From locally sourced ingredients and an ever-changing food menu to cocktails, weekend brunch and community gatherings, Blake Mellgren has spent a decade shaping Craft House into a restaurant built for the place he calls home.

DANA POINT — For more than a decade, the idea behind Craft House has been less about fitting neatly into a particular category and more about creating a restaurant that feels at home in Dana Point.

That can mean locally caught yellowfin arriving in the kitchen and becoming the inspiration for that week’s special. It can mean seasonal produce from a nearby farm changing the direction of a salad, a cocktail at the bar after a day on the water, brunch on a Sunday morning or familiar faces settling in for Social Hour.

For owner and culinary director/proprietor Blake Mellgren, those pieces are all connected. Craft House was created to be a neighborhood restaurant first, one that could evolve with Dana Point while giving the people who live here a place to eat, drink and gather.

“At its core, Craft House was designed to be a place for the community” -Blake Mellgren

“Tourists are great, out-of-towners are awesome, we appreciate them as much as anyone else, but the community is really what lets us thrive as a business.”

Mellgren said growing up in Dana Point gave him one perspective on the beach town, but moving away helped him understand how special the community was to people beyond it. When he eventually returned, that sense of place became part of what he wanted Craft House to represent.

“The community is what allows us to keep the lights on, support a great staff, and turn my vision and the staff’s creativity into something for them to enjoy,” Mellgren said.

“If Craft House didn’t have the community’s support, Craft House wouldn’t be around.”

A decade later, that relationship has grown into a restaurant where the food rarely sits still, local sourcing has become increasingly important, and the dining room and bar serve as much as a community gathering place as they do a restaurant. That commitment to Dana Point was recognized in 2026 when the Dana Point Chamber of Commerce named Craft House Business of the Year during its annual Installation Dinner & Awards Night, fittingly themed “Anchored in Community.”

For Mellgren, who is more accustomed to working behind the scenes, the recognition carried particular weight.

“An award like that meant the world to me, as someone who likes to hide in the shadows or behind the kitchen wall,” Mellgren said. “It was something that really made all of the work that has gone into Craft House over the last 12 years feel like it was truly for something more than pursuing a dream, but creating a cornerstone for the community to call home.”

The honor also arrived after years of learning how to balance Mellgren’s desire to constantly create with the expectations of the people who return to Craft House regularly.

When the restaurant first opened, Mellgren said virtually nothing was a constant on the menu. Five to seven specials could change nightly, meaning a customer might find a dish on Friday, love it and return Sunday only to discover it had already sold out and disappeared.

“It created a level of frustration for guests, and being in my late 20s and still having some ego, I thought we were right, and they didn’t get it because I just wanted to keep creating,” Mellgren said.

Experience eventually changed his perspective.

“As I’ve matured and learned to listen to my guests, I realized their satisfaction is far more important,” he said. “We spent years earning their trust by creating dishes they love and staying consistent, visit after visit.”

That trust now gives Mellgren room to experiment. Familiar dishes provide regulars with something they know, while seasonal specials can push beyond what they might ordinarily order and introduce them to something new.

The restaurant has strong American roots, but Mellgren has never restricted the kitchen to one cuisine. Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Southern and other global influences regularly find their way into dishes, sometimes sharing space on the same menu.

Some dishes have become fixtures. Regular customers would have reason to protest if the meatloaf, fried chicken or smash burger suddenly vanished. Around them, however, Mellgren keeps things moving.

The seasons help determine what comes next.

Seasonal fruits and vegetables come from Sunny Cal Farms, while Hidden Pearl Mushrooms provides locally grown mushrooms. The sourcing is personal, too. You might even run into Mellgren at the farmers market picking up the restaurant’s produce order himself — another example of how closely Craft House stays connected to the people growing the ingredients that eventually make their way onto the plate.

For Mellgren, the philosophy begins with finding quality ingredients and allowing them to speak for themselves.

“To me, my philosophy when it comes to the food and beverage program is to get the best possible ingredients and get out of the way,” Mellgren said.

Even the bread is locally made with a short, simple ingredient list and no seed oils. That same attention to ingredients extends throughout the kitchen.

Craft House is seed-oil-free, using beef tallow for frying and avocado oil in other preparations, while sauces, including mayonnaise, are made in-house.

Mellgren said the decision requires additional investment, but he believes it also produces better food. Beef tallow has changed the flavor of items coming out of the fryer, while the milder flavor of avocado oil allows other ingredients to stand out.

