Craftbar

[Andy Lynes]

I looked in at the new Craftbar last night, but it was a preview only, they open to the public tonight. Very sleek and sexy interior with a long bar with stools to the left, a small lounge area up front and tables at the back.

[Della]

Has anyone been into CraftBar yet since the move? I will be in NYC near the end of May and was considering taking my mother there for lunch or dinner. I would be interested in hearing about the new space and any opinions that may have come from a visit.

[alacarte]

I went to Craftbar for the first time since it re-opened in its new space on Broadway (the one previously occupied by Morrell's).

It's a little different than the previous Craftbar, and more like big sister Craft now. The limited menu and gentler prices that characterized Craftbar are no more, and the space now looks very much like Craft -- a good thing, because it the larger space means more elbow room.

I recognized some of the dishes from Craft as well -- for example, the raw yellowtail with lemon preserves appetizer, which I loved at Craft. Others are new, such as a tuna belly appetizer with thinly-sliced caperberries, also excellent.

Mr. alacarte ordered seared grouper with heirloom beans and artichokes. It's been a long time since I've seen this picky eater so happy with a meal. I had a chunk of halibut with baby zucchini, stinging nettles, and nicoise olives, also very good.

They don't have the wonderful sides of vegetables and potatoes that Craft does, but the menu was pretty substantial otherwise. I'd estimate that the menu now has double the number of entrees and apps that the previous Craftbar had.

One other, more subtle difference: Mr. alacarte noticed that the same paintings of animals were hung in the new space. However, where the picture of a cow, for example, had the word "veal" painted on it, the paintings now include the words of vegetables that animals eat ("corn," "carrots," etc.) I guess the old pictures offended someone's delicate sensibilities? We asked the waiter about that, but he wasn't sure why the change had been made.

[Todd36]

Ate there last night, probably have eaten there at least three times since they've moved. It's a good place, in my opinion in NYT high two star range, not so far from three. We had soft shell crab, which was very meaty and very good, duck (which they do very well), loup de mer (very good) and a flan for dessert. Pretty good. Only miscue was a salty Mache salad. My main problem in the 6 or so times I've easten there in the last 6 months is that most of the time, one dish each meal doesn't work well. This time it was the salad, another time it was the pretty tasteless pasta with Uni (there's uni in there????)

[raxelita]

I had a most unfortunate fondue there recently. For one, it came in a ceramic dish with no self-heating capabilities, meaning that within a few minutes the cheese was completely hardened. The cheese was also way overseasoned with something like cinnamon. It was, in a word, gross.

Other snacks were better executed. Service was aloof, but not bad. The space has a bit of a corporate feel to me-- too much solid coloring and angles.

[Todd36]

The space has a bit of a corporate feel to me-- too much solid coloring and angles.

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They kept almost all of the decor from Morrell's, the prior occupent of the space----thus all of the wine storage racks. They changed the color scheme a bit. can't blame them for reusing a well built space in good condition---must be saved them quite a bit of money.

[oakapple]

For a downscale sibling, craftbar is surprisingly formal-looking. Of course, it is not a formal restaurant as we would traditionally have understood that term. But in an era that has largely jettisoned old notions of fine dining, craftbar seems like an oasis of calm. The booths are comfortable, the tables widely spaced, the décor unambitious but gentle on the eyes. Nowadays, such a space could easily be the home to far more ambitious cooking than craftbar is, in fact, serving.

My friend and I could not avoid the comparison to the Café at Country, the downscale sibling of a main dining room that hasn't opened yet. We dined there about ten days ago. It was a miserable experience, not for any fault of the food, but for an ambiance that seemed perversely designed to inflict maximum discomfort. At craftbar, there's proof that an informal sibling need not have tables the size of postage stamps and the noise level of a Wall Street trading floor.

The menu comes on a single loose sheet of paper, and it changes daily. I started with the pan-roasted sweetbreads ($15), which came lightly breaded. This dish seemed to exemplify the "Craft" approach—presenting the best ingredients, prepared simply. I found it tasty, but unadventurous.

Several reports have praised the veal meatballs with ricotta ($19). Here too was a comfort food featuring impeccable ingredients prepared uncreatively. There were three hefty meatballs in a red sauce with an ample sprinkling of grated cheese. The veal was tender, and obviously a high quality. In less capable hands, it could easily have been overwhelmed by either the sauce or the cheese, but here the piece parts were skillfully balanced.

