[written by TwoOFour]
[pic]
Paul had initially invited me to Crush back in 2007 at the CAAR tradeshow and I initially promised to show up the day they opened, so it was with some embarrassment that I showed up three weeks late, and only on the additional encouragement of the Cvillain homework assignment. But I have to say that I am delighted that I did. I posted a request for the phone number for Crush in order to find out hours of operation, and found an email from Gregg Oxley with not only the number but a pleasant invitation. That is what I’ll call Pre-customer service service. Wow, a first for me.
The store has been described perfectly by Yupster in the Crush on Crush. I’d like to add that I was greeted like I was an old friend by Kelly and Gregg. The store is an upscale but unpretentious feel, and you can sense the handiwork and deep involvement of the owners. Gregg first offered up tastings of the wines of the day, and poured generously, while talking about the wines with such passion. Then he moved on to open a bottle from Spain that he felt we absolutely had to try, and we exchanged stories about wine from Burgundy. There was a sincerity to the passion I at no point did I feel like I had to reciprocate by buying lots of wine I wasn’t really sure I wanted. Luckily he had a case on display with an Albarino that I had been searching for fruitlessly, so I knew from the second I walked in that we were shopping.
The store is about a full rounded experience, there has been a lot of effort in the wine selection that certainly reflects the incredible knowledge of its owner’s (as far as I can see with my limited wine knowledge) and with limited space it is a condensed special collection. Surprisingly Gregg offered up that he had selected some wine that he had regretted and it was refreshing to hear the truth about the trials of opening a wine store as opposed to just the successes. We spend about 45 wonderful minutes, and Gregg offered another glass of the wine we preferred, no stinginess with the pour either. I explained the recent buzz and assignment by the Cvillain, and the positive reviews the place had received.
Gregg offered up an exclusive Cvillain Cheese and Wine tasting. I was looking at my husband to gauge his experience, and he was literally teary eyed, as it turned out his contact lens has lodged itself and he was suffering. In an attempt to help out Gregg was trying to find a suitable container to rescue the wayward lens. I had a funny image in my head of wine patrons leaving the store with a wineglass in hand with a contact lens swimming around in it.
Then we drove to Beer Run. Charlottesville is a strange bird, the people at Onstar were laughing heartily when they at the third attempt had to confirm that I had to turn from Carlton Rd onto Carlton Rd, but that turned out to be the correct directions indeed. I was once again in a place that made me feel like I was visiting friends. I presented my self as a Cvillain, and was told the celebrity Cvillain Belmont Yo had made an appearance earlier. I was curiously looking around to see if I could spot other villains, I left guessing later. Josh and Evan were waiting on us, and Josh related that they were upset to see that a Cvillain reviewer had reported a ten minute wait for a sandwich, and explained how the chef had been with his wife that was in labor and Josh’s mother had taken over the chef duties. A novel story I thought to myself, and I would add the mother-made sandwich certainly would have been worth a ten minute wait.
We had laugh over the fact that you could get PBR on draft, and enjoyed a Starr Hill Amber and a Hefe Wiesen on draft. We shared a Cuban sandwich and Evan kept asking if we wanted separate plates, we declined and ultimately was served on a little basket. The sandwich was not a traditional Cuban and did not have some of the core ingredients such as mustard, but the pesto tomato and other creative ingredients made it a great sandwich that I will order again, mainly because the pork was juicy and delicious, I frankly
cannot remember having better pork, ever, and I am from the main pork eating and producing country in the world. It states: house smoked pork; I’ll venture to ask about their process next time around.I spotted quite a few IKEA items, and the bar was comfortable enough not to want to leave in favor of eating at a table. People seemed comfortable and were enjoying the football game on the large screen. I glanced at the selection of beer and needless to say, I‘ll have to return many times in order to try it all. This is sports bar, diner, gourmet food in one amalgam, but the friendly wait staff is the adhesive, and I predict a long life for Beer Run.
