Part food hall, part restaurant, Craften may be coming to a Triangle suburb near you

Coming out of the pandemic, restaurants are at a crossroads. The last year has asked questions of delivery and takeout, tipping and labor, downtowns and suburbs and what exactly it means to be a restaurant.

With something of a food hall hybrid, a new concept aims to rethink what a food hall is and where we’re likely to find them.

Craften, a name combining the words “craft” and “kitchen,” is that hybrid, taking the vendors of food halls to the sit-down model of restaurants. It’s the creation of co-owners Kip Downer and Max Trujillo, and they plan to open two locations in the next two years.

The first will be in Knightdale, which is slated to open later this year, with the second opening in Clayton in 2022.

“We thought about not just what people want in a pandemic, but what people are longing for regarding the restaurant experience,” Trujillo said. “It takes the best of food halls and restaurants. It fuses together the variety of a food hall and the hospitality of a restaurant.”

Downer comes from a development background and Trujillo is a restaurant industry veteran who co-hosts the NC F&B podcast with Matthew Weiss, interviewing the chefs, bartenders, wine reps and other personalities within North Carolina’s hospitality industry.

Trujillo has spent most of his career working in the front of house of restaurants from Los Angeles to Raleigh, but Craften is the first project he’s owned a piece of.

“I figured it was time to put my money where my mouth is,” Trujillo said.

Craften will be a sit-down operation with servers and tables, like a restaurant, but with diners choosing from different menus. Trujillo will design a bar program around classic cocktails, approachable wines and a variety of beer. Like other food halls, the owners will operate the bar and lease kitchen spaces to the vendors.

The vendor list for Knightdale includes The Corner Venezuelan serving arepas, Finca Burger with burgers and fries, Poblanos Tacos making tacos, burritos and quesadillas and a pizza shop, Fiori Trattoria.

Food hall evolution

Trujillo said chefs often put so much focus on the kitchen and menu, that the front of the restaurant can sometimes be a struggle. On the other hand, Trujillo said the variety offered by food halls sometimes sacrifices hospitality.

“I like the variety, friends have different eating habits and restrictions and everyone wants what they want and they don’t have to compromise,” Trujillo said. “We almost don’t want to identify as a food hall. It’s the evolution of the food hall and an expansion of a restaurant.”

But when groups go to food halls, they immediately split up, breaking off into different lines for different vendors and reconvening at different times. Trujillo said the thing that makes food halls great for groups also makes them bad for hanging out. It gets even more complicated if someone wants to pay for everyone, he said.

The 4,500-square-foot Knightdale Craften is currently under construction at 706 Money Court off of Knightdale Boulevard.

The Clayton location, at 229 Briarcliff Drive off of Route 42, is in the planning and designing phase. The Clayton location will be somewhat larger, expanding to 6,000 square feet and including six vendors. Each will have a two-story patio.

Downtowns vs. suburbs

Before the pandemic, the food hall trend couldn’t be stopped in the Triangle. Morgan Street Food Hall and Transfer Co. Food Hall, both in downtown Raleigh, changed the landscape of going out in Raleigh, each featuring large outdoor patios and central bars and a collection of diverse dining options. The Durham Food Hall followed, and more were planned for Johnston County and North Hills.

While most food halls are in cities, Craften has its eyes on the suburbs. Trujillo said the Triangle’s quickly growing population will steadily demand the downtown trends closer to home.

“All the things you think you need to drive downtown for, you can have in your neighborhood,” Trujillo said.

If successful, Trujillo believes Craftens can be built throughout the Triangle’s towns and suburbs.

“We’re not completely reinventing the wheel,” Trujillo said. “There’s an opportunity and excitement to smaller towns ... From doing the podcast, I know this place is growing like crazy and expanding.”