so with the weekend upon us and with restaurant week in full swing it was out to another local destination for 3 more courses. (i want to step out right now and let you all know that i have been playing a fair amount of quash these past couple of weeks in preparation for my week and a half gluttonous bacchanal, so i am not 600lbs right now). my 2nd destination for restaurant week was crush restaurant in the belvedere market area off of york rd.
this was an atypical saturday excursion to crush. we were booked in a private room for 14 people to celebrate my maternal grandmothers 85th birthday. for her present the 3 boys (my brothers - jmc & jhb, and myself) were going to show up as a surprise. in order to complete the surprise i had to pick jmc up from a bus and that meant we had time to kill, and when you have time to kill in that area on a hot day then i highly recommend ducking into the grand cru to gulp, slurp, schwill, and sip some tasty white wine to assist in combatting the humid august evening. that is exactly what jmc and i did. Gewurztraminer for me and an NZ sauv blanc for the older bro. (there is a serious lack of whit wine in my life, and this pit stop to grad cru reminded me that i need to remedy that situation). feeling refreshed and ready to surprise we wandered across the square and entered crush with to things on our mind; give gran a hug and eat.
the highlight was definitely the birthday celebration, but the food at crush was the perfect fit for all who attended from my 85 year old grandmother to my 'adopted' sister from malawi who is 14. there was nothing on the menu that was too extravagant, intimidating, or polarizing. everything was playful new american cooking. starters around the table ranged from shrimp and grits, to truffled risotto with a poached egg, and the seasonal heirloom tomato salad. these were all simple flavors with a light variety in terms of technique and the mains that followed were more simple. seared salmon, rib-eye steaks, penne pasta, and crab cakes. dessert was the simplest and wasnt really anything super special, but by that time we had had 4 bottles of wine at the table and the funny family stories were flying around the table, and we werent really concerned with the dessert at that point.
my recommendation save crush for the family functions. good food, good environment, but not a place i would say you need to go or a place that i would say take a date. on the flip side though if you are looking for a place to take some on a low key causal but palate pleasing date and you are in the area than i would highly recommend the grand cru.
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