Craftsteak

Last weekend the whole family was together for my nieces 2nd birthday and all my sisters, my mom and I headed into town for dinner at Craftsteak to celebrate mine.

To start off, we drove in because 3 of them needed to go back to CT that night and the other 3 of us were staying in SoHo but needed to go back early in the AM. The drive was short but once in we figured it would be a challenge to park 2 cars. Wrong. There were actually 2 (non-metered) spots on the street directly across the street from the restaurant – what parking karma!

We all ordered pre-dinner drinks and passed them around – foreshadowing the passing of all the plates. Mine was a punch with bourbon – very strong but delicious. The amuse was a shared terrine of chick peas, jalapenos and bacon in oil with little pita chips and there was also a ramekin of buttery rolls.

A had the Wagyu tartare with an egg yolk and cross cut potato chips as her starter – wonderful. K had lobster ravioli that were rich and creamy. Mine was pork belly on pumpkin puree with figs – salty but sweet with a bit of crunch and fat.

We ordered some shared sides of gnocchi (light and airy and incredible – we are all still talking about them) and brussel sprouts roasted with bacon. At 1 time I read an article that Marco Canora used to be Tom Colicchio’s chef de cuisine and Marco’s mom Laura Sbrana taught Tom how to make gnocchi. Could that recipe have trickled down to all places Craft?

3 of us had the short ribs with roasted root vegetables. Short ribs are something I can hardly resist on a menu and these did not disappoint – a rich sauce, tender meat and the savory vegetables were the perfect order. All the meats were delivered in little iron pots and the portion size was very large on the short ribs – we all shared and still took some home. 2 others had salmon that was tasty and 1 person had a steak. Since steak is the thing to order it looked great but I was more intrigued by the 3 sauces served on the side – classic Bernaise (good), Chimichurri (also good) and horseradish cream (outstanding).

Desserts were shared (one plate said Happy Birthday in chocolate – thank you waitstaff for noticing). We had an order of cinnamon crumb doughnuts on blueberry compote with cream cheese ice cream and Monkey Bread (a Christmas morning tradition in our house) with creme fraiche on the side. I found the Monkey Bread to be dry but that creme fraiche – oh boy – I sopped every last bit of it out of the jug – it was excellent.

After dinner they came out with a sweet taste of single bite chocolate lava cake and linzer torte. Such a nice touch to end with something sweet even if dessert is not ordered because I often want a taste but cannot eat an entire portion.

A marvelous evening of laughter and shared food is exactly what I always want – especially on my birthday. As we left they handed us bags with ginger scones – a gift from the pastry chef. Another nice touch.