Who are we?

We are Craft Event Bar Collective, and we created The Cherry Street Bottle Shop and Cocktail Kitchen to support our business as event bartenders. In the process, we’ve found so much to love in our local downtown Troy, OH.

While Craft Event Bar has been bartending big events since 2014, the Collective was founded in 2021 by Carly Witmer and Sara Studebaker, two event professionals who teamed up to perfect their services through supportive collaboration. Carly works mainly as DJ Carolina, and also maintains our always-changing craft beer selection. Sara keeps busy wowing clients as she plans their celebrations down to the last detail; and finds no trouble tasting her way to outstanding wines for our store in her downtime. They are always looking for ways to improve service and expand offerings, which is why they took the leap into a brick-and-mortar location on Cherry Street.

Shannon Dixon and Shelby Meadows, formerly of Bubbly Bartending, joined forces with our team in early 2024 and are now central to our operation. Shannon books and manages event bars at our favored venues, and can be found occasionally staffing the bottle shop or providing service in the cocktail lounge. As our mixologist, Shelby spends a lot of her time in our kitchen, where she creates cocktail recipes and shares them with our followers on Facebook and Instagram; she also opens our cocktail lounge to the public on Fridays and Saturdays when she’s not at another event.

Other members and friends of the collective include:

Hayner Distilling: our friends at Hayner make our cocktails possible, and we love working with their excellent spirits.

Tall James, our resident bartender (third Thursdays every month) and go-to photographer.

Kelle Carli, our graphic designer who also works as a DJ.

Erin Hartman, a marketing professional who staffs the shop on Saturdays while also managing our monthly newsletter and emails.

Todd Studebaker, who keeps the shop in shape and is there to greet our customers every Thursday.

Jessica Hartman is an educator who devotes her daytime to students with developmental disabilities, while also occasionally staffing the shop and providing excellent service at our events.

Kelsie Richardson is another successful professional who brings a smile to her weekends at event bars and sometimes serves guests at the bottle shop, too.

Cheyene Booher of the Chic Bohemian occasionally staffs the shop, although she primarily works in floral and decor rentals and assists with event planning.

Andy Kemmer delights guests in our lounge whenever he has a new idea for how to do it.

Being a collective not only makes us all better professionals, it allows us to enjoy the company of one another wherever we work. Having the support of a capable and motivated team means that each of us knows we can depend on one another, so that you can depend on us, too.