Wake Robin is a line of fermented food products owned by Loiter, an economic development initiative in East Cleveland. The brand is hoping to expand into cafes and grocery stores nationwide.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ismail Samad’s career in the restaurant and food manufacturing industry has led him to start successful businesses in Vermont and Boston. Samad will be the first to tell you he’s proudly from East Cleveland, which is why he’s returned to his home with business acumen and passion to build up the community that raised him.in May 2022. Wake Robin is a small BIPOC-owned and operated enterprise with production facilities at the historic Hildebrandt Co.
The Wake Robin products are worth the wait, as the fermented products can spend weeks sitting in their barrels in the basement. The product with the longest fermentation time is the Eastern European-style Ruby Rüben kraut, made with beets, turnips, apples, cabbage, juniper berries, and black pepper. It spends seven weeks fermenting. The biggest sellers are products that average about 6 weeks in the barrel.
“I think it’s important to source our produce locally just so people who are buying the product locally actually know where the product came from,” Hill said. “The production is supposed to go off of what’s in season at the time,” Hill said. Even during the winter, the crew spends time canning and making sure it can keep products on the shelves all year round. “We don’t want to take a break. We want to keep everything rotating,” he added.
“The more people that we got growing the product that we use it’ll make everything better for everyone,” Hill explained., as well as a few locations in Illinois. The brand also produces private-label fermented products for other local companies, promoting its business-to-business strategy.Samad, through Loiter, hopes to open two cafes in East Cleveland, one that is totally based on Wake Robin’s products. He hopes to open the restaurant in the city’s Circle East district in six months.
“I like to know the ingredients that are in it,” Samad said. “Slow food, real food — it’s just healthier.”Samad is busy in more ways than one, including a chocolate-making effort he’s involved in through Loiter, which will be the focus of another upcoming East Cleveland café. He handles distribution for now, though he’d love to be able to work with an East Cleveland food distributor if a business pops up.
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