Craft

2/25/2008
Gramercy: 43 E. 19th St (between Broadway and Park) - (212) 780-0880
Price: High End
Rating (1-10): 8

Given the hype that has built up around Craft and its chef/owner Tom Colicchio, Craft invites a higher level of critique than most other restaurants. At the same time, with the prices being what they are – around a $100 tab for a full meal – high expectations are a given. And when you jump into the TV limelight like Colicchio has, it is understood that his flagship restaurant is gonna be under greater scrutiny.

That said, Craft is a restaurant that would please almost anyone. The atmosphere is a relaxed, casual kind of formal with a balance between sleek, clean design and homey warmth – perhaps echoes of Colicchio’s experiences at Gramercy Tavern. Classic rock and more modern hits bump at a comfortable volume and the dishes are presented in the middle of the table to promote a “family-style” meal. All of the food was at least good and came in pleasing portions – and the desserts were a particularly nice end to the meal. However, the service was an obvious weakness and lacked the soul and spirit of both the surroundings and the food. If you can get past an attentive but potentially way-overserious server, then Craft is a fun place where you’ll be treated to satisfying dishes and feel comfortable and cool in the process.

The food is strongly seasoned (pretty heavy on the salt) and representative of Colicchio’s locavore, simple style. It takes a good deal of culinary intelligence and understanding to know the kind of subtle twists to make uncomplicated dishes outstanding, memorable, and unique. Colicchio has made a career out of his ability to do this and commands respect the food world over, for this reason. Our sweet potato agnolotti was a great example of this – sweet potato filled pockets of pasta in a butter sauce. The server described the pasta as pillows, and this turned out to be an excellent description of this incredibly soft, fluffy pasta. The sweetness of the potato was controlled perfectly and a crispy, salty starch crusted on top the pasta added exactly the desired kick of salt.

If you’ve got a spending appetite, the guinea hen ravioli with black truffle is an extravagant appetizer featuring two large ravioli, served in a jus, and topped with a healthy serving of truffle shavings. The gamey flavor of the hen takes precedence over the black truffle, which nonetheless adds an irreplaceable earthy aroma and subtle irreplaceable flavor. Is it luxurious? Yes, and I think that’s why you should order it; it just doesn’t get that much more lavish. Sometimes it’s important to just let go and say, ‘when in Rome…’

The best value items were the vegetable sides – for example, the hen of the woods mushrooms sides: a surprisingly generous portion of crispy, yet meaty pan-fried mushrooms. It seems like this quantity (one order was enough for two) and quality of these raw mushrooms alone would cost this much in a store. I’m not complaining.

Sweetbreads entrée is served as one giant, crusty, pan-fried piece in a huckleberry jus. There’s something satisfying about seeing the sweetbread presented in this way, like a fat steak; often, sweetbreads are served as a bunch of smaller nuggets, but the big hunk of sweetbread just looks bolder, gutsier (no pun intended). The sweetbread is juicy and tasty although the huckleberry sauce is somewhat flavorless. The diver scallops entrée features a few large, seared scallops which works fine but not anything to write home about. The shallot butter sauce is nice but otherwise, Colicchio doesn't give you a particularly compelling reason to orde it. Scallops are scallops and the most important part is the sourcing. These were good enough but something the home cook could execute these just as well. Meh.

Desserts at Craft were utterly satisfying. The blood orange sorbet hits with powerful essence of the fruit, strong tartness, and controlled sweetness. I loved this sorbet. Chocolate soufflé isn’t a new creation of course, but you kind of have to tip your hat when a dish of this delicacy is nailed. Consistency is so important to a soufflé and in this case, it was perfect: fluffy, soft and substantive and not foamy or 99% air. Again, this dessert is not oversugared, and so you get the true flavor of the chocolate.

The service at the table was for me, the lowlight of the experience. The servers were well-dressed, quick, attentive, and extremely knowledgeable about the menu – but unflinchingly rigid and borderline unfriendly. Our main server explained that the “paradigm” of ordering off the Craft menu was for each person to get an appetizer, main course, and side dish. Not only was his guidance somewhat obvious, “paradigm” seems like a word better saved for discussions about the political world order or solutions to the financial crisis. Our servers just looked like they weren’t having any fun. Hamsters in a wheel. One of our servers did not crack a smile once, which wasn’t so much rude as it was strange. Fortunately, they’re good at doing their jobs efficiently and invisibly, so you don’t have to get pulled down into their own personal gulag. I’d chalk this up to an aberration because a restaurant of this quality would never last in New York if the service and the atmosphere were always so badly mismatched.


As of late, Tom Colicchio has become a superstar in the culinary world thanks to the hit tv show TopChef and his ever expanding restaurant empire, which includes a steakhouses (CraftSteak), high-end sandwich restaurants (‘Wichcraft), and several Crafts across the country. I certainly can’t blame him for cashing in on his fame. He has paid his dues and worked hard to get to the top of this brutal industry. At the same time, you wonder if the individual establishments take a little bit of a hit in quality; dilution of the top chef’s attention usually does that.

Since I did not go to Craft in its early days, I can’t say whethere there has been a decline. But it seems that Craft, despite its strengths, doesn’t have the excitement or energy of a restaurant gunning for #1 in NYC. It’s good but not great and there are newer restaurants of a similar style that I’m more excited about. Granted, these are restaurants that might owe their existence to Colicchio and the culinary trends that he helped foster: well-seasoned, seasonal, ultra-fresh food; simple but difficult cooking; and emphasis on a few elemental ingredients in each dish. But I can’t help feeling that Craft is no longer on the vanguard of this movement; rather, it is a solid restaurant amongst a growing crowd. Colicchio has expanded into other business lines and avenues to promote his food philosophy; Craft has reached cruising altitude, which most any restaurant would certainly envy.

At Craft, you can reliably expect great food in a fun place – service not withstanding. I'd give it a try but at this price level, there's a lot of places in town to try too.