Crush Wine Bar Opens in West Hartford Center From Union Kitchen Team

Leeanne Griffin November 19, 2024

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The team behind West Hartford’s newest wine bar wants its guests to know that it’s far more than just wine – though its list is more than 400 bottles strong.

Crush Wine Bar, which opened in the town center on Oct. 30, offers a full menu of thoughtful small plates alongside its extensive wine selection. Operations manager and beverage director Vish Badami said he thinks the food has been a bit of a surprise for guests in the first few weeks.

“People (expect) it's going to be cheese and charcuterie, and that's kind of the impression they have,” he said. “And then I think a lot of people are very pleasantly surprised with the quality of food, the thought process behind the food, the options, the freshness of the dishes.”

Crush Wine Bar is a sister restaurant to Union Kitchen, its LaSalle Road neighbor, which has evolved in recent years from a casual comfort-food spot to a more upscale experience with tasting menus. Both are owned by Bean Restaurant Group, which also owns and operates several other eateries in western Massachusetts, including The Student Prince in Springfield, the White Hut burger spots in Holyoke and West Springfield and the German-themed Wurst Haus in Northampton.

Crush replaces Halfway, a casual bar and restaurant, which lasted about a year before closing in the spring of 2024. Before that, the space housed a West Hartford outpost of Wurst Haus and the Irish pub McLadden’s, both owned and operated by the Bean Group. Fully reimagined by designers LCR Interiors, Crush shows no sign of its former late-night watering hole history, with soft lighting, wooden shelves, live plants and sage green banquettes and bar seating.

The food menu stretches well beyond cheese and charcuterie, though that’s represented by rotating hard and soft cheese selections and a unique chamomile-cured duck prosciutto, served with crostini topped with pink peppercorn butter. Snacks include cast iron skillet-warmed olives with garlic, chile and rosemary; maple-glazed dates stuffed with foie gras and walnuts and irresistible fried corn nuts, dusted with chipotle and lime and orange zest.

“Cold and cured” options include Connecticut oysters, smoked brook trout pâté with seeded crackers and toast topped with creamy pumpkin, shaved Brussels sprouts and hazelnuts. A dish of Calabrian sausage over heirloom polenta and pepper ragu has been a favorite from the meat and seafood choices, Badami said, with other items like achiote-rubbed pork loin, broiled New England fish and porcini-coated flatiron steak with pomegranate-glazed cipollini onions.

Badami said guests have been asking for more large plates, so chef Tim East is rolling out three new entree options, including a vegan dish of stuffed eggplant featuring curry-spiced cannellini beans, Scottish salmon with a cider cream sauce and a larger portion of its popular chicken dish, with a brown butter balsamic sauce and turnips. Diners can choose a side from one of Crush’s vegetable small plates, including oyster mushrooms and braised greens, charred broccoli with Marcona almonds and curried acorn squash or potato and black truffle au gratin.

Badami designed the wine list with a "table wine" section, where Crush offers several options for $8 a glass and $30 for a carafe. The list includes recognizable varietals like Italian prosecco and pinot grigio, California chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon and French sauvignon blanc, but pushes boundaries a little more with options like orange wine and a natural chilled red.

He said building that list has been more challenging than Crush’s “reserve” list with more uncommon selections like grower champagne, Corsican white or a rosé from New York’s Finger Lakes region, but that guests have responded well to the offering.

“I almost feel like the table wine is them testing the waters. There are some hidden gems within the table wine (list),” he said. Guests often try something from there and then switch right over to the reserve list, he said, because “we kind of got that trust.”

Badami recently added blind tasting flights of three red or white wines to the list, which he said have been “extremely popular.” Diners are looking to learn more about Crush’s selections, he said, and it also helps people discard preconceived opinions about certain varietals.

The bar also offers a variety of cocktails, like a “beach baby colada” with vodka, creamy passion fruit and coconut; a Paloma swizzle with reposado tequila and a Negroni made with sake. Crush also features wine-based cocktails (listed as “don’t call it sangria”) with natural red and orange wines and spirits like Aperol and strega. Non-alcoholic drinks, wines and beers are also available.

Crush Wine Bar is at 37 LaSalle Road in West Hartford. It’s open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. Reservations are available through Tock.

860-790-8000, https://www.crushwinebarct.com, @crushwinebarct.