Fig & Honey Share About Their New Venture, Lune Wine Bar

Good Grazing

Fig & Honey share about their new venture, Lune Wine Bar

Story by Melissa Mendonca | Photos courtesy of Fig & Honey

N CONVERSATION WITH Allison Cassabon of Fig & Honey and the soon-toopen Lune Wine Bar, it’s clear she’s a woman of many interests and two particular passions: cheese and the revitalization of downtown Fresno. Cassabon and her business partner, Kellie Lopez, are investing heavily in both and are excited about the possibilities. “We wanted to be part of the downtown revitalization,” says Cassabon. “I’m really excited about it. Kellie is from just a few blocks away. So many entrepreneurs want to be down there. We’re part of this active community. We get told all the time, ‘I haven’t been downtown in 30 years.’”

The duo first moved to Fulton Street with Fig & Honey, which is home base for their catering service for grazing tables and a popular lunch spot for paninis, salads and grab-and-go charcuterie boxes. Grazing tables include cured meats, cheeses, fresh and dried fruit, nuts, crackers and breads in a beautiful display. They are developed using seasonal items and edible flowers. That concept opened as a brick and mortar in July 2021 and won a Create Here Competition with the Downtown Fresno Partnership. They have been catering grazing tables since 2018.

“That space will turn into Lune, and Fig & Honey will move one space over,” says Cassabon. “Lune is a passion project for us. It’s going to be a relaxed but hip wine bar. There’s definitely a European flair to it, but because we’re in California we’ll definitely have local wines. The menu will be cheese centered because that’s who we are.” Then she adds, “We want to normalize pate.”

Cassabon and Lopez met in 2005 when both were working in the prepared foods section of Whole Foods. They recognized not only a shared love of cheese4 continued on page 26 “We wanted to be part of the downtown revitalization,” says Cassabon. “I’m really excited about it. Kellie is from just a few blocks away. So many entrepreneurs want to be down there. We’re part of this active community...”

cheese, but a similar work ethic and aesthetic for food presentation. “The food, yes, needs to taste good but there’s also the visual aspect. Everything we do is Instagrammable.”

In fact, Instagram was where Cassabon noticed that Lopez shared her interest in creating attractive displays of food. “She’d been posting on Instagram these beautiful fruit boards she’d been making,” says Cassabon, who was contemplating starting up with grazing boards. “I knew her work ethic so I reached out to her because I knew I couldn’t do it alone. One day we decided to put one together just from stuff from my house. We worked so well together. We have great communication and respect for each other.”

The pair’s work has gotten so much acclaim on Instagram that they were invited to create a grazing board for the Academy Awards Digital Days. Their themed board represented the film “Raya and the Last Dragon” and received a paid sponsored post on the social media site.

Lune extends their collaboration and allows them to expand their offerings. “Our passion is cheese, but it’s wine, too,” says Cassabon, noting that they’ve hired Pablo Antinao of Fresno Wine Academy as the sommelier. A raclette machine has been purchased to immerse customers in the experience of scraping fresh melted cheese over new potatoes and other small bites. “It’s a lot of shareable plates,” says Cassabon. “We’re not working out of a full kitchen.”

“We have a collaborative spirit in our shop and we like to hear what people have to say,” she adds. The ventures of Lune and Fig & Honey represent dreams realized for both Cassabon and Lopez, and they are eager to support others as well the downtown community. “We love to share our passion. It comes through in everything we do. We’re so excited and so happy we’re making this choice to be downtown. It’s something special.” •

Fig & Honey • 2014 Tulare Street, Ste 102-103, Fresno Lune Wine Bar • 938 Fulton Street, Fresno • Opening Summer 2022 www.figandhoneygrazing.com Find them on Facebook and Instagram