Coffeehouse News

Young entrepreneurs craft buzzy coffeehouse concept in west Fort Worth

Fort Worth gets a new workspace with coffee on the side at Craftwork.

A joint coffeehouse and workspace called Craftwork Coffee Co. is coming to west Fort Worth in a high-visibility spot in January. Craftwork will open at 4731 Camp Bowie Blvd., in a 1946 building which also houses The Original Mexican Eats Cafe.

It's a unique concept that's part coffeehouse, part retail workspace; the shared-workspace trend is still relatively new to Fort Worth. At Craftwork, you can work in a communal space, a private office, or team up with buddies in a double suite.

Craftwork comes from business partners and pals Riley Kiltz, 25, and Collin Sansom, 26. Kiltz, a TCU graduate, says he came up with the idea after getting frustrated with the facelessness of modern workspaces.

"I'd been working in private equity as a consultant for a firm out of New York, traveling all over the world and, most of the time, working remotely," he says. "And workspaces really suck. I needed something more. You'd have 50 people all lined up and no one knew each other."

They hope Craftwork will be more of a communal experience than your average coffeehouse, where most people just look down at their computer screens or mobile devices.

"The idea is to have a retail workspace that revolves around the life and energy of a coffeehouse," Kiltz says. "We want the workspaces to provide more than just a box to work in. We want people to talk to each other. We want there to be a sense of community."

Sansom, a former barista trainer at Thunderbird Coffee in Austin, will oversee the coffee end of things. He's developing a drink menu with hot and cold options, espresso drinks, and pour-overs. Fort Worth bakery Stir Crazy Baked Goods will provide snacks and pastries.

Coffee beans will come from Dallas-based Tweed Coffee Roasters, a sister company of Austin'sHoundstooth Coffee. But they're also sourcing from less-known roasters around the country such as Olympia Coffee Roasting Company in Washington, Madcap Coffee from Michigan, and Onyx Coffee Lab from Arkansas.

"We wanted to get the best coffee available, not just from around here but from around the country," Kiltz said. "This way, people can get a different perspective on coffee."

Workspaces start at $170 a month. The space has a conference room, cafe discounts, Internet access, and desks and chairs.

The pair worked with local design firms Studio 97W andPalletSmart to preserve the characteristics of the 3,300-square-foot space which has been home to a psychic, real estate agency, and auto mechanic shop. The building's bones are mostly intact; they've been accentuated with modern touches.

"Bright colors, clean lines, real simple, real clean," Kiltz says. "But then we have steel rafters and lots of wood, which gives it a modern industrial vibe."

coffee openings

Chef News

Fort Worth's Will Rogers Memorial Center welcomes bright new chef

FortWorthtx.gov

Will Rogers Memorial Center

There's a new chef in town: Waylon Cornelius, named executive chef of catering and concessions for Craft Culinary Concepts, the food and beverage provider at Will Rogers Memorial Center.

Will Rogers Memorial Center is the 120-acre entertainment complex anchoring Fort Worth’s Cultural District, owned and operated by the City of Fort Worth. Cornelius will oversee menus for trade shows and other events at the center which bring in more than 2 million visitors a year.

Craft Culinary Concepts is headquartered in Glendale, Arizona, and manages food and beverage programs for entertainment, sports and cultural facilities.

Chef Waylon Corneliusfortworthtx.gov

According to a release, Cornelius joined the team this summer and is already shifting the expectations of guests from a typical “BBQ and beans” menu to a bill of fare satisfying every kind of palate.

“We always have fajitas ready to go, but we also make a beautiful Beef Wellington or baked salmon with a pink salt crust,” Cornelius says in a statement.

For consumer trade shows, Craft and its partners Caribou and Taco Heads offer more choices for the thousands of guests who attend events at WRMC annually.

“Some of our equestrian guests are away from home and here for several days, and they need more than popcorn and hot dogs,” Cornelius says. “Our concessions offer biscuits and gravy, burritos made in-house, strawberry salad, fruit and yogurt cups.”

A native of Mansfield, Cornelius grew up helping in a farm-to-table kitchen. He was raised on a farm with his mother, grandmother, and grandfather -- a Vietnam veteran who enjoyed vegetable gardens and raising hogs and chickens. He studied computer science after high school and holds an associate's degree in Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis from Tarrant County College.

He's a 2003 graduate of AIMS Academy of Culinary Arts in Dallas where he was mentored by a number of great chefs. While training as assistant executive sous chef at the AAA four-diamond Grand Hyatt DFW, he worked with Executive Chef Sutti Sripolpa, chef Eric Dreyer (who went on to be Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef), and Chef Jean-Claude Plihon, under whom he honed his French cooking skills.

As executive sous chef at the opening of Perry’s Steakhouse and Grille in Southlake, Cornelius gained expertise with volume. While at HG Sply Co., he learned about gluten-free items and other food allergies.

HG Sply is also where he crossed paths with Chef James R. Schell III, Craft’s general manager at WRMC, who recruited Cornelius to the complex.

"James said he needed someone who can hit moving targets, push the culinary team to be more avant-garde and use locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, so here I am," Cornelius says. "Culinary is a small world."

“I want people to say, ‘When we were in Fort Worth, you won’t believe what we got at Will Rogers!’” Schell says. “Even the celebrities who perform [in the auditorium] are surprised. When Chicago played here recently and we served dinner backstage, they said they felt treated like the Rolling Stones.”

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