Then we drove to Zinc, and thank y’all for not telling me it was closed when I announced I was going there yesterday. Sigh. Siips was the last stop (we thought) and as with the rest of the new places in town the poor people at Onstar could not find a phone number before we abandoned the vehicle and started roaming the mall. When we spotted the wine bar we immediately tried to piece together the previous tenant of the space, was it a men’s wear store the display windows starred back at me in their emptiness. We walked into the place that was relatively crowded, and I felt like pulling out my tanning goggles to protect my eyesight, the first impression was wow, where do the bowling balls come out?.
We found a spot at the mile long bar and I tried to find a hook under the bar to hang my significant bag. To my surprise I found nothing. We had standing room so I couldn’t place my bag on a chair, I tried several times to place the bag on the shallow foot rest on the bar, but it kept falling down on the floor. The interior was luxurious and strangely enough it seemed like they spend their entire budget before someone noticed that they forgot to buy artwork, the only picture on the wall was a framed wine bottle poster that looked like it may have been a promotional gift. A mile of wall starred blankly at us. I am no feng shui expert, but the room did not jive, the ceiling was too high, the furniture was arranged strangely, and as we looked at the expressions of our fellow patrons as they seemed to be squinting back at us with some discomfort to trace on their faces. My husband the psychologist thought they looked a little like deer in the headlights, and people were looking liked they might wanted to flee due to the light that kept us strangely sober and suspended in harsh reality, no matter how much wine we drank.
They really should play music said my husband, I think they were…it was inaudible. I ordered a Spanish red, and was immediately told that they were out ok, at a wine bar I’d think they would run out of glasses before they ran out of wine, but I chalked it down newness. The next wine I ordered, -well it was on the other end of the spectrum a South African Sav Blanc, and was told again that they were out, the waiter ordered up a taste of a chenin blanc, that was so dry my mouth must have resembled a chicken’s ass. I declined, and he miraculously found an opened bottle of the Sav blanc I initally wanted. He pushed the 6 ounce glass, and I thought it was un necessary since this was an upscale bar, and I surely would be getting a few glasses whether it be 3 or, 6 or by the bottle. I took the 6 ounce glass because at that point I knew I was not having any more wine at siips. My husband settled with the Alamos Malbec that was ok but sub par to many cheaper Malbec’s such as the Norton Malbec, or any of the Malbec’s carried at Crush. The wine selection seemed like a pretty mainstream, driven by anticipation of demand and not exactly adventures or a connoisseur’s selection (again mind you through the (tanning bed goggles of a non-connoisseur). Less than 5 Minutes after ordering we were served with our check, the waiter apologetically placed it in front of us with a shrug and a “I hope you don’t mind. We did. Looking down the bar I can see that this is the practice in this place, lots of black plastic check folders adorned the bar. Now this practice was reminiscent of greasy diner, not an upscale wine bar. Are you really trying to turn over that quickly, with capacity for 900 million people? Suddenly we saw what looked like a nuclear plume of steam rising from the center of the bar. To our horror we discovered they had installed their dishwashers in the middle of the bar, and I felt like I was going through a car wash right there and then, I felt pretty bad for the guests sitting adjacent from the industrial dishwasher, trying to sip their wine and interpret the finer notes of the wine. I can see how this is hopelessly practical for the waiters, but that was not in need of reengineering, please do the glasses in the kitchen.
My husband ventured to try the selection of hors d’oeuvres, and I decided against trying based on his facial expression as he ate. My observation was they looked suspiciously like the stuff I have in my freezer from Sam’s Club. I prompted my husband to conjure up some positives, to offset and contrast our many negative impressions, and as he came up short, so I decided to try the facilities for inspiration. It was much to my amusement I discovered that the four recessed lights had three different varieties of light bulbs, making for quite creative lighting. There was an out-door floodlight, two bulbs that looked like that had been nicked from the Hardware store, and a 120 watt regular household light bulb. I hope this lightscape was intentional. There was a line when I left the one of two co-ed bathrooms. (why co-ed?)
