Crave! was my first culinary venture after moving to Israel. I became an equal investor and a working partner as chef with James as the marketing powerhouse behind the strong market positioning and branding of Crave!. James and I worked closely  on promoting this unique  anomaly of  kosher gastro pub street food. I introduced Israel to my method of  curing and smoking lamb bacon to become the first establishment to offer real kosher bacon  and cheese sliders. I pioneered in recreating the reuben sandwich with a boutique crafted New York style pastrami and vegan cheese. The idea was to really have fun with a menu that was chef driven food to share over house crafted cocktails or a locally sourced micro brew.  Before my Crave menu the kosher market in Jerusalem was lacking in originality and  high quality. The atmosphere and interior design was perfectly matched to Crave's vibe, its logo and the food by our creative architect, Eyal Tzalel. The raw materials and the rough look of bringing the street to the inside space while softly balancing the interior with it's interactive open kitchen the aromas of the food and the heat of the flames, as well as the compacted closeness of the customers to one another became a warm inviting, energetic space. The magic combination  of the three of our creative energies coming together gave birth to a very special concept. I learned a valuable lesson from the undertaking of this  venture  that has led me to only build teams of  hard working creative people that have something to offer, of their individual expertise, to make a great concept come alive.