At The Bunker at Crossgates, Chef Conner Brackbill Brings Elevated Comfort to the Golf Course

At first glance, The Bunker at Crossgates might seem like the kind of place where golfers settle in after a round for a quick sandwich, a cold drink, and a familiar view of the course. But Executive Chef Conner Brackbill sees something more.

For Brackbill, The Bunker is an opportunity to blur the line between casual and refined, between the comfort of a smash burger and the surprise of grilled lamb chops with blackberry brown butter. It is a public golf course restaurant with a menu that welcomes everyone, whether they are walking off the 18th hole or simply coming in for dinner.

“I want people to know they can come here and get nice food like this lamb,” Brackbill says, “but they can also get a smash burger.”

A really good smash burger, of course.

Brackbill’s path into the kitchen began at 16, when he started as a dishwasher at Bube’s Brewery. Like many chefs who build their careers from the ground up, he learned by doing. From the dish pit, he moved through the ranks, eventually managing the Catacombs, Bube’s more fine-dining-focused space, before transitioning to the Bottling Works, where the menu leaned more toward bar food.

That experience helped shape his culinary point of view.

His style today is rooted in what might best be described as elevated bar food: approachable, satisfying, and familiar, but with the technique and ambition to surprise. It is the kind of cooking that respects what guests already love while gently nudging them toward something unexpected.

Much of Brackbill’s early foundation came from chef Corinna Killian, whom he credits as a major influence.

“She was amazing,” he says. “She taught me most of the stuff that I know now.”

When Killian later invited him to work as her sous chef at Stoner Grill, Brackbill followed. Not long after, he found himself stepping into the lead role, ultimately running the kitchen there for about five years. It was a formative period, but eventually, he felt the need for change.

“I needed something new,” he says. “I felt myself getting a little dull creatively.”

At The Bunker, he found the freedom he had been looking for.

Here, Brackbill has room to experiment. The core menu still gives guests the comfort they expect from a golf course restaurant, especially during the day when many are looking for something quick and casual. But as evening arrives, the menu expands into entrées and specials that feel more refined.

Lamb chops. Seafood. Miso-glazed cod.

The cod, in particular, surprised even Brackbill.

“I sold a miso-glazed cod, which was pretty surprising that they actually bought it,” he says. “But we sold out of that pretty soon.”

For a chef cooking in a landlocked setting, seafood has become one of the pleasant surprises of his time at The Bunker. Guests, he says, respond to it. Brackbill has also found himself increasingly drawn to fish in his own cooking, making roasted and pan-seared preparations at home, especially red snapper.

That growing interest shows in the way he thinks about balance and flavor. He is not chasing novelty for novelty’s sake. Instead, he is interested in dishes that feel thoughtful, generous, and grounded.

The lamb chop dish he prepared for this feature is a perfect example: grilled lamb chops served with zucchini and mint purée, blackberry brown butter sauce, Calabrian chilies, and fresh mint. It is polished without feeling precious, brightened by herbs, deepened by brown butter, and given just enough heat from the chilies.

“I enjoy heat,” Brackbill says, “but I prefer flavorful heat.”

That distinction matters. The Calabrian chilies are not there to overwhelm the palate. They bring fruit, warmth, and character, complementing the richness of the lamb and the sweetness of blackberry rather than competing with them.

The pairing cocktail follows the same logic: a mint and blackberry mojito that mirrors the dish’s fresh, dark-fruited notes. Brackbill is quick to say he does not consider himself an expert on cocktails, but the instinct is clear. The drink looks beautiful, tastes refreshing, and belongs beside the plate.

At The Bunker, Brackbill leads a kitchen staff of about six, a team responsible for creating both quick, casual fare and more ambitious dinner specials. That dual identity is exactly what he wants the restaurant to embody.

He is not trying to turn The Bunker into something unrecognizable. He understands the setting and the guests. Some people want a fast lunch before or after a round. Some want a burger. Some want something more composed at the end of the night.

Brackbill believes there is room for all of it.

That may be the quiet charm of his cooking: it does not force a choice between comfort and creativity. Instead, it gives guests permission to have both.

At The Bunker, a public golf course restaurant becomes a place where bar food can be thoughtful, specials can be surprising, and a chef with a dishwasher’s beginning can continue building a kitchen in his own voice.