Chris V.
Yelp
What goes well with beer? Food. What goes even better with beer? Really good food.
Arts District Craft & Kitchen serves a great menu of Vietnamese and Mexican influenced American bar food, as anyone who's visited their sister gastropub 595 Craft & Kitchen can attest. I've mostly only tried the food at that location, but I felt strongly obligated tonight to support them during this reemergence from the pandemic-related lockdown. After all, their presence inside the vast space of the amazing Able Baker Brewing is the only reason why we can get those beers on draft again.
I ended up getting the BBQ Pork Banh Mi w/ fries ($12 total). I'm not sure if the fries are a mandatory package deal now, and I didn't need to get more full, but I appreciated the fries. They were a little salty on this occasion, but they were crispy outside and still soft outside. Moreover, the accompanying fry sauce was so addictive that I ended up dipping bread scraps in it.
The sandwich itself is at least as good as any Vietnamese sandwich I've tried around town. The bread itself is soft and nicely chewy. Although the pork is more cubed than sliced into strips, as is traditional, it still was properly marinated with sweet and savory flavor, and it was undeniably tender. The medley of veggies tasted fresh, and the pickled carrot and daikon looked suspiciously dry but had the right flavor and crunch. My main critique here would be that the protein portion is a little lacking, hence the leftover bread I'd mentioned earlier.
I also had some Enchilada Belly Tacos ($7) from their blackboard specials back in February, and those were quite good as well. Creamy sauces and rich pork belly are never not good if they're cooked right, and these were awesome. I'm not sure if/when these will come back, but the pork belly is definitely a key aspect of parts of their regular menu.
I'll certainly be less hesitant to order from Arts District Craft & Kitchen for a while, and it's not just because they're keeping the door open. I'll be looking forward to going straight down the website-only menu and hoping for more normalcy to bring back the blackboard.