Crafted: The Art of Street Food, Greensboro NC

“Let’s Get Global” is the theme of Crafted: The Art of Street Food in Greesnboro NC. Your taste buds will thank you, and you definitely won’t leave hungry.

When I began the blog 4 years ago, my only goal was 100 brand new restaurants in 18 months. Once I got near the goal I knew I didn’t want to stop, but my only readers were a few friends and family. In the past year I’ve worked very hard on social media promotion, and also on improving my blog. The next step? Find that person/group who wants to pay me to travel and write about food! But until that happens, it still boils down to those friends who have jumped in with the same passion to help my blog grow.

Kara is one of those friends. We’ve been friends since college, and she now lives in Greensboro NC. We’ve talked about a Greensboro food tour for a couple of years, and last month we finally made it happen. She is the master planner when we do stuff, so I put her in charge of this trip. She threw out a lot of options, and the one absolute must was Crafted: The Art of Street Food. Kara is friends with co-owners Chef Kris Fuller and her mom Rhonda Fuller. Kara works for Earlier.org, a non-profit that raises money to fund an earlier breast cancer test, and they have hosted several events at Crafted.

Crafted has 3 distinct concepts: Art of Street Food, Art of the Taco, and a food truck. The taco restaurant is in the heart of downtown Greensboro, and the street food restaurant, where we visited, is in North Greensboro. Crafted is open Tuesday-Saturday, evenings only, and does not take reservations. Kara’s co-worker Angela met us for dinner. Kara was excited for me to meet the owners, but unfortunately they weren’t there that night.

Crafted is a very cool restaurant. The patio is in the front of the restaurant, and has large garage doors along the street that can be open or closed, depending on weather. Another set of garage doors separate the patio from the main restaurant. The street doors were open, but it was too hot for us. A few guests were out there, and by the time we left, the patio was full. Inside is quite spacious, with exposed ceilings, wood floors and tables, and a large open kitchen in the back. The bar is huge, and takes up the entire left wall. There are tables along the right wall, and in the center of the restaurant is a long family-style table that seats about 20.

The Crafted drink menu is quite large, including craft beer and cocktails. Kara raved about the mojitos, so of course I had to judge for myself

The mojitos are fabulous. Very light and refreshing, made with fresh lime juice. In college we could have drunk those all night, but we had to get home and relieve the babysitter so we were tame.

The Crafted menu theme is “let’s get global”. The menu features snacks, small plates, large plates, sides and sweets. The country of origin is listed next to each menu item, so you truly can eat items from all around the world. Crafted has several gluten free items on the menu, and many items can also be made vegan.

Crafted provides complimentary baskets of popcorn

Popcorn is one of those foods that you can mindlessly eat. This popcorn is even more so, because of the delicious spices. We did, however, make a conscious decision to only eat that one basket, so we wouldn’t ruin dinner. But, if you’re just there for drinks, you could snack on the popcorn all night.

Tuesday night’s special is burgers, and the toppings change weekly. Angela ordered the burger, with sweet potato fries

Angela told them to just surprise her, and I totally forgot to ask, so I have no idea what was on it. I tried a bite, and it was delicious. The burger is thick and juicy, and very flavorful. The cheese is wonderful, and adds a great creamy bite to the meat.

Kara ordered the chorizo street taco, Cubano, street corn, and GF shrimp pad Thai. Our server asked if she could bring the food as it’s ready, rather than all at once. Of course we agreed. This is a much better idea, so everything is hot.

The tacos were good. I’m usually not a huge fan of corn tortillas, but these are delicious. I really enjoyed the mix of flavors in the tacos.

Kara and Angela tasted the cubano first, and both immediately said the bottom of the bread was soggy. They also said this isn’t normal; they have had the cubano at previous events, and the bread has always held up well. Even with soggy bread, the cubano is still really delicious, and has generous portions of pulled pork and pork belly. I’ve recently become a big fan of pickled vegetables, and the cucumbers add just enough tart to the cubano to provide a wonderful bite.

The street corn was cold, which was a surprise. It was also delicious, and I love the combination of the queso fresco with the corn.

No question, the pad Thai was the best dish of them all. The shrimp are huge, and the flavors of the pad Thai are outstanding. We agreed that we should have ordered a large, although I could have eaten an entire large portion myself. I seriously considered getting another order. It never occurred to me that pad Thai could be gluten free, but the noodles actually are GF. Fish sauce and soy sauce are not, but there are GF alternatives that taste exactly the same.

The first round of food was more than I expected, so we took a little break before ordering anything else. Angela’s daughter, Machele, works at Crafted. We asked for her favorite dishes on the menu, and her first response was the Nashville hot wings. Because Machele said so, we had to order them

Wow, these wings are spicy! They are not kidding with that hot chili oil, because it burned the heck out of my mouth. But when wings are as good as these, I simply continue to eat. The wings are also huge. The ranch is perfect to tone down the heat, though I do wish there was a little more.

Will I go back to Crafted? Well, that’s a silly question. We had such a great time, the food is fabulous, and I want to try more things on the menu. We saw a server pouring broth over a bowl of pho at the table, right before serving. That right there is enough reason to go back.

For reviews of other restaurants in Greensboro, click on the photos below!