| From
New York:
Cruising
The World of Wine
Wine-savvy
Cru Raises the Bar For Big Apple Oenophiles
by
John Mariani
Over
the years, the space at 24 Fifth Ave.---which seems about as prime
as you could find, set just above Washington Square and Greenwich
Village---has had a revolving door of restaurants, most recently
one with chef Jonathan Waxman doing the cooking. True, that last
one wasn't all that special, and the latest resident, Cru,
which has a double meaning as a restaurant that offers some raw
seafood dishes and also as one with a commitment to wine, is a far
more substantial piece of work.
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Shea
Gallante, left, and Robert Bohr |
Chef Shea Gallante, who is part-owner with Roy Welland
and wine director Robert Bohr, was previously chef de cuisine at
Bouley,
and he brings fresh ideas to the table, although in some precious
cases there seems more of an unformed idea rather than beautifully
realized food on the plate. Young and exuberant, Gallante will most
certainly calm down and probably develop into one of New York's
finest.
The
two-level dining room hasn't changed much, except for a cabinet
installed on the upper wall in back of a small service bar. That
may be efficient but blocks most sightlines of Fifth Avenue from
below. Good linens, fine silverware, and thin glassware make this
a sophisticated setting.
Cru’s commitment to wine is astounding, with a list that is
immediately one of the finest in the world, based on co-owner Welland’s
private collection, emphasizing wines from Burgundy, Piedmont, the
Rhone Valley, Germany and Austria, with 3,200 labels, 65,000 bottles,
and 50 wines by the glass. The restaurant boasts impressive breadth,
depth, and rarities: 112 wines from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti,
including the '42 La Tâche, '57 Romanée-Conti, and
'55 Richebourg; 34 different wines from Guigal and 14 vintages of
Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape; 42 Angelo Gaja Barbarescos, including
the “not commercially released 1964 Infernot;” 67 wines
from Knoll in Austria; and so on and so on, all printed in two massive
volumes that would take hours to peruse and at least ten minutes
just to scan.
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| Crudo
selection at Cru |
So
what does one drink with pignoli-dusted skate wing with saffron,
sweet gremolata, and sweet-sour balsamic vinegar? Most assuredly
not a
'42 La Tâche. In fact, not all the dishes on Gallante's menu
are particularly amenable to wine,
like Arctic char with smoked
pepper, apple, endive, and vanilla
oil, but no doubt there's something
on that fabulous list that might
work well.
Otherwise,
be adventurous. Gallante will send out a slew of amuses and things
to taste anyway, like roasted beets in a crispy cone with beet purée,
Gorgonzola dolce and a pistachio tuile; a Montasio cheese tart with
whipped robiola cheese; and fontina panini with Prosciutto, which
were pretty damn tasty. The menu itself is divided into "crudo,"
"firsts," "pasta" and "mains." Don’t
overlook the white tuna with an olive praline and a caper-espresso-and-chive
dressing: yes, it sounds weird, but it was very good. "Gently
cooked Florida shrimp" with chick pea passatina, baby leeks
and guanciale was compromised by the taste of iodine in the shrimp,
while something called "rabbit cotechino" with lentils,
Speck, and mustard didn't sing as high as it read. "Liver &
Onions" was actually caramelized foie gras (too sweetly so)
with spring onion ice cream (hmmm) and confit.
The
better of two pastas sampled was gnocchi with a guazzetto of oxtail
and Barolo wine reduction. Pecorino-stuffed ravioli with parsley,
walnut, and marjoram) would have been fine had they come to the
table more than merely tepid, which is what happens when so many
dishes take such time-consuming preparation and plating.
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Cru
dining room |
The
main courses include a superb fillet of spiced turbot with a confit
of shallots, radicchio, tiny asparagus and "evaporated red
wine-natural jus," which tasted just fine. A baby chicken baked
in buttermilk with herbs, with young carrots braised in orange and
paprika, parsley root and chanterelles, had too many flavors for
them all to meld around the bird. Colorado rack of lamb had plenty
of flavor on its own, with baby romaine, favas, white asparagus,
and mint.
You may have a caramel trifle with blackberry, lemon, and Jurançon
wine, along with a glass of '75 Château d’Yquem at $100,
or a "spontaneous dessert" by pastry chef Will Goldfarb.
Everyone is trying a little too hard to impress at Cru, and, when
a restaurant is so devoted to its wines, food sometimes has to be
reined back and driven in tandem. Simple cooking is always better
cooking, especially when wine is such a crucial part of the formula.
Cru could be one of the great ones; it just needs time and re-casting.
Appetizers
range from $6 for the crudo items, and $12-$18 for the appetizers;
main courses are $21-$48, and desserts $9, which makes this level
of dining a pretty good deal, especially since the chef sends out
so much more to your table.
John
Mariani is well known for his frank and poignant
writing in Esquire, Wine Spectator,
Diversion and the Harper Collection.
He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food
& Drink, The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink
and co-author, with his wife, of the Italian-American
Cookbook. |
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