Kupros Craft House — Restaurant in Sacramento

I am no stranger to "Kupros Craft House" as I have been regularly coming here since the early-2010's. And with the name "house" in its business name, it is just that, a house that converted in a 2-story bar/restaurant complete with a sizable outdoor patio. Located directly on 21st St. and in between L St. and Capitol Ave. in the Handle District of Midtown Sacramento, this place has been one of Sacramento's most popular destinations since officially opening back in 2010.

Originally built in 1910, this building was once home to a very popular costume shop, "Cheap Thrills" that many of us remember (including myself) from the late 1960's up until the early 2000's. Much of the building itself has retained its charm complete with its trademark stained glass windows that is on the ceiling of the first floor, rich wood accents throughout, and a very classic upstairs with vintage seating and one of the coolest balconies you'll find in all of Midtown.

As I mentioned, I have been here several times; it was one of the stops that Sacramento Brew Bike was offering, it was part of a pub crawl I've been on for St. Patrick's Day, and it was also one of the pit stops that a large group I went out with stopped at for drinks. As far as the beer selection, prices are very reasonable and the beer itself is ice cold. During my most recent visit (on Saturday 6/11/2022), I went with a pint of the Deschutes Obsidian Stout. I find their beer selection all in itself to be eclectic, unique, and diverse. If beer is not your thing, they also offer wine by the glass as well as a very extensive of hard liquors to satisfy your taste buds.

The food itself is also fairly decent as you will find some popular pub-styled favorites including chorizo mac & cheese, fried pickles (a must try), wings, salads, sandwiches, meatloaf, and Risotto. Many people have criticized the service and food to be subpar but in my dozen or so times I've been here whether its only for drinks or food + drinks, the service has been exceptional. I also do like how its more of a "chill" bar and not over the top with loud music or people shouting on the top of their lungs. They offer a "Brunch" menu on the weekends and a "Happy Hour" menu every Monday-Friday from 5-7pm.

Not to mention they offer very generous hours of operation: Monday - 4pm-12am Tuesday-Thursday -12pm-12am Friday - 12pm-1:30am Saturday - 10am-1:30pm Sunday - 10am-12am

With that said and done, I am giving "Kupros Craft House" a very respectable four-star rating. I thing when it comes to the uniqueness of this house to be converted into a Sacramento hotspot during the nights and weekends, it tells...

Everything started out well on what was our second Friday night foray here. After all, they have a great happy hour, including a $3 craft can roulette. After an enjoyable round of beer and tater tots, the kitchen forgot to fire one of our entrees, which is an oversight that can happen from time to time. No big deal; I let the bartender know and before long it arrived at our table. The FOH service was great and every dish was tasty. So far, so good.

Things then took a turn when the music coming from the patio speakers, already plenty loud, went up to Woodstock ‘99-level decibels to such an extent it was blowing out the speakers, releasing an aural torrent that would make the guards at Gitmo shudder. We let the bartender know, but it took a good ten minutes for the barrage of garbled Milky Chance to abate. In the meantime I struggled to enjoy a buffalo cauliflower bite as I felt my will to live leach out of my body with every thump of the ear-shattering beat.

The usual self-doubt about the situation nonetheless was creeping in. Fortunately, I knew I wasn’t merely being a grumpy elder millennial when I heard the bouncer at the door tell the staff he’d go home for the night if it kept up. When you literally can’t pay someone to be there, you may have a problem.

Upon starting this review, I didn’t intend to solely hold Kupros to account for the post-2000’s restaurant trend of “blaring loud music while you attempt to enjoy your blackened fish with seasonable vegetables” but good lord have they pushed the envelope to a whole new level. If I’m going to eat tater tots while listening to music at New York’s Hottest Dance Club levels, at least add some molly as a garnish. Sadly, we were far, far from any...

I suspect we encountered a bad day for this restaurant (we speculated they had their Christmas party the prior night and were understaffed and hungover), but it was pretty bad.

I went here for brunch with a party of 8. We sent back more than half the food due to poor execution and quality. The menu was exciting, but what arrived was incorrect or poorly executed. The frisee salad with lardons had no lardons and no frisee. The skirt steak with scrambled eggs had a sheet of eggs and the steak had been breaded and deep fried (extremely greasy and not as described), the burgers ordered medium well were rare and the bottom bun of one entirely soggy with blood. One diner thought the burger smelled off. Biscuits and gravy were just gross: the biscuit was dry and maybe stale, and the gravy smelled of fish.

The French toast and Benedict were ok (2 of 8 dishes).

On the service: in our reservation we requested a downstairs table for 8, explaining we had someone who had trouble with stairs. Upon arrival they not only didn't have a downstairs table and had us go upstairs then stand around as they tried to figure out where to seat us. The result was two tables put together of different heights (several inches) where two people were sat at the seam.

It appeared the staff were all on their first day at a restaurant. They gave only half the people water and silverware. We had to ask for these and for menus. Of the two appetizer dishes we ordered one was wrong.

In the end we complained loudly about the deficiencies and to their credit the staff made it right, charging us only for the drinks and appetizers and apologizing.

We went elsewhere for...