Craft, the newest restaurant to open in Downtown Binghamton, has been welcoming customers for just over two weeks. The vibe of the restaurant is like Buffalo Wild Wings meets a laid-back version of Craft’s sister restaurant, Social on State. Though it is owned by the same team, the food at Craft is only like Social on State in the size of its portions. Rather than tapas, however, Craft specializes in sliders.
This Restaurant Week, Craft is serving only its milkshakes, beer list and Restaurant Week menu, but you’ll be able to hit the highlights. The restaurant is offering lunch for $12 and dinner for $20, the latter of which we tried on the first day of Craft’s first Restaurant Week.
For dinner, guests can choose two sliders, one side and one dessert. We ordered the Craft slider, the Blue Monday, the Crispy Chix and the Korean Pork Belly, with house fries and the Chop’t BLT salad with white balsamic vinaigrette on the side. Each of the sliders had its own merits, and the opportunity to choose two per order provides the opportunity to play it safe and try something new. The Craft slider is an elevated version of a fast food-like burger with Craft burger sauce. The burger sauce is mayonnaise-based but highlighted by the restaurant’s house beer, Craft All Day, brewed by Bear Tree Brew Co. in Port Crane, New York. All of the sauces on the sliders are made in-house with different twists on classic dips and all can be ordered on the side — perfect accents for the house fries or Tater Tots.
The other sliders we sampled were just as delicious. The Crispy Chix slider was buttermilk-flavored, but not heavy; it reminded us of something that might be served at Social on State. The Blue Monday slider featured creamy blue cheese, which was balanced by a sweet barbecue sauce also highlighted by the house beer. We also tried the Korean Pork Belly slider, which had a surprising kick countered by cool cucumbers.
The dessert options were less varied than the slider options, with only edible chocolate chip cookie dough and the Cookiez & Cream sundae to choose from. The cookie dough played into the foodie trends Craft is trying to match with its over-the-top milkshakes, but it was challenging to eat with a plastic spoon and was cloyingly sweet. The sundae provided a hint of the restaurant’s popular shakes.
Jay Pisculli, the head chef at Social at State and one of the men behind Craft, said that the new restaurant goes through about 30 gallons of ice cream per day and has sold around 2,000 milkshakes since its opening. If you don’t want to venture off the Restaurant Week menu for an $8 milkshake, the sundae is your best bet.
With small portions made up for by punches of inventive flavor, Craft left us satisfied but not overstuffed. If you’re able to get a table this Restaurant Week, it’s well worth the wait.