1608 Crafthouse

I don’t Unilocal places often but this place is The best! Great food. Great atmosphere! Amazing people! This place is legit. No frills but keeps it classy. Local and sustainable. The owner/​head chef is top notch and super friendly. We loved this place for everything it has to offer! Best little pub in Va Beach!

This place has a very cute and cozy atmosphere. The menu is limited but eclectic. I got the gourmet grilled cheese and tomato bisque… Delicious. Other people with me got the lamb burger topped with oysters and a fried egg (loved it) and a bacon cheeseburger with the poutine. (everything disappeared in a hurry… Haha). There was also a scallop special with a pea purée… I was told this was very tasty as well.
The beer selection is large and varied. My favorite was the Terrapin Watermelon Gose… Tart and delicious. They also do mojito flights!!! Blueberry is best by far, although I could sit and drink all of them all day. Well, until I eventually passed out, at least.
They do have outdoor seating, and they only take reservations for parties of six or more. It starts filling up after 8pm, so get there early if you don’t want to wait.

Two skunky beers and attacked by scum flys. Food was terrible also, this place will be gone in a year.

WICKED AWESOME local/​neighborhood pub/​Resturant
Great young owner with a fantastic mind for mixing it up with wonderful cuisine & always a draft BEEYAH for anyone’s taste.
BIG A$$ pretzel is to die for
Haven’t had a bad meal there yet!
Highly recommend this place

The server was great and friendly. The food came out in a decent amount of time. The menu is smaller. I wasn’t blowed away by the food.

My girlfriend and I came for an early dinner. We were greeted by Dave who was very nice and super helpful. We ended up ordering the fried green tomato BLT with siracha fries and the pork shoulder sandwich with Mac and cheese. Dave recommended the vodka mule for my gf since it was happy hour and she loved it. Both sandwiches were amazing and I can’t say enough about the sides. We ended our meal with the skillet cookie… soo good! I will definitely be back to try more of the menu!

Small Brunch menu which is great! The place is small but the menu pack a flavor punch. We had the Chilaquiles, Chicken & Waffles, Sticky Bund & Pancakes. The sweet potato waffle with the chicken n rye syrup was amazing. The pork on the Chilaquiles was Devine! A must visit for Brunch and I’m sure it’s great any other time of the day from the list of crafts available along with the menu. Mimosa Flight was also great.

I love love love this place. They will absolutely cater to requests and their specials are always enticing. Today they offered soft shell crabs and added a giant pretzel for specials. The burger here is in my top 3 burgers in Hampton Roads… get one and you will see!

I have had the pleasure of being a patron at 1608 a handful of times intermittently since they opened.
Each and every visit, regardless if I’m sitting at bar or in the dining room, service and food have always always always been exceptional.
If one loves oysters, I would highly recommend 1608. They are from James River and have always tasted fresh. Whoever is shucking them also seems to know what they’re doing. Very limited to zero shell debris.
Other favs are the happy hour Poutine & flatbread! There’s also some chicken thighs on special too! Can’t beat the portions or quality of the happy hour offerings.
I need to make my visits more frequent. Period.

The food here is just right. Just right enough to fill me up and roll me out the door! I really wish I could’ve kept on eating. That peanutbutter pie sounded amazing! I had the Big A$$ Pretzel to start with my gf… and we realized that it’s a meal in itself. We could’ve ordered that, some beer, and a dessert and would’ve been fat and happy. But no, she could only kill off half of her burger and that we plowed halfway through the monster pretzel before we squeezed out the door. I enjoyed their namesake burger, and she had the plain ol’ cheeseburger but I at least convinced her to get egg on it. The brews we had were excellent and just right for washing down that grub. I’ll definitely be back soon!

