Crafted! The Art of the Taco

Located at 219-A South Elm Street in Downtown Greensboro, Crafted specializes in innovative tacos. Traditional and American-style tacos are also available, as are burritos, burgers, and apps. There are vegan options as well and a full-service bar.

One needn’t stoop to the (guiltily pleasurable) depths of Taco Bell to think that tacos are and should be relatively inexpensive. Even quality authentic-style tacos tend not to run more than $2 apiece around these parts. Crafted, however, will challenge one’s notions of how much a taco should cost….by challenging one’s notions of how good a taco can be.

Right off the bat, Crafted’s menu captures the imagination. Among the signature tacos, you will find combinations such as blackened tuna with garlic aoli and kimchee (the Fedora), beef brisket, grilled pineapple, and sweet chili sauce (the Fixie), and falafel, pickled cucumbers, and greens (the Hoodie). Sides too venture toward the unexpected: duck fat braised collards, anyone? Of course, if avant-garde tacoism isn’t to your liking, you can build your own from more traditional ingredients (like beef, pork, or chicken) and pair it with salsa and chips.

During my visit, I opted for the Wayfarer, a perfect marriage of pulled pork, Korean red sauce, marinated cucumber, and red onion relish. The pork was moist and slightly smoky, the red sauce addictively sweet, the relish appropriately tangy, and the cucumber refreshing. The homemade mac and cheese deliciously creamy and worth the $1 upcharge. In short, there was nothing that wasn’t amazing.

As alluded to previously, however, “amazing” comes at a price. The signature tacos come two apiece for $8-$10 with one side. Want a burrito instead? Be prepared to pay $1 more. The more conventional taco preparations aren’t that much more wallet friendly, and you will shell out an extra 50 cents for either an American (lettuce, tomato, sour cream, shredded cheese) or traditional (radish, cilantro, onion, avocado) accoutrements. Those who like to down cheap tacos four at a time will be in for a rude awakening.

Also of note: Crafted is a taco bar, not a Mexican restaurant. They say as much on the menus, but the reality won’t hit you until you walk through the door. Like many Elm Street establishments, Crafted is long but narrow. There is a handful of tables and a long bar. Interestingly, you walk past the kitchen before arriving at the dining area. The walls are a bright green, and the ambiance is lively without being deafening. Food moves from the kitchen at a satisfactorily quick pace, and servers are efficient sans attitude.

Crafted’s pricing and artisanal approach to tacos may alienate those with strong preferences for more straightforward and economical fare, but those with open minds and open wallets will be hard-pressed to find a tastier tortilla.

8.75/10

Townie

After his father and namesake (the famed short story writer Andre Dubus) leaves the family, Andre Dubus III and his siblings are largely left to fend for themselves in a working-class Massachusetts in the 1970s. As the oft-bullied Andre learns to fight back, he becomes increasingly aware of the rift between his father’s academic bubble and his own hardscrabble surroundings and feels alternately drawn to and repulsed by both.

Having a legacy of a literary lion thrust upon you isn’t easy, and for the younger Dubus (author of The House of Sand and Fog), the violence, drug abuse, and isolation that informed his adolescence must have made for quite the bumpy ride. Despite that, his retelling of it avoids wallowing in self-pity. It is sincere and earnest without buckling under its own emotional weight.

Townie’s works best as a sketch of person and place. The bleak provincialism of Haverhill comes across clearly here as does the liberating openness of Bradford College (whether the elder Dubus teaches and the younger briefly attends). Young Andre’s gradual transformation from put-upon weakling to hot-headed brawler to, almost improbably, a writer in his own right is traced in parallel to his evolving relationship with his father. The elder Dubus comes across as a very complicated and contradictory individual: a habitual philanderer who regularly attended Mass, a gun-toting former Marine officer who embraced the counterculture, a man absent much paternal capacity who nevertheless cared about his family. By contrast, the author’s mother is given short shrift here. We see her as a hard-working woman facing difficult choices, but she only seems to creep around the edge of the narrative. She never once takes center stage.

The biggest mark against Townie is its repetitiveness. Instead of showing a time he was picked on or beaten or robbed, Dubus shows us seemingly every such instance. Similarly, while it makes sense to show us a fight he sought after putting on muscle, he walks us through countless fisticuffs and near-brawls. This, coupled with his insistence on sprinkling in superfluous physical description for minor characters, causes the book to feel bloated. As a stylist, Dubus does not lack craftsmanship, but perhaps owing to the highly personal story he is sharing, he does lack restraint.

Though some stronger editing may have elevated it from solid to superior, Townie is still worth a look if for no other reason than because it shows how even the dimmest of circumstances do not preclude change.

7.5/10

Fruitvale Station

December 31, 2008 marks the last hours of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a young man whose efforts to turn his life around are thwarted by a deadly confrontation at a San Francisco train station.

