Review: Craft

In June of last year, I ate at the original Craft during a trip to New York City. To say it was the best meal of my year doesn’t really do the experience justice. Everything was exceptional, from the imposing old windows overlooking 19th Street, to the pleasingly understated masculine décor, to the expansive wine list that still had room for quirks, to the simple, perfect food.

I’m not planning to do a compare and contrast essay here, although it is tempting (the hen of the woods mushrooms in New York — a juicy hedge of crispy and soft flavor; the hen of the woods mushrooms in Atlanta — a desiccated scattering of yummy oily bits). But many have questioned whether upscale restaurants can work as chain operations. Chefs who leave primary kitchens in the hands of staff members and set out to create empires do so with a fair amount of skepticism following them, and rightly so. Quality is often diluted, and the focus becomes celebrity and the money that follows it. Just ask anyone who dined at the recently deposed Atlanta Emeril’s, and you’ll hear just how bad the translation can taste.

But after my meal in New York, I had high hopes for Atlanta’s outpost of Craft. If chef/restaurateur Tom Colicchio could bring even a part of New York’s feel, precision in cooking, and quality wine list to Atlanta, then I figured we were in for something pretty damn good.