We have stopped in a couple of times since they popped up near family. We were originally disappointed to see that Manninos left, because we would frequent them quite often, but we were pleasantly surprised the day we decided to pop in! They have an awesome craft beer menu and offer a couple of different types of flights if you’d like to sample several.
Let me just say, if you like burgers, you NEED to order theirs! It is stuffed with cheese, and wrapped in crispy bacon! Who wouldn’t LOVE that! It comes with homemade fries as well. My boyfriends ordered the chicken and waffles from their brunch menu the last time we were in — it was served with a bourbon maple syrup, sooo good! It’s a great place to hang out with friends and family and perfect for grabbing a couple drinks too!

Phenomenal. In every aspect.
We came here for the Devils Backbone Steal a Pint night and were not disappointed at all. We skipped appetizers and went straight to the food-​she ordered the Pork Burger special with pork rinda and I got the Fried Green Tomato BLT with an egg and fries. The pork burger was very moist and the andouille with bacon just made it killer. The fried green tomato BLT with an egg and fries was just fantastic. The bread was hearty and the fried green tomatoes were thick and delicious with a perfect golden coating-​the field greens were the perfect touch.
The grand finale sealed the deal-​GRIDDLED PBJ. I asked for a cup of extra peanut butter to dip it in but it did come with an amazing vanilla bean crème/​icing.
I will definitely be going back-​there are so many culinary creations to explore!

I decided to try this place out for restaurant week. I had the shrimp and grits, the dry packed scallops and the bread pudding all with beer pairings. The shrimp and grits were very good and worth returning for. They had a hint of smokiness to them and the grits themselves were well prepared. The shrimp and grits are also found on their regular menu.
The scallops were good and nicely cooked. I don’t think they’re on the regular menu.
The bread pudding was average but good. The caramel sauce was different with a slight bitterness to it. The bread pudding is on the regular menu.
We were given the tip to show up before 6:30pm on Saturday. I’m glad we listened. We showed up at 5:30 and were immediately shown a table. By the time we left around 6:30, there was a 40min wait.

We went here on a whim based on reviews I saw. When we got there we were the only ones there but it got packed as time passed by.
We ordered a flight of mimosas to start off and while I’m not a drinker at all, one of them ended up being perfect for me. I highly recommend getting the peach agave mimosa, it was amazing!!! The other two had two much alcohol in them (I’m super lightweight) so I didn’t really like them. The fourth one was a regular house mimosa.
As for food, I ordered the lasagna and while it was really good, I think it had way too much cheese on it. I really wish it had more veggies or meat in it. It was also smaller than I expected and I was still kind of hungry after eating it.
Since my fiancé didn’t really like his burger or his drink, I don’t know if we’d ever go back though (*the rating I gave is based on only my experience and not his). It didn’t blow me away but it’s worth giving it a try!

Check in to celebrate a friends birthday! This is casual dining with great menu and beer selection. We had 11 people in our party with a massive order of drinks and «Pretzel» the pretzel was delicious especially with the cheese dip. Our waitress did not flinch…
She was on it the whole night! The Mac/cheese…ShrimpnGrits…Beer Chicken. Bacon Burger «All votes ⁴⁄₅ stars!!! The atmosphere was lively… Enjoy

My latest visit happened last Monday evening right after I got off the Bay Bridge Tunnel. I had received a call from James R asking if I wanted to get a beer. I’m never one to turn that down, and on to the Crafthouse I marched.
Since I had been on the road for 5 hours I was pretty hungry. I opted for their 4 Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Tomato Soup Bisque. Naturally I added Bacon to it. As always when the food arrived it looked like a piece of art had been placed in front of me. I love it when a restaurant takes the time to make their food look as good as it’s gonna taste. The sandwich had been cut in half and pinned together with a sandwich skewer and was standing upright in the bowl of soup. It looked cool, check out the picture.
As for the taste? It tasted even better than it looked. The cheese and bacon combination was just excellent. I probably could have eaten another sandwich. I mean, who eat’s just one grilled cheese sandwich at a time. As for the Soup, the Tomato Bisque was delicious. Perfect food for a cold winter evening, no doubt about it.
I topped dinner off with an Alter Ego Saison from our local brewer Smartmouth. Simply perfect.
I’ve been here 5 or 6 times now and am consistently impressed with the food and service. The bartenders are always cool and very knowledgeable about the beer menu, which BTW is heavily influenced by Virginia beers. You should definitely check them out if you’re looking for something new to try. You’ll end up being a repeat customer.

