The Craft : The Bottom Line
The Craft is a big miss from me – it held so much promise with the tap list, but was let down by the prices, the table charge of 418 yen, and also it being a smoking bar in spite of being told it was segregated smoking. As such, I strongly suggest you go somewhere else and spend your money there. Heck, even some of the food was pre-bought supermarket bowls of salad literally dumped onto a plate as I was sat by the kitchen and watched them do it.
The Craft : The Full Story
With the state of emergency ending a couple of days before I went to Sapporo, I assumed that the hours of The Craft would be the same. However, the bar changed their hours without much fanfare on their social media. Not a problem really – just come back another time for a few beers.
The Craft is located right on the main street that leads through Susukino and is less than a minutes walk from Susukino station on the Sapporo subway Tozai line and also the Sapporo Shinden streetcar route. The Craft opened in March 2016 to much fanfare it seemed.
The Craft : Atmosphere & Interior
From the outside, The Craft looks like a warm and welcoming place, with one big table dominating the floor space. Walking in at 8pm on a Thursday night, the bar was busy and filled with chatter along with laughter. There are around 50 seats inside, with about 12 at the counters – one facing the kitchen and another facing the taps – with the other seats at various tables. Before I went in, I checked to see if The Craft was smoking, and it said it was segregated. Not a problem as that usually means two separate rooms, or even a smoking box, like Wiz Craft Beer and Food. Alas, that was not the case as people began to light up in the middle of the room – a damn annoyance. Add on a table charge of 418 yen, and I was pretty much pissed off at this point.
The Craft : Approach to Covid-19
Besides some alcohol spray and staff wearing masks, there was just the basics of awareness.
The Craft : Beer & Tap Information
The Craft had big promise with 34 taps of craft beer on, but seeing as the bar had just changed its hours due to the end of the state of emergency, there were just 25 taps on instead. Then the prices kicked in. The beers come in two sizes: small (200 ml) for 690 yen and regular (300 ml) for 900 yen – and those prices didn’t include tax. There was a beer tasting flight which got you three 150 ml beers for 1,300 yen but at this point I just wanted really to have a couple of beers and some food. There wasn’t any happy hour nor any takeaway beers.
The Craft : Food Information
I was hungry when I went into The Craft but left after getting nothing. The pictures of the Chicago style pizza enticed me in, but then after seeing the portion sizes for the price, as well as the staff using supermarket bowls of salad dumped straight onto a plate, I thought I wasn’t going to pay that much money. I get that things are prepackaged, but that was just taking the mickey with the customers really. The menus had a basic amount of English on them.
The Craft : Information
- Open : Monday to Saturday 17:00 – 02:00 (L.O Food 01:00 Drink 01:30) Sunday and National Holidays 17:00 – 24:00 (L.O Food 23:00 Drink 23:30)
- Closed : N/A
- Happy Hour : N/A
- Phone : 011-241-5555
- Homepage (in Japanese) : https://thecraft.owst.jp/
- Social Media : Facebook
