A FEW COLDS ONES WITH CRAFTHAUS BREWERY

As you may know by now, we’re all about supporting all-things local at CRAFTkitchen, so today we are excited to announce that we’re going to be serving two local brews from Las Vegas-based CraftHaus Brewery (and we can’t wait to open our doors later this month and get to pouring). We made a visit to CraftHaus (and not just because we love their name) and realized that their team and product were a perfect fit CRAFTkitchen.

Co-owners Wyndee and Dave Forrest have been married for 15 years and, while travelling through Europe years ago, came up with the idea for CraftHaus. They wanted to bring the European culture – where people stop to enjoy quality beer and the people around them – back to the states (and, in particular, Las Vegas) with them. We love the fact that these UNLV grads are as passionate about the community as they are about good beer. Together, they helped make city licensing laws more craft-brewery friendly (thank you!), and Dave has won countless awards (both local and national) for his beers (all of which are pretty darn good, if we may say so ourselves). 

We tasted (probably too many) delicious brews while we were there and decided on the Evocation Saison and the Resinate IPA for CRAFTkitchen. We can’t wait to pour up many-a-pint of these refreshing, one-of-a-kind craft beers for our thirsty community. Cheers!

COLORADO RIVER COFFEE ROASTERS

CRAFTkitchen is all about community–the community of people we feed and the community of people who help us make that happen. So, as we get ready to open our doors, our main focus lies in building that community. We love visiting wineries and farmer’s markets, picking and choosing what people and ingredients we want behind the food we serve. One of our favorite recent field trips, in fact, was to our coffee roastery, Colorado River Coffee Roasters based in Boulder City.

Aside from smelling like absolute heaven, CRCR has a line of coffees that is 100% USDA organic–they’re actually the only coffee roastery in Southern Nevada with this certification. They also use specialty-grade green Arabica coffee beans as the basis for all of their coffees and never over-roast their beans (so their coffee never tastes bitter). While we wouldn’t really consider ourselves coffee snobs, we can definitely taste a difference with CRCR coffee, and we love the fact that they offer a line that’s certified organic.

We’re so excited that we’ll be serving CRCR’s organic coffee line at CRAFTkitchen. Local, fresh, sustainably-sourced ingredients are such an important part of our kitchen and the food we serve, and we’re thrilled to have CRCR along for the ride. We can not wait to open our doors and pour some delicious, locally-sourced, organic coffee for our community. And, if you want to get an idea of what you’ll be enjoying with CRCR coffee (hint: red velvet pancakes), check out our online menu–our website is now live.

FARMER’S MARKET FRIDAYS

I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to one of my favorite traditions–Farmer’s Market trips. My family and frequently I head to the Downtown 3rd Farmer’s Market to shop for home-grown goodness. Sometimes, we head there with a very particular purpose in mind, and other times, we let the goodies guide us–a beautiful selection of avocados mean we’ll be having fresh smashed avocado toast on Saturday morning. 

It’s a tradition we’ve stuck to since long before CRAFT was born, but one that has become that much more exciting with the opening of our first kitchen right around the corner. If you’ve checked out the rest of our website, you’ve probably realized there’s one word I keep coming back to: play. Farmer’s Market Fridays are all about that for my family, my team of chefs and me. As a chef, whole ingredients are like tools–really colorful, fresh, delicious tools–and playing with those tools to create something no one has done before (or doing something that’s been done one thousand times over in a completely new way) is what we’re all about.

Another thing we put a ton of emphasis on at CRAFT is community, so Farmer’s Markets are such a great way for us to get out and support all-things local. This past Friday, we met Stu from Intuitive Forager, a farm that grows and distributes organic produce from here and the West coast. They offer items that you don’t often see, like cranberry beans, dragonfruit and baby radish. We also got a chance to meet Daniel from Spicy Camel Trading Company, a group that offers amazing gluten-free spices and ingredients. I even had a gluten-free donut (which, if you know me, is a stretch) that was super moist and really delicious (I swear).

verall, regardless of how many years I’ve been in the business of crafting goodies, I will always feel like there’s a ton of room to grow, play, experiment. Farmer’s Markets keep me young in this sense–they allow me to meet new community members, inspire me to come up with new dishes and remind me that good fuel is what life is all about for a family of chefs like mine. Next time you’re at CRAFT, don’t hesitate to ask us where those bright berries came from or what kind of veggies we roasted for your benedict–every one of our ingredients has a story (most of them start with a local Farmer’s Market) and we can’t wait to share that story with you and yours.