Great selection of local beers! Their menu is trying to be upscale, but there are few things that stand out.
The bar is small so it’s hard to get a «single» seat.
Bartenders are always friendly and very knowledgeable about the beer selection.
Great place to have something different!

So glad we decided to come here for Sunday Brunch! It was exceptionally delicious and different! When we go out I tend to be a creature if habit, I order the same things or close variations of what I like. However I made a challenge to myself to try something different or unexpected for me. That’s exactly what I did here!
We got a flight of each mimosas and bloody Mary’s and they were great! I liked the cider mimosa with the cinnamon sugared rim and out of the bloodys I liked the kicker or the jalapeño one.
I ordered the chilquilias which was tortilla chips under pork shoulder, pico, avacado, and a over easy egg. It was so freaking good! I ate ever last bite! My only compliant was the chips were soggy bc all of the heavenly yummy toppings. Not a big deal but it would have been nice to have that crunch to chnage up the texture of the dish. My boyfriend had the shrimp and grits and I thought it was better then anything else. The broth had so much flavor and the grits where the best I’ve had. His only compliant was the description on the menu, it didn’t list sautéed onions and there was yes onions that my non onion eating boyfriend had to pick out and gave to me.
I would come here over and over again bc the food is so great and there was no insane wait time fr Sunday brunch.

I’ve only been here once but the food and service were both fantastic. My friends and I stopped in on a Sunday and it wasn’t crowded, so maybe it’s a little too easy to give great service, but still, the food was very good.
Originally we were there just for a drink or two but I relented and ordered their pork belly. Goodness gracious, it was delicious and is tasty enough to brag about. But in case you’re not hungry they have some interesting brews which are supported by a knowledgeable and friendly staff.
I’d like to stop by again soon and see if they’ve added any more menu items and if they can rock it out when it’s busy. But based on my experience this is a fine establishment which could thrive, being so close to Shore Dr. I’m sure word of mouth is helping if others like it as much as I do, so here’s hoping it’ll be around for a long time. JV

My fellow foodie friend and I decided to meet up here to catch up. We ended up sitting at a booth close to the entrance. I will say the booth was a bit uncomfortable — the table seemed so close to me and my friend and the back of my booth kept moving because of the person on the other side. Anyways, our waitress came by and informed us of all the drinks and specials this place had to offer.
The place serves a lot of local craft beers. I ended up getting a Hardywood Virginia Blackberry by the pint. Yum. For a starter, we got the charcuterie plate. I didn’t think I was hungry enough, but glad we got the plate. It was a good spread of meats, cheese, pickled carrots, honey, and bread. The pickled carrots was a surprise for me… I ended up going back to it again and again.
I decided to go big and get a ribeye served with fries and marrow. My ribeye was cooked to perfection. I loved the cloves of roasted garlic. I kept slicing them up to eat with my bites of ribeye. I loved that I had enough to pair with the whole ribeye because I did eat it all. The marrow was the first time I have tried by just scooping it up. I was already going crazy with the steak so the marrow was too over the top for me and I was feeling guilty having some after the first bite. The fries were yummy.
Just when I thought I couldn’t fit any more in my stomach, we were told about dessert. The place has gelato and it’s the gelato from Confetti in Town Center. Luckily, our waitress was very considerate about what the gelato portions might do to us since she suggested we share as it comes in 3 scoops. She was right, those are big scoops served in an open mason jar.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and our waitress made sure we were taken care of the whole night. I’ll be back!