We are lucky to have several neighborhoods where a variety of interesting restaurants and bars cluster together on streets that you could call “restaurant rows:” there’s Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine, the area within a couple blocks of the Aronoff Center downtown and the long-established MainStrasse (aka Main Street) in Covington.
On an outing to Covington this summer after some friends and I ate nearby, several of us strolled down Main and came across an inviting little place called Crafts & Vines on the corner of Seventh Street at the southern end of the commercial district. It had the feel of a neighborhood hangout, friendly staff and — as the sign outside suggested — an emphasis on carefully selected beer and wine choices.
A couple of weeks ago, I found my way back to Crafts & Vines to sample some of the fare. It was a warm evening, so my friends and I grabbed one of the sidewalk tables and settled in for drinks and a bite.
Turns out the café was celebrating its second anniversary that weekend, with drink and food specials and a lot of happy faces. We also happened onto a compelling story about a mid-career woman who left the corporate world and followed her bliss, combining a fascination with wine and facility with numbers to open this business.
[See a full photo slideshow here.]
Crafts & Vines owner Lesley Hugo had worked as a financial analyst for a prominent hospital but wanted to leave the corporate world. She hooked up with Bad Girl Ventures, a local nonprofit that gives women the training and tools they need to start businesses. (A year ago, Bad Girl rebranded as Aviatra Accelerators.) That helped her develop the concept for what became Crafts & Vines and produce a viable business plan. When she talked with Covington residents about the kind of place she had in mind, all the feedback was positive. After more than a year of renovating the century-old building that houses Crafts & Vines, her dream came to fruition.
The place consists of three smallish rooms with a back patio and a couple of sidewalk tables. The front room includes a bar with wine and beer taps, bottled drinks and cocktail ingredients; you can sit on a stool or at a table. The room immediately to the left contains a wall with retail wine offerings — about 120 different wines, according to Hugo — and more seating. Then there’s a small back room with more tables. The layout has an informal vibe that’s also intimate and warm. Hugo wanted the spot to “feel like an extension of your living room,” and she rejoiced when more than one person told her that what she had created was “the only place I feel comfortable going by myself.”
Crafts & Vines became the first bar in Northern Kentucky to offer wine on tap; it has eight rotating taps — four red and four white wines, which Hugo says are among their most popular drink categories. Her menu also has several wines by the glass or bottle.
“I try to pick wines for the by-the-glass list that you don’t normally see on wine lists around the area,” she told me. On my visit the list included a Torrontes from Oregon, an Australian Riesling and a Spanish Monastrell — definitely not typical glass pours in most local restaurants or bars.
“For our beer selection we focus on Kentucky brews, both locally and from around the state,” she added. Her husband, Vic, is a home brewer and enjoys helping with selecting beer offerings. He also pitches in on weekends by smoking meats in a Big Green Egg smoker. On the anniversary weekend, he made smoked chicken tacos, which were off-menu and we didn’t hear about them until we were on our way out.
But we did sample an array of wines and one of the beer taps, along with a meat-and-cheese charcuterie platter. From among a half-dozen meats and seven or eight cheeses, you can pick three or six. We decided to sample six — three each of cheeses and meats — for $23. We had prosciutto, speck — actually a variation on prosciutto — and the hit of the table, a large and sinfully delicious strip of maple-Sriracha bacon.
Cheese choices were not terribly adventurous, but we settled on Manchego, brie and cheddar with caramelized onion. The platter included dried fruits, jam and honey and a sprinkling of crunchy Marcona almonds; it also came with a basket of sliced baguette. We thought the cheese portions should have been a little more generous and we probably should have asked for a refill on the bread basket. Everyone loved the accoutrements, especially the almonds.
Hugo said she recently acquired a permit from the city to open a walk-up window, which likely will lead to expanded food items. So far, in addition to the charcuterie, they serve only “bar bites,” such as olives, almonds, other types of nuts and a hummus trio (Lebanese, spicy, and roasted red pepper) with pita chips. The window will give that meat smoker a little more to do, she said.
Crafts & Vines also hosts a monthly book club and occasional special events. “Swine and Wine” in October combined smoked pork with wines matched to the food, for instance.
Although Crafts & Vines has a location near the southern edge of MainStrasse Village, Hugo said that end of the street continues to grow southward. New establishments include a small popcorn shop and a vaping store, with a Japanese bakery coming soon, she said. That’s on top of a development across Main Street renovating a historic building and adding construction totaling more than 180 new apartments.
The enhancement of the blocks around Crafts & Vines most likely will make this corner stop even more attractive as a neighborhood hangout. And it’s only a short hop for Cincinnatians, as well.
Crafts & Vines, 642 Main St., Covington, Ky.; 859-360-0467; craftsandvines.com; Hours: 4-11 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday; 4 p.m.-midnight Friday; noon-midnight Saturday; 2-8 p.m. Sunday.
This article appears in Oct 24-31, 2018.
