Wednesday, August 8, 2012

NOW OPEN and Pouring THE BEST WINES

We are so excited to now be open to the public every evening at 4:30 pm!

Our offerings of awesome, local foods coupled with great wines, house-infused cocktails and beers are sure to not only please, but also insanely blow you away.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Our Menu and Opening!

I know that you have all been waiting anxiously and patiently in anticipation of graft's opening, as we have, too!....I am so elated to announce that we are opening!
Seth and I just returned from catering a wedding in Los Olivos, California (Central Valley wine country) last week and we have finally gotten all of our last permits needed to open to the public.  We are having our soft opening this weekend and will be open to the public on Sunday, if all goes well.  I will keep you posted if we have to extend the public opening one day to Monday.  Please join us as early as Sunday, August 5 for our first night!

We will be open 7 nights a week:
Sunday- Thursday 4:30 pm to 10 pm
Friday - Saturday 4:30 pm to 11 pm

We have an awesome, unique wine menu, house-infused cocktails and craft beers at our bar.
We plan to stay open as long as you want to join us!  Also, we will begin weekend brunch as soon as possible, the earliest will be fall, i.e. late October, beginning November.  We will move into lunches, as well.

Within a month, we will have to-go/ pick-up for our burger, salads, apps and a featured sandwich.  This will continue to expand with more selection as we are open.

Below is our wine/ food pairing menu that is basically a cool way to eat an appetizer with a little bit of education for your palate and our seasonal menu that will change every several weeks,

We look forward to serving you all and seeing you so very soon!

Thanks again for your support,

Ashley


Wine and Food Pairings $13

Please select a "themed" wine pairing.
Two 3-oz. wine tastings will accompany two tapas-style dishes.
 Additional wine flights with each food pairing $8.
1.  Refreshing Roses
·  Brut Rosé- Veuve Du Vernay, France, N.V.
            watermelon + cucumber gazpacho shot, strawberry, basil
·  Rose- Domaine Houchart, Côtes de Provence ‘11
            sautéed calamari, cilantro, lime, red onion, jalapeno
2. Crisp and Tangy Whites
·  Albariño- Valiñas de Ramón Bilbao, Rias Baixas, Spain ‘11
            tangy cabbage + green onion slaw
·  Sancerre- Les Belles Vignes, Domaine Fournier, Sancerre, France ’08
           fried green tomatoes, citrus aioli
3. Unique Chardonnays
·  Burgundy- Les Charmes, Cave de Lugny, Macon-Lugny, France ‘09
            tuscan white bean dip with bacon, toasted pita chips
·  Chardonnay- Bishop’s Peak, Edna Valley, CA ‘10
            creamed grilled corn, garlic, smoked gouda, toasted pita chips
4.  France 101
·  Pinot Noir- Simonnet-Febvre, Vin de Pays de Méditerranée, France ‘10
            fried rosemary scalloped potatoes, mushroom ragout, plum reduction
·  Bordeaux- Château Malbat, Bordeaux, France ‘10
            blistered zucchini, crispy beet nest, herbed crema      
5.  The Spaniard’s Choice
·  Garnacha- Castillo de Monséran, Cariñena, Spain ‘09
            spicy chorizo on bibb lettuce, cranberries + herb vinaigrette
·  Tempranillo- Flaco, Madrid, Spain ‘10
            reduced blueberry + cranberry preserves, goat cheese, crostini
6.  Bold and Boasting Blends
·  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah- Hedges CMS Red, Columbia Valley, WA ‘09 
            house-made creamy ricotta, grilled zucchini, olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper
· Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon - Chukker, Margerum, Los Olivos, CA ‘09
            smoked grapes, red wine reduction, crostini







Sunday, June 3, 2012

Our first garden sprouts !

Both cucumbers , and bean sprouts have shown themselves in the garden ! The first of many to come .

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Bar/ Wine Wall/ Patio

Opening day is almost here and we are so excited! We are making fast progress and the inside of Graft is looking amazing.  Check out our spacious bar that is made out of reclaimed tongue and groove wood from the walls of the existing house; it has a copper top!  The wine wall will enable us to organize and store our awesome variety of unique wines.  Our comfortable patio under the trees will be a great place for hanging out and relaxing to acoustic music as you sip on your favorite housemade-infused cocktail or glass of wine.  In addition, we have constucted a rear patio near our muscadines where we will be hosting chef demonstrations. We look forward to making your Graft experience a memorable one. 























Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Front benches/ stone wall

We have been laboring in our yard and gardens making great steps toward our edible gardens and inviting landscape. We have been in the yard clearing, transplanting, planting seedlings and building. The front yard now has several benches built into our new natural, seatable field stone wall. We want to invite our customers to enjoy a glass of wine or cocktail among the herb gardens that we are planting in the front yard. The huge back vegetable and fruit garden, resembling the shape of a giant leaf, will be available for customers to view, as well. I will say, I am so glad that we have been able to keep all of the existing plants that were on-site, but some of those large azaleas are a little monster to dig up and transplant! Brian Barth and Mario Cambardella of Urban Agriculture have been the master minds behind our edible landscaping plan, which we will continue to implement over the next many months. Brian was pivotal in building the seatable, solid stone wall. He also has a farm outside of Athens, where he grows his own veggies and herbs and also raises several hogs, chickens for eggs, goats for dairy and sustainable tilapia. Graft will be a pick-up site for his forming CSA. We look forward to a long relationship with him and Tree of Life Farms. Here is his website, treeoflifefarms.com

The interior is painted and looks amazing. We are moving forward as fast as we can. I will post a few pictures and know that we are still looking good for the beginning of June to open! Thanks again for your support and excitement for us!







Monday, May 7, 2012

Now Hiring!

We are looking for experienced and wine knowledgeable servers and bartenders, as well as back of the house staff to include prep, saute, grill, and utility.  Please click on the link below or stop by graft for an application.  We will begin interviewing Thursday May 10th, if contacted.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7u-J9OhPbVzSXRMU3JqbGp2SVE

Edible gardens, paint and lots of cleaning!

We are getting so close to opening! It is looking amazing inside. The fresh paint on the outside and inside helps to bring to life the reality of this awesome renovation! Everything is built out. The bar is perfect and the patio is beckoning to be used soon! We have embarked on a progressive journey to build and maintain edible gardens throughout the property so that we will be able to utilize our own herbs, vegetables and fruits/ berries throughout the seasons. We will eventually be building a small mingling pavilion out back by the vegetable garden which will hold a water cistern for catching rain. That's just a nugget of what we have planned! Our focus is to open as soon as possible. Sorry for not keeping you all as updated as we had planned, we have just been very busy with the build-out and the details of opening. Please enjoy the photos and know we are very close! We will see you soon with the best seasonal foods, wines and great cocktails.

Also, we are starting to take applications and interview. We are looking for experienced servers, bartenders and back of the house prep, saute, grill and dish/utility help. Feel free to stop by and get an application or download the application this blog. Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z5cE_sZyup0WT3ciQUSfUsbMaG2hgmq1HCRZsbot7kc/edit











Saturday, March 24, 2012

Kitchen, Chef and Food!


