Megan J.
Yelp
TLDR:
I'm hesitating giving four stars because of our most recent interaction + high prices for quantity of beer/food. Wish I could give half a star, as it wasn't fully a three star experience either. Alas, four stars it is.
I recommend for:
- groups
- bar/brewery crawl in this area of the City
- if there's a particular brew only available here
Longer:
Back pre-panini I had a friend who's boyfriend lived around the corner from the Crafty Fox, so it was often a first- or last-of-the-night stop for their crew, which I joined every so often.
As mentioned above, this is a great spot for groups, as it's a rather informal, minimalist interior -- capitalizing on space in order to pack as many people in as possible. There are high tops and tables throughout, and a good ~10 seats at the bar.
I wasn't a beer drinker back then, so I'd indulge in a cider with no complaints -- always a few options for the non-beer drinkers. I cannot recall any specific food we had way back when, but I do remember there were no complaints.
Fast forward to 2024, my boyfriend and I were on a little walking adventure to get some Peruvian beans at one of the Mexican groceries on Mission St. It was a beautiful weekend afternoon, and the Crafty Fox had many an open bar seat beckoning us in.
We were greeted by the bar tender (owner?) who handed us menus. The tap selection was laid out on the wall in front of us, and man oh man is there a wide variety, or what!? Lucky for us, we'd been sampling a few "slushy" beers and there was one from 450 North -- the Slushy XL Raspberry Dessert. This is quite possibly the most tasty, ~perfectly tart, yet still a beer~ beer I've ever had. The second beer we got was some variation of a Hazy IPA, and also delicious, though nothing new new nor spectacular.
What was off-putting: the bar was near empty, aside from one guy at the very end (many seats down from us) at the bar and iirc, a solo woman at a table toward the back room. There was an exciting-to-us baseball game in play, so we had it pulled up on a cell phone in front of us. By no means was it at top volume, yet we were asked with zero care or kindness to turn it off. A "hey yall, will you please turn that down? (:" is super easy... Just felt weird to be shamed for watching sports at a beer-focused establishment, but they think they're fancy *shrug*. Whatever it may be, we'll definitely be sure to go elsewhere the next time there's a game in play we want to watch.