Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Checking Back In on Craft & Commerce

It's been 18 months since Naomi Wise reviewed Craft and Commerce for the Reader, declaring mainly that it had "potential." Since then, the restaurant has seen some expansion, though the overall experience is still pretty similar to what it was in 2010.

The biggest change is to the cocktail list, which indicates that the drinks menu must be priority number one around Craft and Commerce. This is good from a drinking standpoint, since the cocktails are legitimately tasty and keeping things fresh and interesting gives fans of mixed drinks something to look forward to. At $10 each, they're pricey, but worth it for some high class drinking.

The Yale, with gin, vermouth, bitters, and maraschino (yup, the same liquor that the cherries get soaked in) was basically a smartened up martini; not to say that martinis aren't smart enough. It was quite good and not obliterated by massive quantities of melted ice, as can be the case with a less elegant cocktail that's been stirred with ice to achieve near-freezing temperatures.

Wimbledon Fizz was a bubbly, vigorously shaken Pimm's and egg white cocktail that has a playful texture evocative of an egg cream, even if egg creams don't usually have egg in them. It was fun to drink and had an old-time charm.

The regular menu seems to have remained true to what Naomi experienced during her visit in 2010. Some of her complaints seem to have been remedied some. Some remain.

Salads ($9) were all very good. An avocado and citrus salad was lightly dressed and adequate on all of its ingredients. The big novelty of the dish was the fried goat cheese. Shaped into little balls and cooked somewhere very, very hot, the goat cheese had a wonderful crust that concealed the tart, creamy cheese on the interior.

A burrata salad could easily have fallen flat due to inferior fruit, but the strawberries and blackberries were sweet and juicy and enlivened the salad well.

The mussels and fries ($14) remain a lackluster impression of Belgian moules frites that would have gone so well with the Russian River Damnation that Craft and Commerce had on the beer menu. The mussels had been cooked to perfect tenderness, but without sufficient broth for the dipping of the fries, this dish will never achieve its potential.

A whole grain burger ($11) was more successful. Generous in size, and fairly inexpensive, it delivered a whole lot of meatless burger on some very nice looking bread. Plenty of aioli for dipping fries is a plus.

If Craft and Commerce has one real failing, it's the atmosphere more than the food. The place walks the very fine line between the elite and the posers. Between the staff's uniform (flannel, newsboy caps, and braces) and the off-putting decor (part library, part hunting lodge) there's a certain sense of contrived cool that, in a lot of ways, is anything but. The problem with acting awesome is that it really shows when you don't deliver.

Still, they get that elitist thing just right sometimes. The "no vodka" policy gets a big thumbs up any day of the week.

Craft and Commerce
675 Beech Street
Kitchen open nightly until 11, bar until 1

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Haunted Trail of Balboa Park, ZZ Top, Gem Diego Show

Events October 31-November 2, 2024

It's been 18 months since Naomi Wise reviewed Craft and Commerce for the Reader, declaring mainly that it had "potential." Since then, the restaurant has seen some expansion, though the overall experience is still pretty similar to what it was in 2010.

The biggest change is to the cocktail list, which indicates that the drinks menu must be priority number one around Craft and Commerce. This is good from a drinking standpoint, since the cocktails are legitimately tasty and keeping things fresh and interesting gives fans of mixed drinks something to look forward to. At $10 each, they're pricey, but worth it for some high class drinking.

The Yale, with gin, vermouth, bitters, and maraschino (yup, the same liquor that the cherries get soaked in) was basically a smartened up martini; not to say that martinis aren't smart enough. It was quite good and not obliterated by massive quantities of melted ice, as can be the case with a less elegant cocktail that's been stirred with ice to achieve near-freezing temperatures.

Wimbledon Fizz was a bubbly, vigorously shaken Pimm's and egg white cocktail that has a playful texture evocative of an egg cream, even if egg creams don't usually have egg in them. It was fun to drink and had an old-time charm.

The regular menu seems to have remained true to what Naomi experienced during her visit in 2010. Some of her complaints seem to have been remedied some. Some remain.

Salads ($9) were all very good. An avocado and citrus salad was lightly dressed and adequate on all of its ingredients. The big novelty of the dish was the fried goat cheese. Shaped into little balls and cooked somewhere very, very hot, the goat cheese had a wonderful crust that concealed the tart, creamy cheese on the interior.

A burrata salad could easily have fallen flat due to inferior fruit, but the strawberries and blackberries were sweet and juicy and enlivened the salad well.

The mussels and fries ($14) remain a lackluster impression of Belgian moules frites that would have gone so well with the Russian River Damnation that Craft and Commerce had on the beer menu. The mussels had been cooked to perfect tenderness, but without sufficient broth for the dipping of the fries, this dish will never achieve its potential.

A whole grain burger ($11) was more successful. Generous in size, and fairly inexpensive, it delivered a whole lot of meatless burger on some very nice looking bread. Plenty of aioli for dipping fries is a plus.

If Craft and Commerce has one real failing, it's the atmosphere more than the food. The place walks the very fine line between the elite and the posers. Between the staff's uniform (flannel, newsboy caps, and braces) and the off-putting decor (part library, part hunting lodge) there's a certain sense of contrived cool that, in a lot of ways, is anything but. The problem with acting awesome is that it really shows when you don't deliver.

Still, they get that elitist thing just right sometimes. The "no vodka" policy gets a big thumbs up any day of the week.

Craft and Commerce
675 Beech Street
Kitchen open nightly until 11, bar until 1

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

New Year's Eve black tie (or something) soiree at Craft & Commerce

Next Article

Like a phoenix!

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader