New York City: Take #1

I went into the city for what I’d like to call a “school project.” For Gastronomy class, we were assigned to research a chef and the chef that my group had has a restaurant right in the city. So we decided to go eat a meal there. Shea Gallante; Chef at Cru (9^th st. and 5^th Ave). We made reservations stating that we were from the CIA, because my friends had gone earlier and said that we would get “special treatment” since the chef went to the CIA for school. When we arrived (we were early, but they did not mind), the maitre’d poured us (3 of us all underage) champagne. We weren’t gonna stop him! Why would we? It was on the house, since we didnt order it and they didnt ask for ID’s. This champagne, oh my goodness (you will hear this a lot), was incredible! A nice palate cleanser. After looking over the menu (choice between a three course prix fixe, summer tasting menu, or chefs tasting menu), we decided to go with the chef’s tasting because we wanted the full experience, and we kind of tacked on the wine pairing for an even more incredible experience). The Chef’s tasting was 11 courses, and by the end, we were drunk and full, but a good full. We even ate Wagyu beef which is an incredibly tender beef originally from Japan (making its way to the US). The wines we drank were absolutely incredible and matched each course perfectly. The man who served us knew so much about each wine and we were treated like royalty. We were at the restaurant for four hours, but I am happy it took that long because we needed a lot of time in between courses so we did not get TOO drunk. Haha. I have included pictures of some of the incredible food we ate!