“Anything that goes into the fryer now tastes better because it’s beef tallow,” Mellgren said. “The mellow flavor of the avocado oil lets the other flavors in the food and aiolis we make pop a little more.”

The added expense is part of Mellgren’s commitment.

“There are some added costs that come with making this decision, but providing our guests with the best possible product is worth every penny,” he said.

The result is a menu that reflects what Southern California is producing rather than one built entirely around ingredients that must remain available year-round.

For Mellgren, a good ingredient is often where the creative process begins, and his relationship with local commercial fisherman Ryan Troli is a strong example. Troli, owner of Harbor Fish Company, is a fishmonger and seafood purveyor specializing in locally caught, hook-and-line seafood. Mellgren was one of Troli’s early restaurant customers, creating a direct connection between fish coming out of Southern California waters and the Craft House kitchen.

 

Once that catch reaches Mellgren, however, there is no telling exactly where he might take it. Yellowfin tuna from Harbor Fish Company might become ahi poke with watermelon, pineapple, cucumber and scallion. The same fish can take an entirely different direction as an entrée, crusted with togarashi and paired with lemongrass soy, baby bok choy and furikake rice.

His creativity isn’t limited to seafood. A feature might center on a 38-ounce prime Tomahawk Ribeye accompanied by collard greens, mac and cheese, and charred Hatch chile butter.

Looking elsewhere on the menu, Southern California diners will many familiar offerings, as Mellgren continues to experiment with coastal ingredients, from mussels steamed with garlic, shallot, white wine, butter, and herbs — to shrimp given a Cajun influence in mac and cheese made with Old Bay, cheddar, Oaxaca cheese and Parmesan.

That range is part of Craft House’s identity. Rather than beginning with the question of what cuisine a dish is supposed to represent, Mellgren starts with the ingredient and decides where he wants to take it. Local and seasonal products provide the foundation, while flavors and techniques from around the world give the kitchen room to experiment.

Seasonality, Mellgren said, is one of the simplest ways to improve what eventually reaches the table.

“If you buy strawberries in the store in December, they aren’t as good as they are in the summer. The same goes for tomatoes, and so on,” Mellgren said. “Buy what’s in season, at the peak of freshness, and everything tastes better.”

That philosophy doesn’t stop with what is grown on land. It also shapes the relationships Craft House has developed with local fishermen and purveyors, allowing Mellgren to apply the same emphasis on freshness, seasonality and knowing the source to what comes out of the ocean.

Mellgren’s relationship with Troli has since grown beyond supplying the restaurant. The two created Buy Catch Market, a separate weekly fish market hosted Saturdays at Craft House. While Buy Catch Market has developed an identity of its own, its beginnings reflect a philosophy already established in the Craft House kitchen: knowing where an ingredient came from, knowing the person who produced or caught it and then finding the best way to put it to use.

But we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Buy Catch deserves a story of its own, and it has one. Check out, BuyCatch Market Finds Its Place in Dana Point for more on BuyCatch.

But food is only part of what has made Craft House a neighborhood fixture.

The bar and beverage program gives the restaurant another personality, whether guests are settling in for cocktails before dinner, stopping by for Social Hour or making Craft House part of a weekend afternoon in Dana Point. Whiskey, in particular, has been part of Mellgren’s plan from the beginning.

“When I was creating the concept for Craft House, I wanted to have the best whiskey selection possible, and opening with Pappy’s on the shelf was the goal,” Mellgren said.

The restaurant’s opening bar manager, Anthony, helped make that possible through relationships he’d developed while working at other restaurants. From there, Mellgren said the goal became building a carefully selected collection rather than simply accumulating the largest number of bottles possible.

“There are whiskey bars all over the country that focus on quantity and having the most bottles, but that doesn’t mean that there is quality across the board,” Mellgren said. “In my opinion, it’s better to have 100 delicious bottles than to be able to say you have 200 bottles in total.”

That same philosophy extends to cocktails. Mellgren said the bar is designed to be approachable regardless of how much a customer knows about whiskey or spirits, with bartenders who can help guests find something they enjoy.

“A great spirit and cocktail list can only take you so far, but the experience that the team provides is far and away the most important part,” Mellgren said.