I returned to the bar and pulled a piece of scrap paper to write my thoughts on while pondering Stuarts predicion; that if they are going to be open as long as they please because they can “afford to†because it will not be because they are the best wine bar in town. I think the anxious waiter felt my discomfort and we saw him deliver some message to one of the two owners. I can only guess, but as the owner passed us at the bar he gave my husband a nasty, mean glance that I saw as well, I turned to my husband (who is an expert in human behavior and expression, unlike me who is just borderline paranoid) in disbelieve, and he cried out in disbelief, “did you see that look he gave me? It is now with fear for my life I am writing this review, if I for unexplained reasons disappear, darling Cvillains, thou shall be my witness and hereby know what happened to me.
Enoteca was our soft landing, Andrew was really eager to hear our experience with their big competitor across the street, we got comfortable in the dim light, enjoying the ipe wood trim and wine rack, and I hung my bag on the hook under the bar. Andrew seemed pleased with my prediction that he would get his patrons back shortly. The place filled up during the hour or so we were there, and we enjoyed a primitivo and my husband had a capa-something (he couldn’t read the label due to his lens failure at Crush) that was outstanding.
Coran may be the king, but he is benevolent in his ability to do things right and take care of setting up places that really are good and world class. We can’t really afford to blame him for investing in these great restaurants and lounges. We be-cried [drunk sp?] the fact that legislation passed made it impossible to serve Virginia wine at a profit as it was done a Vavino), and I promised in my drunken state that I was going to write a bill and petition David Toscano so we could change that. I wrote the bill on the back of a Aberdeen Barn receipt and as far as I can read it was straight to the point: We want our VA wine in our VA restaurants, please, Siiirs.
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Tagged as: Activities, Bars, Charlottesville, Gripes, Local Business, Restaurants, Restaurants/Bars, Reviews, Weekends, Wine
wow great homework assignment 2o4. You get an A.
Bonus points for the hidden message.
call me cheeky, but i’m still trying to figure out what a ‘dmpster’ is… (nice, btw.)
Thank you for that 2o4, can I copy off your homework? Thank you also for a wonderful time tonight at poker (where belmont ‘yo cleaned up). Rest of you bitches missed out.
I had a similar experience at Siips. Here are my impressions…
1) The name is terrible. It would be hard for me to tell people not in the know that I was at a place called “siips”, yes with two i’s, why?
2) The “new house” smell was the first thing that hit me…hard.
3) The couch I sat on wasn’t very comfortable.
4) Why was that entire huge wall empty?
5) The drop down lights were buring my eyes.
6) One my friends had a VERY dirty glass. It looked like it had been washed in mud.
7) The service was slow. It took 10 minutes for me to order a glass (which was OUT!). It took another 10 minutes for my wife to get a sparkling water (no, she’s not pregnant…jeez.)
All in all it was very disappointing. I think (hope)it won’t last that long. I’d rather it was a sports bar.
Had a blast at poker last nite 2o4, (and not just cause I won). You all are wonderful hosts and I thank you.
I want to go to siips and guulp and sluurp. Think I’d get 86′d?
Yes. 2o4 is a true viking. Thanks much. Her husband and I both had the same idea which just may save Diips: Mechanical Bull. If they placed a mechanical bull in that half acre of unoccupied floorspace near the wine racks and threw down some straw, I just my go back
Thank you everyone….I was wondering… if Thor got us free coffe at the transit cafe, and H-D got us free entrance at the observatory hill, maybe I can get us a free spanking at Siips? (Or maby I’ll just get slapped around)
gez, who stole my extra eeee’s, argh this is the retaliation??
Perhaps the glaring gruesome twosome need them for their next venture.
Eeeeeeeeats or Sleeeeeeeeeps?
I am trying to stay away from the weather post because Ethan posted, and used the word flappers. My keyboard Tourettes has gone into hyperdrive.
gosh, I’ve missed you flooze. I had to start hitting on 2o4 instead.
Have you been cyber-unfaithful to me? No more soup for you my girl.
Brilliant review 2o4! I loved it.
Well thanks for the guilt trip Beer Run.
Very funny. We saw the same thing on Friday. Thought the staff was pulling major bong hits behind the bar
SNAP!
Ha Ha. This I missed. I may go back just to check it out
Your husband could have kicked his ass!
A+ for the hidden message. What fun!
PS Glad to see you made it to poker because I hate rooting around in dumpsters
WELCOME BACK FOOZE
Thanks Sil…. missed you guys more than I care to admit.
