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Photo by Kate Nelle
clients have included Uber, Tuft & Needle, Entrepreneurs Organization and
even McDonalds Corp. “We had Audi out here recently. They drove all these
new models that they just released up to Roosevelt Lake and we had a lunch
out there,” Cooley says.
“We have a really cool event coming up with the Royal Bank of Canada where
we plan to go out to Saguaro Lake, build a dock and serve a floating lunch,”
Cooley says. “Then we will take guests in a helicopter to the bottom of the
Grand Canyon for a dinner, and later fly to the Superstitions Mountains and do
a meadow-style dinner out there.”
The couple that helms Cloth & Flame has a romantic story to match their
wild, exciting and unique events. They met in 2009 while couch-surfing and
remained friends for years. Their mutual love of the outdoors and adventuring
provided opportunities to spend time together, even though they lived in
different states. Laux has roots in Wisconsin and Cooley is mostly from
Nebraska but has family on the East Coast.
Laux has a background in chemical engineering and was working for a while
in Globe, Arizona, as a metallurgical engineer. One trip, Cooley came to visit
from Portland and then rode his bicycle nine hours from Tempe to Globe.
“I have been so inspired and enthralled with Cooley’s personality. He’s so
vivacious. I think I always had that as part of myself, but it took someone else
to bring it out,” Laux says.
The name and origin of Cloth & Flame, comes from a different company they
started together that specialized in custom hot air balloon rides. “We started
the balloon ride company first. But now we try to keep them separate because
as soon as you mention hot air balloons, people think that’s how we are going
to be transporting them,” he says
The hot air balloon business can fly 25-50 passengers per day and will then do a
meal service after the flights. Cooley says they take people to extraordinary spots
that no one could really get to unless they landed there.
After the balloon ride, they build their own wood tables, put out flowers,
plates and settings and serve the food. The concept became so popular that it
snowballed into the idea of shepherding folks to even more locations for the
catered events and functions.
What they serve on the table largely depends on what’s in season, what’s
on-trend in the dining world, while also catering to the whims of their Executive
Chef Aurore Yasinsky. “What we do very much fits into the farm-to-table
movement,” Cooley says.
French-chef Aurore Yasinsky, previously of Vogue Bistro in Surprise, Arizona,
has what Cooley and Laux describe as a big personality and an eagle eye for
quality ingredients. “We serve exciting foods that people don’t usually see in
restaurants,” Cooley says.
They generally source organic and naturally produced foods and their meals
are hyper-seasonal. Executive chef Yasinsky and their other chefs work
directly with local farmers, such as Crooked Sky Farms, along with local
vendors like Hayden’s Flour Mill as well as local sources for butter and other
dairy products.