Crane Alley (Urbana)

Since this is the first post on this blog, which will be about restaurants (and bars) in the Urbana-Champaign area, I thought it would be good to start out with an entry on what is my favorite food and drink establishment in Urbana.

Crane Alley, located at 115 West Main Street in Urbana, is a bar and restaurant, though most of the floor space is devoted to the bar and pool tables. When I was there just last week, it was only my second chance to sit down and have a meal (the first being my 21st birthday).

My girlfriend and myself got there about 15 minutes early, and we elected to start off with an appetizer: Crane Alley's signature beet chips. Every table around us got this appetizer, since it is one of the dishes that Crane Alley is most known for. The beet chips come with a bowl of a goat cheese dip (which has cream cheese mixed in). The dip is somewhat rich and heavy, and helps to bulk up what might otherwise be a rather light appetizer.

The sandwiches at Crane Alley run up to around $10, and the main courses a bit higher than that. My girlfriend got a portabella mushroom burger, which was one of the daily specials, and of course had no meat. However, it was bulky enough to offset that and not be as light and unfilling as a lot of vegetarian food ends up being. I got a beer-battered fish sandwich, which was crispy and fairly large (way too much fish for the bun), along with the sweet potato fries (another thing Crane Alley is known for). One of the complaints I usually have about fried fish sandwiches is how greasy they are, but luckily this sandwich didn't fall into that trap.

As one would expect from a bar, there is a pretty good drink selection. However, Crane Alley goes beyond the call of duty, and has more than ten beers on draft at any one time, with the majority of them coming from different microbreweries (the selection is constantly being rotated). In addition, there is an obscenely large selection of bottled beers (more than what the Blind Pig offers), and a wide selection of hard liquor and mixed drinks. Of my total bill of $50, around $20 of that was from drinks.

The primary lure that Crane Alley has is its wide selection of beers and drinks, which can be ordered alongside a selection of appetizers or food (something some local competitors do not offer). In addition, it has weekly special dishes and daily specials, and special beer and food pairings on set dates (tickets must usually be purchased). I would highly recommend anyone in the area or at the university make the effort to stop here at least once.

[Image courtesy of http://www.crane-alley.com/]