Craft by Smoke & Fire

About Craft by Smoke & Fire

Craft by Smoke & Fire sits on West Green Street in Old Town Pasadena, and it arrived in the neighbourhood with a proposition that Pasadena, historically, has not specialised in: that Texas-style barbecue — slow-smoked, bark-forward, built on brisket and short ribs — could be served with the cocktail programme of a proper American social eatery and the steak programme of a proper American chophouse, in the same room, on the same menu, without apology. Five years in, the proposition has held. Craft is not just a good BBQ restaurant for Pasadena. It is a good BBQ restaurant, full stop.

The smokers run oak and a touch of pecan, and the brisket — the test item at any American BBQ room — comes with the bark intact, the smoke ring honest, and the fat rendered to the point where the meat yields to a plastic fork without the drama that underdeveloped BBQ rooms require. It is served pound-by-weight in the traditional manner, with white bread, pickles, onions, and sauce served alongside rather than over. The pork ribs are St. Louis cut, glazed lightly at the end of the cook, and arrive with the bone clean and the meat still attached — a technical feat most chain barbecue rooms miss.

Beyond the smokehouse section of the menu, Craft operates a surprisingly serious steak programme. The rib eye is a USDA Prime cut sourced through the same purveyor the better Los Angeles steakhouses use, finished with bone marrow butter and a salt that has been calibrated to the fat-to-lean ratio of the cut. The rack of lamb — frequently singled out in local press — is cooked to a temperature actually rare enough to taste the lamb rather than the char. Brisket nachos are the one crowd-pleaser on the menu that belongs on it. Brisket tacos travel particularly well for takeaway.

What makes Craft work as a birthday restaurant is the room: high-energy without being chaotic, table sizes flexible enough to accommodate a ten-top or a two-top, noise level loud enough that a birthday table can raise a toast without the rest of the room falling silent to listen. The cocktail programme is unpretentious and well-executed — the bourbon-and-smoked-maple variant is worth ordering, and the spicy margarita is one of the better ones in Pasadena. Service is American-casual in the best sense: attentive, quick with a refill, not precious about menu deviations.

Price-wise, Craft lands in the $$ tier, which puts it below the steakhouses on South Lake but well above the fast-casual BBQ joints on Colorado Boulevard. Dinner for two with cocktails lands around $130 to $170 — fair for the quality — and the lunch brisket plate at $24 is one of the best cheap-lunch bargains in Old Town Pasadena. Reservations on weekends are advised; the bar seats walk-ins and moves faster than it looks.