Cedar Creek, watch your back. A new wine bar and eatery is just around the block and is serving up premium pizza, craft beers and plenty of wine.
From the same management team that brought you Pub Fiction, Shot Bar, Celtic Gardens and EI8HT, a new spot has popped up in an area as-yet-untouched by their nightlife-producing hands. But it seems the crew was searching for a new concept. At the corner of Bevis Street and West 23rd in the Shady Acres neighborhood of The Heights sits their new venture, Crisp Wine*Bar*Eatery.
This past week, my fellow My Table intern Nadia and I took a break from magazine deliveries to enjoy some Crisp-y, cheesy pizza. Located in a renovated 6,000-sq.-ft. building, Crisp is bringing more to the neighborhood than just pizza and pastas. Crisp offers a casual atmosphere that also celebrates a surprisingly extensive wine list and seasonal craft beers.
Don’t head to Crisp for a dirty martini or a whiskey sour. It seems the team decided to leave the liquor at the door. However, the 24 craft beers on tap, 100+ labels on their wine list and different drink specials throughout the week should suffice.
Entering Crisp, your eyes will be drawn to the huge four-sided bar with wooden pillars anchoring each corner. Anyone who considers themselves a bar diner will be able to comfortably plop down on the cushioned bar stools and feel at home.
If Crisp’s 100-plus-bottle wine list is not enticing enough, the restaurant also installed an Enomatic wine-service system that lets guests sample 16 different wines without the commitment to a full glass or bottle. Three portion sizes of each wine are offered, and the prices for each are displayed on a miniature LCD screen. With the swipe of a rechargeable wine card, you are able to draw a delicate one-ounce taste or a three-ounce glass. If you fancy a particular wine after sampling, the system also offers a fuller five-ounce glass. And then on to the next one.
I would prefer a beer beside every meal of mine if it were considered a responsible decision. So if the idea of sampling craft beers is as enticing to you as it is to me, plan to return to Crisp for their Friday Night Flights of craft beers. You can sample four craft beers, which are served on a small wooden paddle, for $6.
After much talk of beer and wine, let’s talk pizza. Crisp is already known for their stone deck fired signature pizzas that are unique and, of course, crispy. Nadia and I tasted the Cluck You BBQ (in the photo at top, $16) and the Tellagio Florentine ($16).
The Cluck You BBQ was oddly addictive. It was smothered in smoked gouda and a Dr Pepper barbecue sauce, then topped with pickled jalapeños, grilled red onion and shreds of Crisp’s beer can chicken. I have tasted the beer can chicken entrée during previous trips to Crisp and was impressed with its moisture and taste. While barbecue chicken pizza is a good idea in theory, the chicken was unfortunately dry after a second baking in the pizza oven. Nevertheless, the unique flavors of the pickled jalapeño and balanced sweetness of the barbecue sauce had me grabbing a second slice.
The tellagio florentine pizza, though, will bring me back to Crisp. It is covered in tellagio cheese, creamy spinach, marinated artichoke and onion and drizzled with just a bit of truffle oil. This is a decadent pizza, so you may only be able to eat one or two slices. (But there is nothing wrong with leftover pizza for breakfast.)
Among the other pizzas that the server suggested based on their popularity were the Shady Acres, which has herb-roasted mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red pepper, balsamic onion, goat cheese, arugula and red sauce ($15). And the San Fran’s North Beach, which has pepperoni, rosemary ham, fennel seed sausage, Sicilian olive, chili flake, grape tomatoes and red sauce ($17).
Crisp also has plenty of appetizers and sides – truffle parmesan fries and saffron fried risotto balls, for example – in addition to salads, sandwiches, pastas and entrees.
Make sure to bring a friend with a similar palate, because the portions here are large and the kitchen doesn’t do half-and-half pizzas.
Crisp Wine*Bar*Eatery, 2220 Bevis at West 23rd, 713-360-0222