This is really long. Can someone please summarize for me?
/ Lazy but mildly interested
celebrity Cvillain Belmont Yo had made an appearance earlier…
Wait. I never named myself, only said I was a villain and handed them some cards. In fact, I pointedly said anonymity is rather prized on such a site. They’re on to me! They must have put nanotech tracing nibblets in my sammich!
(And celebrity? Puh Leeze.)
me need more soup
Hi Lazy Dave,
In two words: Siips Suucks!
Short enough for ya?
For the intellectually indolent Dave:
Siips suucks.
You need to send a baby gift to the chef at Beer Run.
Enoteca is discussing midget pole dancers to get back lost business.
Greg at Crush stole a ‘g’ from one of Silmo’s posts, and is now Gregg, who sells HTF wine and is a jolly good chap who deserves to succeed because he rehydrates dogs.
Nice coverage, TwoOFour. FYI–Josh’s mother, the emergency sandwich maker, is no ordinary mother. She is Mary Ann Parr, famed C’ville restauranteur who owned/ran the Virginian during its 70’s/80’s heyday, as well as the insanely popular Rococo’s Italian restaurant during the late 80’s/90’s. Beer Run has some serious pedigree.
Sorry Sil… crossover post with the same idea? Am I you?
Oh and Onstar are sending a man with a map to live in Two0Fours car because she keeps jamming up their network wailing choice sayings like
” BUT I’M ON CARLTON FUCKING ROAD YOU TOTAL TWAT… WHAT DO YOU MEAN TURN ONTO CARLTON ROAD?” and “We need the directions or number for this restaurant that is somewhere around here”
They must LUUUUURVE YOU.
Well done. Thanks all.
Floozy, they get kinda snippy with me now, i have only had this for a week and three days…I am hoping they have emotional support available next time I am roaming Belmont thinking it is groundhog day, all over again (was that redundant?)
You can really mess them up if you get them to upload directions for a location you are actually at. Not that I would do that.
Flooze - not the first time this has happened.
TwoOFour, this is AWESOME. Gold star, satisfaction, and absence of scorn and contempt just for you!
I think Siips will do well, but it’s not catering to “our” crowd. When I walked in, I felt uncomfortable. It was crowded with families and older couples, and we were too hungry to stay and wait it out. The place just feels incomplete. The lighting, bare walls, and empty display windows all struck me as odd and rushed, kind of like the extra i. (I would love to see some large antique-y mirrors on the wall.) I also received a tip that early on, a server was cut after several hours and walked away with less than $10. Who knows. But if that was the case, I hope the management out-of-pocketed some extra compensation. I’ve never made anything but $2-something/hour as a server, and it is the worst feeling to know my time is being wasted.
lilith, how is the experience qualitatively different from enoteca? Just not sure what you mean about who the target customer might be Siips. Most wine bars don’t necessarily cater to families unless the wine glasses are made out of rubber and will bounce back up nicely after being knocked over. Are you talking more the casual tourist trade as opposed to a more “serious” wine drinker?
The clientele was so composed of families that I wondered if the owners had encouraged friends to come in with their kids. (Mostly adolescent age.) I know so little about Siips and its owners. I haven’t picked up on any marketing as a family restaurant, it has been clear that it is a wine bar and restaurant. This is all speculation. Saying I don’t think they’re “catering” to our crowd is an awful way to put it– of course everyone is welcome. But the owners aren’t stupid. They’ve made a choice to make it brighter and not frou-frou it up with sex appeal. Of course that will naturally appeal to an older demographic. I shouldn’t say that they should be more like my favorite restaurants because they don’t have to if they don’t want to. And from what I could see, they’re doing fine without me. Does that make more sense? I still want to go and eat and drink. I felt uncomfortable because I was dressed to go out, and diners were dressed to the nines.
I hope EVERY business is successful, and deserves the success.
All I know is that when I walked by the-place-with-inappropriate-vowel-usage, it looked like they put out a coupon for the local chapter of the AARP to bring the grandchildren for 1/2 off kids meals. Granted it was only 8PM on Saturday (and I could really only see the first three tables), but it certainly kept me from entering.