My friend also made uncomplicated choices: a duck liver pâté followed by spaghetti. I tasted a bit of the pate, and found it comparable to the better examples that I've tasted elsewhere.

At $15, my sweetbread appetizer was craftbar's most expensive; other starters are in the $8-12 range. At $19, my meatball entrée was craftbar's least expensive; other main courses were in the $25-30 range. If not exactly budget-priced, craftbar is certainly less expensive than its luxury sister restaurant, craft.

I wasn't in the mood for a fancy meal last night, but I would certainly look forward to a return visit to try some of craftbar's more adventurous main courses.

[Bux]

Over time, I've enjoyed the old Craft Bar, but eventually felt there was a decline in the quality of the food and perhaps in the menu selections as well. I'm glad to hear good reports of the new Craft Bar.

[Noodlebot]

I had a pleasant enough dinner experience at Craftbar last night, but none of the food items we ordered is anything I would go rushing back for.

From the little history I know of the place, Craftbar started out as Craft lite, the casual alternative to Craft. Then sometime last year, Craftbar moved and had a menu change, becoming more expensive and trying to be closer to haute cuisine. It was in this incarnation that I went to Craftbar for a business lunch last summer. The food was good, but nothing particularly wowed me. My table of five was one of two tables at Craftbar that day, which may have had something do do with its decision to convert back to a casual restaurant a few months ago.

Craftbar looks the same as on my first visit--very modern but somewhat undone, subway rumbling underneath. Now there are a few more casual touches, like brown paper on the white tableclothes, waiters in T-shirts, and alternative music (Postal Service, Weezer, Beatniks) playing obvioulsy from the speakers. My boyfriend and I were seated in a comfortable banquet in a corner, not pressed up against other diners, and otherwise made comfortable by our attentive server and a more relaxed pace tham most restaurants. Incidentally, the huge space was almost full, so I think the menu change is working.

The opening course menu is divided into snacks, appetizers, soups, bruschetta, and salads. We shared an order of the fried oysters with celery root remoulade, which came four oysters to a plate, each oyster on top of some celery root and topped by a pickled slice of lemon. While the oysters were nice and plump, the mealy, soggy crust on them was not good. I then ordered the orechiette with sausage, cauliflower, and fennel. This was one of the most disappointing pasta dishes I've ordered, not because it was bad (it's pasta, so it's simple enough that it's never inedible), but just because it really wasn't very good. At the end of the mean, all I could really taste was salt! My boyfriend ordered a pappardelle in duck ragu, which had only four or five small pieces of duck thrown on top. He liked his better than I liked mine, but that's about all I can say for it.

We finished with a hot fudge sundae (him) and the chocolate custard tart with pistachio ice cream (me). My tart was not really a tart (no crust) but more like a thin flourless chocolate croquette. At first I didn't like it at all because I thought it was too bitter, but mixed with the pistachio ice cream, I managed to cut some of the bitterness and enjoy it more. My boyfriend's hot fudge sundae had barely any fudge on it, so the ice cream was still freezer hard.

Because the prices at Craftbar are reasonable, the seating is comfortable, and the pace is relaxed, I probably would go back and give the restaurant another try in the future, maybe trying some non-pasta entrees this time around, but my return trip isn't a very high priority.

[ulterior epicure]

My tart was not really a tart (no crust) but more like a thin flourless chocolate croquette.

So, I'm a little confused. Can you explain this "croquette" a little more? Do you mean that the flourless chocolate was breaded and deep-fried?

Was it in the shap of a ball? Or was it thin and in the shape of a hash brown a la McDonald's?

u.e.

[Noodlebot]

Sorry for the confusion. It wasn't fried at all. It looked like a flourless chocolate cake, but it was round and thin (about 1/2 an inch tall). Maybe a hockey puck would be a better analogy.

[ulterior epicure]

Maybe a hockey puck would be a better analogy.

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Ahhhh... much more helpful. Thanks!

u.e.

[ada]

I just had that dessert tonight. I thought it was great! There was some kind of shell under the tart, it was not very hard. The pistachio ice cream was really terrific too.

The other dessert we ordered was buttermilk panna cotta with grapefruit sorbet. Delicious, I thought.