New York City's the Craftsman Pops Up at Mary Brickell Village

The Craftsman, a New York City bar, lounge, and sandwich spot, has set up a temporary location inside the former Brother Jimmy’s BBQ space in Mary Brickell Village.

The concept, which debuted in September, serves cocktails and beer, meat and cheese platters, and sandwiches and wraps. The bar also offers an avocado menu, complete with avocado pizza, avocado toast, and Tex-Mex or Mediterranean-stuffed avocados.

The Brickell location is based on the Craftsman flagship in New York's Harlem, which opened in March 2017. This past summer, owners Dave Casey and Phil Quilter teamed up with Dustin Elmalem, who operated three South Florida Brother Jimmy's locations until this past June, to bring the Craftsman to Miami.

"When an opportunity comes along, you just have to run with it," Casey says. "And the concept was easy enough for us to bring it down here."

The 6,700-square-foot space, which includes a large bar and a dining space with private areas for events and banquets, specializes in whiskey, bourbon, and tequila cocktails prepared with house-made cold-pressed juices ($6 to $18). There are also more than three dozen beer and wine varieties, including the Craftsman's lager, Funky Buddha's Floridian, and Wynwood Brewing's La Rubia.

Instead of offering fried bar bites, the Craftsman serves salads, wraps, sandwiches, and charcuterie ($7 to $24). Highlights include chicken salad with dill mayo, grapes, raisins, and almonds on multigrain toast; the Craftsman Cuban, stuffed with pork, ham, Swiss, and mustard on olive oil-rubbed ciabatta; and the Elvis, made with house-made almond butter, fig jelly, and sliced bananas on gluten-free bread.
From avocado toast with spicy flakes to an avocado-stuffed vegan sandwich, ten items on the menu are dedicated to the pear-shaped green fruit. Avocado toasts come topped with tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, or spicy flakes or all of the above. Avocados are also stuffed with ingredients such as cucumber salad or corn and black beans. Other items include a Tex-Mex vegan burrito with avocado and quinoa and avocado and pepper flake-topped pizza.

Other notable small plates are meat and cheese boards with spicy salami, aged Gouda, and goat cheese; shrimp cilantro lime tacos; and truffle popcorn seasoned with cayenne pepper, Parmesan, and truffle.

For dessert, the restaurant offers a rotating pie-in-a-jar, along with guava cheesecake, apple pie, and chocolate mousse with a graham cracker crust.

"Having a pop-up in Miami gives us the ability to test our concept without a huge commitment," Casey says. "It's a great way to enter the market and see where we end up."

For now, the Craftsman expects to operate in Miami for about a year, with the possibility of an extension.

"We're going to ride it out for as long as we can," Elmalem says.

The Craftsman. Mary Brickell Village, 900 S. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-400-8226; thecraftsmanmiami.com. Open daily until 4 a.m.