On the road to the Roots N Blues N BBQ festival, local tasting cafe DrinKraft hosted a grand opening Kombucha & Brunch on Sept. 23.
DrinKraft’s kombucha, which they call an “energy boosting, naturally fermented black or green tea” is said to have many health benefits. DrinKraft handed out a pamphlet describing the health benefits to its customers, stating that kombucha serves as a good source of probiotics, is rich in B-vitamins and its organic acids act as powerful detoxifiers.
The exposed wood, piping and historic vibe to the kombucha bar provide a unique setting for families, couples and the elderly to enjoy the nutritious and delicious drink. While debuting their kombucha, the event provided live music and food from local vendors. Kombucha was provided at the front of the store on tap, similar to the way beer is served in bars.
The flavors vary from fruity lemon mango and elderberry hibiscus to spicier carrot ginger and autumn chai. Flavor-changing ice cubes were provided to add something new to your drink. They were served alongside pastries from the cafe, including a lemon pancake slab, brown sugar cinnamon pastry and jalapeño cheddar mini brioche.
Pete Hinshaw, brewer and flavorer at DrinKraft, is in charge of making the kombucha and keeping the brewing process sanitary.
“It’s lots of cleaning, cleaning and sanitizing,” Hinshaw said. “It can be considered as simple as adding tea to a culture, but there’s more to it. There are some quality checks and that sort of thing.”
In the upstairs section of the venue, an outdoor patio overlooking Cafe Berlin and Park Avenue housed live music to get the audience hyped for Roots N Blues N BBQ. Performers for the event included Chris Stephens, Adam Fairchild, Schuyler Prenger and Blake Gardner.
Kat Hanneken, internal events coordinator at DrinKraft, handles all of the booking for the upstairs venue at the cafe. Events can include anything from bachelorette parties and baby showers to tango or yoga classes. Hanneken owns her own graphic design and photography company and was recruited by DrinKraft to work on their grand opening.
“[The planning] was a lot of fun,” Hanneken said. “I actually had a trip planned to Turkey, so I did a lot of it overseas. I booked all of the vendors, and everyone was a lot of help. We work great as a team.”
In addition to her work with DrinKraft, Hanneken worked with Good Food Co., a fellow vendor at the grand opening. Several vendors were present at the event, showing support for DrinKraft and providing food to complement the kombucha and cold brew served.
DrinKraft prides itself on a strong sense of community, with advertisements for local events scattered across the cafe walls. DrinKraft co-founder and day-to-day operations manager Josh Wexler finds that the community support for these vendors are a key part of what made the event a success.
“Fortunately there’s a lot of good people in the community that we’ve already reached out to,” Wexler said. “We’ve kind of been part of [the vendor] family a little bit, so I think it was easy for them to come demo some of their stuff. Everyone in the neighborhood [is] in the same boat of just needing more people to come down to the neighborhood.”
While this was the grand opening for DrinKraft, its community presence was at the center of the event the entire time. DrinKraft believes that being connected with others brings a feeling of wellbeing, and thus focuses its operations on connecting with old friends, neighbors and new friends over a healthy beverage in a welcoming, fun, family friendly environment.
_Edited by Alexandra Sharp | asharp@themaneater.com_
