I'm here with Terry from the Elkhart County Visitor Bureau.

We're here at the Learner Theater in downtown Elkhart.

This week on the show, we're going to talk about your well crafted series.

So if people have been watching over the last few months, we've been showing and sharing different videos that you guys created, highlighting different well crafted businesses and different opportunities in the community.

So can you give us an overview of what well-crafted is and why you decided to do this video series in the first place?

So what the well crafted series really shows is the the inside stories, the a deeper dive, and a better understanding of the creators, the creatives, the entrepreneurs, and the artisans who really make Elkhart County special and unique.

Yeah.

And I know on this episode, we're going to show one of those videos talking about a local restaurant.

But there are things happening.

And again, one of my favorite restaurants is here in Elkhart, one of my favorite restaurants in the whole area.

But Elkhart really does have a lot of great dining options.

It really does.

I mean, you could, I think, easily eat out at a different place, eat out every night of the week, and not not hit the same place twice or or even in a month, because there's so much culinary talent in Elkhart and it's all different styles too.

So it's not just one kind of thing.

It's really a different kinds of cuisines.

Could be Italian, could be steaks, it could be sandwiches.

And you'd find a great meal out there.

And I know that you also have events coming up, like, tell me about this event, highlighting the five breweries that you have in the county.

So well crafted signature snips runs from the entire month of October, and we worked with all five craft breweries in Elkhart County for each of them to create a unique beer just for this month.

And we really want to highlight how much diversity there is even in the craft brewing scene.

So, you know, in Elkhart we have yakitori and brass elk.

Yeah.

And West Wind Brewery in Goshen, there's Goshen Brewing Company, and then in Middlebury there's Wedgewood, and they're all they all have great big fan base.

They all have they're all unique in their own way.

And they have great brew masters who turn out great beverages.

What is interesting of a funny story about Brass Elk?

So there's a drink there called The Irish Dave.

Right.

And I was in there for lunch with somebody recently, and I've been there a few times and I've noticed this drink, but I've never asked about it.

So he said, wait.

He's trying to make make me feel awkward.

And he said, is that named after that guy that used to be on the radio hears from, you know, blah, blah, blah.

And they said, no, no, not at all.

It's named after some guy named Dave who sits at the bar.

His ancestors are from Ireland.

And I was like, oh, okay.

So I thought for a moment I had a drink named after me.

But it's not true.

I absolutely do not.

And this week on Well Crafted this month.

And tell us a little bit about who we're highlighting this week when it comes to food.

So this is a fine dining experience with an extremely talented kitchen, really driven by farm to table values.

They have been an institution in downtown Elkhart for many years, and their story about how they try to elevate the dining experience and in every way, both from the service perspective but also from the kitchen, is truly remarkable.

All right.

So that's what we're going to have a look at the well crafted series.

And if people want to watch all these videos outside of this, they can actually find them as well right there online that you have them listed online as well.

Right?

Yes.

I would recommend going to the Experience Elkhart County YouTube page.

Okay.

All right artisan, let's check it out.

At artisan, we are really focused on an elevated fine dining experience.

One thing that makes artisan really special is our well crafted tasting menus.

We offer five different courses with five wine pairings that we select special for each course.

I think that makes our experience really unique.

If you're coming through the front door, you're going to see our beautiful wine cubes.

So that's definitely a part of what we do and what we are about.

If you're coming in through our bar area, it's a little bit more approachable, a little bit more relaxed, but we focus on elevated fine dining, French cuisine and American cuisine.

A nice mix of both.

Reservations are recommended, but we do accept walk ins.

We really want to be an approachable fine dining establishment, so I think allowing people to come in a little bit more casually and and to walk in makes makes that happen.

The bar and the lounge are a great spot for walk ins, and then if you're looking for more of an elevated experience, make a reservation.

We can do something special for you.

Hospitality is really about curating memories for people, and I think anyone coming in, if it's a birthday anniversary, a business dinner, if we have that information, we can make sure that your time is really special with us.

And then when you're leaving you, you have a new memory and maybe a new place to come back to and make memories with someone else.

Artisan has been around for ten years now.

We're a fine dining restaurant.

We focus on sustainable seafood, fresh local produce.

We offer tasting menus with wine pairings, which is something really cool that we do.

I think we are really lucky to have some amazing members of the community frequent our establishment here at artisan.

If we see a guest and we recognize them, we're going to make it our mission to learn a little bit about them, learn about what they like.

So the next time that they come in, they feel like they're having a curated experience.

So I would say a lot of our guests are people that are coming back week after week.

We know them on a first name basis.

We know what they like to drink, they know a little bit about us.

And I think that's what makes this job and makes artists and fun.

We're a part of the community and we get to have that.

The extra special moment with everybody.

We have some guests that have been coming in since we opened every single Saturday, same seat at the bar, and that is it's a symbiotic relationship for sure.

I would love for people to walk away with this thinking of artisan for your next birthday, but also thinking of us for your Wednesday night out with the girls or or your your next quick bite with a burger, with your with your brows.

We have some casual dining elements.

We have burgers, but we also have a fillet so you can go from either end of the spectrum.

The Navare Hospitality group is such a fun group to be a part of.

If you're looking for an elevated dining experience, you can come to artisan.

If you want a quick bite for lunch, you can go to bird in the hand.

We have a Mitchie that just opened up with the Jackson rooftop.

So just here in Elkhart, we have so many options, and I think being able to have a few different places that you can go to that you can depend on, that, you know, that you're going to get great service, great food, and you're always going to leave happy.

I think that it's really a pillar of the community to have multiple spots that you feel that loyalty towards.