/dentures scare me
Thanks for the clarification. It sounds like you’re saying it’s more of an Aberdeen Barn of wine bars versus Downtown Grill. Not saying anything perjorative, just different strokes for different folks. It makes sense that they would want to have a different vibe than enoteca.
So it’s a wine bar for the elderly…
Well that explains the dearth of furniture. Need to keep the floor clear for all those wheelchairs.
But Lillith, this doesn’t explain away the bad service, bad attitude, poor selection, poor design, etc. About the only thing it does explain is the overly-bright lighting.
Also, how do yo know the owners aren’t idiots? I guess time will tell.
Siips is the Thomas Kincaide of wine bars.
I am a Belmont resident and Charlottesville native. The Woolen Mills/Belmont/Carlton area needed Beer Run. A great bar with great beer and atmosphere - I’m in there almost every day. And, as TwoOfFour wrote, the staff is what sets Beer Run apart. You won’t find a nicer bunch anywhere in town.
Anyway - not a fan of the wine, so I can’t really add anything on that front except to say that the people at Crush seemed very knowledgeable and helpful. My wine-ignorance was hampering my gift buying ability and the staff there managed to inform me without making me feel bad for not being a “wine guy.”
Siilmo a little grumpy today?
Thanks Thor for posting this, but you owe me a “u” and an “s”…I’ll come by to collect later.
KCB re#28
The rubber glasses comment made me LOL and got me thinking…. not a common occurrence when sober, so hat’s off to you. The name SIIPS must refer to those ubiquitous dual handled non-spill kiddy cups..generically referred to as Sippy Cups where I come from. That’s what must have drawn in the under 2 year old contingent…. a market previously owned by the Discovery Museum. Playing Russian roulette with contraception? Go visit this hell on a Saturday morning and you will be frenetically shoving ribbed Trojans onto the bananas in your fruit bowl and any other phallic object within reach. Guaranteed.
Maybe they have Siippy Cups there (extra “i” sold separately).
Does anyone have any feedback about Boheme?
I have been driving by, but haven’t stopped yet?
thanks
I’ve heard great things about Boheme.. it’s pricey though.
too late to jump on the Beer Run bandwagon? It’s grrrreat!
(also, offering belated thanks for fun, TwoOfour.)
I’ve been to Boheme a half dozen times, maybe? Mostly brunch. I’m really vocal about service on here, and I’ve got to tell you, it is refreshing going there! Even the owner greets everyone when they walk in.
Read my review of brunch.
Restaurant website.
Kinda surreal helping people (crush) and then reading their impression 1 to 24 hours later talk about incentive to deliver great cust srvc thanks 204/husband/ tworth for giving us a try- tworth, wineguy or not we love helping people learn about their personal taste through tasting/interaction we want to be a destination for food/beer/wine/talk/chill/decompress/relax and have a taste bfore home/la taza/bmont bbq/mas/the local ect and if we do it right hopefuly become your choice for- take your pick
I’m looking forward to checking out Beer Run tonight. I’m excited.
Anyone have a particular beer recommendation for me? Otherwise I’ll just be picking them by their label appeal and price range. I’m sure it’ll be great, but I’ll try to remember to report back.
Try the Jefferson Double Barrel BurBONE reserve stout or whatever it’s called.
Blue Mountain’s Full Nelson is on tap right now, I think… also Smuttynose. You guys, Continental has Bell’s Two Hearted on its bottle menu. I’ve been following it on tap, but it’s just as tasty as bottled up sex appeal can be.
Donk: try the Triple Pulled Purple Amber Jeffersonian Skunkenweisen Stout Mcguillicutty. Only assholes drink anything else.
Finally got myself over to Beer Run. What a great place! So friendly and tastey. I wonder if they’d let have a weekly poker game there.
Thor wins.
When presented with the beer menu, I went for the Bluegrass Jeffersons Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout (I had to google it to get the whole thing). I couldn’t bear to change it up all night. That’s a damn good beer.
Josh was helping us out and he was great behind the bar. He lent a bit of beer knowledge here and there and definitely kept us laughing with his stories.
I plan to go back for sure.