Local Craft

2 stars for "local sensibility" in the Gables

Walking into The Local Craft Food & Drink made me feel like I was going back to an old New York City bar on the Upper West Side. The homey, low-lit atmosphere makes for a comfortable night out (even if menu reading requires a cellphone for illumination) in the spot on Coral Gables’ restaurant row that formerly housed Randazzo’s. The feel may be Northeastern, but the talent behind the operation is homegrown: chef Alberto Cabrera, whose resume includes some of Miami’s most high-profile kitchens, from the visionary La Broche to Norman’s and Karu y Y.

From the pig ear salad and Anson Mills grits to the Palmetto Creek Farms pork and chicken liver mousse, Cabrera’s menu — not to mention his restaurant’s name — is an homage to local hero Michael Schwartz and his Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink. Even the dessert selection looks as if it was culled from MGFD pastry chef Hedy Goldsmith’s recipe box.

Ambience: The first wall you see is brick and then, across the room, swirly pressed aluminum above a chair rail. Chalkboards line a burnished old mahogany bar, and tables nestle snugly on the black and white terrazzo floor.

What Worked

• A well-edited list of 20 craft brews on draft
• The charcuterie board with cheeses including Winter Park Dairy’s Florida Tomme and Colorado's Haystack hard goat cheese
• Chicken liver mousse served in a mason jar
• Olives and crusty bread
• Scrawny, but nicely goopy chicken wings with a kicky Korean chile powder
• A generous helping of tender, tiny steamed mussels in a shallow pool of broth
• Pale and nicely crisp house-made Cuban crackers with nostalgic, but somewhat unsatisfying, Cuban-style ham paté and Southern-style pimento cheese
• Delightful house-made pickles
• Tasty romesco sauce with fresh-chopped cilantro
• A creamy rice pudding topped with paprika-dusted meringue and candied orange rind
• Chocolate pot du crème with blackened baby marshmallows, bits of pineapple and caramel corn
• A fun menu that melds Caribbean, Mediterranean, Southern, British and French influences in one little 50-seater

What Didn't Work

• Malanga tater tots that tasted of nothing but oil
• Greasy fish and chips - grouper cheeks in a baggy batter
• Sodden and inedible skinny fries (they were addictively good on another visit)
• A dry “limited availability” burger with a slab of Cheddar and a slice of Benton Farms ham served on a stale brioche bun too big for the beef patty
• Dry Italian-style pork meatballs with "silly" squid ink
• A young & unknowledgeable, albeit eager, staff
• A jarringly sour yogurt panna cotta with soggy peanuts, pine nuts, walnuts and golden raisins and a strip of candied bacon brittle