Imbibe and create at these Reno-Tahoe businesses.
What gets your creative juices flowing? A glass of wine or fancy mocktail might just do the trick. Across Reno-Tahoe, business owners are pairing crafty activities with delicious beverages to create the perfect date night or group hang. Paint a winterscape while enjoying an old fashioned, learn calligraphy while sipping on syrah, or arrange a whimsical floral bouquet with a glass of bubbly in hand. No matter your skill level, you’ll leave the experience with a piece of which to be proud (or at least to give to your mom) and a fun memory.
Paint with Pinot
There’s a reason those paint-and-sip studios have cropped up in nearly every community in recent years: They’re just plain fun. Even if you don’t consider yourself artsy, you’ll find it easy to follow along as an instructor guides the class through the steps of creating a painting that’s been selected for the evening. And if you’re feeling stuck, a glass of wine can help with that.
Van Gogh & Vino has been running paint-and-sip classes for more than a decade, at former brick-and-mortar studios in Gardnerville and Carson City and now via a mobile operation at restaurants and bars in the valley.
“‘I can’t even draw a stick figure.’ I hear that sentence at least four times during a paint class, every single time,” Lynzie Ruecker, partner and instructor at Van Gogh & Vino, says with a laugh. “But then they are usually pleasantly surprised with the fact that they can actually paint something with guidance. It’s about the process. It’s about having a good time and allowing yourself to let go a little bit and believe in yourself.”
Ruecker selects the subject of the painting based on season and popular culture. She brings the canvases and paints to locales such as San Marcos Grill and Bella Vita Bistro & Catering in Carson City, where participants can enjoy their beverages of choice while Ruecker guides them through the layers of the painting. At Jimmy G’s Cigar Bar, also in Carson City, Ruecker even steps up the experience with black lights, neon paints, and optional body art.
For more paint-and-sip options, check out Picasso & Wine and Crafted Palette in Reno, Lake Tahoe Paint and Sip in South Lake Tahoe, or The Painted Vine in Truckee.
Craft Candles with Cabernet
At Candle Vino in Reno, make custom candles while savoring a glass poured from the studio’s generous selection of wines, beers, hard ciders, seltzers, and hard kombuchas.
Surrounded by reclaimed wood and a mood-setting mural of Venice, choose your candle container, which the store stocks in a wide variety of sizes and styles. Next, blend your color for the hot wax, and choose from Candle Vino’s 200-plus fragrances, including frosted juniper, brandied pear, and almond macaron. Personalize your candle with glitter, seashells, or stones, then pour the wax around the wick. Finish off your creation with a label from Candle Vino or create your own.
Alternatively, you also can make your own soap using a large variety of mold shapes, scents, and colors, or mix fragrances to create your own blended reed diffuser. While expanding your crafting skill set, expand your palate by sampling Candle Vino’s rotating list of wines of the month.
With 30 seats in the studio, Candle Vino is perfect for large parties or smaller friends’ nights out. Reservations are recommended two to three weeks in advance.
Plant with Pilsner
Wild and whimsical is the name of the game at Abloom Floral Design in Reno, where owner Bayli Liscio sells bouquets, offers pay-by-the-stem flowers for DIY arrangements, and hosts flower-arranging workshops.
“I don’t do traditional arranging. I like things that stand up taller and are more free-flowing. At the workshops, we talk about flower weight and how to use that to showcase the flowers differently,” Liscio explains. “I walk [participants] through proper care of the flowers, using the clippers, and arranging with an eco-friendly, foam-free chicken wire base.”
During the growing season, Liscio sources from small, local flower farms, including Earth & Seeds and Believe in Recess in Reno.
For the holidays, Abloom also offers wreath-decorating workshops with dried florals and shatterproof ornaments.
Liscio will provide wine for the workshop or enlist the help of a local mixologist. For a recent workshop, Tipce Mobile Bar, which offers pop-up bartending and a cocktail trailer, mixed up drinks with freshly squeezed blood orange-cranberry juice, cinnamon and ginger syrup, and club soda or Champagne.
Down in South Lake Tahoe, you also can get your hands in the dirt with a planting party hosted by High Mountain Greenery, a former plant shop that now brings flora to homes and businesses while hosting plant-forward events around town. Owner Drea Thornhill has taught participants how to make pressed-flower frames while they sip on botanical beverages, plant succulents at South Lake Brewing Co. while downing brews, grow container herbs to use in mocktail recipes, and craft preserved moss frames while enjoying wine.
Mold Clay with Chardonnay
For more than 25 years, The Clay Canvas in Old Southwest Reno has provided a space where people can paint their own pottery. From plates and mugs to gnomes and piggy banks, you can decorate your choice with the studio’s selection of more than 80 colors and specialty glazes. It’s BYOB at The Clay Canvas, where guests are welcome to bring their own food and drinks. Pro tip: Voodoo Brewing Co. is located right next door, if you want to make a last-minute beer run.
Take on ceramics from another angle at The Wedge Ceramics Studio, a 4,000-square-foot space in West Reno that has been in business since 2011. In addition to taking classes and becoming a member, you can host a party for up to 20 people to learn how to throw pottery on a wheel over the course of a two- to three-hour event. You bring the cheese board and wine, and The Wedge provides clay and instruction. Added bonus: Its staff will glaze the pieces for you to pick up later.
If you’re in Sparks and want to try your hand at painting pottery, check out Playful Potter.
Craft with a Cocktail
Creative workshops abound at Atelier in Reno, a sister business to Atelier in Truckee, a craft supply store and creative space that has been a staple in the mountain community for nine years. Knitting, block printing, embroidery, watercolor, and felting are just a few of the techniques taught in the workshops in Reno since the business’ opening in 2020.
“We definitely understand that people are taking time out of busy schedules, so we really try and honor that by either providing wine in many of our workshops or letting people bring their own drinks of choice,” says Sara Garey-Sage, workshop coordinator at Atelier in Reno.
At sip-and-script workshops, Lauren Iida of Thick and Thin Lines Calligraphy teaches brush lettering and calligraphy while participants enjoy wine or hard cider. Atelier’s sip-and-stitch-for-good event series invites creatives to drop in and enjoy a warming beverage while knitting or crocheting hats, ear warmers, scarves, or cowls to donate to the Karma Box Project, a local nonprofit providing essential goods to the homeless.
On the last Thursday of every month, Atelier hosts a social two-hour workshop with wine or cocktails to introduce participants to a different craft each session.
“This is a low-stakes way for friends, couples, or individuals to get together and do something on a Thursday that’s about the cost of going out to dinner — $40, including materials — and dip their toes into a certain type of craft,” Garey-Sage explains. “It’s not as intensive as some of our other skills-based workshops and is primarily with socializing in mind.”
RESOURCES
Abloom Floral Design Abloomfloraldesign.com
Atelier in Reno Atelierinreno.com
Candle Vino Candlevino.com
High Mountain Greenery Find High Mountain Greenery on Facebook
Lake Tahoe Paint and Sip Laketahoepaintandsip.com
Picasso & Wine Picasso-wine.com
Playful Potter Playfulpotter.com
The Clay Canvas Theclaycanvasreno.com
The Painted Vine Find The Painted Vine on Facebook
The Wedge Ceramics Studio Thewedgeceramics.com
Van Gogh & Vino Van-gogh-vino.myshopify.com
