by Alice Bartram ·
Friday, September 20, 2024
Readers may remember a buzz around town back in early May when a new dining venue, Craft Food Halls, opened in Boxborough. On a recent Thursday evening, we ventured over with another couple to check it out.
Craft Food Halls is in the last building of an office park, with signs guiding one to the right place. The end location allows outdoor space, which is where we headed, zooming through the indoor areas that featured a pool table, cornhole, and other games.
Once settled at one of the many picnic tables outside, we viewed the menu from the QR code placed on the table. I had been to another of Craft Food Halls’ 12 locations, this one in Waltham, for a work gathering, so I knew that drinks were self-serve. After showing ID and providing a credit card to charge against, you are given a card that digitally enables the drink spigots, measuring the quantity poured. The card tallies everything, and the credit card is charged when you check out by returning the card (there is a hefty fee for unreturned cards).
After ordering our food, we went to get our drink card and consider our options. As we headed to the drink wall, I noticed the many TV screens showing different sporting events, adding to a feeling of action inside the place. The drink wall is indeed a wall, with nine sets of three taps, each set with a digital screen describing the offerings—in all, 24 beers and ales and three wine selections. A cold case to the side has water and soda.
Beers and ales are from a wide range of breweries, some better known (Yuengling, Sierra Nevada), some local (Wachusett Brewing, Medusa Brewing in Hudson), some further afield (Berkshire Brewing; Prohibition Pig and Lawson’s Finest Liquids, both from Vermont; Great Lakes Brewing from Cleveland; and Founders Brewing from Michigan). I got a kick out of some of the names, especially the Hell or High Watermelon wheat beer from 21st Amendment Brewery in California, Squiffy Vicar bitter from Medusa, and Jovial Monk (a Belgian tripel) from Idle Hands Craft Ales in Malden. In short, if you are a craft brew fan, you’ll have lots of choice.
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We settled back with our drinks (a Juice Stand from Lawson’s, a pinot grigio, and a couple of waters), enjoying the vibe of the patio while we waited for the texts advising us our food was ready.
Food on offer at Craft Hall is categorized into three areas that the restaurant has branded: “Vessel,” functional nutrition that aims to be super healthy with grain bowls and vegan tacos, most featuring ayurvedic herbs; “Project X,” pizza, wings, and pretzel bites; and “Sousviderie,” the sous vide method of cooking burgers, meat for the non-vegan tacos and wraps, as well as the steak and jerk chicken entrees. Craft Food Halls’ website claims that they are the nation’s first sous vide food hall, with the online menu noting, “All burgers are cooked sous vide style for a minimum of two hours to 132 degrees ensuring that they are safe to eat according to FDA guidelines. Due to the sous vide technique the interior will look vibrantly pink edge to edge.” My husband uses sous vide a lot at home; it’s a “low and slow” water-based method that brings food to an exact temperature, eliminating overcooking and sealing in flavor.
The guys went for burgers: a classic and a chipotle, and with torched havarti! I ordered one of the salads, “Field of Greens,” with southwest chicken as an added protein, and my friend chose the Vessel turmeric cauliflower tacos featuring the restaurant’s biodynamic golden milk aioli, rich in adaptogens and ayurvedic herbs, sriracha sauce, hemp hearts, and micro cilantro. We noted on the order form our special requests of no onion and no garlic topping on the tacos; the form also allows diners to cite any relevant allergies.
The food was ready quickly; we picked it up at an indoor counter to bring back to our table. My salad was very fresh and very tasty. The southwest chicken was pulled style with all the right smoky and spicy flavors. In addition to microgreens, a tomato medley, and cukes, the salad includes sweet drop peppers, which were new to me. They were very small, round, vibrantly red, and crazily delicious, almost popping in my mouth. In line with the functional nature of the salad, it included wild Italian oregano and a biodynamic balsamic miso vinaigrette. Super good. I did add a side of fries, remembering from my work outing that Craft Food Halls has great fries—skinny, firm, and salty. They were as great as I’d remembered. My friend really enjoyed her cauliflower tacos, noting a great combination of seasoning. The guys also loved their burgers.
In all, it was a very pleasant, casual dining experience. Almost every menu option had an interesting or unusual ingredient—or at least a fun description! All agreed it would be worth another visit, especially as we saw that they have special events, including live music. Food is reasonably priced; the fact that we had to do our own ordering, drink serving, food delivery, and table clearing balanced out the cost of the high-quality ingredients. I have to say that the moving about actually added to the experience. The buzz that Craft Food Halls’ opening created in May is well-earned—check it out!
Alice Bartram leaves much of the cooking to her husband, though she has many Instagram-saved recipes that she’ll get to one day as, really, she finds eating out more fun than cooking.
Reviewer’s note: I am so sad about the fire at the recently reviewed Herb Lyceum in Groton. Early in the morning of Sept.1, fire engulfed the carriage house on the property that had served as the restaurant’s dining area. According to Instagram posts by Will Gilson (the Gilson family owns the property), the main house and the greenhouses survived due to great work by the responding fire departments.