We have spent countless hours redoing the kitchen floors. We ripped up all of the old many layers of linoleum, built completely new floor joists, poured concrete footers, put up new siding and interior walls and finally was able to put in the new FRP for the very clean, white walls now! We will have a spic and span kitchen where Blake and I feel confident that our guests will be proud to see how and where we cook and prepare. The last element to be put in, which is going in this week, is the epoxy flooring, for a durable, washable, impermeable surface that will work great for us.
Speaking of the kitchen....I have found my amazing counterpart to help in the actual creativity, management and most importantly, in cooking and preparing all the foods and pairings....BLAKE HARGRODER! He will be graft's executive chef. He comes from several well known Atlanta restaurant kitchens, and has worked with such names as Richard Blais, Scott Serpas and Kevin Gillespie. He is passionate about culinary excellence and truly believes, like Seth and I, that we are to be good stewards of the earth. Therefore, it makes most sense to eat fresh, seasonally and beautifully. We will insure you that the foods prepared will come from the most reliable and most local, as best we can get close to home, sources. I have been creating many vendor and farmer relationships over the last several months to make sure that we as a team will be able to deliver the most fresh foods, and WE WILL! It has been so fun to actually meet the farmers and see the facilities where we will be purchasing our fresh seafood, fish, meats, vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, grains, etc. It's so important to me that I know the standards and beliefs behind all the companies that I am working with in order to confirm that we truly are giving you the best foods.
For example, Mr. Steve Whitmire, owner of
Brasstown Beef in North Georgia, raises awesome
grass-fed cattle. He humanely rotates his heifers in different pastures and even uses ultrasound on the cows to look at the size and quality of the rib-eye in the cow before any heifer is considered ready. He is a great man and runs a brilliant operation.
These are the kind of people who I believe in their philosophy and want to support, and their products are truly delicious!
The other day Blake and I went to one of our local fish vendors where we toured their facility and saw the fresh fish in tanks that were flown in that day from South Carolina, the Gulf, and other nearby areas. I had asked them to fillet some of their just-in seasonal porgy for us to cook later. I know porgy is extremely sustainable and is a great mild, flaky fish; and it is! While we were working at graft the other day, we were hand delivered "gourmet to-go" lunch from our wonderful chef! Blake sauteed the porgy and served it over a reduced lobster stock with a concasse of red and yellow tomatoes, black trumpet mushrooms, fresh spring peas with a little watercress drizzled with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt to top. Is your mouth open yet? OH....also, he made a light blood orange-shallot vinaigrette to serve over a local hydroponically grown red oak lettuce (farmer is from Hartwell) salad with creamy blue cheese chunks, fresh bacon bits and toasted walnuts. Now are you getting a sense of what you will soon be able to enjoy and dine over? We want your experience at graft to test your palate of what simple, fresh, seasonal foods should actually taste like, including giving you an opportunity to always try a new variety of wine that may lend you to find your new favorite!

Posts and beams are up!

The beams and posts before the stain....only these will remain in graft

Everything else will be open.

The beams and posts are up and in! We have been very busy over the last few weeks, so we apologize for just now getting back on the updates. The interior structure is now completely done. We have the main dining room ready to go; remember it's all open space now, all of the walls are gone! We are reclaiming all of the old tongue and groove heart pine wood from the walls to make our banquet seating, bar and tables. The banquet seating is in, which is across from the bar after we enclosed one of the front doors. For some interesting reason, there were two entrance doors off of the front porch...it's been fun trying to guess when and why the doors, rooms and windows were built on to the Cofer estate.
Daniel has been an invaluable help and asset to Seth. We are so grateful to the continued help from Thad, Bradford, Chad and our friends Adam, Jordan and others who have shared their time, knowledge and excitement for us.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Continued progress





The cold and the rainy days have definitely proved challenging, but we are excited to see the continued progress! All of the framing-out on the interior is now completed for the new other bathroom, addition to the kitchen, banquetseating area and new kitchen flooring. The beautiful French doors are in and we are excited to finish the build-out of the deck with ramps. The big project in the next few days will be to install the huge 12-foot 6x6 posts and beams in order to completely support the roof as we have taken out all the inside walls.
I know many of you wonder what is going on, but I promise, the inside

looks awesome!! The exterior paint is soon to come....it will have a face lift!

Many thanks to the very efficient and resourceful help from Thad, Bradford, Chad, my dad, Adam and my sweet friend Caron. You guys are wonderful! Even, Bear, our little labrador helper who traveled from Decatur, has been a source of encouragement.


Friday, January 20, 2012

French doors get some color

 The new 8' French Doors look amazing with a coat of stain, now if the weather would warm up enough for me to put on some urethane we could get these beauties installed.

Restoring Original Doors


We have decided to return the original interior doors to there original luster, before years of paint took their toll on these beautiful solid wooded doors.  Equipped with our Hyde scraper and little bit (well no a lot) of elbow grease.  These doors revealed some amazing texture, tone, and color.  Most likely not seen in over 100 years.
Nice gloves...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Attic structural work

In an old house you are going to, without a doubt, run into some failing lumber. One of the ceilings was sagging a bit and the valley in the roof is sagging, as well. After speaking with our structural engineer (Daddy Gilliam), we devised a way to clamp off to one of the existing chimneys to help support the load. As you can see, we created a giant clamp from 2x12's and tied it off to all of the ceiling joists that were sagging. Thanks to some help from my brother-in-laws Thad & Bradford we made quick work of it.