ABOUT CRAVE
OWNER KARYNSUE THOMAS:
CURATING EVERY DETAIL TO SOURCE THE BEST TASTE AND EXPERIENCE
CRAVE Gelato Kofi Bar is a design-forward, art-filled space located in the heart of Portside Ventura Harbor.
Rose-Thomas didn’t have a background in cooking, so she studied for several months under an Italian chef who made frozen desserts in addition to pastries. Under his guidance she developed a nondairy, organic recipe that, unusually, didn’t rely on a pre-bought base. As with everything at CRAVE, the gelato is made from scratch in-house.
Owner Karynsue Rose-Thomas chooses ingredients not just for their excellence but for the inspiring stories behind them. These finds include a woman-owned organic olive oil imported from Turkey and organic coffee beans roasted in Mount Shasta, in northern California.
OUR FOOD PHILOSOPHY
ALWAYS FRESH
While Rose-Thomas also created CRAVE’s olive oil cake, she brought in a local pastry chef of Italian descent, Daniella Accardi Stroh, to develop more items for the menu, including gluten-free almond scones, almondines, baked donuts and, every Friday through Sunday, focaccia. Current CRAVE best-sellers include horchata gelato and affogatos, and cinnamon-vanilla, maple-rum or bourbon-orange cold brews.
ANIMAL FRIENDLY
The shop is nondairy, except for dairy milk offered alongside oat and coconut milk for coffee drinkers. “I’m trying to show that you can create non-dairy sweets that are good for you,” she says. She draws the connection between plant-based eating and environmental and animal welfare, about which she is passionate, and sums up her reasoning succinctly as “the impetus is to do good.”
EARTH CONSCIOUS
CRAVE is also a Certified Green Business through the California Green Business Network in the city of Ventura, a testament to its commitment to sustainable practices.
