A crosscheck is a great balance of features - put lots of commuting and utility riding km on mine set up as a 1x9. Now my college son has it with a 44 t chain ring and 12-36 cassette. Factory build is nice, an ala carte build of slightly higher level components - makes the bike really shine.
However - consider a Soma Smoothie ES or Double cross - the IRD steel forks are nicer than surly forks. A Smootie ES replaced the cross check - fit was more to my needs.