Much like the kitchen, the bar relies heavily on ingredients prepared in-house. Craft House makes items such as jalapeño tequila, dill-infused vodka, ginger syrup, cordials and shrubs rather than relying exclusively on commercially prepared mixers.

“Having a scratch kitchen and bar allows us to serve the best possible product to guests,” Mellgren said.

Wondering when a good time to stop by Craft House is? Well, anytime, but here is a more helpful schedule. Social Hour happens seven days a week, with food and drink specials available Mondays and Tuesdays from open to close in the bar area and from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the dining room and patio. Wednesday through Friday, Social Hour takes over the entire restaurant from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., while Saturday and Sunday specials run from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

And if you are more of a brunch person, Craft House has you covered there, too. Weekend brunch is served Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Together, dinner, brunch, and the bar have helped Craft House become a place that can serve different purposes depending on the day. It can be a full dinner destination one night and the place locals meet for a drink the next.

It’s also become a place where the community can gather for something bigger than a meal.

Over the years, Craft House has hosted weddings, company parties, milestone birthdays and other large celebrations, while the team also takes the experience outside the restaurant, catering organized events and backyard barbecues.

Mellgren those occasions fit naturally with his belief that restaurants should create something guests remember long after a meal is over.

“To me, restaurants should be designed to evoke memories and, at times, play with your heartstrings,” Mellgren said.

Sometimes that begins with something as simple as a familiar flavor.

“Maybe there’s a dish on our menu that reminds you of something that your mom or grandmother would make you. Dishes like that are really fun for me,” he said. “Then, when you host an event with us, we’ll be part of your memories for years to come.”

The range of gatherings reflects the different roles in which Craft House has grown to play in Dana Point. In July, for example, the space hosted The Local Fishery Night with BuyCatch Market, Harbor Fish Company, and Dark Seas, bringing together members of Southern California’s commercial and recreational fishing communities for an evening of short films, fresh seafood, merchandise and themed cocktails.

Whether it’s a wedding, a 50th birthday, a company Christmas party, a fishing event or a backyard barbecue, Craft House has found ways to be part of the occasions that bring people together. That community role is especially relevant as Dana Point enters a period of significant change.

While Dana Point is seeing plenty of change, much of what the harbor will look and feel like when the revitalization is complete is still taking shape. Familiar businesses are moving, others are closing and new concepts are preparing to become part of the community. Through that uncertainty, Craft House remains a familiar place to meet friends, grab a drink, celebrate an occasion or settle in for dinner.

Craft House may continue to evolve alongside Dana Point, but Mellgren said the feeling he wants to create for the people walking through its doors is considerably simpler.

“I want them to feel welcome more than anything,” Mellgren said.

And perhaps there is something fitting about the word “house” being part of the name. Over the years, Craft House has become a kind of home base for Dana Point locals, a place where familiar faces gather around the bar, meet for dinner and celebrate the moments that matter. But Mellgren said the “craft” in Craft House is intended to represent much more than what is poured behind that bar.

“I think a lot of people hear Craft House and think ‘craft beer’,” Mellgren said. “But Craft House is about so much more. It’s the craft of hospitality, the craftsmanship of the food, the drinks, and the dining experience.”

That hospitality extends to the atmosphere that Mellgren and his team have worked to create. Rather than making a night at Craft House feel overly formal or impersonal, the goal is to give guests the comfort and familiarity of sharing a meal with people they know.

“We want it to feel like you are having a meal at your friend’s house,” Mellgren said. “Craft House is a family, not by blood, but by creating a team that loves and cares for each other and strives to give you, the guest, a warm, comfortable, and memorable experience.”

As for what’s coming out of Mellgren’s kitchen that week? That is one thing locals probably shouldn’t expect to stay the same.

Craft House has continued to evolve, but its priorities remain consistent: local ingredients, food and drinks made from scratch, hospitality, and a commitment to the community around it. From hosting local fundraisers and supporting local schools to being named the Dana Point Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 Business of the Year, Craft House has become as much a gathering place for Dana Point as it is a restaurant.

The restaurant will continue to change because Mellgren has no intention of allowing it to stagnate. The specials will change, new ingredients will arrive, and another idea will inevitably find its way onto a plate or into a glass. But after years of learning what his customers value, Mellgren has found a balance between giving Dana Point something new and preserving the familiarity that keeps people coming back.

And through all of that change, the purpose remains much the same as it was when Craft House began: creating a place where the community feels welcome at the table.