In the presence of injustice, passion typically prevails over prudence. In filmmaking – and all art, really – the intense desire to call attention to a wrong far too easily manifests itself as hyperbole, polemic, sensationalism, and distortion. The tragic end of Oscar Grant (Spoiler Alert: He was shot by a police officer while handcuffed. The officer apparently mistook his sidearm for his Taser. Whether an honest mistake or not, Grant did not deserve such an end.) is almost certainly an injustice. But while many would have seized upon his story to make a statement, to use Oscar Grant as a means to signify or remonstrate, first-time filmmaker Ryan Coogler took a different approach. He simply took a step back and told the story of Oscar’s last day, and in doing so, created a far more potent film than an Oliver Stone/Costa-Gavras-style excoriation would have yielded.

Fruitvale Station is not a documentary, nor does it purport to be one (Coogler, for instance, inserted a scene where Oscar comforts a pitbull that had been hit by a car, foreshadowing his own demise later on). However, its minimalist approach and lack of gloss does effectively convey a sense of realism. Even the mundane moments (such as Oscar stopping for gas) serve to heighten the believability of the proceedings.

The film also benefits from both strong acting and strong characterization. Oscar is not lionized here. He is depicted as a complex, flawed (he served time, had a temper, and was dishonest with his girlfriend) human being rather than a media-sanctified victim. That very humanness makes him sympathetic and relatable, qualities abetted by Jordan’s understated-but-convincing performance. Octavia Spencer, who helped the film get made, is a pillar of strength as Oscar’s upright, hard-working, and occasionally adversarial mother. Disappointingly, however, the police officers involved in the shooting (played by Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray) are reduced to one-dimensional antagonists with little depth. As a consequence, Oscar’s confrontation with them is when the film feels at its most scripted and dramatized.

It came as a shock to some that Fruitvale Station did not reap any Oscar nominations. It would come as a bigger shock, however, if this is the last we’ve heard from Coogler, who is only 27. He may not have a statue to show for it, but he will have to settle for effectively shining a light on a life lost too soon.

8.25/10 

Mad Hatter

Located at 201 Smyres Place off of West Friendly Avenue, Mad Hatter specializes in craft beers and specialty burgers. Sandwiches, salads, and small plates are also available. There are daily drink specials, outdoor seating, and a brunch on weekends.

Mad Hatter effectively illustrates why defying expectations is not always a good thing. The sign out front says Craft Beer House, but the selection does not seem especially large. The name suggests the zany and colorful, but the silver and black mock-industrial décor is anything but (It is, however, an improvement over the kitschy innards of the original Ham’s, the business Mad Hatter replaced). The preponderance of TV screens evokes a sports bar while the focus on specialty burgers mimics Hops and the pricing reaches for upscale casual. In short, almost nothing here is what it is supposed to be.

The one exception is the quality of the burger. In this area, Mad Hatter hits a home run. The default options include a Kentucky bourbon burger and a PBJ burger (among others), and you can build your own. The Boss, a 50/50 beef-bacon patty topped with pulled pork, sauce, slaw, and fried onions, certainly lived up to its name. The burger had a nice char that was balanced by the sweetness of the sauce, and both the slaw and the onions provided a palate-pleasing crunch. It’s a big burger, but the bun proved both sturdy as well as tasty. This may not be the best burger in Greensboro, but it merits serious consideration, and it won’t leave you disappointed.

Unfortunately, for as good as the burger was, it was not enough to elevate what was otherwise a decidedly mediocre experience. At $10-$12, the burgers are overpriced as is most of the menu ($8 grilled cheese, anyone). The build-your-own menu has some intriguing possibilities (grass fed beef, Asian slaw, goat cheese) but leaves out some essentials, like mushrooms. Among the sides, the fries tasted hot and fresh but the chips were underwhelming.

Service and ambiance is similarly hit-or-miss. Our server was very efficient – albeit joyless – and order-to-table wait times were shorter than expected. On the other hand, the medium well burger my companion ordered came out medium. The ever-persistent music ranges from tolerable to terrible, and the building fills up easily.

As of this writing, Mad Hatter is only a month old, and there is plenty of time for it to turn things around. Until that happens, the best way to describe it is limited: limited selection, limited parking, limited high notes, and, ultimately, limited appeal.

6.75/10

Wolfgang Puck Pizza Bar

NOTE: After a rebranding Wolfgang Puck Pizza Bar is now WP Kitchen + Bar.

Located at 607 Green Valley Road in the Friendly Center, Wolfgang Puck Pizza Bar specializes in gourmet pizza. Pasta, entrees, apps, and salads are also available. There is a full-service bar and daily specials.

This fiefdom in Wolfgang Puck’s corporate empire offers plenty of sizzle but little steak (the flatiron steak presumably notwithstanding). At first glance, there is a lot to like. The Friendly Center location is easily accessible, the hostesses friendly, and the atmosphere dark, modern, and inviting. The menu, though somewhat concise, holds plenty of appeal. In addition to Puck’s signature salmon pizza, pies here come topped with everything from duck sausage to spicy shrimp to more traditional (pomodoro, margherita, etc.) permutations. Should you opt to go another direction, braised short ribs and a few of the pasta preparations tantalize as well.

