Graft Wine + Cider Bar — Restaurant in Town of Dix

Highlights: service, wine, local ingredients Lowlights: taste and cook

My partner and I have been trying to go to Graft for a long time. We drove 45 minutes two separate times, after checking their website and Instagram just to find out they were closed on days they were listed as open.

We gave up for about a year, and finally was able to make it in last night.

The restaurant is small with only three tables and bar space. It is cozy and cute. They have an upstairs but we did not see it.

We love that all their ingredients are farm-to-table and my partner who had been several years prior was excited to take me. The first thing he mentioned when we walked in is that the menu seemed to be "whitewashed" which we found to be disappointing. In his past experience, he loved that the chef's Dominican culture was really represented in the food. Now, you would not be able to recognize it from any other American menu.

We ordered a wine and started continued to enjoy the company we were with. The waitress was funny and attentive, with a perfect amount of awareness of when we needed her, but not consistently interrupting conversation.

Unfortunately when we got our food we were a bit disappointed. The scallop appetizer was tasty but over cooked. We also got oysters, which were okay but I think could be more fresh. While not near the ocean, I have had oysters in this area that I enjoy much more.

The bread was amazing and is from my favorite bakery in the region, Wide Awake.

For food, we ordered the Arctic Char, Tuna special and the dry aged steak. The arctic char was dry, the tuna dish was very one note and SUPER salty, but the worst thing was the steak.

It was ordered medium rare and was WAY over cooked. It was very dry and hard to chew through. All the seasonings on everything seemed to lack depth.

Lastly, we ordered all of the desserts and none of them were that good. Rice pudding was not the right consistency and very sweet, the c heesecake was sour and the other chocolate tasty was just okay.

Overall we had a great time, but were pretty let down by the food, especially...

There is no one at the door to seat you and it is mostly bar seating. The window seating is set for large groups so one must take a seat at the bar. The restaurant is very dark. In this case there was no greeting and while there was staff and only two other sets of customers and a nearly empty restaurant, no one approached me for over ten minutes. It was so long that I began to look for another restaurant on my phone. I wish I had left. When I ordered only a Saratoga Springs sparkling water, the server looked displeased. The bread and salad were set down together so that I had to eat the bread while staring at the salad. While I ate my salad, the main course was set down and I got to eat my salad while staring at the main dish. The salad is a very large bowl of lettuce piled with nuts and some anemic thin slices of beets. It couldn’t have been more boring. I hated the main dish, a piece of trout over gross tasteless, weird purple noodles and tough kale. I watched as a friendly, personable server approached the couple sitting next to me in a timely manner offering to change the set and seafood so I could have chosen the mashed potatoes set with my trout, a much better set that would have been enjoyable. Why is anyone still putting kale on a plate. It is tough and tasteless. Potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower are all wonderful vegetables. At least the trout was cooked nicely. The dessert was a flavorless coffee cake and a saccharine sweet coffee sauce that didn’t taste like coffee. It was much too sweet. The small dollop of whipped cream cut the sweetness but one had to use it sparingly. When I told the server it was birthday when she checked in with me, she wondered out loud about putting a candle in my half eaten coffee cake. She might have known it was my birthday if she had taken any interest in her guest. Do not recommend...

The Best Meal of Our Trip

We were looking for a nice spot for lunch, and ChatGPT suggested a list of places — this one was at the top. As usual, my husband didn’t wait for the rest of the list and had already parked in front of Graft Wine + Cider Bar.

The exterior was lovely — probably even cozier at night with all the lights. Inside, it was clean, welcoming, and full of charm. We were the first ones after the lunch break, but soon after, a few more tables filled up.

We started with green peppers (I don’t recall the exact name from the menu — shishito, maybe?). They were delicious! Then came a big bowl of fresh greens with beets and goat cheese — so good! The trout was also fantastic, served with quinoa and a carrot-ginger slaw. Every bite felt thoughtful and fresh.

My husband enjoyed a glass of Riesling from their local selection. I went with a non-alcoholic Cosmopolitan — but ended up spilling the whole thing! The waiter was kind, helped clean up without a fuss, and at the end told us they didn’t charge for the drink. Such a generous and thoughtful gesture.

I also want to mention how much I loved the plates and glasses — beautiful and carefully chosen. You could feel the care in every detail. I really appreciate the farm-to-table concept and their support of local wineries and cider houses.

On the drive home, we read some of the reviews and were surprised to see a few negative ones. It’s honestly upsetting how unfair they seemed — some people must have walked in with impossible expectations or were just in a bad mood.

Our waitress was amazing: warm, attentive, helpful, smiling — and she even recommended a spot for ice cream afterwards.

I wish more restaurants were like this one.

Thank you! You truly...