Dani Davis, owner of Crafted in Tower Grove East, has been in the restaurant business for 14 years. In that time, she learned that “you have to stay ahead or on top, or else you’re going to go under,” she says.
Davis’ latest way of staying ahead of new bars? CBD-infused cocktails.
“It seems to me that CBD is trending a bit and kind of getting out there, and we wanted to get on that early,” says Davis. Crafted is partnering with CBD Kratom to sell three signature cocktails with tinctures of the non-psychoactive component of cannabis. (THC is the part that gives users the high.) They will have a kickoff event on Thursday at 4 p.m. at Crafted.
Davis is correct that there is buzz around CBD. Gwyneth Paltrow’s popular lifestyle site, Goop, recently published a guide to cocktails with the ingredient. Bon Appétit did a story with the headline, “What Is CBD, and Why Is It in Everything Right Now?”
Davis connected with CBD Kratom because one of its marketing staff members lived down the street from Crafted and asked Davis to set up a meeting. Davis liked that CBD Kratom sent three female employees to meet her, and said that “we just all got along and started talking about cocktails and decided to do an event.”
A competitive weightlifter with “a lot of anxiety," Davis had never tried CBD before the meeting. She had heard that the product could help her, she said. ProjectCBD.org describes it as “an appealing option for patients looking for relief from inflammation, pain, anxiety, psychosis, seizures, spasms, and other conditions without disconcerting feelings of lethargy or dysphoria.”
About a week ago, Davis tried some and said “it was kind of strange. I didn’t feel any high like when you smoke weed or anything like that, but I felt amazingly calm all day.”
The bar will offer three original cocktails: a vanilla-almond Manhattan (vanilla CBD tincture), the Winterberry (lemon juice, elderberry syrup, gin, rosemary, and cranberry garnish made with a lemon CBD tincture), and the Cindy in the Lou-Who (fresh jalapeño, mint, hibiscus vodka, hibiscus mint syrup, cranberry juice, and mint CBD tincture). The cocktails are priced the same as other original cocktails on the menu, Davis said.
Guests can also order those drinks without CBD. Or if they prefer a different drink with CBD, they can do that as well. The charge is $2 per 5 milligrams of CBD, and $1 for each additional 5 milligrams.
Davis expects to keep the drinks and CBD on the menu until at least March.
