What is The Craft House restaurant in Clovis and why does it look so familiar?

The restaurant just south of Old Town Clovis closed its doors for just one evening.

But a day later it reopened, with a new name, a new sign and a revamped menu.

The Craft House is at 760 Pollasky Ave. near Eighth Street. You’ll find creative dishes, like a cheesesteak with grilled pepper steak, jalapeño aioli and melted smoked cheddar. Seven new taps carry local craft beer. And there’s more than your average number of vegan dishes on the menu, including desserts.

Some of you will remember the restaurant as The Gastro Grill. That restaurant opened in the same location about two years ago. Four owners – two siblings and their spouses – got the place up and running, including the owners of the Gastro Grill food truck.

Recently, the couples decided to go their separate ways. Greg and Marci Wilson have been running The Craft House since March 1. Debbi and Reyes Chacon are still running the food truck Gastro Grill, serving up their black and blue sliders with blue cheese crumbles at places like the food truck nights at Gazebo Gardens. They also run Chacon’s Catering.

“Partnerships are difficult,” said Greg Wilson. “We just decided because we had different thought processes that each couple … decided to go into a different direction. “

So that’s why the menu at The Craft House looks a bit different these days.

There are old favorites still on it, to be sure, but the cafe has recently added many new dishes. The new name is a reference to the effort going into creating new dishes.

They’ve been testing some as specials, which will be added to the menu if customers like them enough, Wilson said.

“There’s been a lot of little things that we’ve changed just because the guests have mentioned something,” he said.

New to the menu are the Mediterranean chicken tacos, served with spiced chicken, garli aioli, goat cheese and a Greek salad.

One chef came up with the tacos, another with the garlic sauce. That kind of collaboration created a lot of the new dishes.

“He gave us a chance to run free with what we want to do,” said one of the chefs, Matt Kachadoorian.

There’s also a seared ahi salad, Thai shrimp tacos with Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co.’s Joaquin Murrieta chile pepper beer and a vegan pasta dish.

The restaurant was getting a lot of requests for vegan items, so they added some. The jackfruit (a large tree fruit) sliders come with sriracha aioli and a sweet Asian slaw.

They can be ordered with a local beer from a tap, breweries like Tactical Ops Brewing in Clovis and Full Circle Brewing Co. in Fresno.

The restaurant is normally closed Sundays, except the last Sunday of every month, when it hosts brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Pastry chef Shelby Swingle creates all the desserts and vegan and gluten-free buns. She’s Kachadoorian’s fiance. They met at the bakery where they used to work. He baked cakes and she frosted them.

The most popular dessert is her spumoni cake. It’s a vegan chocolate cake with a pink cherry-pistachio icing and pistachios crumbled on top. Creme brulee and bread pudding are on the menu too, and once a week there’s a new dessert she experiments with.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 3:47 PM.