Hip-Hop Zone

Matt Zone (center) and fellow members of Project 5 with singer Claudja Barry, mid-1980s

In 1982, when Matt Zone was 19, he visited his brother in New York City, witnessed break-dancers on 42nd Street and was instantly in awe.

Back home in Cleveland, Zone created Project 5, a hip-hop group inspired by what he had seen in the Big Apple.

Thirty years later, Zone, a Cleveland city councilman, is reuniting Project 5, the city’s preeminent break-dancing crew for the first time in 25 years. This Saturday, they’re opening for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Grandmaster Flash at the House of Blues to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Progressive Arts Alliance.

Be prepared to see some tabletops, backspins, windmills and flares as Zone and other Project 5 members complete synchronized routines and individual dances.

“For us, it didn’t matter about where we came from,” says Zone. “It was all about your craft and what you could do on the dance floor.”

Project 5 is a diverse group; three original members are Puerto Rican and one is African-American, while Zone is white. “It enhanced my skills as a leader,” Zone says, “and what I do today, working with diverse individuals.” Break dancing also connected Zone with his wife; they met at a performance in 1984.

Founded in 2002, the Progressive Arts Alliance is a non-profit organization that inspires young people through the arts and 21st century media. At the alliance's anniversary bash, employees of local workplaces such as Bonbon Pastry and Cafe and the Cleveland Public Library will battle it out on stage to see who has the best dance moves. Guests can learn how to scratch a record by hand, create a custom graffiti hat and make a screen-printed T-shirt.

Although Project 5 disbanded in 1987, Zone says the group is ready to perform again.

“It’s like riding a bike. It wasn’t long until we shook off the rust,” says Zone, who has been rehearsing for the past three weeks.

“We put together what I think is a very solid routine. I think people are going to be quite surprised with what we do.”

Hot Diggity Dog

Why should carnivores have all the fun? Faced with classic baseball fare, there’s not a lot that vegetarians can stomach. Enter Field Roast Grain Meat Co.

Progressive Field began offering the company’s vegetarian franks on July 5. It’s the third major-league baseball stadium to sell the Seattle-based company’s veggie Frankfurter, along with Safeco Field in Seattle and AT&T Park in San Francisco.

“The veggie dog category is pretty old in terms of being established in the industry,” says Field Roast’s president, David Lee. “Those products were very kind of pasty, heavily emulsified, and they really, I thought, gave vegetarian products a bad name.”

Field Roast makes its veggie dogs from grains, tomato paste, paprika and fresh onion and garlic. Thanks to the tomato paste and paprika, the dog has a reddish-orange tint similar to a flavored kielbasa. It costs $9.50, or 75 cents more than a traditional hot dog.

Lee started Field Roast 15 years ago to provide meatless products for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. Its vegan Italian sausage is the hot dog alternative at the Happy Dog in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.

“There are a lot of people out here who are veggie-friendly, not necessarily vegetarian, but who enjoy vegetarian products and know it’s a healthy way to eat,” says Lee.

Instead of fueling up before games, Cleveland vegetarians can come hungry to Progressive Field.

“I never knew there were any veggie options here [at the stadium], so I would just drink beer and eat pretzels,” says Cody Pike, 29, from Euclid. He’s a volunteer for Veggie Happy, an advocacy group that encourages baseball stadiums to offer vegetarian and vegan food.

“I think it’s very impressive that we are included with San Francisco and Seattle as the only three [offering Field Roast’s veggie dogs],” says Pike, who is raising his 8-month-old son vegan. “It’s a pat on the back that we’re paying attention.”