Wine-savvy Cru Raises the Bar For Big Apple Oenophiles

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.

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.

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.

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.