Central Standard Crafthouse & Kitchen & Craft Distillery — Restaurant in Milwaukee

Great vibes, awesome food, yum drinks and fun times here at the Central Standard. Simple, rustic modern, with pretty lighting and open concept.

There is a parking lot right next to the building, but it's paid parking. Free street parking after 6pm if you can find spots.

Very inviting as I come in. Love the little vases with flowers on each table. The sitting area by the window is great. The dining area towards the back is also great, but the floors are a little weird and slopes at odd angles. So I was uncomfortable sitting at our table. Our server was friendly and caring, and we felt very well taken care of.

The standard Salad (green Goddess dressing) The dressing was a bit more vinaigrette-y than the green goddess I’m used to. So the salad was also a bit more vinegary than I would have liked.

Parmesan & chive hummus Comes with naan and veggies! Delicious!

Smash burger I asked whether the substitute lettuce for the buns could be whole leaves, and they don’t have that, but they put garden salad mix instead. Very thoughtful. The patty itself was a bit salty. Fries that came with had been sitting out for a while.

Beer can chicken sandwich Great sandwich, and tasty, but again, chicken was a bit on the salty side. Otherwise, it was great. Only complaint is that it seemed small. Hopefully not the norm, but maybe just cuz it’s for dining week.

Key Lime Pie So good! Loved the lime flavor exuding!

Chocolate Cheesecake Total opposite of the key lime pie, but perfect to eat along with!

Old Fashioned (bourbon, sour) - just how I like it

door county cherry vodka - very cherry, quite sweet. Not my thing.

high rye whiskey - so this smelled so strong... I was the driver so skipped, but hub says: not the best I've had, but pretty good. And he turned red (seriously, this never happens. I...

First time here. We came with a group of 4, and had a 7pm reservation. The place was less than half full. Got a high top, towards the rear of the dining room. There is some nice light coming in the from the large south facing windows. The building is historical and restored, and the sloping floor might take getting a little used to.

Our server did a great job of getting us settled in with water, and menus. (and they did a great job the entire evening - thanks Mckinley!) They have an excellent selection of different cocktails. We decided on a couple of different Old Fashioned that were excellent.

The dinner menu also had lots of good choices to pick from. To start we had some cheese curds. These are from Valley Dairy and had a Bourbon batter. Came out hot, creamy cheese and a very flavorful. The rest of the meal entrees were an eclectic mix Walleye, Chicken Piccata, Pork Chop and Smashburger. My smashburger was very good, although it could have been even better, if could just a bit longer for more caramelization. The Pork Chop was the perfect temperature and doneness. Super tender too. The Truffle Spoonbread was as good as the pork chop. The other entrees were hits as well.

We left room for some dessert, and ended up splitting a piece of the Tiramisu. Which can sometimes be tricky (or stale/soggy), but this piece was as good as the rest of the meal.

The entire evening was a hit. We all agreed that it's a place that we could...

Overall decent food and drinks, but not worth it considering the price.

There are two parking lots on either side of the building, but signage isn't clear about how/when to pay if you're a Central Standard customer. We paid in the lot because of signs warning that we had to pay within 10 minutes of entering, but it turns out if you go inside the building you can scan a QR code to get a discount on parking. So learn from our mistake! Maybe instructions could be added to the website.

We were seated very quickly even though we arrived early for our reservation. Drinks were okay - I ordered the Miranda Collins which was fine (the smoked rosemary simple syrup didn't sit well with me). The shrimp appetizer was great - by far the best thing we ate. I had the salmon entree, which was okay. The salmon was under seasoned but saved by the bearnaise sauce.

We went to the rooftop bar after eating and managed to snag a seat, which had great views! You can get more drinks up there, but can't have food. It's small so I imagine it can get filled up quickly on the weekends.

Serving sizes were on the smaller side, so combined with the fact that I was generally underwhelmed by the food, I would recommend checking this place out for the rooftop bar but going somewhere...