At the apex of the development and the first to establish itself was the ultra cool W Hotel, complete with the puzzlingly alluring Ghost Bar.  But, what’s a sleek, hip hotel with a trendy bar without an equally chic destination restaurant anchoring its lobby?  Enter Tom Collichio’s Craft Dallas, an offshoot of the original Craft in New York and Craft Steak in Las Vegas. 

Collichio has gained recent acclaim as the chef/judge on Bravo’s Top Chef reality series.  Prior to that, Chef Collichio has been heralded in the industry as the Executive Chef at Grammercy Tavern in NY and is a perennial contender on the annual James Beard Award list.  His premise is a relatively simple one and has become the catch phrase of seemingly every new restaurant’s mission statement – a seasonal menu based on the freshest ingredients available.  Executive Chef Kevin Maxey lights the burners at Craft Dallas and has continued that tradition by partnering with local farmers and purveyors as a basis for his ever-changing menu.

As lustrous and avant-garde as the surrounding hotel, Craft Dallas triumphs over the prevailing notion that the restaurant’s character is built more on promotion than culinary deftness.  Chef Maxey delivers simply prepared, upscale comfort food that has hit a home run on each of our visits.

The menu at Craft is a “pick & choose” arrangement.  Starters/Appetizers, Meats, Fish, Poultry, and Sides comprise the sections then the onus is on you to craft your menu as you see fit.  I love the flexibility of this concept as opposed to the normal chef’s tasting menu where you have to stick to the order of the night or ask the sometimes painful question of swapping out a dish.  The portions are, for the most part, also single sized though the most common method is for everyone at the table just to order something different and put them in the middle of the table for all to share. 

Our most recent meal started with an amuse bouche of a crispy, black pepper tortellini filled with truffled ricotta and a pinch of micro greens.  This little nugget was perfect – pan crisped, oozing with the pungent cheese and balanced nicely with the tiny salad.  Fantastic way to start things off.

For our starters, we tried a beet salad, Rabbit rillettes, Lump Crabmeat Au Gratin dip, and Pan Seared U10 Scallops with brown butter mushroom jus.  The salad was a colorful trio of beets simply marinated.  All beautiful and fork tender this was a lovely and refreshing presentation.  The rustic rabbit pate, served in a tiny iron cast pot, danced with just a touch of Dijon and cracked pepper.  Sinful Crabmeat Au Gratin dip was served up with home made paper-thin flatbreads.  Hunks, I mean hunks, of sweet crabmeat were swathing in cream and cheese and crowned with a crunchy crust of breadcrumbs.  Each spoonful that we piled on our flatbread pieces was rich, hot and delicious.  The cream and cheese didn’t overpower the flavor of the crab and the entire concoction was disgustingly decadent in the best way possible.  The scallops were pan seared to a glistening medium rare.  Though you would think brown butter and mushroom just might threaten to take over a simple preparation such as this, Chef Maxey did a faultless job of marrying the two, providing only a shallow pool of the sauce to bathe the scallop in before taking it down.

Our entrée selections would have pleased even the most discerning carnivore.  Lamb Shoulder & Chop, Pulled Wild Boar, Braised Short Rib, and Roasted Quail.  All were simply divine.  Though you can argue how appetizing it is to see the word “shoulder” on a menu, you couldn’t argue that the lamb was anything but sublime.  Just a tad past medium rare (fine for this particular preparation), the meat was marbled with less than a hint of any gamey taste.  Likewise, the pulled wild boar was mouth-watering with crispy edges and a rosy center with just enough of that sharp taste to remind you these aren’t your momma’s pork chops.  Braised Short Ribs

have been the rage for several years now.  It seems every restaurant in the country that proclaimed to be fine dining felt compelled to have this on their menu.  The idea of taking a tough piece of meat and cooking it to “fall off the bone” tender is more about patience than actual technique.  Though most restaurants around the country have abandoned the short rib for a trendier dish of the moment like pork belly (incidentally Chef Collichio has been credited for pioneering this at Gramercy Tavern many years ago), Craft has stuck with the rib and we are so glad they did.  Perhaps only the late, great Standard restaurant pulled off a version this tasty.  But our favorite entrée of the evening had to be the roasted quail.  A red wine marinade renders a crispy skin and secures a very nice flavor to the meat and the bird was de-boned making it ideal to pick up by the tiny leg and eat it like fried chicken.  Remember, this is supposed to be comfort food!

