Offering Recreation and Relaxation to Rockland Adults

Every local business has a story worth sharing with the community. This series is as much about supporting companies as it is about celebrating the places and faces that make our community special.

Our spotlight today is on Robert and Kimberlie Priskie.

Business: Crafts & Drafts
Owners: Robert and Kimberlie Priskie
Website: Craftsanddraftsny.com
Address: 373 S. Main St. New City, NY 10956

How did you come up with the name?
We specialize is the teaching of crafts making while serving craft beer and wine. The words Crafts and Drafts both have art and beer meanings!

Why choose that location? Why start a business in this town?
We are residents of clarkstown. We feel it’s important to keep our money inside of our community. Being a part of the community for so long we realized New City needs something new!

Briefly, what business are you in?
Craft classes for adults with a beer and wine bar in house. Adults can relax and paint while they sip on a well priced delicious glass of wine or trendy craft beer

What’s the most difficult moment or challenge you’ve faced as a business owner?
Building the art studio was not an easy task. Keeping track of all the permits and licensing is very tough as well as the documents needed to obtain a liquor license.

Were there any challenges that made you second guess your decision to be an entrepreneur?
I never second guessed opening this place. We believe in the concept. Like they say “ if you enjoy what you do, you never go to work”

What’s been your favorite moment or proudest achievement since opening?
Since our business caters to women we really thought wine sales would be our most popular. Turns out women really love craft beer!

What’s the most innovative idea your employees or customers have had that you put into practice?
We aren’t going to try to re-invent the wheel. We want to keep it casual, relaxed, and fun. Nothing less!

How do you deal with difficult customers?
We welcome the opportunity to serve the Clarkstown community in any way possible. Requests are never outrageous to us at C & D. Every customer has needs. Some different than others. We plan on trying to please everybody. If it’s possible.

How does your business give back or get involved in the community?
We really can’t wait to get fundraisers going for the local schools and non-profits. We will give back 25% on any of these nights. We can roughly give back 2,000/ month in fundraising just doing 4 nights!

The plan behind this series at Patch is to shine the spotlight on all our favorite local businesses, and to learn a little about the ones we may not know that well.

This is as much about supporting local businesses as it is about celebrating the places and faces that make our community special.

Here’s a simple form where local business owners can answer a few quick questions to be part of this ongoing feature.