Review: AP Crafters Kitchen & Bar

I've long given up quibbling over the labels with which restaurateurs characterize their businesses. The world is full of cafes that aren't really coffee-oriented and fast-food places that really aren't.

So since Tony Palombino, a restaurant entrepreneur with a long history of developing innovative concepts, including Boombozz Gourmet Pizza, wants to call his new venture — AP Crafters Kitchen & Bar — a gastropub, I'll go with the flow.

For the record, gastropubs were modeled after the casual ambiance of English public houses; they offered an excellent assortment of beverages, especially beers, and their cuisine transcended the usual pub standard by focusing on imaginative, trendy ideas.

These days, the word has become a descriptor for just about any place that has a strong beer program, a comfortable bar and dining area, and a kitchen focused on turning out good food.

And let's face it, any place that has those things — as AP Crafters does in abundance — deserves to be successful no matter what you call it.

There's a lovely bar, with pleasant contemporary touches. There's an inviting patio. The dining room is done up with plenty of hardwood, and walls with open shelving display gleaming copper kitchen utensils. It fits perfectly into the bustling Westport Village.

The beer list includes some mass-market offerings, as well as such draft choices as Lefthand Sawtooth, Ommegang Hennepin Saison and Schlafly Oatmeal Stout. The bar makes a Bloody Mary garnished with a green olive, a pearl onion and a cherry tomato; it's spicy enough to leave your lips tingling for hours. And though the wine list tilts to the expensive side, nobody will fault the variety and depth of the selection.

The menu is a nice blend of the conventional, the comfortable, and the slightly exotic. So there are chicken wings — but they're rubbed with smoked paprika and served with pimento cheese ranch dressing ($8). There are big orders of regular fries ($3.50) or sweet potato fries ($4.50). But if you're looking for something a bit different, there's also poutine, at AP Crafters a massive tray of fries is drizzled with a nicely beefy gravy and dotted with soft, melted cubes of cheddar cheese curds ($7).

There are eight burger choices ($6.50-$10.50), including the El Vez, dressed with crisp sweet potato straws and a spicy-sweet green chili jam ($9).

The toasted sourdough bread employed for the pastrami stack — a grand sandwich filled with plenty of perfectly sliced pastrami, melted Swiss and spicy, old-fashioned whole-grain mustard — could probably handle most things, but the pastrami released so much juice that the lower piece was wet as a sponge ($9.50).

Folks looking for light meals will like the salads: spinach with tart Granny Smith apple slices, raisins, toasted almonds and a nicely balanced vinaigrette ($7.50); or a lovely BLT wedge ($6.50).

The kitchen grills a hanger steak, slices it into medallions, serves it with roasted onions and bell peppers in a rich, beefy sauce ($12.50). And it must be said that the fish and fries is among the best in the city ($12.50).

Finish with the caramel banana cream pie in a jar: banana, salted caramel, whipped cream and crumbled Graham crackers. ($5.50).