Hidden gem in Charlotte’s Oakhurst neighborhood where the menu is as creative as the food
January 25, 2021
Pop-up shop will showcase crafting talents of chefs
Handmade jewelry, utensils, accessories, and more will be on sale this weekend
Chopsticks, cutting boards, and serving platters are among the handmade gifts for sale. Photo courtesy
A group of chefs is hosting an unusual kind of pop up this week: a craft fair. Free Range Brewing in NoDa will host Crafting with Cocktails on Jan. 30 from 1 to 4 p.m., with gifts from bath bombs to leather goods on sale. All of the items being sold are handmade by a local restaurant industry professional.
Crafts for sale at Crafting with Cocktails include jewelry, leather goods, woodwork, and more. Photo courtesy
Crafting with Cocktails came together out of a quarantine activity. Laney Jahkel-Parrish, pastry chef at 300 East, and her husband Ben created a quarantine pod with Ellen Duke and Paul Malcolm of Johnson & Wales. With hours cut due to the pandemic, they’d enjoy cocktails and help one another tackle home improvements, like building a new set of garage stairs. That led to more crafting, including making leather jewelry and woodwork. The more crafty the group became and the more fun they had, the more they wanted to share the joy they’d found with a wider audience.
“We just sit around and craft and talk about food and drink a lot,” Jahkel-Parrish says. “We were all like, you know what we should do? We all agreed that we’re all really fun, people would want to hang out with us. We should totally do a YouTube channel.”
The craft fair is a way for the group to help finance their YouTube channel’s launch. They’ve got 30 ideas for crafts to center shows around, starting with how to build an outdoor bar, which would be the show’s set going forward.
Joining the Crafting with Cocktails sale at Free Range Brewing include chefs who make handmade wooden chopsticks, spatulas, jewelry, furniture, soaps, clothing, bags, and more. We’ll also be on hand with a few Moscow Mule kits. What started as a way to pass time when restaurants were closed and everyone was asked to stay home has become a source of energy and excitement.
“This may sound really corny, but this has kept us going,” Jahkel-Parrish says. “It’s been rough on everybody, and so being able to have something to focus our attention on and focus our creative energy on … this has really been like a super helpful outlet for all four of us.”
Check out a preview of what will be on sale this weekend on Crafting with Cocktails’ Instagram page.