Once you are comfortably ensconced, however, it does not take long for the bloom to wear off. Though the servers are polite and attentive, order-to-table time is slow. When your food does arrive, you will be confronted with the knowledge that you almost certainly overpaid for whatever you happened to order. The pizzas are personal pan sized (about four slices) and mostly run $11-$15, a poor value for the quantity. The pasta dishes ($13 for a meatless ravioli) are similarly wallet-unfriendly.

Further, while the food is competently prepared, nothing reaches the level of must-have. The duck sausage on my pizza was mild, a good complement to the tangy onions, but a letdown in and of itself. A dessert sampling of donut bites inspired a similar reaction: they were warm and satisfying but still very much just donuts.

For a certain segment of diners, Wolfgang Puck Pizza Bar offers tasty food and appealing ambiance, and that alone is enough. But for food-savvy Greensboroians, it’s a sucker’s bet. Innovative pizza can be found at a better value elsewhere.

7/10

Man of Steel

As the planet Krypton faces both exhausted resources and a military coup, leading scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe) places his infant son Kal, the last naturally born Kryptonian, on a craft headed for earth. The alien is raised by Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha (Diane Lane) Kent as their son Clark and strives for a normal existence. But the superpowered Clark (Henry Cavill) is anything but normal, and his heroic exploits attract the attention of both enterprising reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and recently released Kryptonian war criminal General Zod (Michael Shannon).

Superman’s cinematic history is a tangled web of revision. What two films (Superman III and Superman IV) do, one film (Superman Returns) undoes. And when that doesn’t meet expectations, it’s back to the drawing board for a complete reboot. Such fleeting fortunes inspire a healthy amount of skepticism, but Man of Steel at least comes with a vaunted pedigree. Director Zak Snyder, screenwriter David Goyer, and producer Christopher Nolan have all contributed to successful comic book adaptations. That, plus the talented cast, should have been enough to silence many doubters. Unfortunately, the results, while far from abysmal, failed to do for the title character what Batman Begins did for the Caped Crusader.

Pacing is the biggest culprit. Man of Steel clocks in at 142 minutes and feels even longer. The film does not lack action – Superman actually gets to do a fair amount of fighting, for a change – but much of that action is backloaded. The middle of the film feels weighted down by bloviating on the nature of acceptance, hope, and responsibility. These scenes, mostly involving Clark and his adoptive family, could have given the film some emotional gravitas, but they instead come across as heavy-handed space-fillers. In contrast, the Lois-Clark relationship, a key aspect of the franchise, isn’t given enough time or opportunity to properly develop.

These narrative inequities nearly sink what is otherwise a solid film. Cavill is a much stronger and more assured presence in the lead than his predecessor Brandon Routh, and he hits the right notes when exploring Clark’s struggle to accept his true nature. Adams is an upgrade from the too-young Kate Bosworth as well: she gives Lois courage without exhausting credibility. As the villainous Zod and the valorous Jor El, Shannon and Crowe offer refreshingly new interpretations. The former is granted a loftier motive (the restoration of a dying world) and unyielding determination; the latter has a greater presence even after death.

Man of Steel also offers superior sights and sounds. Everything from the classic Superman costume to the appearance of Krypton has been revamped and looks far less cartoonish than in the Donner/Salkind films. Hans Zimmer does not try to foolishly replicate John Williams’ iconic score; instead, his title track succeeds on its own merits.

If all goes according to plan, Man of Steel will kickstart an integrated DC cinematic universe that will also include Batman and Wonder Woman. As a debut, it doesn’t set the world afire, but fittingly given the character, it does inspire hope.

7.5/10

Harper's Restaurant

The Greensboro location of this regional chain can be found in the Friendly Center, 601 Friendly Center Rd. across from Belk. Harper’s serves American cuisine in a casual environment. There is a weekend brunch, a full-service bar, and a gluten-free menu.

When our preferred New Year’s Eve destination was booked solid, Harper’s proved to be a suitable last-minute replacement. The staff was welcoming despite the calamity of the occasion, and our server, Adam, was both knowledgeable and polite. My companion and I both went with the steak and frites and substituted the fries for another side. The 8-oz sirloins had a nice char and plenty of flavor, as did our accompaniments (mashed red potatoes and roasted asparagus). At $17 each, it felt like money well-spent and made for a satisfying year-end meal.

That said, I would hesitate to rush back to Harper’s for several reasons. For starters, the restaurant was fairly loud. While this may be a product of NYE craziness, the acoustics don’t bode well for a daily lunch crowd. The menu was also somewhat dated and uninspiring. The limited selection is not an issue if you are craving a steak, and some of the entrée salads did look promising, but beyond that, you won’t find anything (sandwich, burger, fish, chicken, etc.) you haven’t already had before. Lastly, despite the more casual atmosphere, Harper’s emulates steakhouse pricing. Entrees start at $15 and typically include one side. Additional sides are al a carte and go for $4 to $6.

All told, Harper’s is a well-run restaurant with solid, albeit, familiar food. The lack of a “wow” factor and ambitious pricing prevent it from becoming a first-choice dining destination.

7.5/10