Who says you shouldn’t have a beer with lunch?
Not the folks at Freshcraft, a small LoDo restaurant smack in the middle of the same vibrant block of Blake Street that’s home to Marrakesh, ChoLon Bistro, Organixx, Rio Grande and more. At Freshcraft, the first thing you’re offered, even before water and a menu, is a beer, no matter that it’s 11:30 a.m.
With a sprawling three-page list of corporate and craft brews (20-plus brews on tap, well over 120 in the bottle), you’d be forgiven, at first, for mistaking this place for a bar. But it’s actually a restaurant, with a full (ample, actually) menu of what they call “upscale comfort food” — garlic chile chicken wings, beef carpaccio salad, “Iowa Style” pork tenderloin, pork schnitzel.
Know this: The items on the section of the menu called “Small Plates” really are small. The “Session Sandwiches” listed there are slider-sized — tasty and cute and accompanied by fries, but you may be expecting more for 7 bucks. Salads, however, are generous, and “medium plates” (about $8-$10) are plenty for lunch.
Bonus points for staying open late — midnight on weekdays (Sunday-Wednesday), 2 a.m. on weekends (Thursday-Saturday). More places in LoDo ought to do this. After all, it’s a known fact that garlic chile chicken wings — paired with a beer, naturally — just taste better at 1 in the morning after a night out in the bars.
FRESHCRAFT.
Food and beer. 1530 Blake St., 303-758-9608, . Open seven days.
