Munchies: Ragged charisma of Craft

22 October 2014 - 02:16 By Yolisa Mkele
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EAT EASY: Craft is just one of a plethora of eating and drinking spots on Parkhurst's fashionable 4th Avenue
EAT EASY: Craft is just one of a plethora of eating and drinking spots on Parkhurst's fashionable 4th Avenue
Image: CRAFT/FACEBOOK

Anyone thinking of having supper on Parkhurst's 4th Avenue in northern Johannesburg is likely to be bewildered by choice.

The fashionable street is home to more restaurants than a food court at a major shopping mall and there is enough variety to keep you out of your kitchen just long enough to forget where the pots and pans are kept. For those content to meander up or down the length of the street allowing their kitchen cobwebs to take over, Craft, one of the new kids on the block, offers a bit of everything that has made 4th Avenue famous.

Situated at the north end of the street, Craft is the embodiment of its name. The space has the kind of hole-in-the-wall industrial feel that is currently all the rage. Its slick black brick-faced walls and vintage polished bronze oven give the impression of eating in a prohibition era "speakeasy" for drinkers with a cleanliness fetish. Despite the extreme shine that has been coaxed out of some of the decor, Craft has a certain informal charisma that could persuadeyou to put your feet up on the table.

In some cases the informality might have been taken overboard. The menus are ragged pieces of paper fastened to a clipboard with a mixture of Sellotape and hope. An X or scribble marked in pen serves as notice that a group of items are no longer available on the menu, and the clipboards holding these frayed pages are only slightly smaller than Kanye West's ego.

Craft's burgers are also just north of average and certainly cannot compete with the ones served at other places down the road.

But the ribs make up for these shortcomings. The sticky, meat- laden bones - coupled with one of an impressive range of craft beers - are enough to induce a happiness coma.

Ultimately what lets Craft down is that it never quite does enough to stand out. Barring the ribs, the food is suitably excellent without ever really reaching a culinary climax, and the same sense of "almost but not quite" permeates all the other aspects of the restaurant as well. You may just have to start clearing those cobwebs after all.

  • Craft is open from Monday to Sunday. For bookings contact 011-788-7111
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