We got the press release but we didn’t quite follow what was really going on with Debbie Sharpe’s downtown location which used to be Cru Cafe & Wine Bar, became a downtown outpost of her Feast, and just went back to being Cru again. But Eater spoke to her and she made it clearer. Three years ago, when the economy got spooked (whatever it is now, exactly), dinner business at Cru sank and she was actually doing better take-out business from The Goddess & Grocer attached to the restaurant. So she converted the 25 E. Delaware location to another version of Feast, her popular Wicker Park spot, and for a while, did well— for breakfast, mainly. But now she sees the economy doing better and plenty of places doing big business for dinner nearby, so the time seemed right to resurrect Cru as a mellower neighborhood alternative to the big Viagra Triangle names. Chef Richard Roettgen (Girl & the Goat, Alinea) is dishing up the food, Bret Heiar devised a winelist covering a lot of unfamiliar territory (Serbia, Lebanon), and Cru is back as of last Saturday. [Eater]
