It's Crafty.
It's Steakie.
It's Craftsteak, another one of those Celebrity Chef restaurants that they seem to like so much in Vegas and which Jay and I seem constitutionally unable to by-pass. This one belongs to Tom Colicchio and while its focus is on meaty goodness, the menu also provides such delights as veal, lobster, salmon, and fresh farmers' market veggies. In fact, they pride themselves on using ingredients that are only from small family farms or other specialized vendors, which is a trend that Jay and I really like. It also didn't hurt that we discovered they offer more than 200 Bourbon and Scotch labels.
Although Craftsteak was one of the few joints at the MGM not offering an actual happy hour, we liked the menu and the vibe enough to stop here during our last-night-in-Vegas-lounge-hop. We nabbed a couple of seats at the bar and mulled over the many options - I must give a shout out to the bartender that night, who was friendly and professional. We encountered some great bartenders on this trip who poured fabulous drinks, provided solid food and drink suggestions, and were just all-around fun - they definitely made our lounge-hops more enjoyable and memorable.
We started out with fairly classic drinks for us, fully intending to order more daring choices during our second round. This plan was tossed on its head by the multitude of phone calls and voice mail messages from family members letting us know that a tornado had touched down in St. Louis and that the airport had suffered significant damage and "oh, dear; you may be stuck in Vegas!"
While being stuck in Vegas isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially when you have family that you adore and with whom you get to spend more time, the whole getting a flight re-scheduled and trying not to miss more work than you have to thing made the experience rather stressful and so we had to cut short our Craftsteak visit to take care of real life business. But before we did, Jay savored his Cucumber Martini made with Hendricks Gin, Sliced Cukes, and Fresh Lemon Juice while I continued the bubbly trend with a Champagne Cocktail that included a dry champagne topped off with a St. Germain float. Both drinks were fabulous!!
Cucumber Gin Martini & Champagne Cocktail
And for snacking, considering that we were in something of a meat palace, we decided on the Charcuterie Plate. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but you can still see that it was a large platter with many tasty selections, pretzel bread, and yummy mustards and sauces. We had tried a similar plate at Nobhill Tavern a few nights earlier and that was a really pleasant surprise, but this one knocked our shoes off! In addition to the platter, while I was away from the restaurant talking with people on the phone about what had happened in Stinktown, the bartender brought us a plate of hot, fresh rolls with a dish of light, sweet, creamy butter that could give Joel Robuchon's bread cart a serious run for its money.
Charcuterie Sampler
The Bar ...
Still the Bar ...
And Yet More Bar ...
Towards the end of our visit as we were drooling over the bourbon and scotch menu, our bartender showed up with a bottle of what he called, "the best damn scotch I've had in a long time."
He gave us a wee sample and I must say, he was right about how good this stuff is. Usually I find that the older a scotch gets, the more peaty it becomes and I don't personally like that. This was apparently aged in sherry casks and it was very smooth and a little creamy with some hints of toffee. YUM! We meant to come back later and have a nightcap but by the time we straightened everything out with the airline and made sure we could bunk with the family over the weekend, it was getting pretty late and we wimped out.
All in all, Jay and I were very pleased with Craftsteak - we've already discussed heading back here for dinner on our next trip and pairing everything with scotch or bourbon ... or both!
A thing of beauty
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