238 W 2nd St
(512) 472-9463
Website: Cru Locations
Hours: Sun-M, 4-11pm; Th-Sat, 4pm-mid
Happy Hour: 4-6pm, 1/2 price app. & pizzas; Wednesday 1/2 price Champagne

Our rating:

The other night we made it to Crú, A Wine Bar, an established wine bar on 2nd street. It was a nice night, so we decided to take a table next to an open door. Crú offers more than 40 wines by the glass and 14 different flights: seven red, six white and one sparkling wine. The flights are served using a fancy wine glass carrying device so our server could bring 12 glasses at one time to our table.

We started with the champagne flight. The sparkling wines were served in nice stemware that has a little mark to indicate the level of the pour for a flight. (Someone should point this out to the bar tender, because all of the champagne glasses were under-filled.)

Unfortunately, the “big” bottle for the flight was a corked bottle of Veuve Clicquot. After waiting a while, I went up to the bar and asked the bar tender to take a sniff. He did and then told me a little mustiness was to be expected with a bottle of Veuve. We talked for awhile longer before our server came, tasted the champagne, and said she thought it was a little off. I was glad she stepped in because this was a really bad bottle, and I had no intention of drinking it. Eventually the manager came over and tasted the bottle, pronounced it corked, and we were served fresh glasses of Veuve.

To go with our sparklers, we ordered two appetizers: calamari and a cheese plate. The calamari was good and not over cooked (which frequently happens in Austin). The cheese plate was another story. The cheese flight sells for $14 and had only 3 tiny pieces of cheese on it. (I think the appropriate expression is “elf food”.)

We weren’t off to a good start, but we decided to try a second round of flights. This time our group of four selected four different red wine flights. All of the glasses were filled to the mark, and all of the wines were served slightly chilled. The red wine selections were well-thought out, and the offerings covered most of the major wine producing regions. But there was nothing really special or unusual.

This is the second time we have tried Crú, and both times the experience has been more or less the same, pretty ho-hum. If you want to have a glass of wine in downtown, Crú is conveniently located. But if you are picking a destination for the evening, you might want to try one of the other wine bars Austin has to offer.