Sides consisted of an unfussy bowl of al dente risotto dobbed with little chunks of applewood smoked bacon, which gave it just enough flavor.  A tiny skillet of gnocchi was damn near flawless with a billowy center and slightly crisped edges.  It was swaddled deliciously in a light cream sauce – again, nothing fancy or overpowering just a very well excecuted dish.  But, without question, the side item of the night went to the Hen of the Woods Mushrooms.  I remember the days when the mushroom lineup at a given restaurant was portabella, shitake, and cremini but it now seems that it is mission critical to have exotic ‘shrooms on your menu.  No complaints on this particular varietal.  They truly did have a woodsy, earthy taste, were roasted simply in olive oil and proved a nice contrast to the starches we ordered.

We’ve heard some categorize the menu prices as everything from, “not enough for the money” to “flat out outrageous”.  As we said above, the portions are not large – roughly serving 1 ½ people each.  But I don’t agree that it is extreme compared to other fine dining restaurants.  The ‘customize your own’ menu concept is wonderful and if everyone is sharing, the bill at the end of the night is really no more than anywhere else.

We were so full by this point that desserts were somewhat of an afterthought but, since we are charged to deliver a full scale analysis, we forged ahead.  Another little extra from the kitchen was a flavorful and palate cleansing almond sorbet served in a cutesy little glass with an even cutesier spoon.  The assembly of desserts is not jaw dropping in sophistication.  Rather it mirrors the rest of the menu in its simplistic but flavorful approach.  So even though it seemed a tad odd to order ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, they were both well above average and brought the meal to a homey and satisfying close. 

I’m impressed with the wine list.  The mark up is pretty much the average 2 ½ times retail but there is quite a bit of variety from Italy, France, and others to contrast the California offerings.  We paired our early courses with a nice Mellvile Viognier that might have been a touch too citrusy for the crabmeat dip but worked extremely well with the scallops and beet salad.  Simultaneously, we had our waiter decant a 2001 Brunello Casanova Da Vinci so it had ample time to breathe before our entrees arrived.  Given time, I’ve not found a much better match for braised and roasted meats than a beautiful Sangiovese and this one was no exception.

Chef Kevin Maxey, an East Texan who graduated from TCU in 1994, began his culinary voyage working as a butcher’s apprentice in California.  Glamorous?  Yeah, not so much.  A year later he was working under Michael Weinstein at dearly departed The Riviera then embarked on a self induced apprenticeship through Aspen, Seattle and NYC.  It was there that he hooked up with Chef Collichio and for the next 4+ years he duked it out in Manhattan against some of the best chefs in the world applying Chef Collichio’s “let the ingredients speak for themselves” mantra.  After a short stint away from the Big Apple, Maxey got a call from his old mentor to tell him he was taking his Craft concept to Dallas and asked if he wanted to be a part of it.  Ready to rejoin Collichio and longing to return to Texas, Chef Maxey jumped at the chance.

Like the hotel, the dining room itself is beautiful and modern with a collision of hanging lights, candles, glass, wood, and stainless steel.  The wait staff fits that same vibe of new, hip, and stylish.  We have heard complaints from friends about how young, uninformed, and generally unengaged the wait staff was on their visits.  Fortunately we haven’t experienced that lapse in service but it is worth noting that the restaurant seems to have paid attention to those early complaints.  A couple of managers were carefully prowling the dining room surveying things on our last visit.    

Fair or foul, Craft will no doubt be subjected to comparisons of its surroundings.  Sure the W attracts a jet set crowd of beautiful people and the Ghost Bar entices every $30,000 millionaire in the city to darken its door step.  Given that melting pot, it is not an easy task for Craft to establish itself as a destination restaurant but when evaluating the food, it is more than deserving of that designation.