I have come here more and more over the past six months and have to say that it has improved ten fold since I've started coming. It's grown in all the good ways and their staff is phenomenal. I've always had a good experience here. It's a cozy atmosphere with friendly, knowledgeable staff that are so good with kids. My child filled out a form to "order" her own glazes and they worked with her to figure out what she wanted in such a respectful way. They came up to her on her level and talked through what she wanted her project to look like. The cafe has such good food options and now has gluten free options!! 🙌🙌 They have great classes with a nice atmosphere to relax and enjoy with friends. We come here frequently now whenever we want to relax and unwind and are feeling crafty. Love this place.

- E B Verified

Response from The Firestone | Art Studio & Cafe Hi there! We love when friends are able to come in and try out our many classes, workshops, and art mediums and hope that you'll be able to try some out yourself. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us honest and valuable feedback. I'd love to give you a little more insight on our options, availability, and pricing so that customers as a whole have a better idea of where we're currently at as a small business as I'm sure this is a common thought for many folks choosing to visit and spend their day with us. Fair warning, it's gonna be long one because we're really passionate about what we do here and want customers to know we're really conscious of these concerns and their input. 🤍 ... We make all of our breads, dressings, spreads, and syrups in house daily in our cafe. This takes a whole lot of work and time -- but we take pride in what we're putting out there. We test new recipes for weeks and weeks before we add it to the permanent menu. When it comes to different allergens and food preferences, we are working on it, but it will definitely take us time. We have a small kitchen and are short staffed, so everything, ultimately, takes longer to achieve than we'd like it to. The easier option is to outsource things like gluten-free bread or vegan pastries, but we really find value in making everything in-house ourselves and haven't perfected all of our future recipes just yet. (More is still to come though, so stay tuned!) As an alternative, and until we reach that goal, we offer modifications as much as possible -- including converting all of our sandwiches into salads upon request for our gluten-free friends out there! 🍞🥗 They are still delicious and hardy, believe me! As for pottery, we hear you. Not everyone is going to want to spend that much on DIY art projects, but our prices include a whole bunch of things, including the processes that happen behind the scenes that get our pieces to their ah-mazing final results! We factor in the cost of bisque itself (which has already been fired once), its kiln real estate (based on its height and width of the piece), over 60 included glazes (both regular and speckled for your creative juices), PLUS tools + materials i.e brushes, palettes, sponges, dotters, matching accessories, studio time (some studios charge per hour, we don't!), and the glaze and firing process itself -- which can take up to 2 days in the kiln! ⚡ Some customers might not know that our staff also (personally) hand-dip every piece in our kiln room to give it that shiny, glossy finish. Then, each piece is hand sanded before we match and call all completed tickets. This process takes time and requires a lot of attention to detail. Additionally, prices and shipping costs have gone up nearly 8% for all pottery studios to even acquire regular inventory due to the impact of the pandemic to our industry. It has been a challenge for us all to keep some of our most popular items on the shelf and even more challenging to get product in in a timely manner. Last, but certainly not least, like many small businesses, we've had an extra tough two years due to Covid and its lingering impact on the food and hospitality industry. The pandemic hit less than 6 months in as a new business on Main Street. It has not been easy for us to stay afloat with rising labor and rent costs -- plus regular maintenance on things like our AC, ovens, kilns, and pottery wheels -- which make our business function and operate. Things have not been easy, but we hope we are providing the best service and experience possible to our customer and we can stick around for years to come. We hope to do more and offer more and expand more with each successful month here. 🤞