is a play on the butchering technique that divides an animal into four quarters, and whatever extra falls out—the intestines, the brain, what have you—well, that’s the fifth quarter. The night we were there it was rabbit spanikopita, and, let me tell you, if that’s produced from leftovers, we should all be so lucky to scraps lying around.

But back to the dish that has indelibly stamped itself into my memory of Cleveland. The story behind the buttered popcorn pots de crème is that they emerged out a of a quasi-joke one night. Greenhouse Tavern’s pastry chef, Matt Danko, saw a bag of stale popcorn in the restaurant, and said offhand that they should make a caramel corn flavored custard. The chef told him to go for it, and then he turned out not to be kidding. Matt makes the pots de crème by whipping up a batch of popcorn and then infusing cream with it, turning that into custard, and adding a topping of caramel and sprinkle of sea salt. What you get is what caramel popcorn would be if it had been transported into some sort of ethereal realm. Light, evoking the best buttery popcorn you’ve ever had, but with the dark “roastiness” of caramel and spike of salt. If this is what Cleveland tastes like, it tastes damn good.

Cleveland, Ohio is a city that was made by entrepreneurs, but for decades, it’s been known as a city that’s a shell of its former manufacturing-era glorious self. However, Cleveland is being embraced by a new generation of entrepreneurs as a place to put their dreams in motion. This is a now a city of entrepreneurship in a range of incarnations… in their kids’ education, in the environment, even in beer. This is an hour of entrepreneurial stories, taking a look at that go-get-em-seize-your-dreams energy in a variety of forms.

State of the Re:Union wants to hear from you! Use the comment section below to let us know what you think about our latest episode, Entrepreneurs at Work.

  [podcast]http://sotrupodcasts.creativeempirell.netdna-cdn.com/Cleveland_Podcast.mp3[/podcast][/podcast]

We at State of the Re:Union are so excited to announce five new shows for the fall season, which are set to be released beginning on Friday, September 16, 2011.

Here is a sneak peek at the episodes that will be about some unique challenges of community and how it brings people together:

Bronx, New York – The Bronx has symbolized America’s failings for a long time. It remains the poorest urban congressional district in the nation, and ask a New Yorker about the boroughs and they’ll usually tell you the Bronx is the one to avoid. Despite the area’s troubles, some citizens hailing from this region have resisted an exodus with the intentions of putting down roots and making the borough a better place to live. This episode will look at the hold-outs and the dreamers who have committed their lives and families to building community in the Bronx.

Gulf Coast of Mississippi - The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina forced the residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast to band together to help the community get back on its feet. Just as the groove of life was returning to a normal level, the BP Deep Horizon disaster resulted in millions of barrels of oil being dumped into the water off their shores, once again having a debilitating impact on their everyday lives. These events have resulted in a lot of Gulf Coast residents becoming environmental aficionados, something they had never before imagined. SOTRU will bring you an hour of stories about how the fight for the natural world is uniting residents of the Gulf Coast, sometimes with unlikely partners–and how, in some instances, this environmental fight is exacting what this community has needed to survive.

Southern Wyoming – Wyoming is the least populated state in America. This is a sparsely occupied landscape where private property and self-sufficiency are prized, and the community that has been built tends to reflect the not-so-neighborly sentiment. The thought is slightly unsettling that distant neighbors might need to rely on another. For people to come together here, the reason must be good. This episode will take you to the towns of Laramie, Cheyenne and the surrounding landscape in Southern Wyoming. It will create a window, allowing a look into how the happenings in small towns of the rural United States’ countryside can set national changes into motion.

Cleveland, Ohio - From Rockefeller’s Standard Oil to GE’s first industrial park , the city of Cleveland was built from entrepreneurial spirit. This Ohio city was known for its success, until an infamous day in 1969 where the polluted Cuyahoga River caught fire, and has since become a bane in Cleveland’s existence. “The Mistake on the Lake” has become synonymous with the city and a moniker they have not been able to shake. Today, a new generation of entrepreneurs is embracing Cleveland. This episode will take the hour to explore how they are relying on their business sense in an effort to revitalize neighborhoods, cleanup the environment and improve education.

Sacramento, California - This is a company town, the caveat being that the company is government. Here, one in four households contains a government employee. There are many reasons that Sacramento citizens’ could have an ominous future outlook: the crippling state budget deficit, police loafs, fire engine brown-outs and park closures. However, these men and women believe that persistence is the key to getting through the murk and mire. Through the sheer determination, the residents and an enthusiastic mayor are keeping their major league basketball team for yet another year. Despite the Murphy’s Laws or Catch 22′s that the people of Sacramento have experienced, they refuse to become a gloomy statistical reference. The city’s number of chronically homeless people surviving on the streets actually went down this past year. This episode will uncover how the Sacramento residents are taking stock in their community. SOTRU will explore ways they are coping with this hard new economic reality, from volunteering to maintain city parks with Parks and Recreation budgets cuts, to creating clothing swaps and and home shares.

Go ahead, we know you’re a leader, so get the conversation started! State of the Re:Union would love to get your thoughts on the episodes when they are made available. Don’t stop there, we would also love your feedback on our newest documentaries, and on all things SOTRU and community related.