CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ben Bevenroth is all about the kitchen, cooking, gardening, and everything else related to the restaurant business. What is his relaxing time? Long distance running allows you to slow down your life to match the pace of a marathon runner.
Bebenroth runs Spice, which includes Boom's Pizza, Spice Catering and other gourmet ventures. Running was his solace and a way to stay focused in his busy life.
“I've always been a runner,” Bevenroth said. His father was a competitive runner in Parma and held the cross country record at Parma High School for many years starting in the 1960s.
“He got me into cross country when I was in seventh grade, and it was like that,” he said. “I didn't really like it, like most teenagers don't like it. But after I was in the military, I ended up doing a lot of work in the Marines.”
Bevenroth tore his left anterior cruciate ligament at age 15, had it surgically repaired at age 18, and joined the Marines, where he served for three years. Even at that young age, he was told, “You already have arthritis.”
Although the bone-on-bone friction wasn't pleasant, “running was always a great respite from the intensity of the kitchen and business,” he said.
My pain management became extreme and my doctor said I couldn't take it anymore. He switched to cycling and swimming.
“I just gutted it,” he said.
In 2017, he underwent knee replacement surgery. He is currently 46 years old.
“I was the youngest person he ever operated on,” Bebenroth said. When he asked his doctor about his recovery, he said, he was told: Most of my patients are in their 70s. ”
That's when he learned that it wasn't the surgery that was difficult, but the resulting physical therapy. And that's on the patient's side. He went to the gym four days a week. He had been snowboarding for a year until the day of his surgery.
“I love endurance sports. It's a mental break for someone with ADHD like me, and there's always a critical feedback loop going on in my head,” Bevenroth said. “Your heart rate has to reach 140 to stop this.”
His approach to running is matched by daily meditation and yoga. He and his wife cut alcohol from their diet. And he stays focused.
“It’s been a lifelong journey,” he said.
That holistic journey includes training, paying attention to your body, avoiding inflammatory foods, and reconnecting with old friends.
He and his friend Chris Parente used to play in a punk band years ago, but have since taken similar but different paths. Parente chose the Air Force, and Bevenroth chose the Marines. When he got back in touch, Parente asked, “Hey, would you like to run a marathon with me?''
Bevenroth replied, “I'm going to run a half race, not a full race.”
They started training together and started connecting again. Reacquainting with military comrades is an important residual benefit, he said.
However, his main business is related to food. Bevenroth opened the well-regarded Spice restaurant in Cleveland's Gordon Square neighborhood in March 2020, less than 24 hours after Gov. Mike DeWine ordered all restaurants and bars closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.・Closed the kitchen + bar. He has re-established himself in the market through Spice Hospitality Group, which has several tentacles in the food business.
Catering for weddings and fundraisers is important, he says, but “people aren't interested in how healthy this food is.” Rather, they are looking for dynamic flavors and presentation. Boom's Pizza is a relatively new brand and not exactly a health food, but it's popular.
“They may have better ingredients, but it's still pizza,” he said.
Spice is also in its third year of offering a sports nutrition line for Cleveland Cavaliers coaches and players.
“The caloric intake after a game is completely different,” Bevenroth said, adding that he works closely with strength and conditioning coaches and nutritionists to create smoothies tailored to each athlete. Are they recovering from an injury or dealing with inflammation? How old are they?
“All of these things influence how they control and achieve their best performance,” he said. “It aligns with how I live my life and what I believe.”
(Plus, he said: “I hear we have the best PB and J in the NBA.”)
Next is Spice Field Kitchen. The goals of farm-to-fork education initiatives can be summarized in an axiom:
“My grandfather used to say that,” Bevenroth said. “'Eat your own color.'”
In 10 years, Spice Field Kitchen has impacted more than 9,000 students. He recently moved his headquarters to his homestead in Stearns, which is part of Parma's West His Creek Preserve.
“We are reconditioning our children (understanding) plants as food,” he said. And when he runs a half marathon on Sunday, May 19th, he aims to raise $5,000 for the nonprofit organization.
He remains as focused as possible in training, which is a difficult task considering he is battling a hamstring strain. This will be his first half marathon since his military service. But Bevenroth is a guy who loves a challenge, so it's easy to believe him when he says, “He's excited to be a part of it.”
His six-mile run time is about 10 minutes, 20 seconds, but when it comes to timing his goals, he likes to say, “Comparison is the death of joy.”
“But to be honest, I don't care,” he said. “No way. This is a break from analysis and immeasurability for me. Food service has very tight margins, so you measure everything: material costs, labor hours, packaging.
“I am on my way, measuring my joy, but I am not behind time.”
I work on the Life Culture Team and cover topics related to restaurants, beer, wine, and sports. As for recent stories, This is cleveland.com directory. WTAM-1100's Bill Wills and I will be talking about food and drink on Thursdays at approximately 8:20 a.m. Twitter and IG: @mona30. My latest book, co-authored with Dan Murphy: “Joe Thomas: Not Your Average Joe” by Gray & Company
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