Sommelier John Slover, Wine Director Robert Bohr, and
Sommelier Alex Miranda |
Cru
24 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
212-529-1700 |
The Crew at Cru: Robert
Bohr, Alex Miranda, and John Slover
By Jim Clarke
and Michann Thompson
Great wine, as they say, starts in
the vineyard, and the most basic translation of “cru”
is, in fact, “vineyard,” generally one of superior
quality. So it would be fair to say that great wine in New
York starts at Cru, the latest restaurant to occupy the
often-changing space that is 24 Fifth Avenue.
Built on the solid and extensive collection
of part-owner Roy Welland, Cru sports a list of about 3,500
bottles; the collection is so large that much of it is stored
off-site in New Jersey. Although prices ascend into the
5-digit range for some well-aged rarities, there is also
a good selection of wines for under $100. If the list on
the whole seems expensive, it’s not because of a gouging
markup; it’s because the wines are that hard-to-find,
and that good.
Of course, negotiating your way through
two three-pound wine tomes (one for white, one for red)
can be daunting, especially if you’re trying to match
your selection with chef Shea Gallante’s menu. Fortunately
Wine Director and part-owner Robert Bohr has assembled a
team that’s ready to help.
Robert himself entered the restaurant
business at a young age – 13 – but it was only
while working his way through NYU at Gramercy Tavern that
he decided that wine was more interesting than becoming
a lawyer. After building up his skills as a wine captain
there, he started as a sommelier at Babbo the day it opened,
and there he began to learn the practicalities of running
a wine program – inventory, dealing with sales reps,
pricing, etc. Specializing in Italian wines in what was
then a French-dominated scene gave him a way of standing
out.
It was later, while working at Colina,
that Robert met Alex Miranda. According to Alex, “Robert
came up to me one night with a glass of wine and said, ‘What
do you think this is?’ and I said, “Oh, it’s
Burgundy. Meursault.” Alex had grown up drinking California
wine; a mentor at San Francisco’s Zuni Café
then turned him on to Old World wines. It was after Robert
had pointed out his strength as a taster that his interest
became a passion. He sought out work at restaurants with
great wine lists, and after time at Babbo and The Tasting
Room he landed the Wine Director gig at Verbena. He met
John at Blue Hill, and they worked together at Sotheby’s
short-lived restaurant, Bid.
In 1996, John had decided that med
school was not for him, and lied his way into a restaurant
job in Boston. The MW who trained the staff there broke
wine down to its basic components; John says, “He
made it very simple: it’s just acid, alcohol, tannin,
and sugar. Places and grapes.” Building his skills
in wine sales also built up his check average. Eventually
he made a New Years Resolution: to get a job in the wine
business by the end 2000; March found him working at Blue
Hill, where he met Robert a dinner his first week there.
Robert became his go-to man for wine business questions,
and Robert began sharing with him the very skills he had
started developing at Babbo.
Eventually Robert tapped Alex
and John to join him at Cru. They offer a unified front
in that their preferences suit the winelist; the Old World
dominates, especially Burgundy, with Piedmont, German and
Austrian whites, and the Rhone valley also looming large.
However, with three different personalities to guide you
and a list of such depth, the restaurant bears repetition;
there are many routes to a great wine experience at Cru.
